Unveiling Racial Prejudice in "A Warm Golden Brown" by Alexander Reid
Alexander Reid's short story "A Warm Golden Brown" delves into the theme of racial prejudice through the character of Mrs. Preedy. The narrative skillfully exposes Mrs. Preedy's racism and hypocrisy, evoking contempt towards her character. The story showcases how societal stereotypes and ignorance contribute to the perpetuation of discriminatory attitudes.
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A WARM GOLDEN BROWN Alexander Reid
Essay question Choose a short story in which you feel great sympathy for, or intense dislike of, one of the characters. Briefly outline the situation in which the character finds himself or herself and show by what means you are made to feel sympathy or dislike. In your answer you must refer closely to the text and to at least two of characterisation, setting, climax, theme, dialogue or any other appropriate feature. What character would you choose for A Warm Golden Brown ? Think carefully about which character you could write most about!
Introduction You will use the TARTT formula to write an introduction for this essay use the wording of the question! Title Author Refer to Task and Techniques In your summary you should discuss the author s purpose (what message is Alexander Reid trying to convey through the story?) In order to do this, we must first decide what techniques we are going to look at. Discuss with your partner what techniques you think best reveal the character of Mrs Preedy and cause us to dislike her (HINT: Think back to your last essay!)
Model Introduction Alexander Reid s short story A Warm Golden Brown explores the theme of racial prejudice. Reid, through effective characterisation, ensured contempt was created for the racist character, Mrs Preedy. Though a young black girl and a white boy, Mrs Preedy s son, play happily together, he is afraid he is seen by his mother. His unease is confirmed when Mrs Preedy angrily confronts him, though her ignorance and hypocrisy are revealed at the end of the story when she, ironically, applies fake tan to make her own skin darker. The title, with its positive connotations of the word brown , suggests where the author s sympathy lies. Reid engenders dislike for Mrs Preedy through skilful use of fictional devices such as characterisation, theme, climax and dialogue.
Characterisation Mrs Preedy how are we made to dislike her? Through her words and actions (provide at least 2 examples and use SQAR to analyse them) The structure of the story how we have already formed an opinion of Mrs Preedy before we meet her. Consider why the author does this. How the author portrays her colour and reverses conventional stereotypes (black was stereotypically thought of as being unattractive but Alexander Reid turns this on his head)
Characterisation Daisy how does she contribute to our dislike of Mrs Preedy? Characterisation of Daisy how this leads us to dislike Mrs Preedy Daisy is a likeable character whom we sympathise with give at least two examples of this, using SQAR. Because we sympathise with Daisy, our hatred of Mrs Preedy increases because she judges her solely on her colour and is ignorant of her qualities.
Characterisation Ben how does he help to contribute to our dislike of Mrs Preedy? His fear, the tense atmosphere how does this affect or feelings towards Mrs Preedy? The way Mrs Preedy treats Ben how does this increase our dislike of her? (SQAR) Ben is a likeable character but Mrs Preedy influences in him again increasing our dislike for her (SQAR)
Dialogue How does the dialogue help to create dislike for Mrs Preedy? Ben and Daisy question Mrs Preedy s actions through dialogue important as it forces us to question issue. When Mrs Preedy can t explain herself, this exposes her ignorance. (SQAR)
Climax How does the ending of the story intensify our dislike of Mrs Preedy? Discuss the ending and what it shoes about Mrs Preedy (quote final line and use SQAR to analyse) The importance of using children how does this help to increase our dislike of Mrs Preedy?
Conclusion First line title, author and reference to the question Evaluation explain what technique(s) you found most effective in increasing our dislike for Mrs Preedy and FULLY explain. Mention why it was important for the theme that we disliked Mrs Preedy. Mention techniques.
Using SQAR In the last essay you did on A Warm Golden Brown , many of you did not use SQAR properly and this is an issue you must tackle in this second essay: Ensure you have a proper, full statement which is put into context before you quote. Do not begin a sentence with a quote. Your quote should support your statement. FULLY analyse the quote and SHOW how this helps to increase our dislike of Mrs Preedy. Analyse the connotations of certain words, sentence structures, sentence types, particular imagery and its connotations ) What do the above suggest about her which would encourage the reader to dislike Mrs Preedy further? What point is Reid making about her? When referring you must explain HOW the technique you are discussing helps to increase our dislike of Mrs Preedy don t just say it does!
TOPIC SENTENCES Remember that topic sentences should refer to the question and introduce the topic of the paragraph. It is also advisable to vary your expression. Study the following examples and try to make up similar sentences of your own for this essay. 'Reid's depiction of the character of Daisy also encourages the reader to dislike Mrs Preedy. 'The way in which the character of Ben is portrayed in the story further enhances our feelings of antipathy towards Mrs Preedy.' NOT Daisy further enhances our dislike of Mrs Preedy. It s the author s crafting of that character which heightens our sympathy for them, encouraging us to dislike Mrs Preedy.
Homework for Monday 21stOct Pick your quotes, decide what points you are making and carefully plan the essay using the points we have discussed. Write your intro using TARTT and learn it! You will be allowed to have one side of A4 with notes/structure/topic sentences on it when writing the essay in class no quotes should be on this! Learn them! It usually helps to actually write the essay out and time yourself so that you can cut it down if necessary and ensure you are making the key points.
OVER TO YOU GOOD LUCK!
