Exam (elaborations)
Answers to Paper 1 English language Hartop family
These are my own answers to paper 1 English language about the Hartop family extract
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Question 11. It was a Ford motor van
2. It was old
3. It was re-painted green
4. It had streaky white lettering
Question 2
The writer describes Hartop as selfish. “he seemed to occupy almost all the seat… so that his wife
and their daughter Alice sat squeezed up, the girl with her arms flat as thought ironed against her
side.” This suggests that Hartop is self-centred and doesn’t care if his family is comfortable as he
“occup[ied] almost all the seat”. This is done purposefully to present Hartop as cruel and unaware of
how rude hes being. Also, to support this the girl sat “squeezed” up. The verb here shows that she
has no space and is very unsettled. Furthermore, her “arms [were] flat as though ironed against her
side”. This implies that she had very little room and wasn’t at all comfortable. As readers we feel that
Hartop is rude and unthoughtful to his family.
Also, the writer describes the family as boring and dull. Their “faces seemed moulded in clay and in
the light from the van-lamps were a flat swede colour”. The writer has purposely chosen the verb
“moulded” to show that they were almost forced to look that way. The use of the noun “clay”
collectively with the adjective “swede” connotes the dullness and miserable look on their faces. We
as readers feel that maybe some other event had happened that they were this way or that their
hunger had gotten to them. This makes us feel empathetic towards the Hartop family as they must
feel very agitated traveling in the motor van.
Question 3
At the start of the extract the focus is mainly on the “ford motor van”. The writer has gone into
detail to really put you in the shoes of Alice and how she felt with her arms “ironed” to her sides.
The writer does this cleverly to connote how couped up they were in that van. These three
paragraphs support this idea to present they Hartop family and how they have no space in the van.
In the middle of the source, the writer uses isolated sentences to connote tension and that
something has happened. This is shown on lines 22 and onwards till 33. “they sat listening. But the
engine still ticked, and they could hear nothing beyond it but the wind and rain squalling in the dead
grass along the roadside.” The writer has used a dramatic short sentence “they sat listening.” We as
readers also stop to pause as we think what could be happening or what could they have heard. The
writer does this cleverly to cause tension and to exaggerate the fact that it was only a few flowers
that had fallen.
Lastly, towards the end of the source, the writer goes back to a cyclical sort of structure where he
uses bigger paragraphs. “soon, to Alice, it seemed to be moving very rapidly.” The writer does this to
focus on the detail of where Alice is so that we are able to picture it and put ourselves in Alice’s
shoes. The writer has also cleverly used these paragraphs to show that even though Alice is alone in
the “darkness” there is still the cluster of “wind behind her” which seemed to “veer and smash her”.
The writer does this so we feel engaged and intrigued as to what could happen next.
Question 4
I agree to this statement as Hartop orders Alice around quite a lot, especially when she needs to get
the chrysanthemums. “the woman moved to protest, but Hartop was already speaking again”. The
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