Grade 12 literature Study guide

[Pages:142]English home language

Grade 12

literature Study guide

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Foreword Thank you to all the English Home Language teachers from across the country for your input. The main idea behind this guide is to provide a question bank for learners, as there are no previous papers on the new literature texts. For that reason as well, I have elected to only use the new texts as there is a lot available in the form of previous papers on the internet. I would like to make this a growing guide to which we continually add questions and ideas. The guide has been structured into sections that cover the poetry, novels and the dramas, with the answers at the back of the guide. The unseen poetry has also been added. Thank you to Liezel Vrey, Karin Petersen and Karen Steyn for assisting with the proof reading and editing. We tried as far as possible to structure everything into the same format, but because everyone does not use the same program, there are some problems with the layout. Personally I type all docs on Microsoft Word 2007. Copying from Pdf files also posed a problem, but we tried.

SOME TIPS FOR SETTING A GRADE 12 PAPER Follow the exam guidelines as set out by the department of education: - A paper 2 MUST consist of FOUR prescribed poems - ONE UNSEEN poem ? CONTEXTUAL QUESTION ONLY - An essay question for Novel and Drama - A Contextual Section for Novel and drama - Look at the layout for previous paper 2s as the format HAS changed in the past few years. - Papers are typed in ARIAL 12 Font - Although there is no set rule, one mark questions seldom occur (if ever ? check previous papers) in paper 2.

The exam guidelines and rubrics form part of this study guide. Linda Holm

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INDEX

POETRY (p 5 ? 27)

Essay TITLE

The Garden of Love The Zulu Girl Vultures The First Day After the War Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond Remember An African Thunderstorm

Contextual questions

TITLE First Day After the War Remember Funeral Blues Felix Randal An African Thunderstorm Vultures The Garden of Love A Hard Frost The Zulu Girl Motho Ke Motho Ka Bathu Babang An African Elegy

QUESTIONS 1.1 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 1.5, 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9,

1.10, 1.11 1.12

QUESTIONS 2.1 (2.1.1 ? 2.1.6) 2.2 (2.2.1 ? 2.2.4) 2.3 (2.3.1 ? 2.3.6) 2.4 (2.4.1 ? 2.4.3) 2.5 (2.5.1 ? 2.5.2) 2.6 (2.6.1 ? 2.6.4) 2.7 (2.7.1 ? 2.7.2) 2.8 (2.8.1 ? 2.8.4) 2.9 (2.9.1 ? 2.9.5) 2.10 (2.10.1 ? 2.10.2) 2.11 (2.11.1)

Unseen poetry

TITLE Death is nothing at all An African Heartbeat Today I do not love my country Visiting Room How not to stop The Shipwreck Childhood in Heidelberg Magnolia Clinic The Right Word My African Home Portrait of a Machine Perceptions

QUESTIONS 3.1 3.2 (no questions) 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12

PAGE 5 6 7 8 9

MEMO 77 77 78 80 80

10

80

10

81

11

82

PAGE 12 14 15 18 18 19 21 22 23 25 26

MEMO 85 87 88 91 93 94 96 97 99 102 103

PAGE 28 29 30 31 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 37

MEMO 104 104 105 105 105 106 106 107 107 107 108 108

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NOVEL

Life of Pi

TITLE Essay question Contextual questions

QUESTIONS 4.1 ? 4.5 5.1 ? 5.5

PAGE MEMO

38

109

39

114

Picture of Dorian Gray

TITLE Essay question Contextual questions

QUESTIONS 6.1 ? 6.7 7.1 ? 7.7

PAGE MEMO

48

121

49

127

DRAMA

Hamlet

TITLE Essay question Contextual questions

QUESTIONS 8.1 ? 8.7 9.1 ? 9.7

PAGE MEMO

60

133

60

135

NO questions on `Othello' or `The Crucible' were included as there are ample resources available.

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QUESTION 1:

Poetry

POETRY ESSAY

NOTE THAT THE POETRY ESSAY IS 250 ? 300 WORDS AND IS MARKED WITH THE POETRY RUBRIC INCLUDED IN THIS STUDY GUIDE.

THE GARDEN OF LOVE

? William Blake

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

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And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;

So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be:

10

And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars my joys & desires.

Question 1.1: The poet seems to reflect in this poem, not only how things have changed since his childhood, but also how something, like religion can change how life is lived. With reference to the use of imagery, diction and structure, discuss the theme of nostalgia and the despair in change. Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 250?300 words.

[10]

5

THE ZULU GIRL -

R Campbell

When in the sun the red hot acres smoulder, Down where the sweating gang its labours plies, A girl flings down her hoe, and from her shoulder Unslings her child tormented by the flies.

She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled By thorn-trees: purples with the blood of ticks, While her sharp nails, in slow caresses ruled, Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks.

His sleepy mouth plugged by the heavy nipple, Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds: Through his frail nerves her own deep languors ripple Like a broad river sighing through its reeds.

Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibes An old unquenched unsmotherable heat The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes, The sullen dignity of their defeat.

Her body looms above him like a hill Within whose shade a village lies at rest. Or the first cloud so terrible and still That bears the coming harvest in its breast.

4 8

12 16

20

Question 1.2

The young child is a symbol for the tenacity and strength of the entire Zulu nation. His mother in

turn imparts on him, not only breast milk, but also strength to endure hardships.

Write an essay of 250 ? 300 words in which you explore how the diction and the imagery of

the poem reinforce this statement.

[10]

Question 1.3:

At first glance the central idea of the poem appears very simplistic ? a young mother feeding her

child. However, the poet's underlying message is that an ethnic group is being oppressed and

the girl shows the reaction to this injustice and hardship.

Critically comment in an essay of 250 ? 300 words (about ONE page), on how the poet reveals

the poem's theme through the use of atmosphere, setting and the use of especially figurative

language in the poem.

[10]

Question 1.4:

Critically discuss how the poet uses mood, setting and figurative language to reveal the

theme of the poem.

Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 250-300 words (about ONE

page).

[10]

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VULTURES

-

Chinua Achebe

In the greyness

and drizzle of one despondent

dawn unstirred by harbingers

of sunbreak a vulture

perching high on broken

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bone of a dead tree

nestled close to his

mate his smooth

bashed-in head, a pebble

on a stem rooted in

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a dump of gross

feathers, inclined affectionately

to hers. Yesterday they picked

the eyes of a swollen

corpse in a water-logged

15

trench and ate the

things in its bowel. Full

gorged they chose their roost

keeping the hollowed remnant

in easy range of cold

20

telescopic eyes ...

Strange

indeed how love in other

ways so particular

will pick a corner

25

in that charnel-house

tidy it and coil up there, perhaps

even fall asleep ? her face

turned to the wall!

... Thus the Commandant at Belsen

30

Camp going home for

the day with fumes of

human roast clinging

rebelliously to his hairy

nostrils will stop

35

at the wayside sweet-shop

and pick up some chocolate

for his tender offspring

waiting at home for Daddy's

return ...

40

Praise bounteous

providence if you will

that grants even an ogre

a tiny glow-worm

tenderness encapsulated

45

in icy caverns of a cruel

heart or else despair

for in the very germ

of that kindred love is

lodged the perpetuity

50

of evil.

Question 1.5:

In an essay of 250 ? 300 words show how the poet uses structure, diction and imagery to

portray the themes.

[10]

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Question 1.6:

Critically discuss Achebe's ideas about good and evil, as expressed in this poem. Pay close

attention to diction and imagery.

[10]

The First Day After The War

-

Mazisi Kunene

We heard the songs of a wedding party. We saw a soft light Coiling round the young blades of grass At first we hesitated, then we saw her footprints, Her face emerged, then her eyes of freedom! She woke us up with a smile saying, `What day is this that comes suddenly?' We said, `It is the first day after the war'. Then without waiting we ran to the open space Ululating to the mountains and the pathways Calling people from all the circles of the earth. We shook up the old man demanding a festival We asked for all the first fruits of the season. We held hands with a stranger We shouted across the waterfalls People came from all lands It was the first day of peace. We saw our Ancestors travelling tall on the horizon.

5 10 15

Question 1.7:

In a well-constructed essay of 250-300 words, discuss how Kunene expresses with the use of

imagery and diction the way that the people of South Africa responded to and celebrated the

end of Apartheid.

[10]

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