Fun Facts – Grammar Present Perfect – Active We use the active when the subject of the sentence does the action: – Martin has just watched that movie.– My friend has driven over that mountain Present Perfect – Passive We use the passive when the person who does something is not known or not… Read More Fun Facts – Grammar
A WORLD OF PROSE FOR CSEC – Essay Questions Julie Tagg GENERIC TYPE QUESTIONS
by TWCSECE Childhood Experiences Family Relationship Friendship Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination and Struggles Poverty Religion Women in society The treatment of women The Role of the Elderly Death/Dying
Additional Questions for the play
CHARACTER Benjy Benjy’s mom Benjy’s father The good-looking man SETTING The story takes place in the small town of Springville in rural Jamaica. The family is from an even smaller town called One-Eye, located in the mountains of Springville. SUMMARY The third-person narrator tells of Benjy and his need to taste ice cream for… Read More The Boy Who Loved Ice Cream by Olive Senior
CHARACTERS Benjy Paul Mac is the old shoemaker in the village SETTING An unnamed village SUMMARY The third-person narrator relates the events of the theme of hate. Paul is not comfortable with the relationship that he shares with his twin brother Benjy. He does not like the fact that Benjy is self-sufficient and that… Read More Blood Brothers by John Wickham
CHARACTERS Black man White woman SETTING Jamaica SUMMARY The third-person narrator is unnamed. The story centers around a black man asking a white woman for light from her cigarette. She feels that the man is trespassing on her personal space. The woman has a problem with the colour of the man’s skin and shows… Read More Blackout by Roger Mais
CHARACTERS Florence Esmie Matron SUMMARY The story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator. The reader finds that the writer sticks to the theme of pity and charity as Florence takes Esmie into her home out of pity. Florence cannot understand how an eighteen-year-old girl is abandoned by the Home with nothing… Read More Mint Tea by Christine Craig
by Hazel Simmons- Mc Donald (St. Lucian) CHARACTERS Justine Gold Silver Justine’s mother The narrator’s grandmother Madame Cazaubon Mr. Cazaubon The boys SETTING(s) St. Lucia Riverside Road The Cazaubon house SUMMARY OF THE STORY The story is told from the admiring eyes of a young man who liked Justine since they were children. The narrator… Read More Shabine
by Olive Senior (Jamaican) CHARACTERS Del Elaine/Towser The narrator Maureen Jason Aunt Rita (Maureen and Jason’s parent) Uncle Rob (Maureen and Jason’s parent) Uncle Frank Eulalie Ermandine Pearlie Mr. Kincaid Mr. Samuels Melody-Ann SETTINGS Jamaica Rural Jamaica Urban Jamaica SUMMARY OF STORY Senior uses contrast to share the experiences of the child narrator. This extends… Read More The Two Grandmothers
by Paule Marshall (American) CHARACTERS The narrator Da-duh Adry (the narrator’s mother) SETTING(s) Barbados The disembarkation shed St. Thomas New York SUMMARY OF THE STORY The narrator describes Da-duh as a woman of eighty-odd years whose face looked like a death mask but still maintained eyes that were full of spirit. She is the matriarch… Read More To Da- duh in Memoriam
by Langston Hughes (American) CHARACTERS Milberry Jones/ Berry Mrs. Osborn (head housekeeper) Dr. Renfield Martha Renfield Miss Baxter (the nurse) Mrs. Hill (the nurse) The handyman gardener – chauffeur SETTINGS New Jersey Dr. Renfield Summer Home for Crippled Children The kitchen The beach SUMMARY OF THE STORY Milberry’s story starts with his arrival at the… Read More Berry
by Kristin Hunter (American) CHARACTERS Mom Luby/ Mrs. Luby Elijah Arlethia Miss Rushmore Mr. Jenkins Mr. Luby Zerline Bobo Lucas Mose Jake SETTING(s) The United States of America 19th century (The great depression) The welfare office Division Street SUMMARY OF THE STORY The story has a first-person child narrator, Elijah. Elijah and his sister Puddin’… Read More Mom Luby and the Social Worker
Pearl Crayton (American) CHARACTERS The narrator Rena Miss Daya The narrator’s mother The narrator’s father/the deacon Reverend Davis Catherine Sam SETTINGS 1936 United States of America Louisiana Plantation SUMMARY OF STORY Flashback is used in the story as the narrator recounts an experience she had when she was just twelve years old. The story is… Read More The Day the World Almost Came to an End – Analysis
CHARACTERS Emma York Dorian York/ Dory Jack York Maria Mrs. Ruby Robinson Frank Grandaddy (Emma’s father) SETTINGS The York’s house The mall The train station SUMMARY OF STORY Dorian or Dory is the only child of Jack and Emma. She tells the story of the relationships in her family. Dorian and her father do not… Read More Emma by Carolyn Cole (American)
Julie Tagg| Think and Write for CSEC English A and B CHARACTERS Leticia Green (Aunt Teach) June June’s mother Georgia SETTINGS 1950’s Jamaica Brooklyn New York SUMMARY OF STORY Pollard looks at love for one’s country in “Georgia and them there United States”. June is the young Jamaican narrator who gets the opportunity to visit… Read More Georgia and Them There United States by Velma Pollard (Jamaican)
CHARACTERS Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker/ Squeaky Raymond Parker Gretchen P. Lewis Rosie Mary Louise Cynthia Proctor Raphael Perez SETTINGS New York The May Day Event SUMMARY OF STORY One might say that “Raymond’s Run” is the story of both Raymond’s and Hazel’s story. Hazel tells the story and reveals the challenges she overcomes to retain… Read More Raymond’s Run by: Toni Cade Bambara (American)
Short story Novel Author Narrator Characters Setting Plot Resolution Themes Motif Conflict Types of conflict in a story CSEC prescribed list of Short Stories THEMES Childhood Experiences Family Relationship Friendship Racism, Racial Prejudice, Class Prejudice Discrimination, and Struggles Poverty Religion Women in society/ The treatment of women The Role of the Elderly Death/Dying
James Berry I wish my teacher’s eyes wouldn’t go past me today. Wish he’d know it’s okay to hug me when I kick a goal. Wish I myself wouldn’t hold back when answer comes. I’m no woodchopper now like all ancestors. I wish I could be educated to the best of tune up, and earn… Read More Dreaming Black Boy
It is the constant image of your face framed in my hands as you knelt before my chair the grave attention of your eyes surveying me amid my world of knives that stays with me, perennially accuses and convicts me of heart’s-treachery; and neither you nor I can plead excuses for you, you know, can… Read More It is the Constant Image of Your Face by Dennis Brutus
Elma Mitchell We shouted out ‘We’ve got her! Here she is! It’s her all right ‘. We caught her. There she was – A decent-looking woman, you’d have said, (They often are) Beautiful, but dead scared, Tousled – we roughed her up A little, nothing much And not the first time By any means She’d… Read More A Stone’s Throw
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;… Read More God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley-Hopkins
Your mouth contorting in brief spite and hurt, your laughter metamorphosed into howls, your frame so recently relaxed now tight with three year old frustration, your bright eyes swimming tears, splashing your bare feet, you stand there angling for a moment’s hint of guilt or sorrow for the quick slap struck. The ogre towers above… Read More Little Boy Crying by Mervyn Morris
My parents kept me from children who were rough Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my… Read More My Parents by Stephen Spender
There are many times that we want to give up because we have “failed” or because success seems to be far away. We make many mistakes and we feel as though all hope is lost. This is not a unique experience to a specific group of people. Instead it is a common occurrence to everyone… Read More Don’t give up now… your reward is in the next chapter
Active sentences contain: S (subject) + V (verb) + O (object): George sings a song. In the sentence, George is the subject, sings is the verb which tells what George does, and the object is a song (this is the receiver of George’s action). In the English language, one can combine two basic sentences with S+V+O… Read More Rules of Grammar
Essay Topics for Raymond’s Run
Where do we go when life becomes too much to handle? Do we retreat and shut down or do we forge ahead? Do we make a new path amidst the chaos that paves the road we are traveling? Where do we go when the calm disappears and all that’s left is the chaos?
As humans we complain constantly about the big and the small things that happen in our lives. We complain unnecessarily but we are responsible for the choices that we make. We stay in situations because we CHOOSE to. We refuse to explore the world because we CHOOSE to. We shy away from opportunities because we… Read More Why do we complain when we made the choices?
We all get to the point where we “find” ourselves. We find that as we get older, we don’t see things the way we once did. People change because of the circumstances they encounter. We no longer appreciate the changes that we see in others because we have changed as well. We no tolerate insecurities,… Read More We change because life changes.
Do YOU For YOU. Think about YOU For YOU . Grow YOU For YOU. Love YOU For YOU. Learn For YOU… And no one else.
Birdshooting season the men make marriages with their guns My father’s house turns macho as from far the hunters gather All night long contentless women stir their brews: hot coffee chocolata, cerassie wrap pone and tie-leaf for tomorrow’s sport. Tonight the men drink white rum neat. In darkness shouldering their packs, their guns, they leave… Read More Birdshooting Season by Olive Senior
Wilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf… Read More Dulce et Decorum Est
As we move through life, we wonder at the value that we place on education and success. But education is more than gathering information in a structured setting and with a structured curriculum. Education can be garnered from your daily experiences. It can be garnered from some of the simplest activities that we engage in.… Read More Knowledge means growth… how will you grow?
by Mark McWatt You think I like all this stupidness gallivanting all night without skin burning myself out like cane –fire To frighten the foolish? And for what? A few drops of baby blood? You think I wouldn’t rather take my blood seasoned in fat black-pudding, like everyone else? And don’t even talk ‘bout the… Read More Ol’ Higue
