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AINA FATINI
LIM JING YEE
Q3 : Discuss the relevance of one
theme to contemporary society in
any one of the poems you have
studied in this course. Provide
textual evidence to justify your
answer.
POEM “MID-TERM BREAK”
P : One idea that is suggested in this poem is life does not go according to our
plan.
R : This is because Heaney’s four-year-old brother dies
unexpectedly in an accident in the poem.
E : For instance, the poet tells us that his father “had always taken
funerals in his stride” but “Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard
blow”. This conveys that his brother’s death is unnatural and
happens in a sudden. Furthermore, the evidence can also be
proved through the line “No gaudy scars, the bumper knock him
clear”. This indicates that his brother has encountered an
accident which is unpredictable to happen.
P : Therefore, it is certain that sometimes we cannot really predict
things that will happen in the future.
She didn’t leave a tangle in When Sadie said her last so – long
Her comb found every strand.
Her girls struck out from home.
Sadie was one of the livingest chicks
Sadie left as heritage
In all the land.
Her fine-toothed comb.)
Maud, who went to college,
Is a thin brown mouse.
He is living all alone
In this old house.
P : The writer could be saying that sometimes living the life
according to the society’s expectation can take one’s
happiness away.
R : (telling the story, paraphrasing in a few lines) In this
poem, ……
E : It is evident on the lines ‘Maud who went to college, is a
thin brown mouse’ which shows that Maud who follows the
norm of the society, suffers her life in the end and does not
get the chance to live her life to the fullest like her sister,
Sadie.
P : Therefore, one’s contentment will be taken away when
they allow their life to be ‘arranged’ by the society’s
expectation. This is because, following the society’s
expectation can force someone to be the person they do
not want to and it restricts one’s freedom in making their
own decision. Hence, they will feel pressurised and stressed
in following the society’s ‘order’ about their life.