The Irish Literary Renaissance

The Demon Lover

RL 1 Cite evidence to support
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
RL 5 Analyze how an authors
choices concerning how to
structure specific parts of a text
contribute to its overall structure
and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact. L 4b Identify
and correctly use patterns of
word changes that indicate
different meanings or parts of
speech.

did you know?

Elizabeth Bowen . . .
served as an air-raid
warden in London
during World War II.
counted writers Edith
Sitwell, Aldous Huxley,
and Virginia Woolf
among her friends.

Short Story by Elizabeth Bowen

Meet the Author

Elizabeth Bowen

18991973

One of the 20th centurys most

important Anglo-Irish authors, Elizabeth
Bowen published 10 novels and more
than 70 short stories. Her fiction, which
deals primarily with the upper middle
class, is beautifully crafted, with finely
drawn characters and detailed, evocative
descriptions of setting.
Neither English Nor Irish Born in

Dublin, Ireland, of Anglo-Irish parents,

Bowen spent her early childhood at
Bowens Court, a large stately home
that had been in the family since the
18th century. Although her family was
well-to-do, her childhood was unsettled.
When Bowen was seven, her father
suffered a nervous breakdown, and
Bowen was sent to England with her
mother and a governess. Six years later,
her mother died from cancer.
The death of her mother was one
of the pivotal events of Bowens life.
The sense of abandonment she felt is
evident in much of her fiction, which
often explores the themes of grief,
displacement, and lost innocence.
The Fulfillm
Fulfillment of a Dream In

1923,
1 23, Bowen
19
Bow married Alan
Cameron, an educator. That
year, she also
al published her first
collection of
o stories, Encounters;
the book was
wa an immediate
success, which
whic Bowen found very

encouraging. She had always dreamed

of being a writer, once stating, From
the moment that my pen touched paper,
I thought of nothing but writing, and
since then I have thought of practically
nothing else. . . .[W]hen I have nothing
to write, I feel only half alive.
Life During Wartime In 1935, Bowen
and Cameron moved to London.
Many of her best works take place in
wartime London, a setting she presents
with realism and force. In fact, British
novelist and critic Angus Wilson
asserted that the short stories Bowen
wrote during the war provide some
of the best documentation fact or
fictionof the psychological effects war
had on Londoners. Her acclaimed novel
The Heat of the Day (1949) also takes
place in the battered city.
Diverse and Distinguished Bowens

literary career was diverse as well as

distinguished. In addition to publishing
a new book almost every year, she wrote
essays and book reviews for prestigious
journals such as the Tatler, the Spectator,
and the New York Times Magazine. She
also was appointed a Commander of
the Order of the British Empire and
was awarded honorary doctorates from
Oxford University and Trinity College
in Dublin.

Author Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML12-1228

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text analysis: foreshadowing and flashback

Authors of dark, spine-tingling tales like The Demon Lover
often rely on the following narrative techniques to engage
readers:
Foreshadowinga writers use of hints and clues to indicate
events that will occur later in the story. Writers often
generate suspense, or excitement, through foreshadowing.
Flashbackan episode that interrupts the action of the
storys plot to show an experience that happened at an
earlier time. Writers often provide important background
information about characters in flashbacks.
As you read, notice how Bowen uses both foreshadowing and
flashback to build your interest in the story.

reading skill: analyze ambiguity

In fiction, ambiguity refers to the way in which a writer
intentionally presents aspects of a story as confusing or open
to interpretation. Writers often create ambiguity with words,
phrases, and passages that have multiple meanings, as in the
following lines from The Demon Lover:
A cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye
watched Mrs. Drovers return.
The phrase no human eye could mean that nobody watched
Mrs. Drover or something far more disturbingthat no human
watched her. As you read the story, create a chart like the one
shown to record and interpret examples of ambiguity.
Examples of Ambiguity

Possible Interpretations

the mysterious letter

(lines 3251)

The caretaker, Mr. Drover, or an

unknown character left the letter.

How can a

promise

haunt you?

The Demon Lover is set in 1941 during

the Blitz, the bombardment of London
by the German air force. Against this
dramatic backdrop, the storys main
character, Mrs. Drover, recalls her
romantic past, including a dreadful
promise made to a soldier going off
to battle.
DISCUSS With a partner, make a
list of short stories, novels, and movies
that feature a character making
an important promise. Discuss the
promise, the character, and the
characters reasons for offering
the promise. Explain whether the
character keeps or breaks the
promise by the end of the work.

vocabulary in context
Use context clues to figure out the meanings of the boldfaced
words.
1. Clearly he was no visionary, for his speech was prosaic.
2. The white moths had a spectral appearance in the night sky.
3. Never stingy, she gave without stint to many charities.
4. Official duties can circumscribe the life of a princess.
5. Brilliant ideas often emanate from creative discussions.
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

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The Demon Lover

Elizabeth Bowen

background The onset of World War II placed a tremendous physical and

psychological burden on Londoners. From September 1940 to May 1941, the German
air force launched a series of bombing raids designed to obliterate London and force
Great Britain to surrender. Many families evacuated the city and moved to country
villages and towns. Those who could not leave took refuge in subway tunnels and
air-raid shelters during the long nights of horror.

10

Towards the end of her day in London Mrs. Drover went round to her shutup house to look for several things she wanted to take away. Some belonged to
herself, some to her family, who were by now used to their country life. It was
late August; it had been a steamy, showery day: at the moment the trees down the
pavement glittered in an escape of humid yellow afternoon sun. Against the next
batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark, broken chimneys and parapets 1 stood
out. In her once familiar street, as in any unused channel, an unfamiliar queerness
had silted up;2 a cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye watched
Mrs. Drovers return. Shifting some parcels under her arm, she slowly forced
round her latchkey in an unwilling lock, then gave the door, which had warped,
a push with her knee. Dead air came out to meet her as she went in. a
The staircase window having been boarded up, no light came down into the
hall. But one door, she could just see, stood ajar, so she went quickly through into
the room and unshuttered the big window in there. Now the prosaic woman,
looking about her, was more perplexed than she knew by everything that she saw,
by traces of her long former habit of lifethe yellow smoke stain up the white

Analyze Visuals
Why do you think the
photographer chose to
tint and blur this image?

a FORESHADOWING

In lines 111, what details

suggest that Mrs. Drover
may be unsafe in her
London home?

prosaic (prI-zAPGk) adj.

not given to poetic
flights of fancy; lacking
imagination; dull

1. parapets (pBrPE-pGts): low walls or railings, such as those on balconies.

2. silted up: piled up, like sediment deposited in a river.

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30

40

marble mantelpiece, the ring left by a vase on the top of the escritoire;3 the bruise
in the wallpaper where, on the door being thrown open widely, the china handle
had always hit the wall. The piano, having gone away to be stored, had left what
looked like claw marks on its part of the parquet.4 Though not much dust had
seeped in, each object wore a film of another kind; and, the only ventilation being
the chimney, the whole drawing room smelled of the cold hearth. Mrs. Drover
put down her parcels on the escritoire and left the room to proceed upstairs; the
things she wanted were in a bedroom chest.
She had been anxious to see how the house wasthe part-time caretaker she
shared with some neighbors was away this week on his holiday, known to be not
yet back. At the best of times he did not look in often, and she was never sure that
she trusted him. There were some cracks in the structure, left by the last bombing,
on which she was anxious to keep an eye. Not that one could do anything
A shaft of refracted daylight now lay across the hall. She stopped dead and
stared at the hall tableon this lay a letter addressed to her.
She thought firstthen the caretaker must be back. All the same, who, seeing
the house shuttered, would have dropped a letter in at the box? It was not a
circular, it was not a bill. And the post office redirected, to the address in the
country, everything for her that came through the post. The caretaker (even if he
were back) did not know she was due in London todayher call here had been
planned to be a surpriseso his negligence in the manner of this letter, leaving it
to wait in the dusk and the dust, annoyed her. Annoyed, she picked up the letter,
which bore no stamp. But it cannot be important, or they would know . . . She
took the letter rapidly upstairs with her, without a stop to look at the writing till
she reached what had been her bedroom, where she let in light. The room looked
over the garden and other gardens: the sun had gone in; as the clouds sharpened
and lowered, the trees and rank5 lawns seemed already to smoke with dark. Her
reluctance to look again at the letter came from the fact that she felt intruded
uponand by someone contemptuous of her ways. However, in the tenseness
preceding the fall of rain she read it: it was a few lines.
Dear Kathleen: You will not have forgotten that today is our anniversary, and the
day we said. The years have gone by at once slowly and fast. In view of the fact
that nothing has changed, I shall rely upon you to keep your promise. I was sorry to
see you leave London, but was satisfied that you would be back in time. You may
expect me, therefore, at the hour arranged. Until then . . .
K. b

50

Mrs. Drover looked for the date: it was todays. She dropped the letter onto the
bedsprings, then picked it up to see the writing againher lips, beneath the
remains of lipstick, beginning to go white. She felt so much the change in her
own face that she went to the mirror, polished a clear patch in it and looked at
once urgently and stealthily in. She was confronted by a woman of forty-four,

b AMBIGUITY

Reread lines 4751.

Who is K, the author
of the mysterious letter?
Offer two possible
identifications for this
ambiguous character.

3. escritoire (DsQkrG-twrP): a writing desk or table.

4. parquet (pr-kAP): a wood floor made of small blocks laid in geometric patterns.
5. rank: growing vigorously and coarsely.

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60

70

80

90

with eyes starting out under a hat brim that had been rather carelessly pulled
down. She had not put on any more powder since she left the shop where she ate
her solitary tea. The pearls her husband had given her on their marriage hung
loose round her now rather thinner throat, slipping in the V of the pink wool
jumper6 her sister knitted last autumn as they sat round the fire. Mrs. Drovers
most normal expression was one of controlled worry, but of assent. Since the birth
of the third of her little boys, attended by a quite serious illness, she had had an
intermittent muscular flicker to the left of her mouth, but in spite of this she
could always sustain a manner that was at once energetic and calm.
Turning from her own face as precipitately as she had gone to meet it, she went
to the chest where the things were, unlocked it, threw up the lid and knelt to
search. But as rain began to come crashing down she could not keep from looking
over her shoulder at the stripped bed on which the letter lay. Behind the blanket
of rain the clock of the church that still stood struck sixwith rapidly heightening
apprehension she counted each of the slow strokes. The hour arranged . . . My
God, she said, what hour? How should I . . . ? After twenty-five years . . .
The young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely
seen his face. It was dark; they were saying goodbye under a tree. Now and
thenfor it felt, from not seeing him at this intense moment, as though she had
never seen him at allshe verified his presence for these few moments longer by
putting out a hand, which he each time pressed, without very much kindness, and
painfully, onto one of the breast buttons of his uniform. That cut of the button
on the palm of her hand was, principally, what she was to carry away. This was
so near the end of a leave from France that she could only wish him already gone.
It was August 1916.7 Being not kissed, being drawn away from and looked at,
intimidated Kathleen till she imagined spectral glitters in the place of his eyes.
Turning away and looking back up the lawn she saw, through branches of trees,
the drawing-room window alight: she caught a breath for the moment when she
could go running back there into the safe arms of her mother and sister, and cry:
What shall I do, what shall I do? He has gone.
Hearing her catch her breath, her fianc said, without feeling: Cold?
Youre going away such a long way.
Not so far as you think.
I dont understand?
You dont have to, he said. You will. You know what we said.
But that wassuppose youI mean, suppose.
I shall be with you, he said, sooner or later. You wont forget that. You need
do nothing but wait.
Only a little more than a minute later she was free to run up the silent lawn.
Looking in through the window at her mother and sister, who did not for the
moment perceive her, she already felt that unnatural promise drive down between
her and the rest of all humankind. No other way of having given herself could

L 4b

Language Coach
Derivations Many
different words are
derived, or generated,
from the same base
word. A precipice, which
comes from a Latin word
meaning headlong
fall, is a steep cliff.
How is precipitately
(line 66), meaning
suddenly,related to
precipice? What other
word derivations are
related to precipice?

spectral (spDkPtrEl) adj.

ghostly

6. jumper: pullover sweater.

7. leave . . . 1916: The young man was on leave from the fighting in France during World War I.

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100

110

120

130

have made her feel so apart, lost and foresworn.8 She could not have plighted a
more sinister troth.9 c
Kathleen behaved well when, some months later, her fianc was reported
missing, presumed killed. Her family not only supported her but were able to
praise her courage without stint because they could not regret, as a husband for
her, the man they knew almost nothing about. They hoped she would, in a year
or two, console herselfand had it been only a question of consolation things
might have gone much straighter ahead. But her trouble, behind just a little grief,
was a complete dislocation from everything. She did not reject other lovers, for
these failed to appear: for years she failed to attract menand with the approach
of her thirties she became natural enough to share her familys anxiousness on
this score. She began to put herself out, to wonder; and at thirty-two she was very
greatly relieved to find herself being courted by William Drover. She married
him, and the two of them settled down in this quiet, arboreal part of Kensington:10
in this house the years piled up, her children were born and they all lived till they
were driven out by the bombs of the next war. Her movements as Mrs. Drover
were circumscribed, and she dismissed any idea that they were still watched.
As things weredead or living the letter-writer sent her only a threat. Unable,
for some minutes, to go on kneeling with her back exposed to the empty room,
Mrs. Drover rose from the chest to sit on an upright chair whose back was firmly
against the wall. The desuetude 11 of her former bedroom, her married London
homes whole air of being a cracked cup from which memory, with its reassuring
power, had either evaporated or leaked away, made a crisisand at just this crisis
the letter-writer had, knowledgeably, struck. The hollowness of the house this
evening canceled years on years of voices, habits and steps. Through the shut
windows she only heard rain fall on the roofs around. To rally herself, she said she
was in a moodand for two or three seconds shutting her eyes, told herself that
she had imagined the letter. But she opened themthere it lay on the bed.
On the supernatural side of the letters entrance she was not permitting her
mind to dwell. Who, in London, knew she meant to call at the house today?
Evidently, however, this had been known. The caretaker, had he come back,
had had no cause to expect her: he would have taken the letter in his pocket, to
forward it, at his own time, through the post. There was no other sign that the
caretaker had been inbut, if not? Letters dropped in at doors of deserted houses
do not fly or walk to tables in halls. They do not sit on the dust of empty tables
with the air of certainty that they will be found. There is needed some human
handbut nobody but the caretaker had a key. Under circumstances she did not
care to consider, a house can be entered without a key. It was possible that she
was not alone now. She might be being waited for, downstairs. Waited foruntil
when? Until the hour arranged. At least that was not six oclock: six has struck.
She rose from the chair and went over and locked the door.

FLASHBACK
Reread the flashback
in lines 73100. What
important information
do you learn about Mrs.
Drover and the writer
of the letter in this
episode?
stint (stGnt) n. limitation;
restriction

circumscribe
(srPkEm-skrFbQ) v. to
restrict; to limit

8. foresworn: guilty of perjury.

9. plighted . . . troth: made a more ominous promise of marriage.
10. arboreal (r-brPC-El) . . . Kensington: woodsy part of Kensington, a residential London neighborhood.
11. desuetude (dDsPwG-tLdQ): disuse.

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140

150

160

170

180

The thing was, to get out. To fly? No, not that: she had to catch her train. As
a woman whose utter dependability was the keystone of her family life she was
not willing to return to the country, to her husband, her little boys and her sister,
without the objects she had come up to fetch. Resuming work at the chest she set
about making up a number of parcels in a rapid, fumbling-decisive way. These,
with her shopping parcels, would be too much to carry; these meant a taxiat
the thought of the taxi her heart went up and her normal breathing resumed. I
will ring up the taxi now; the taxi cannot come too soon: I shall hear the taxi out
there running its engine, till I walk calmly down to it through the hall. Ill ring
upBut no: the telephone is cut off . . . She tugged at a knot she had tied wrong.
The idea of flight . . . He was never kind to me, not really. I dont remember
him kind at all. Mother said he never considered me. He was set on me, that was
what it wasnot love. Not love, not meaning a person well. What did he do, to
make me promise like that? I cant rememberBut she found that she could.
She remembered with such dreadful acuteness that the twenty-five years since
then dissolved like smoke and she instinctively looked for the weal12 left by the
button on the palm of her hand. She remembered not only all that he said and did
but the complete suspension of her existence during that August week. I was not
myselfthey all told me so at the time. She rememberedbut with one white
burning blank as where acid has dropped on a photograph: under no conditions
could she remember his face.
So, wherever he may be waiting, I shall not know him. You have no time to run
from a face you do not expect.
The thing was to get to the taxi before any clock struck what could be the
hour. She would slip down the street and round the side of the square to where
the square gave on the main road. She would return in the taxi, safe, to her own
door, and bring the solid driver into the house with her to pick up the parcels
from room to room. The idea of the taxi driver made her decisive, bold: she
unlocked her door, went to the top of the staircase and listened down.
She heard nothingbut while she was hearing nothing the pass 13 air of the
staircase was disturbed by a draft that traveled up to her face. It emanated from
the basement: down there a door or window was being opened by someone who
chose this moment to leave the house.
The rain had stopped; the pavements steamily shone as Mrs. Drover let herself
out by inches from her own front door into the empty street. The unoccupied
houses opposite continued to meet her look with their damaged stare. Making
towards the thoroughfare and the taxi, she tried not to keep looking behind.
Indeed, the silence was so intenseone of those creeks of London silence
exaggerated this summer by the damage of warthat no tread could have gained
on hers unheard. Where her street debouched14 on the square where people
went on living, she grew conscious of, and checked, her unnatural pace. Across

Language Coach
Meanings of Idioms
Idioms are expressions
that have a special
meaning different from
the dictionary meaning
of the words. In some
contexts, the expression
the thing can mean that
which is important or
essential. Paraphrase
The thing was, to get
out (line 140).

emanate (DmPE-nAtQ) v.
to issue forth

12. weal: a mark or ridge raised on the skin; a welt.

13. pass (pB-sAP) French: old; stale.
14. debouched (dG-bchtP): emerged.

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190

the open end of the square two buses impassively passed each other: women,
a perambulator,15 cyclists, a man wheeling a barrow signalized, once again, the
ordinary flow of life. At the squares most populous corner should beand was
the short taxi rank. This evening, only one taxibut this, although it presented
its blank rump, appeared already to be alertly waiting for her. Indeed, without
looking round the driver started his engine as she panted up from behind and
put her hand on the door. As she did so, the clock struck seven. The taxi faced
the main road: to make the trip back to her house it would have to turnshe
had settled back on the seat and the taxi had turned before she, surprised by its
knowing movement, recollected that she had not said where. She leaned forward
to scratch at the glass panel that divided the drivers head from her own.
The driver braked to what was almost a stop, turned round and slid the glass
panel back: the jolt of this flung Mrs. Drover forward till her face was almost into
the glass. Through the aperture 16 driver and passenger, not six inches between
them, remained for an eternity eye to eye. Mrs. Drovers mouth hung open for
some seconds before she could issue her first scream. After that she continued to
scream freely and to beat with her gloved hands on the glass all round as the taxi,
accelerating without mercy, made off with her into the hinterland17 of deserted
streets.  d

d AMBIGUITY

Identify two possible

interpretations of the
storys conclusion.
What effect does this
ambiguous ending have
on you as a reader?

15. perambulator: baby carriage.

16. aperture (BpPEr-chEr): opening.
17. hinterland: backcountry; wilderness.

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After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall Why has the Drover family left their home in London?
2. Recall Why does Mrs. Drover return to the house?
3. Summarize Describe what happens after Mrs. Drover leaves the house.

Text Analysis
4. Understand Setting and Mood Review the description of the storys setting
in lines 124. What mood, or atmosphere, does this passage establish? Cite
specific words and phrases to support your answer.

RL 1 Cite evidence to support

inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
RL 5 Analyze how an authors
choices concerning how to
structure specific parts of a text
contribute to its overall structure
and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact.

5. Examine Foreshadowing Reread the following passages from The Demon Lover.
In what specific ways do they hint at important events presented later in the story?
Her reluctance . . . of her ways. (lines 4345)
Only a little more . . . a more sinister troth. (lines 95100)
She heard nothing . . . leave the house. (lines 169172)
6. Draw Conclusions About Character Describe the thoughts and behavior of
Mrs. Drover in each of the following scenes. Do you think that she is a victim of
her own troubled mind, some supernatural force, or a combination of these?
her reaction to the mysterious letter (lines 5265)
her farewell meeting with her former fianc (lines 73100)
her memories as she packs (lines 150160)
7. Analyze Ambiguity Review the chart in which you recorded different
examples of ambiguity. Identify the ambiguous word, phrase, or passage that
you found most intriguing or effective. In your opinion, what does
this example contribute to the story?
8. Evaluate Flashback Reread the flashback in lines 73100. Would the story
be as powerful if the events had been told in chronological order without
the use of flashback? Explain your thoughts.

Text Criticism
9. Cultural Context The title of Bowens story derives from a figure in gothic
literature, the demon lovera man who abducts his sweetheart because she
has broken her promise of faithfulness. The sweetheart happily follows her
lover, only to discover too late that he is leading her toward death. In what
ways does this information enhance your understanding of the story?

How can a

promise haunt you?

Do you think the protagonist of Bowens story got what she deserved for
breaking her promise? Why or why not?
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Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice

word list

Identify the antonym of each boldfaced vocabulary word.

circumscribe

1. prosaic: (a) prosperous, (b) everyday, (c) imaginative

2. spectral: (a) gloomy, (b) whimsical, (c) substantial
3. stint: (a) weakness, (b) generosity, (c) beginning

emanate
prosaic
spectral
stint

4. circumscribe: (a) control, (b) decide, (c) release

5. emanate: (a) influence, (b) absorb, (c) exude

academic vocabulary in speaking

approach

assume

environment

method

strategy

How do you approach the existence of the supernatural? Do you assume that
ghosts and other supernatural figures may be real or do you think they are
merely projections of the human mind? Discuss this question in a small group.
Use at least two of the Academic Vocabulary words in your discussion.

vocabulary strategy: the latin prefix circum-

L 6 Acquire and use accurately

general academic and domainspecific words and phrases.

The word circumscribe joins the prefix circum-, which means around, to the
root scribe, which comes from the Latin word for to
circumnavigate
write. Circumscribe means to write marks or a circle
around someone or something, setting limits within
which that person or thing can operate. Circumscribe
circumpolar
circumcircumstantial
also has a technical academic meaning: in geometry,
it describes, for example, a circle surrounding and
intersecting the corners of a square. Each word in the
circumference
circumlocution
web diagram at right has a technical, academic usage.
Some are also used in everyday speech.
PRACTICE Use context clues and your knowledge of word parts to explain the
meaning of each boldfaced word. Then, where possible, use the boldfaced word
in an everyday sense. Note whether the common, everyday sense of the word is
different from its technical meaning.
1. Circumstantial evidencenamely, motive and opportunity pointed to the
defendants guilt; but no physical evidence linked her to the crime.
2. One form of euphemism, the substitution of mild or vague language for
harsh, realistic terminology, is circumlocution.
3. The formula for the circumference of a circle is 2r.

Interactive
Vocabulary

4. Was Magellan the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe?

Go to thinkcentral.com.

5. Circumpolar objects, such as stars, never sink below the horizon.

KEYWORD: HML12-1238

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Wrap-Up: The Irish Literary Renaissance

The Flowering of Irish Letters

For hundreds of years, Irish literature written in English did not have
its own identity. However, in the 20th century, as Ireland undertook
its quest for national independence and rebounded from the
devastation of the potato famine, the Irish began to take stock of
their own cultural heritage.
Led by William Butler Yeats, writers of the Irish literary revival
vigorously explored Irish identity. Some wrote explicitly about such
topics as Irish rural life, the effects of colonialism, and Irish folklore.
Others wrote about classical topics or accounts of modern life, but
always with an ear for the lyricism of Irish speech and a sensitivity
toward common themes such as spirituality and repression, often
tinged with fatalism. Also, modern Irish writers shared the clever and
sometimes dark wit typical of their countrymen.

Extension Online
INQUIRY & RESEARCH Use
the Internet to research the
political and cultural conditions
surrounding the Irish Literary
Renaissance. What values were
being expressed? How did the
movement spread? How was this
literature received by the public?
Write a brief report to explain
your findings.

Writing to Compare
The Irish writers in this section explore different subject matter,
but they share similarities in theme and tone. Choose two
selections and write an essay comparing them, supporting your
ideas with examples from both texts.
Consider
each authors use of imagery and figurative language
each authors tone, or attitude toward the subject
the themes represented
Your two topics should be clearly organized and linked
with transitions and sentence structures that make your
comparison clear.

W 2 Write explanatory texts to examine and

convey complex ideas through the effective
selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W 2bc Select quotations or other information
and examples; use appropriate transitions
and syntax to clarify the relationships among
complex ideas and concepts. W 7 Conduct
short research projects to answer a question;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject.
W 9a (RL 2, RL 4) Determine themes of a text;
determine figurative meanings; analyze the
impact of word choices on meaning and tone.

Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen at Bowens

Court, her ancestral home in County Cork,
Ireland

wrap-up

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1/5/11

10:26:34 AM