SECTIONS I AND 2 (pp. 169-73)
Focus on: chickens and ducks
RELATE AN EPISODE TO THE WHOLE . . .
In the chicken and duck story (p. 171), Unverdorben voices
his inchoate ideas about distinctions: what does this anecdote reveal about his
childish understanding of good and bad, and about what he has the right to decide?
What is the significance of this episode?
Focus on: innocence and corruption
ASSESS THE CLAIM . . .
'He has to act while childhood is still here before somebody
comes and takes it away. And they will come' (p. 173). Assess the validity of
the claim that 'By finishing at the point of innocence, albeit temporary, Amis
reasserts the value, after a story of the vilest degradation, of human goodness
and potential.'
Focus on: the end
INTERPRET . . .
— What is the significance of the final arrow image on P173?
