Story 1 On her Knees - Answers (Esercitazioni inglese - Haigh) PDF

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Appunti delle esercitazioni di inglese del secondo anno (corso LLT)....

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On her Knees – Answers For what reasons does Victor’s mother clean houses? Is she good at it? What’s her attitude to her work? Victor’s mother cleans houses in order to pay for his university fees. She is good at it, she is very precise. She takes her job very seriously, even though it may not be her dream job. Since she’s so good, he receives a lot of requests. How does Victor feel that his mother’s employers treat her? He feels that she’s underpaid and treated unfairly, because her employers do not recognize how good she is and how hard it would be to find someone better than her. She was being taken advantage of. Why do Victor and Carol argue when she loses her job? Why does Carol lose her job? Carol loses her job because she’s accused of having stolen a pair of expensive earrings. They argue because he feels that she should have stood up for herself, since she was being treated in a demeaning way. Compare the personalities of the mother and son. She cares about what other people think of her; she seems to overthink more and be more assertive. On the contrary he seems to care more about the recognition of her as an honest person. She is more disciplined whereas he is more impulsive. What do we learn about the inhabitants of the apartment through the author’s description of it and the things it contains? The woman who lives in the apartment gives the impression of being rarely at home and being instead more focused on her job. She seems to have a fast live, perhaps she covers an important role. We get the idea that she is rich, materialistic, a little bit selfish and perhaps not very warm/ friendly or genuine person. She might be a teacher; she might teach cultural history or cultural rights. What is Victor’s opinion of the apartment in comparison to his own? The apartment he is cleaning with his mother is full of objects everywhere: he knows that if the woman had to keep it clean by herself, she wouldn’t keep so many things. It also seems to not be kept with the care that should be given to one’s own house. The apartment seems more lonely than their own. What fear does Victor have? He fears being accused of stealing the earrings and that his mother has lost her job because of him. He knows that the woman has seen him helping his mother with the cleaning. What does Victor think is the real reason his mother was sacked? He thinks they wanted to have a reason to pay her less or to take advantage of her, but they couldn’t find anything wrong in the way she cleaned, because she was very good at her job. What do Victor and his mother disagree about when they find the earrings? He wants his mother to prove her innocence, but she says that the employer would just tell her that she’s lying again and that the earrings were brought back in order to keep the job. How do you think they both feel at the end of the story? They are relieved because they have found the earrings: they have the certainty that it was nobody’s fault but the woman’s who lives in the apartment. At the same time Victor would be happier if his mother had said something in order to defend herself against the diminishing words that had been used towards her.

There are lots of examples of slang language in the story. Why? Can you find some examples? Because the story is told through the voice of Victor, who is a young boy, so he uses the register and language which belong to people his age. Some examples are: “silvertails” (Australian slang); “The old man”; “Cheap her rate down”; “grotty”; “slobs”; “to bicker”. What type of ending does the story have? A sort of “happy ending” is given to the story, even though we don’t know what will happen after. Can you explain the title of the story? The title could suggest both the position in which she would be when cleaning as well as metaphorically indicate how vulnerable she was when she was being accused of stealing and she couldn’t stand up for herself. Perhaps it also suggests a lower level, since she is lower class. Who is the story narrated by? Why is that do you think? The story is narrated by Victor; probably the reason is that he wanted to protect her and show how strong she was. Perhaps she wouldn’t have told the story in the same way, because of her delicate situation. By having the story from the POV of the young person, who is mad, the injustice is portrayed better, whereas the mother would have watered it down. What is the time frame of the story? Why did the writer choose this time frame do you think? Just a couple of hours in which they do the cleaning are used to tell the whole episode. It is so short because the episode is very emblematic for both. What is the overall mood of the story do you think? There is a sense of helplessness; she doesn’t get the respect she deserves and that doesn’t change, but she has a good relationship with her son which adds some optimism....