Homework, 15th September, 2016

Hi!

As you may not yet know, you will now be getting two homeworks per week per subject. Your homework days for English are Thursday and Friday, so most weeks I will set one big task to cover both slots, and you will have until Monday to complete it. 

This week I would like you to read the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and create a character profile of Mary Maloney using the worksheet. Hard copies of both of these are in your homework folder, but I have provided a copy of the worksheet below, just in case. Unfortunately I can't post the text of the story here as I don't own the copyright, but I can provide you with a link to the story online and a link to a short film version of the story on YouTube. 

Film version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTuovX1Q0KE

Online text:
http://www.depa.univ-paris8.fr/IMG/pdf/lamb_to_the_slaughter_by_roald_dahl-2.pdf

This homework is due on Monday, 19th September. 

Good luck!

Mary Maloney

You are going to write a profile of the character Mary Maloney from Lamb to the Slaughter. Aim to write around 200 words and use the following points to help you (if there are any words you do not know the meaning of, look them up):

Kind               Caring              Compassionate                   Dutiful Quiet               Meek                  Respectful                             Evil                Sadistic                           Angry                         Emotional                                   Sad                              Insecure

These are just for guidance. If you can think of any other words, you can use those too.

You should also mention the following things and what they tell us about her:

·        Her relationship with her husband

·        How she acts before he gets home

·        How she acts when he gets home

·        How she reacts to what he tells her

·        The murder

·        What she does after she has murdered him

Ultimately, you must decide if she is a cold-blooded killer, or if the murder was a crime of passion, i.e. it was not the kind of thing she would usually do.

You can write your profile on lined paper, or type it up and print it out.

Example:

Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games

Katniss is a kind, compassionate character, but also very brave and sometimes quite serious and maybe a little insecure. We know that she is kind because of the way she looks after her sister when her mother is too sick to. She takes this one step further when she actually puts her life on the line by volunteering to take her place in the Hunger Games. This is also how we know she is brave.

We know that Katniss is generally quite serious because she does not laugh and joke a lot and when she has to go on television for the first time, she does not seem to enjoy it. She is clearly very angry about the whole idea of the Hunger Games.

She seems a little insecure because of the way she is with Gale. She clearly likes him, but isn’t sure if he likes her. If she wasn’t so insecure and had more confidence in herself, she might tell him how she feels and not worry so much about him rejecting her.

Ultimately, Katniss is a very strong character; despite her insecurities and fears, she can look after herself and others.