Year 11 - English
Emulating Atwood's use of an untrustworthy character in 'Alias Grace'
Fiction: inner musings
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils explore and practise emulating a range of different narrative voices. They explore narrative voice in 'Alias Grace', 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and 'Klara and the sun' before crafting their own narrative voices. At the end of the unit, they write a narrative with a compelling voice.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to emulate Atwood's use of dehumanisation, disconcerting labels and conflicting emotions to craft your own untrustworthy character voice.
Key Notes
- Arguably, Atwood crafts an untrustworthy voice for the narrator of 'Alias Grace'.
- To emulate Atwood's use of an untrustworthy voice, we might attach a disconcerting label to the character.
- We might then demonstrate how the character has conflicting feelings towards this label.
- We may then compare the label to something fashionable that may enhance the character's appearance.
- The character might also be dehumanised in someway to imply that they don't have the same human emotions.
Vocabulary To Learn
- alias: a false name used to conceal one's identity; an assumed name
- untrustworthy: not able to be relied on as honest or truthful
- dehumanise: to remove from a person the special human qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people, etc.
- disconcerting: making someone feel uncertain and uncomfortable or worried
- conflicting: being in conflict or disagreement; not compatible
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- That we can always trust the narrator in a story to tell us the truth about events and people.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Arguably, Atwood crafts an untrustworthy voice for the narrator of 'Alias Grace'. To emulate Atwood's use of an untrustworthy voice, we might attach a disconcerting label to the character.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'alias'
a false name used to conceal one's identity; an assumed name.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: That we can always trust the narrator in a story to tell us the truth about events and people. Correction: Writers will sometimes create unreliable or untrustworthy narrators.
More Lessons In This Unit
- 'Alias Grace': forming opinions on characters Study Guide
- 'The Yellow Wallpaper': analysing character Study Guide
- 'The Yellow Wallpaper': crafting voice Study Guide
- Comparing dystopian voices Study Guide
- Conceptualising voice in fiction texts Study Guide
- Creating voice in our narratives Study Guide
- Emulating Ishiguro's use of an artificial voice in 'Klara and the Sun' Study Guide
- Exploring unique narrative voices Study Guide
- Exploring voice in 'Klara and the Sun' Study Guide
- Planning outstanding narratives Study Guide
- Writing a narrative with a compelling voice Study Guide
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