All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a story in which the main character, Clare, experiences great personal tragedy. Show how Donovans use of literary and/or linguistic techniques and/or the content of the story are effective in depicting Clares positive spirit, even in the face of such tragedy.

All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a story which has an interesting ending. Explain why the ending makes an interesting conclusion to the whole story.

All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a short story in which the author evokes sympathy for the main character, Clare, because of the problem(s) she has to face. Describe Clares problem(s) and explain how the author encourages you to sympathise with her.

All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a story in which the main character, Clare, experiences great personal tragedy. Show how Donovans use of literary and/or linguistic techniques and/or the content of the story are effective in depicting Clares positive spirit, even in the face of such tragedy.

Introduction:

Name of author/text

Brief description of plot

Restate the question

Paragraph 1:How Clares use of imagery and/or word choice shows her positive outlook on life when her dad is ill

Topic sentence

Sparkly imagery throughout the story, before her dad is ill (make the connection that this is in spite of personal tragedy e.g. her dad is ill but she is positive anyway)

Use SEEC for every example of imagery you use

Paragraph 2:Her use of imagery when she describes things after her dad has died (particularly at the very end)

Topic sentence

Bright/positive imagery/word choice after her dad is ill (again, make the connection that this is in spite of her dads death

Use SEEC

Paragraph 3:How the content of the story (summarise exactly which points) shows her positivity.

Topic sentence

How she sits with her dad, even though he is often too ill to respond

How she starves herself for a week to buy the glitter pens for him

The final goodbye to her dad, when she is resourceful enough to find another, better, way to say goodbye to him. Make sure you do this bit properly: analyse the idea of subtlety fully.

Conclusion: sum up main points/personal response by saying what the author is trying to teach us.

All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a story which has an interesting ending. Explain why the ending makes an interesting conclusion to the whole story.

Introduction:

Name of author/text

Brief description of plot and ending (why the ending is interesting because Clare is manages to find a better way to say goodbye to her dad which isnt upsetting anyone)

Restate the question

Paragraph 1:Donovan first builds the close father-daughter relationship so that Clares fathers funeral (the ending) will have more impact on the reader.

Topic sentence

How Clare goes out of her way to please her dad, even though he is often too ill to respond. Analyse word choice (e.g. wavery wee smile).

How Clare starves herself for the glitter pens to please her dad

The memories she has of him before he was ill

The symbolism of hands when they have the conversation about subtlety (make sure you mention at this point that subtlety is important in making the ending satisfying e.g. it helps Clare to find a better way to make a gesture at her dads funeral). Remember, you are only discussing subtlety here, not glitter.

Paragraph 2:How Donovan builds up the importance of glitter pens in the story: what glitter represents (the ability to look at the positive things in life) and how the glitter allows her to be positive and show her personality at the funeral without upsetting anyone.

Topic sentence

What the glitter pens represent to Clare at the start of the story (a simple means of brightening up her dads life and trying to cheer his spirit)

Some of the imagery Clare uses to show what the glitter represents

How the glitter allows Clare to overcome the problem of being unable to say goodbye to her dad (tae dae sumpn fur him) the way she would like) remember you are just mentioning this

Paragraph 3:How the ending is interesting because it is not happy, but not sad either, even though it is tragic: it is satisfying.

Clares dads death makes you imagine that the ending will be very sad, because her dad has died after she has gone out of her way to please him, yet it is not

Clare is unable to wear what she wants to the funeral we think it will end even more tragically

Clare manages to overcome this problem and make a gesture by wearing glitter she has not upset her Aunt Pauline and has done something she thinks her dad would have liked. This also allows her to find peace within herself, which in turn will help her to overcome her loss.

Conclusion: sum up main points/personal response by saying what the author is trying to teach us.

All that Glisters, by Anne Donovan, is a short story in which the author evokes sympathy for the main character, Clare, because of the problem(s) she has to face. Describe Clares problem(s) and explain how the author encourages you to sympathise with her.

Introduction:

Name of author/text

Brief description of plot

Restate the question

Paragraph 1:At the start of the story, Clares problem is her dads illness. We are encouraged to sympathise with her because Donovan builds a picture of a very close relationship between them and shows how Clare goes out of her way to make him happy.

Topic sentence

Donovan uses symbolism to help us to understand the severity of Clares dads illness, e.g. the stain on the downie cover; we feel sorry for her because we realise even though she doesnt that he will never get better.

We feel sorry for her because she goes out of her way to make him happy starving herself to buy glitter pens and spending time after school chatting to him instead of playing with friends, even though he doesnt talk back.

Clares memories paint a very moving picture of their close relationship. This makes it seem even more poignant (sad) when he dies. We feel even more sorry for her because we know they were close.

Donovan uses the structure of the plot to make us sympathise with Clare: her narrative has been building up to buying the glitter pens all week, yet when we reach the climax of this (when she buys them), it is not the happy ending she is expecting. Instead she finds out her dad has died.

Paragraph 2:This leads onto Clares second problem: the death of her father and how she copes with it. Her disassociation from the shock of the news encourages us to sympathise with her.

Topic sentence

How Donovan uses disassociation techniques to show the strength of Clares reaction to the news of his death (mention and analyse each one individually)

How she is plagued with the feeling that she wants to do something for him but doesnt know what.

Paragraph 3:Clares final problem is that after she realises how to say a proper goodbye to her dad the gesture she has been searching for she is unable to do it because her aunt will not let her.

Topic sentence

Why Clare wants to wear red to the funeral (remember the connotations of the word red and what it might symbolise for her) and why she is not allowed why we sympathise

What she decides to do instead and why this makes us warm to Clare and sympathise with her

Conclusion: sum up main points/personal response by saying what the author is trying to teach us