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Anthology Course Work Draft 1

The document discusses three stories - 'Significant Cigarettes', 'Disabled', and 'Out,Out' - that all contain themes of suffering. It analyzes how each story handles suffering differently, with 'Disabled' showing how decisions can impact later suffering and 'Significant Cigarettes' focusing on how suffering impacts a person's motives and actions. It provides an in-depth look at the poem 'Disabled', analyzing how it depicts the physical and mental suffering of its main character through literary devices.

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34 views2 pages

Anthology Course Work Draft 1

The document discusses three stories - 'Significant Cigarettes', 'Disabled', and 'Out,Out' - that all contain themes of suffering. It analyzes how each story handles suffering differently, with 'Disabled' showing how decisions can impact later suffering and 'Significant Cigarettes' focusing on how suffering impacts a person's motives and actions. It provides an in-depth look at the poem 'Disabled', analyzing how it depicts the physical and mental suffering of its main character through literary devices.

Uploaded by

monke0xd
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The prose Significant Cigarettes by Rose Tremain, along with the Poems Disabled

and Out,Out by Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost respectively, all contain themes of
suffering. The three stories show both the different ways suffering can be shown,
and also the different ways a character reacts to suffering. Showing characters
hardships and struggles can help invoke empathy within a reader, and also give
them a deeper understanding of a character and their motives. Each story handles
suffering differently, with Disabled showing the impact bad decisions can have on the
suffering one experiences later in life, whereas Significant Cigarettes focuses more
on how suffering can impact one person's motives and actions.

While all three are at least somewhat negative, Disabled presents itself as the most
so. Disabled follows the story of a man who decides to join the army, only to regret it
later. The poem begins by telling us the man is wheelchair bound, saying “He sat in
a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless,
sewn short at elbow. Through the park” This not only informs the reader that the man
is disabled, having no legs, but also that his health is in a critical state. This can be
inferred from certain word usage such as “ghastly” and “grey” which are both words
linked with death and mortality. This is emphasised with the use of alliteration which
further draws attention to the phrase. The quote highlights the physical suffering the
main character goes through, which helps the audience sympathise with the
character. However, the author frequently references not only the physical suffering
of the character, but also their mental suffering.

In the story, it is clearly stated by the author that the man chooses to go to war
voluntarily, “He thought he'd better join. — He wonders why. Someone had said he'd
look a god in kilts, That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg; Aye, that was it, to
please the giddy jilts'' Different parts of the quote show how the man fell prey to
enlisting, the comment that he “look a god in kilts” representing the idealised view of
soldiers in war, with propaganda convincing the public others would like them if they
were a soldier, and the phrase “To please his meg” and “To please the giddy jilts”
also representing the myth spread by the military, that woman would like men who
enlisted.The writer uses this element of choice to highlight the regret the man feels
via constantly juxtaposing the past and present. Examples such as lines 9-13 “And
girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim — In the old times, before he threw away
his knees. Now he will never feel again how slim Girls' waists are, or how warm their
subtle hands; All of them touch him like some queer disease” help to show the
mental anguish the character goes through, tantalised by what he once had, now
cursed to do nothing but sit by idly unable to anything he once could, made worse
via the fact the he likely considers this all to have been brought upon by himself
through his choice, even if that isn’t necessarily true.

The author ends the poem on a grim note, with lines 40-46 “Now, he will spend a few
sick years in Institutes, And do what things the rules consider wise, And take
whatever pity they may dole.” From this, a grim future is implied for the man, with
the admiration and respect he once believed he would have had by being a soldier,
being nothing but a lie, with the phrase “Take whatever pity they may dole” showing
lack of a choice by him, being forced to rely on others pity and mercy to survive,
while being left forgotten by those around him shown by “Tonight he noticed how the
women's eyes. Passed from him to the strong men that were whole” clearly showing
how the man is slowly being thrown to the wayside in exchange for new able bodied
persons, being left to both physically and mentally deteriorate and suffer, only being
able reminisce on what he once had, and what he threw it all away for..

In contrast to Disabled’s story showing how the choices made by the character
affected their suffering, Significant Cigarettes instead by contrast focuses on how the
suffering experienced by a character can shape their choices and attitude.
Significant Cigarettes follows Lev, a refugee moving countries to try to find work and
support his family. The reader is quickly told that Lev has already lost his partner,

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