THREE PEOPLE AND TWO SEATS (KEVIN MAJOR)

1. The youngest of the seven children of a Newfoundland fisherman. He decided to become a teacher. While teaching he developed an interest in writing. His first book – Doryloads – is a collection of stories about the culture of Newfoundland. He quit teaching and wrote his first novel. Hold Fast is a story of a teenager who adjusts to a new life after his parents are killed in a car crash. Mr. Major lives with his wife and young son in Newfoundland. 2. It is the story about young teacher who is returning to home at night by bus after a very hard semester at school. The night is snowy and cold and he is very tired and exhausted. The bus came and he knew that there were no free space to sit so he had to stand but 2 boys offered him to sit with them. So they start to talk and during this talk the hero finally decided to do away with teaching. 3. The title hints us about what the store will be, because according to it we imagine 3 people who are sitting only on 2 seats. 4. The functions of the settings is to introduce us the hero, his profession, to show us the mood and feeling of the hero, the conditions of his trip.(the air was chilled and the dark evening; scattered specks of falling snow). 5. The parts of the story go one after one. 6. Exposition – the description of the evening, the introduction of the hero; complications: when the driver said him, that there were not free places in the bus; the beginning of the talk with boys – the first proposal to smoke with them; the second proposal to smoke when the hero agreed; when the hero admitted that he was a teacher, irony of boys, when the boys went out of the bus and the hero tore the teacher’s card into pieces. Climax - when the hero admitted that he was a teacher. Denouement – not, the text is rather incomplete but we understand that Dave will quit a job of a teacher. 7. 3^rd person narration. 8. At the beginning of the story the author’s narration is dominated, then there is a line of dialogues, there are a few description of the boys and the bus inside. 9. There 2 types of conflict. The external – the dispute between the hero and the boys, when they are sure that he couldn’t last 2 weeks as their teacher, it’s the minor conflict. The internal conflict – the conflict in the thoughts and feelings of the hero, he is a teacher but he understand that it is not for him, he can’t deal with it, and in reality he is not a good teacher, the conflict between his expectations and the reality. It is the major conflict – between who you are and whom you should be. 10. The main hero is a teacher, but we understand, that he is not a good teacher (his speech is rather casual, then at second time he agreed to smoke with boys). He is rather critical, shy, hesitating and he dynamically changes. We see that the boys are very good friends, they know each other very well, they study together. According to their speech and behavior we may think that they are from not very wellbeing families. 11. The main hero is described indirectly – through his thoughts, words and actions. He is dynamic, changes during the story. There is an appearance description only of boys, they are described more directly. 12. The author's attitude to the characters is it not clearly expressed, but we can accept the idea that he contributed a part of himself in the main hero. 13. I don’t really like the main hero, he is an adult but behaves as an teenage (he smoke with boys; talk with them like they are his peers and doesn’t keep a distance), I don’t feel antipathy to the boys but what I really dislike – they are smoking in such a young age. 14. The style is casual, there some colloquial words and slang (greez, fellows, mornin’). simple sentences are predominant in the dialogues. 15. The tone and atmosphere of the text are rather gloomy and grim (the evening is dark, the weather is cold, the main hero is tired and exhausted). 17. There are many simple sentences, slang words (crab), jargonisms (jerk), elliptical sentences (sure. -go on. –you), non-standard and illiterate speech (get’em) they show us the common communication of teenagers and the unusualness of such words for teacher. At the beginning of the text there are some epithets (scattered specks of falling snow), they help to show the cold and nasty weather. 18. The theme – is how the simple conversation can stimulate a person to change his life. 19. The massage of the story is rather explicit. At the end of the text we see four torn pieces of a white card and we understand that the hero won’t be a teacher anymore. The author wanted to tell us that often our elusions are far from reality and we should can understand it to change smth. 20. I think the message of this text is rather instructive, we understand that sometimes out expectations are not justified and we should understand and live on.

19. Ravens. Author Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for had literary journals and periodicals. His Poem Ravens had success.

2.SummaryA lonely man tries to ease his "sorrow for the lost Lenore," by distracting his mind with old books. He is interrupted while he is "nearly napping," by a "tapping on [his] chamber door." As he opens up the door, he finds "darkness there and Into the darkness he whispers, "Lenore," hoping his lost love had come back, but all that could be heard was an echo. With a burning soul, the man returns to his chamber, and this time he can hear a tapping at the window. He open the shutter and a stately Raven flies into the room.The man asks the Raven for his name, and surprisingly it answers, and croaks "Nevermore."The man, who knows the irrational nature in the raven’s speech, still cannot help but ask the raven questions. Since the narrator is aware that the raven only knows one word, he can anticipate the bird's responses.Finally the man concedes, realizing that to continue this dialogue would be pointless. 3.Function of the title The use of the raven — the "devil bird"(a messenger from the afterlife).4.SettingsThe chamber of a house at midnight. Poe uses the word chamber rather than bedroom apparently because chamber has a dark and mysterious connotation. The chamber in which the narrator is positioned, is used to signify the loneliness of the manThe room is richly furnished, and reminds the narrator of his lost love,. The tempest outside, is used to even more signify the isolation 5.Techniques of presentational sequencingThe most important thing that "The Raven," is written backwards. The effect is determined first, and the whole plot is set;then the web grows backwards from that single effect.6.Structure Exposition - the first stanzas(discription of chamber, emergence of the raven)complications - evrytime when the narrator ask questions to the raven.climax, the third verse from the end. 7.Types of narrationFirst-Person Narration. A man who has lost his beloved, a woman named Lenore. 8.Speech forms Monologue of the norrator(expreses his feelings, thoughts, inner world).9.Basic conflicts Internal(The main theme of the poem is one of undying devotion. So the narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember).10.Main and minor characters Main - Poe says that the narrator is a young scholar.Though this is not explicitly stated in the poem, it is mentioned in "The Philosophy of Composition".It is also suggested by the narrator reading books of "lore" as well as by the bust of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom.Raven - not a character, but symbol.Minor - Lenore (narrato's lost love)11.Means of characterisation of characters Indirect(through actions, speech, thoughts, appearance)12.Author's attitude13.Student's attitude to characters.14.General characteristic of the style Poe had an extensive vocabulary. The use of ancient and poetic language seems appropriate, since the poem is about a man spending most of his time with books of "forgotten lore.""Seraphim," in the 14th verse, "perfumed by an unseen censer / Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled..." is used to illustrate the swift, invisible way a scent spreads in a room."Nepenthe," from the same verse, is a potion, used by ancients to induce forgetfullnes of pain or sorrow."Aidenn," from the 16th verse, is an Arabic word for Eden or paradise."Plutonian," characteristic of Pluto, the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. 15.Tone and atmosphere Poe was able to maintain a melancholy feeling. The tone of “The Raven” is morbid and depressing. One other way Poe increased the melancholy effect is the torture of the narrator. The answer the narrator received each time was already predetermined and both the reader and the narrator knew what the reply was going to be; therefore, continuously torturing the narrator. These words include weary, dreary, bleak, dying, sorrow, sad, darkness, stillness, mystery, ebony, grave, stern, lonely, grim, ghastly, and gaunt.

16.Artistic details and symbols The most obvious symbol is the raven itself. Poe had decided to use a refrain that repeated the word "nevermore," he found that it would be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature to utter the word. In "The Raven" it is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself. Another obvious symbol is the bust of Pallas. The raven decided to perch on the goddess of wisdom. A less obvious symbol, might be the use of "midnight" in the first verse, and "December" in the second verse. Both midnight and December, symbolize an end of something, 17.Stylistic devicesThe rhyme scheme used by Poe in his poem “The Raven” is described as ABCBBB. Every stanza in “The Raven” follows this rhyme scheme to create a very structured poem. In the second stanza the word morrow in line three rhymes with the word borrow also in line three and sorrow in line four. Poe also uses repetition to not only conform to his rhyme scheme, but to emphasize the word as well. “’Wretch,’ I cried, ‘thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee” is an example of Poe using repetition to rhyme. Alliteration(while, weak, weary) and consonance. “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;” is an example of alliteration and consonance. Poe used alliteration to increase the effect of the line. “The silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” is an example of an onomatopoeia used by Poe in his poem.Poe also used many similes, metaphors, and examples of personification. “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” is an example of personification found in Poe’s poem “The Raven”. Since birds cannot really talk, the raven was given a human characteristic of speech. “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is

dreaming,” is an example of a metaphor used in “The Raven” by Poe to compare the raven’s eyes to a demon’s; therefore, comparing the raven to a demon. “That one word,as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.” is an example of a simile that Poe used to compare the raven’s reply to the narrators state of grief.18.Theme.The main theme of the poem is one of undying devotion.The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember. He seems to get some pleasure from focusing on loss.

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