Korea, by John McGahern

 

Audiobook

Film

Analysis

John McGahern

He was born in Dublin in 1934 and died aged 71. He was the oldest of seven brothers and sisters. He grew up in a small farm. His mother was a school teacher, and his father a sergeant in the Garda, the Irish police force. When his mother died, he was ten, and the whole family went to live in the Garda barracks. The sergeant was a violent man and treated his children accordingly.

John trained as a teacher and worked some time in a school. At the same time, he began to write, but when he published his novel The Dark, he was dismissed, and his book banned by the Irish Censorship Board, for its pornographic content, according to the Board. So he went to England, where he worked on a variety of jobs. After some years, he went back to Ireland, and he settled in a small farm far from everywhere.

His six novels are mostly based in his personal experiences.

The Barracks is a description of the life in the Garda barracks. The Dark narrates a young man’s life. The Leavetaking is about his work as a teacher and about being fired. The Pornographer tells the story of a writer who has to write porno for his living. Amongst Women follows the life of an IRA veteran, and That they May Face the Rising Sun explores the Irish rural life.

He also wrote a Memoir, some plays and short stories collections, the last one, Creatures of the Earth: New and Selected Stories, that contains a selection of all his old stories and some new ones.

 

Korea

It’s a curious title for a story set in the rural Ireland; nevertheless, the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 situates the narrative in time and provides its historical background.

A father and his son, who is about to finish his schooling, earn their living by fishing for eels. They also had a small piece of land where they grow some vegetables. It’s an economy of subsistence in a poor rural area. However, the authorities want to limit the fishing quota in order to leave more fish for the tourists that are going there from England. So, prospects for the eel business aren’t very good. The father is worried about his son’s future and, seeing that in Ireland there won’t be opportunities for him in Ireland, proposes him to go to the USA. At first, his son doesn’t know what to answer, but then he overhears a conversation between his father and a neighbour: there are lots of jobs available in the army because of the Korean War; they pay $250 monthly, and, in case of death, the family gets $10.000. Thus, America is a possibility of success and also a risk of death. Now the boy has taken his decision: he’ll stay in Ireland.

As his father goes on insisting in his going away, the son suspects that he wants him in the army in order to get his pay; or even worse, that he wants him dead so he can get the ten thousand dollars.

At the beginning of the story, the father, who fought for the Irish independence and is disappointed with the new country because he hasn’t made any profit by it, tells the boy about an execution by shooting of an adult man and a boy. The man displays a total indifference or even disdain to the firing squad, but the boy cries, struggles and at the end obeys orders as a soldier. This sad scene haunted the man forever, and it’s a kind of allegory of the contrast between youth and experience.

QUESTIONS

-According to you, what is the meaning of the episode of the executions in the story? Is there a parallelism between the two adults and the two boys?

-Do you think that, in extreme cases, the death penalty is necessary?

-In your opinion, why this episode haunts the father in his wedding?

-Why are there quotas in haunting, fishing or collecting some natural products? Do you think that it is fair?

-Must a father send his son to an incertain future if the alternative possibilities are very poor?

-Progress usually destroys traditional ways of living. But, does tourism bring progress to the countries it visits?

-"I fought for this country", says the father. But, what is a country for you?

-It seems that independence doesn’t make some people happy as they hoped. Why do you think is that?

-Could you detail the differences between the short story and the film?

VOCABULARY

rap, tunic, highfalutin, throbbed, bow, stern, beaded, consignment, bows of ridges, coarse, conscripted, shirred, fend

My Polish Teacher's Tie, by Helen Dunmore

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Audiobook

Obituary

Analysis

By Aurora Ledesma

 

HELEN DUNMORE

 

Helen Dunmore was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children’s writer. She was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1952. She was the second child of four children of Betty (née Smith) and Maurice Dunmore. Her father managed industrial firms, but loved poetry, and Helen learned many rhymes, hymns and ballads during her childhood.

She attended Nottingham Girls’ High School and studied English at York University (1970-1973). She lived for two years in Finland, where she worked as a teacher.

In 1980, she married Frank Charnley, a lawyer, and they had two children: a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Tess. Frank had a son, Ollie, from a previous marriage. Helen died from cancer in 2017.

Her best-known works include the novels Zennor in Darkness, A Spell of Winter and The Siege, and her last book of poetry was Inside the Wave (2017). She won the inaugural Orange Prize for fiction, the National Poetry Competition, and posthumously the Costa Book Award.

Her writings for children include short stories, and novels for older children, such as the Ingo Chronicles (2005). Some of Dunmore’s children’s books are included in reading lists for use in schools.

Dunmore’s readers will not be surprised to learn she loved gardening, and she knew about wild flowers. She was a brave and strong swimmer, venturing into the sea on cold days in a wetsuit. She loved art, buying as much as she could afford and enjoyed collaborating with artists and musicians.

The final poem Hold Out Your Arms, is an intimate and powerful poem of how the novelist recounts her thoughts and emotions as she faces her final days. She invites death to “hold out your arms for me” describing the figure of death coming to take her away. Death is not something to be feared, but caring and gentle. The poem, written just days before she died of cancer on June 2017, was included in her poetry collection Inside the wave. She was ‒first and last‒ a poet.

 

MY POLISH TEACHER’S TIE

 

My Polish Teacher’s Tie was first published in 2001 in the short story collection Ice Cream. The protagonist, Carla Carter, works as a part-time catering staff at an English School. She is half-Polish, but the teachers don’t know that. She is a single mother with a daughter, Jade. Carla’s mother was Polish, and she came to England after the war. She taught her some Polish children’s songs full of rhymes, so Carla spoke Polish till she was six, but her father forbade her to speak Polish before she started school, and that’s why she has forgotten most of it.

One day, Carla overhears the school’s headmaster saying that some Polish teachers want to improve their written English and are looking for pen friends in English schools. Carla asks the headmaster for one of the Polish teacher’s addresses, and she begins writing to Steve. Days later, she receives the first letter from him, and she realises that he thinks that she is an English teacher. When Carla writes to Steve, she doesn’t want to tell him anything about her employment. She tells him about her daughter Jade and about the songs that her mother taught her. Steve tells her that he writes poetry and sends Carla beautiful poems. At first, they write once a week, but later, twice. Their letters become friendly and personal, and a connection between them builds up.

Some time later, the Head announces that a teacher will be coming over from Katowice the following month. His name is Stefan Jeziorny. Carla feels a bit surprised, because she hadn’t read his last letter yet, in which he tells her about his visit. Carla dreads meeting him, knowing he will discover her real job, and thinks he will be disappointed. When he arrives, he will be staying with Valerie Kenward, a teacher at the school. Valerie complains that she can’t understand Steve, because of his accent, and she also makes fun of his tie.

As soon as Carla sees him in the staff room, she goes over to introduce herself. When she sees that he is pleased to meet her and does not care what job she does, she becomes more confident and positive. To her surprise, Steve sings a Polish song. She recognizes it from her childhood, and the two of them sing together.

 

Some Reflections

Sometimes, as happens with the characters in the story, having a low-level job and being a foreigner could make us feel ashamed, insignificant and even invisible.

On one hand, Carla hides her origins from her colleagues and her job from Stefan, she’s ashamed of being just a server. On the other hand, Stefan feels isolated and misunderstood, he just smiles like a child, because he doesn’t know anyone. His way of dressing, his accent and his manners are cruelly criticized by Valerie.

When Stefan shows a warm and inclusive approach towards Carla, regardless of her job, she becomes more confident. She realises that there is so much more to a person’s identity than their surface.

QUESTIONS

-What can a tie, a piece of clothes, a dress... tell us about the person?

-What is more important for you, your mother tongue, or another tongue you have learned along your life? Why do you think so? When are we ashamed of our accent or of our mother tongue?

-Sometimes we feel inferior, and sometimes superior, in front of a stranger. What are the circumstances for every case?

-In your view, can art be really appreciated by somebody without education? What is your opinion about the saying "There's no accounting for taste"? "Good taste" is something natural or something learned?

VOCABULARY

overall, kitty, tipping, chucking, OFSTED, serving-hatch, bin, sod it, stage-whispered, squiggles, swim, bumbled