GRADE 9 STUDY GUIDE

A Grade 9 study guide to

the Edexcel iGCSE English
Language anthology for
Paper 1. Complete with
notes, exemplary
paragraphs, and lists of
main themes!
Beyond the Sky and Earth: A Journey into Bhutan

Main themes:
• Man vs nature - Overwhelming nature of the landscape vs the narrator's feelings of
inadequacy
• Mystical -almost folklore- sense of beauty radiating from the landscape
• The invasion of Western influence on the local culture

Explain the writers thoughts and feelings are about Bhutan landscape

The author describes the overwhelming mountains in Bhutan, she portrays the mountains as
elemental forces of power and to heighten this description she compares them to her simple hotel
room. It is suggested that the author feels overwhelmed by the colossal size of the mountains.
Zeppa describes the mountain air to be very cold and this is exemplified by the knowledge that the
author is from Canada, which is a very cold country within itself, showing how extreme the climate
really was.

How has the author presented her reaction to Bhutan?

The author expresses feelings of being overwhelmed by the fantastical mountains in Bhutan. She
uses the lyrical description of how the ‘mountains rise to meet the moon’ to express how big the
mountains are, and potentially how inferior she felt compared to them. Although, despite Zeppa’s
obvious feeling of being overwhelmed, she portrays a sense of mystical awe within the description
through the elemental imaginary of the moon.
However, it is further suggested that the mystical mountains may not be as innocently
overwhelming when the author describes the ‘convulsion of the crests and gorges’ along with the
‘wind sharpened pinnacles’. The use of the harsher language of ‘sharpened’ suggests a more
threatened nuance to the author's reaction to Bhutan. The violet description of ‘convulsion’ shows
the daunting size of the mountains. Instead of the magical mountains the authors almost describe
the peaks of the mountains to be weapons showing that perhaps she was intimidated by the awe of
the mountains and felt vulnerable in the new environment.

In the extract on the sky and the Earth the journey into Bhutan the author similarly presents the idea
that loss of culture is a prominent issue however not on a governmental level rather it has wormed
its way into society and lower levels of culture such as teenagers in ‘acid wash jeans’ and ‘Rambo
posters. The author describes the mountain in Bhutan as ‘mountains rising to meet the moon’, the
use of this fantastical elemental language adding to the author's overwhelmed emotions.

Young and Dyslexic? You've Got it Going On

Analysis:
When Zephaniah accentuates how there is a loathed ‘prison population’ alongside a high ‘architect
population’, who are all ‘dyslexic’, we are given reference to the parallelism. By extension, grouping
people together to exemplify that this is a substantial, greater, universal problem. The idea is further
reinforced by the polysyndetic list, which intensifies Zephaniah's longing epiphany alongside his
creative, frenzied activity. Zephaniah describes how he forcefully takes ‘poetry’ to those ‘who don’t
read poetry’, in doing so exemplifies how simply you can turn around all odds through the
heightened humorous repetition - almost like he’s spreading the Gospel as a messiah.
Themes:
• Stereotypes - especially with the readers of the Guardian - e.g. If the statistics were to be
looked at ‘I should be in prison’ since ‘I am a black man brought up on the wrong side of
town whose family fell apart…’
• Shifts light and plays on the figment of imagination - rather than treating dyslexia as a taboo,
Zephaniah employs the nonpareil qualities of dyslexia, in doing so restoring hope in having
dyslexia
• Prejudice - with references to prerogative terms
• Systemic issues - e.g. ‘education system’

Genre:
• News article (non-fiction) - short autobiography
Audience:
• Young and Dyslexic was written for ‘The Guardian’ - traditionally the audience of the
Guardian is fairly left wing (e.g. Labour)
Purpose:
• To inform parents about the struggles of dyslexia, especially at a time when dyslexia was
treated as a taboo

• Zephaniah is a British-Jamaican poet and author

• Racial prejudice has been at the forefront of Zephaniah’s life due to his ethnic background
• Benjamin Zephaniah was awarded an OBE, however repudiated the award since it had
connotations of the British empire and didn’t want to support previous slavery
• His poetry is largely influenced by the vibrant music of Jamaica

Tones:
• Informative - a fusion of defiant, confident, reassuring

The Explorers daughter

Main themes:
• Narrator's feelings of duality
• Sympathy for the hunters creates tension and a predicament
• Register shift shows multifaceted nature of the Hunt
• Fantastical portrayal of the Narwhal

Herbert uses divisive descriptions to show the narrator's feelings of duality towards the Hunt. The
author shows an obvious dilemma towards the situation as she describes how her ‘heart leapt for
both hunter and narwhal’ when the Hunter took aim. This clearly shows that she understands that
the Inughuit people rely almost entirely on the successful hunts, however she still feels empathy for
the Narwhals. In that pause the author creates with the dash Herbert forces the reader to make a
choice - the Narwhal or the Hunter? The author also describes both the ‘man and whale’ having the
evening’s ‘butter gold’ light shone upon them which creates an illusion of equality and indivision,
which contrasts to the inevitable separation as the Hunter will have to kill it. The author adds to the
dilemma of the hunt by portraying the narwhals as ethereal and almost elemental beings, Herbert
describes them as almost ‘mischievous tricks of the shifting light’. The personification of the animals
as ‘mischievous’ heightens the sympathy the author feels towards the Narwhal.
 Herbert adds to the predicament through creating sympathy towards the hunters. Through the use
of the oxymoronic description of the Hunter ‘gently’ picking up the ‘harpoon’ gun, the authors
suggest a tension in the act of picking up the weapon. ‘Gently’ is a slow and almost hesitant verb
which suggests that care and indecisiveness went into the process of the decision to kill the Narwhal.
The hunter showing humanity towards the narwhal, even in death, creates sympathy toward the
hunter and contributes an added depth to the situation. The contrast between the violent, brutal -
almost sadistic - ‘harpoon’ and the soft word ‘gentle’ creates a strain on the scene and furthers the
theme of the dilemma.

The Author’s register shifts during the extracts to show the multifaceted nature of the hunt. Herbert
uses a lens of almost childlike innocence and wonder at the Narwhals as she marvels at the ‘spectral
play of colour’ and changes this register to a clinical and cold scientific account of the Narwhals
importance in the lives of the native people. The idea of the fantastical glittering kingdom is soon
countered by the description of the narwhals being ‘essential contributors’ to the hunters. The use
of the word ‘essential’ suggests a deep-rooted desperation in the hunt: it is a life-or-death situation.
Through using informative and dependent language it depicts just how reliant the Inughuit people
are on the Hunt of the Narwhals.

Danger of a single story

Main themes:
• Arising tension with the input of westernisation on literature and the damaging effect it has
• Western privilege
• Detrimental affect a single story has on society

Adichie displays the arising tension between the input of westernisation on literature to the
“vulnerability” and loss of personal identity by exhibiting how the pulpy delicately “white” skinned
and luminous “blue eyed” characters were consistently talking about the monotonous, “weather”.
The tactile, vivid imagery coupled with the denomination of the polysyndetic list displays how the
pure perception of Adichie’s identity was being disintegrated and stripped as a young child through
the injection of stereotypical westernised ideas of the “ideal” person or even women. The
beautifully simplistic books reflect the disdained feelings of the TED talker, Adichie, feeling like her,
“type of people” could not be accepted in the ethereal, fanciful worlds of literature, only limiting her
perception of what she is fully capable of. As Adichie sees “no possibility of a connection as human
equals” at the end of the triad, emphasis is placed on the rigidly repeated no possibility, but most
significantly as “human equals” showing the effect a single story has on people that seemingly fall
out of a stereotype. The reiteration of “no possibility” as no hope exists with one story, robbing
people of dignity.

Adichie further directly explains to her privileged, western audience about how western cultures
often judge a book by its cover without diving into the synopsis of that specific book itself. The idea
of Adichie feeling limited and pre-conceptualised by western foreigners is juxtaposed to when the
humorous, credible tone of Adichie’s mother exclaims how she is sending ravishing “rice” with fine
red, woollen “yams” to “Fide’s family” since “people like Fide’s family have nothing” at all. Added to
the dialogue is the capitalisation of common nouns: an identity towards Fide. Fide is only
representative of Adichie’s single story. As Adichie becomes “startled” by Fide, the short sentence
mirrors her shock, Adichie was once guilty of having bias and prejudice towards something due to
stories she read, as her audience. Giving comfort to the reader as she is suggesting we are all guilty
of a single story, the anecdote accentuates Adichie’s realisation, as her audience should experience.
 The author displays the dangers that viewing the world through a singular lens presents to society.
When Adichie arrived in America she describes how her roommate felt a ‘patronising, well-meaning
pity towards her’. Through the repetition of the plosive sounds Adichie draws attention to the anger
in her words, as if she is spitting them out due to her frustration at the stereotypes. The author is
angry at the singular lens that her roommate views her country through, as it is entirely devoid of
the wonders that she has grown up with. Adiche also explains that a single story spreads the gap of
humanity and perpetuates lack of basic connections between people. The author uses the indignant
anaphora of ‘no possibility’, which is repeated three times within a paragraph, once again reiterating
her frustration to highlight the permanence of the prejudices and harm caused by ‘single stories’. To
further establish her point Adiche describes how the lack of connection caused by these stereotypes
has led to her feeling alienated from America as she is only viewed as an ‘African in the USA’, this is
particularly poignant as it forces the white American audience of her TED talk to question their
prejudices.

Adichie describes the inferiority she felt in relation to the stories she was exposed to as a child since
they only told a ‘single story’. The author describes how when she read the Enid Blyton-esque fairy
tales of ‘blue eyed children’ and ‘blonde’ hair girls, she created a bucolic and idealistic world which
was entirely unreachable, let alone comprehensible in relation to her life in Nigeria. She interpreted
the antithesis of the ‘apples’ of romantic England to the ‘mangoes’ of Nigeria as a nullifier to her
own culture, which led to Adichie's idealisation of an elusive world. As opposed to appreciating the
velvety mangoes, the vivid colours and the warm patterns that surrounded her everyday life in
Nigeria she focused on the seemingly angelic qualities of the characters from her English books.

127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Main themes:
• Anticipation
• Helplessness
• Claustrophobia
• Ralston regressing into Animalistic behaviour in response to his situation

In 127 hours, Ralston uses emotive behaviour coupled with conflicted thoughts to create a feeling of
anticipation. In doing so, Ralston describes the setting with precise and calculated jargon, in effect
depicting his experience in climbing. When planning his route, Ralston punctiliously counts ‘fifty feet’
and ‘twelve’ feet, which simultaneously foreshadows the later importance of these exact lengths,
widths and distances in his inevitable fall. Ralston uses declarative sentences, lengthened through
punctuation which shows his non-stop and calculated thought process, continuously thinking ahead
about his next move, enhancing the sense of anticipation in the passage. In addition, the swift
change into temporal time, displays the quick shifts in focus in his surroundings and contributes to
the sense of anticipation. He also uses the present tense, whilst describing past actions which
engages the reader, in turn heightening the tension and anticipation.

Another prevalent mood experienced in the extract is helplessness and claustrophobia. The author's
use of shorter and more concise sentences portrays the feeling of panic when the realisation that his
hand is stuck sets in. The repetitiveness of the full stops due to the short sentences contribute to
just how definitive and unmoving his state of helplessness was. The author also uses the description
of his ‘grimace and growl’ to show the bestial animosity and frustration he felt towards his situation.
The violent adjective ‘growl’ has a raw and animalistic quality to it, and further adds to the
helplessness he felt as the shock of the scene sent him back to almost primal behaviour. The
instinctive will to survive sent him into a versatile state - in which agony had almost possessed his
mind. The author contrasts his deranged ‘growl’ with the silence that came with the feeling of
hopelessness, ‘Nothing.’. The empty word ‘nothing’ captures the hopelessness that Ralston was
feeling and combined with the full stop adds an element of finality to the scene. The author also
introduces direct and demanding dialogue to the extract, ‘Get your hand out of there!’ which is
startling to the reader as previously the extract had a distinct lack of dialogue. This infers that the
pain and anxiety he feels in this moment is so paralysing and suffocating to his mind that he
physically had to say the words.

H is for hawk

Main themes:
• Ethereal/ religious imagery
• Tension and anticipation in the reveal of the Hawk
• Overwhelmed response from the narrator
• Sense of the bird being out of reach - reflective of the authors grief towards her departed
father

The author uses ethereal language to describe the Goshawk as an almost Godlike being. When the
bird is revealed, the author describes a strange coincidence where a ‘flood’ of sunlight ‘drenches’
her and everything becomes ‘brilliance and fury’ which has strong religious connotations, as it
reflects the tumultuous and divisive nature of Biblical stories. The water imagery used with the
‘flood’ and ‘drenched’ depicts how Macdonald was drowning in her own adrenaline and both
descriptions show how overwhelming the experience was. Also, the water imagery refers to the
religious connotations the author previously included, as it links to the story of Noah's ark; the water
in the biblical story destroyed everything apart from the Ark and in this setting, Macdonald infers
that she feels like the singular and overwhelmed ark and the situation is isolating yet empowering.
McDonald’s use of ‘brilliance’ infers that the emergence of the Bird is almost a miracle and suggests
an image of almost blinding light overwhelming her senses.

The build up to the bird being revealed creates tension and anticipation through McDonald’s use of
short sentences. There is a crescendo built by language such as ‘concentration’ and ‘caution’ and a
sense of expectation for the bird, almost equating to a fear. The repetition of the violent and
onomatopoeic description ‘thump’ expresses that McDonald is intimidated by the bird despite not
even having seen it yet.

The contrast between the Hawks ‘dark tipped primaries and its ‘illuminating beauty’ suggests images
of light and dark which are commonly associated with the description of ethereal and elemental
beings. Macdonald even goes as far to say that the Hawk is a ‘fallen angel’ expanding upon the God
like imagery to incorporate Satan and adds a darker and multifaceted depiction of the bird, the
readers experience a clashing and almost dualistic view of the Hawk but either way it is presented,
as a ‘Golden’ ethereal being or a dark and devil like animal, Macdonald maintains the idea of the
Hawks power and distance from reality. The description of ‘Gold falling through water’ exemplifies
McDonald’s feelings of awe and separation from the Bird. As ‘gold’ is a precious metal it reflects the
value that MacDonalds places on the Hawk. Also, the imagery of the gold ‘falling’ presents the idea
of longing for the Bird, yet it is always out of reach from the Author, once again solidifying the idea
that the Hawk is majestic, untouchable and ethereal.
Explorers or Boys just messing around

Main themes:
• Hyperboles to show the extent of the damage the men caused
• Childlike language used to show their ignorant behaviour
• Are they mavericks or naive?

The author uses hyperboles to show the extent of the damage the men caused and possibly further
the use of the childlike rejector to extend the mockery. He describes how the damage caused by
their last venture cost the government ‘tens of thousands of pounds’, which due to the vague and
unconcreted of the detail allows the minds of the readers to further the extent of the economic
damage, paid for by ‘Britain's taxpayers’. The author's use of negative belittling verbs persuades the
audience that the explorers acted in an ignorant and selfish manner. Even the title of the extract
poses the rhetorical question from Steven Morris, already introducing the idea that the men were
immature through the use of the playful verb “messing” suggesting that they viewed it simply as a
childish game. This idea of infantile behaviour is exemplified through the final line of the extract
“bottoms kicked and sent home the long way” where the author describes them as children
punished for an inconsequential mistake rather than an international crisis as described in the
extract. Morris’ idea of infantile behaviour is extended through his condescending use of the James
Bond reference “Also known as Q”, nicknames and codenames as if they are children playing a
roleplay game. The author's use of speech marks such as ‘trusty helicopter’) adds a mocking tone to
the passage, emphasising Morris’ underlying opinion on these two explorers.’

Notes:

‘The drama began at around 1 am British time when Mr Brooks, 42, and 40-year-old Mr Smith, also
known as Q, ditched into the sea 100 miles off Antarctica, about 36 miles 20 north of Smith Island,
and scrambled into their life-raft.’

• Embedded clauses
• There are many listed sentences, emphasising the ignorance of the explorers and the
remoteness of the area where the incident happened.
• Commas are often used in newspaper articles to break up the factual information

Morris does not begin the piece with the catastrophic incident but gives clear context of the scene
beforehand, so the audience are more likely to listen to what he is saying. This is shown by the
reference to the explorer’s luxury “Breitling watch” where the explorers sent their distress signals
from, known to be luxurious and alluring. This has no relevance to the incident, but Morris mentions
it, so the audience knows how unprepared they were, and how much they took life for granted.

• Humorous language is used to show that Morris believes the men are stupid

“Nothing short of a miracle” - could have died, shows how much lack of care they have.

From this humorous language, Morris appears to be criticising the decisions of the “boys”
Carrying on from the point beforehand the author adds details that the helicopter is “small”, “single
engine”, and “four-seater”

Take these words on these own and they sound like they are describing a rubbish car that is going to
breakdown on the motorway

He is using belittling and undermining language throughout to question if what they were doing was
logical and reasonable

Morris mixes his subjective opinion with facts, “the men were plucked from the icy water by a
Chilean naval ship after a nine-hour rescue”.

The factual list of “the rescue involved the Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguards” emphasises
how severe the rescue was, with large organisations being bought in and this takes money and
expertise.

• Triad, often volunteers, having to rescue the “boys”

• You can’t dispute facts; Morris is persuading the audience that his view is correct.

He picks specific facts about the explorer’s life such as that one of them “survived a charge by a
silverback gorilla”. The aggressive, powerful animal gorilla suggests to the audience that the
explorers are mavericks and do not care about consequences’

Chinese Cinderella

Main themes:
• Themes of divinity to suggest as power inequality
• Themes of rebellion is a constant battle in the passage
• Dysfunctional paternal relationship

Adeline Yen Mah presents the semantic field of divinity to be both threatening, almost apocalyptic,
and the angelic light at the end of the tunnel. The author uses the character of her Father as a
central tainted Godlike figure, she even describes him the ‘Holy of Holies’ which suggests a tone of
mockery of both her young self and her Father. The religious description conjures images of the
golden heavens and an idealised almighty figure as her Father, the alliteration in the phrase only
adds to the hindsight mockery. However, this illusion of grandeur is soon shattered by the
description of her Father in ‘his slippers’, the contrast between these two images, one of sacred
brilliance and the other disappointing mundanity, creates a powerful bathos for the readers as the
God is replaced by a tired old man. However, the seemingly contradicting descriptions could instead
of neutralising the religious image, heighten it further as her Father is still a god despite his ordinary
attire, elevating his apparent power. The Author structures the whole passage around her father’s
importance, to the extent that a line of seemingly elevation and independence from Yeh Mah where
she says boldly ‘Please, Father’, is still centred around her father's validation. Adeline Yen Mah also
uses the idea of ‘England’ as a ‘heaven’ as a motivation for the actions of her younger self. However,
the idea of England as a promised land is twisted for the readers as they are aware that it isn't the
bucolic bliss Yen Mah imagined. Through this it undermines her motivation and makes her appear
naive.
 The author presents the theme of rebellion - and lack thereof - to be a constant battle between her
and the constricting forces in her life. Adeline yen Mah presents the conversation between her and
her father in his office to be a battlefield, a war between a Godlike figure and herself - an impossible
battle. The author uses a series of questioning statements to show her unease and even goes on to
venture whether she should ‘let my guard down’. This evokes a militaristic scene of poised fingers
over triggers, both sides on an edge of uncomfort. This scene not only suggests a sense of agitation
but also could be considered exposition as it reveals possibilities surrounding the author's past. The
author's father only views her as a social asset - or even a weapon. He only appreciates her value
when he can show off her achievements to his ‘revered college’. However, Adeline Yen Mah also
rebels against her father’s power over her as she undermines his authority when she falsely agrees
to go to university for medicine. Mentally she equivocates his wishes by saying she will ‘study
anything her wishes’ if he lets her go to England, but thwarts this by quoting Wordsworth. The
introduction of Wordsworth suggests a rebellion as he was a romantic poet who believed in the
power of individualism, which goes against everything her father, her society and her influences
would have told her.

Themes of Chinese Cinderella

• A central theme of Chinese Cinderella is the passing of time, which is shown by the short,
sharp sentences such as “four of us were playing Monopoly. My heart was not in it, and I
was losing steadily. Outside it was hot and there was a warm wind blowing.” The narrator is
highly aware of the passing of time, such as when the “thought of leaving school throbbed
like a persistent toothache.” Time passes
• There is also a rapid passing of time as, on line 78, the narrator’s father describes her entire
life in only a few short sentences. Time is short for the narrator, it passes far too quickly, but
it also seems endlessly long, like a summer classroom, when it is “hot and there is a warm
wind blowing.” Time seems to stretch on forever, hot and sticky and stagnant.
• There is a strong semantic field of divinity and God, which may be particularly poignant as
the narrator was raised in a family obsessed with Europeanness, and she was raised at a
Catholic school. She has lost her culture, and this means that she cannot help but see
everything in a British light. Her family also seems to reflect this idea of God, referring to her
father’s office as the “Holy of Holies” and referring to him as “radiant.” This indicates a
wider theme of her life, that she has been raised to believe that she is merely a quivering
mortal, beneath the attention of her father and her stepmother She never describes herself
in this way, and this ties in to how she believes that she is worthless, as she seems shocked
when she wins the competition, declaring that “Am I dreaming? Me, the winner?”
• Do parents always love their children? Adeline’s father cares about her getting a good job
and education, but does he really love her?
• How important is it to do what you are passionate about?
• How might England appear to those outside of it?
• Does your relationship with your parents change your life?
• Are Gods really just those we consider better than us?

GAP:

• Genre - this is a non-fiction book for children.

• Audience - primarily young children, but Adeline dedicates Chinese Cinderella to any child
who has felt unloved by their parents and needs someone to tell them that they are not
worthless and that their dreams are achievable.
 • Purpose - Adeline’s purpose is to tell her story, and also to inspire those reading so that they
know whatever happens, they will never be alone, and they can always achieve their
dreams.

A Passage to Africa

Main themes:
• Lack of hope and a finality to the Somali peoples living situation
• Divide between the Somali and Western people
• Contrast in living conditions between the narrator and the Somali people

In what way does the writer use language and structure to show his reactions to the people he
encounters in Somalia?

The author portrays a lack of hope and a finality to the Somali peoples' living situations. Alagiah uses
a synecdoche through the description of decaying body parts to represent the crumbling society
they were living in. The author focuses on an ‘old woman’s mutilated ‘shin bone’ in a clinical and
anatomical manner, as if she had been reduced and dehumanised down to only her broken skeleton.
Through the fixation over her putrid injuries the camera lens from Alagaiah’s crew seems to almost
zoom in on the defective leg, for the ogling eyes of the British Public. The use of the author's rancid
description of the ‘festering’ leg alludes to a putrid, swollen and almost macerated wound, almost
like off meat, further dehumanising the old woman who has been reduced by the Western audience
down to her injuries. The decaying and decomposing language almost foreshadowed her inevitable
death. The wound is being rotten by not only the widespread disease and contamination but also
the very heart of the conflict whose rotten core has spread to the Somali people. Alagiah alludes to
how exhaustive and damaging the conflict has been as he states that the wound has ‘shattered’ and
now ‘fused’ which gives the impression of immovable devastation. The author then goes on to use
corpse alluding language to describe the Somali people as they are ‘sucked of their natural vitality’
which creates a sense of loss as though their spirit has dried up and they are left parched of any sort
of animation. The hard description of ‘sucked’ creates a sense of violence from the verb as the zest
for life is taken unwillingly by their cruel environment.

The title itself is significant in that the noun ‘Passage’ is ambiguous; of course, the obvious meaning
would be that the following is an extract, a piece of writing. But it could also be interpreted as a
path, a way, a journey to Africa. Also, the use of the word ‘to’ imply that the passage is not a mere
informative work on Africa, but a dedication to the country.

Alagiah also creates a divide between the Somali people and the Western audience to inform them
of the depravity that they have the privilege to not experience. Alagiah presents the desolate and
derelict town to be a ‘ghost village’, which gives the impression of dramatisation of Alaigahas story
on Somalia in an attempt to interest the British Audience through the almost Gothic description. The
author presents the footage they are in Somalia to collect to need to be ‘shocking’ and have the
Western audience fixated on it like a ‘drug’ - almost viewing the Seven o'clock evening news
programme as a form of sick and twisted entertainment. Aligaih structures the passage so that after
his description of the British audience sitting in the ‘comfort’ of their Living rooms he describes in a
clinical and concise way - redolent of the BBC news readings - the death of a young Somali girl. The
author uses short and blunt sentences to mirror the shortness of her life. However, instead of
describing the gory conditions of her demise to engage the barbaric British audience, he describes
her ‘lonely death’ with a quiet, weary and surfeited description.
Game of Polo with a Headless Goat

Main themes:
• Mocking and generalised description to make the reader more aware of their own
prejudices
• Conflict of the game within the passage and also within the ignorance of Westerners and the
culture of other people around them
• The anarchy of the game

The author uses mocking and generalising descriptions to make the audience aware of their own
prejudices. Levine implies through the use of the quoted ‘’ ‘officials’ ‘’that they are seen as a joke
rather than respectable members of society, which criticises both the author herself as she looks
back in hindsight at her close-minded view and the middle-class audience of her writing. Even the
title reduces the complex and valued game in Pakistan down to a ‘Game of polo’ with a Headless
goat, diminished down to reference to a sport typically played by higher classes of western people.

The Title even goes as far to suggest a game or a conflict, both in the passage itself and the conflict
of the misunderstandings and ignorance shown from westerners to the cultures of other people.
Levine describes the game as ‘Formula one without rules’ and without ‘common sense’ which has an
underlying tone of snarkiness, and the emphasis on the word ‘without’ creates an image of
primitiveness and lack of development as it conjures images of emptiness. The word ‘without’
simultaneously creates a divide between what the authors seem to believe are the haves and have
nots of the world, when in reality the Donkey race portrays a community centred and cherished local
game.

The description of ‘Wacky races’ is the name of a cartoon show which allows readers to Imagine the
extent of anarchy and the complete lack of rules alike in a cartoon whilst also relating to what it
might be like in the goat race.