Compare and Contrast ‘in Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ and ‘impressions of a New Boy’

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Both protagonists central characters appear to be approaching puberty. In ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s class’ the final stanza alludes entirely on the complexities that puberty can bring by the lexis used. To illustrate, ‘electricity’ and ‘fractious’ refer to how adolescence can be during puberty. The effect this has on the reader is for them to recall these feelings themselves. In ‘Impressions of a new boy’, the ninth stanza reads ‘Its wooden ridge rubs my knee,/But the head said ‘Sit’ so though I’m tall/I know that I must try’. This stanza suggests that the protagonist is gangly and awkward – deportment frequently displayed by young teenage boys. Also, teenagers can often feel too engorged with a sense of embarrassment due to their self-consciousness which the speaker intimates in stanza six: ‘The head says ‘Speak’, but my cheeks flame,’. This single sentence completes stanza six. Standing alone like this further highlights the boy’s embarrassment as the stanza, like the boy, is exposed for all to see with nothing to hide behind. The effect here on the audience is to feel and empathise acutely with the boy’s awkwardness.

Both protagonists show that they experience some enjoyment from school. Duffy’s ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s class’ has countless examples that show how happy the protagonist feels. ‘.. a skittle of milk’, here the speaker refers to the milk children were given when the speaker was young. ‘Skittle’ is a toy and thus donates a feeling of fun and enjoyment in this memory. The speaker uses personification when talking about a school bell, ‘laugh of a bell’, this again sounds gay and happy whilst referring to a time at school suggesting that the speaker was happy. Finally, ‘The classroom glowed like a sweetshop.’ - this implies that the classroom was a colourful and happy place to be. The effect on the reader is to evoke feelings of warmth and happiness toward school days. This compares to the final two stanzas of Collihole’s ‘Impressions of a new boy’, which states: ‘… ‘Want to play?’ … The school is great – I love it’. This shows that finally the protagonist connects with a fellow classmate and thus the school is great after all. This conjures up memories in the reader of that all-important moment in life when a new friend is made and a feeling of acceptance and relief are experienced.

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