Class notes
AQA Harvest. by Jim crace notes and annotations
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Harvest in the paper 2 of English, Elements of social and political protest writing.
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Harvest notesEpigraph
‘Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground’
‘Ode on Solitude’ Alexander Pope
Paternal care
- land is personified as father
- need to provide for the family (villagers)
- ignorant = don’t know what they are missing out on
bound
- ignorance
- conditioning the villagers = aren’t aware of what they lack
- restrictions = bound to there social status
- power, no aware? Cant recognise his and others power
breathe his native air
- ownership and independence, doesn’t want to be disturbed
content
- at peace and satisfied, no more, no less:
- with what he’s got
- OR only to be content once he’s got his own land
- Link to villagers, own small amount of land and that’s enough
,Chapter 1
1. ‘two twists of smoke’
Ominous opening, sets the tone for the novel; destructive and disastrous
events that will follow
Novel begins and ends with fire ‘what begins with fire ends in ash’
Setting = isolated; rural, desolate, set apart communities (no access to
education)
- Monosyllabic, simplicity of their intellect.
2. ‘Heres what took place. This is my reckoning, calculated without recourse to
any constable or magistrate – and just as well, because this place is too far
off from towns to number such judicious creatures amongst our livestocks;
we are too small, and getting smaller’
Reckoning
- Work something out OR avenge someone from their mistakes
(religion)
- Hints at justice – problematic as beyond the law and civilised society.
Livestock
- Metaphorical
- Reduced to animals, lacks worth
Our
- walter believes hes part of livestock
- viewed as commodities and objects that can be disposed when no
longer helpful
smaller
- not enough women and lack of food
3. ‘we could not help but stare at him and wonder, without saying so, if those
scratchings on his board might scratch us too, in some unwelcome way.’
Scratch/scratching
- Polyp-ton
- 1. Sound of quill on paper as marking territory
- 2. Questioning whether these marks will cause them harm
- Fear of outsiders – xenophobia
, - Quill symbolism of education – villagers fearful of what they don’t
know
4. ‘we heard him numbering, until he reached the paltry fifty-eight that
represented him. We know enough to understand that in the greater world
flour, meet and cheese are not divided into shares and proportions for the
larder, as they are here, but only weighed and sized for selling.’
Village is separate from capitalistic world (metaphor) – encroaching
capitalist society into their ‘peaceful’ society
5. ‘our masters near white doves, which had descended on the stud and were
already robbing fallen grain that, by ancient gleaning rights, should have
been ours. These ‘snowy devil’…..’
Dove
- Symbolism, innocence, purity, vulnerable
Near white
- Not innocent – compound adjective. Ironic as they are dirtied but do
not work. Symbol of luxury
Snowy devils
- Fire
- Hell after death
- Doves are evil/enemy for steeling grains
- Oxymoron
- Deceptive
6. ‘Master Kent, our landowner, is just. And he is timid when it comes to laws
and punishments. He’s rather tolerate a wrongdoer amongst his working
hands than rob a family of their father, husband, son.’
Creates flawed justice system by not punishing criminals = cause chaos
within the community (lawless)
, Ironic - Walter says Master Kent is ‘just’ (fair) but system is entirely
unjust = need for democracy
Unreliable narrator - trying to influence our perspective of Kent being
benevolent character = bias
7. ‘No, the finger of suspicion points not as villager - the very thought! but at a
stranger’
‘the very thought’
- Extremely shocked at possibility of it being a villager - hyphenated
embedded clause = interjection emphasising his distaste
‘but at a stranger’
- Philosophical concept of ‘the other’ - that when one encounters
‘difference’ they react with fear and violence
- Villagers immediately scapegoat the outsiders due to fear of
difference = xenophobia
8. ‘I understand that this is the moment when I should raise my own hand and
say my piece, report the dry moo ball. Or at least I should take Brooker
Higgs aside to nudge him in the ribs. But I hold my tongue instead.’
Self - preservation = seeks acceptance = he was an outsider = fearful of
telling the truth = cowardice.
Community = oppressive and restrictive = unspoken laws
9. ‘In fact, my hand - the left - is too damaged to be raised. I was amongst the
foolish volunteers who tried to roll some of the burning bales.’
‘the left - is too damaged to be raised’
- No valid excuse - don’t need hand to tell truth = pathetic, believed
actions are heroic.
- Humbled about his actions
- Walter is useless in community without hand - isolate from
community.
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