1. The Wasp Factory
Revision of quotes

2. Today’s purpose To highlight key quotations
To revisit analytical points
To apply this to a variety of essay questions
Quotation numbers correspond with the quotation sheet.

3. Simplistically quotes can be used to answer questions on character, setting and theme.

4. Quotation 1
At the north end of the island, near the tumbled remains of the slip where the handle of the rusty winch still creaks in an easterly wind, I had two Poles on the far face of the last dune. P 1.
Bullet point analysis
Techniques and general points (thematic links)

5. Decay
Isolation
Word choice – ‘tumbled’ + ‘rusty’
Onomatopoeia
Mention of ‘Poles’ first hint at omens
Traditionally Gothic setting – significant as it appears in the exposition.
Useful for questions about character (reflected in setting and sense of decay/isolation), questions about setting.

6. Quotation 2
There was a layer of grey-blue smoke in the room at about shoulder level, and a big wave in it…the wave rose slowly between us while my father stared at me. P3-4

7. Symbolism
Use of foreshadowing
‘smoke’ suggests secrecy and hidden truths.
Introduces us to father and son relationships –barrier between them.
Useful for: Qs about character, relationships between people, revealing a theme.

8. Quotation 3
My father’s leg locked solid, has given me my sanctuary up in the warm space of the big loft, right at the top of the house where the junk and the rubbish are, where the dust moves and the sunlight slants and the Factory sits – silent, living and still. P 6

9. Word choice
Sibilance
Personification
Metaphor
Isolation
Decay
Juxtaposition of ‘sunlight’ and ‘crooked’
Factory as a symbol – importance hinted at here. Frank craves guidance and control.
Useful for qs about setting, character (Frank’s need to isolate himself).

10. Quotation 11
The petrol burst into flame as it flew over the tiny steel cup, roared through the air and fell brightly on and around the two rabbits. They took flame and blazed, running and stumbling and falling.

11. Elemental imagery – fire/ destruction
Human nature/ cruelty of man/ confusion
Onomatopoeia
Polysyndetic list
Word choice
Useful for questions about character/ themes.

12. Quotation 12
I went closer, still clutching the rusty can in my shadow. The gable end of the house looked down on us from about 50 metres away, windowless. White sheets flapped feebly in the back garden. My heart beat wildly and I licked my lips. P. 46

13. Key point in plot – 1st murder
Violence
Corruption of innocent – w.c. of white
Pathetic alliteration of ‘flapped feebly’.
Link to Eden myth
Secrecy hinted at through ‘windowless’.
Useful for character, themes, questions that ask for a key incident that aids understanding.

14. Quotation 17 and 19
Like life it is complicated, so all the components are there. The reason it can answer questions is because every question is a start looking for an end, and the Factory is about the End – death, no less. P.154
Link this with:
I felt like a bead on a thread being pulled through the air on a line. P.81

15. Banks uses the Factory as a symbol for life – i. e
Banks uses the Factory as a symbol for life – i.e. our paths all lead the same way regardless of action.
Use of punctuation to create dramatic pause and emphasise importance
Use of references to Classical philosophy: Bead on thread simile links to Cicero and Causal Determinism – every action leads to another.
Use this for questions which ask you about character – clear demonstration that F has no control over his life. Whatever decisions are made outcome is the same – futility.
Links to Frank’s situation with Angus.

16. Quotation 26
What Eric saw when he lifted the plate up, what he saw with all the weight of human suffering above, with all that mighty spread of closed-in, heat-struck darkened city all around, what he saw with his own skull splitting, was a slowly writhing nest of fat maggots, swimming in their combined digestive juices as they consumed the brain of the child. P188.

17. Repetitive structure builds to shocking climax.
Grotesque imagery develops some key ideas.
Misuse of science
Cruelty of human nature
Anchors novel into the Gothic genre.
Use for qs about theme.
At a push you can use to examine character of Frank – e.g. if this is the world in which we live, and this is what humanity is capable of, is it any wonder that F became a monster when left with a man such as Angus.

18. Quotation 27
Clouds were coming in off the sea, closing the sky like a door and trapping the day’s heat over the island. Thunder rumbled on the other side of the hills, without light. I slept fitfully, lying sweating and tossing and turning on my bed, until a bloodshot dawn rose over the sands of the island. P208.

19. Simile
Transferred epithet
Pathetic fallacy
Symbolism of weather
Atmosphere of suspense is created
Use for setting and character (setting echoes Frank).

20. Quotation 30
In the alcohol was a tiny, torn set of male genitalia…I felt something in my throat, something from deep in me. I stood and I cried…I forgot all about Eric, about my father, about everything except me, and my loss.

21. Emotional climax of the novel
Alliteration emphasises pathetic situation evoking further pity.
Use of repetition
Misuse of science
Lies run so deep that he is still blind to the truth, even after the discovery of false genitalia.
Use for qs on character and theme.

22. Quotation 40
Each of us, in our own personal Factory, may believe we have stumbled down one corridor, and that our fate is sealed and certain (dream or nightmare, humdrum or bizarre, good or bad, but a word, a glance, a slip – anything can change that, alter it entirely, and our marble hall becomes a gutter, or our rat-maze a golden path.

23. Novel’s denouement offers us an interesting insight into life – we know our eventual destination, but we do not know our path. This is both uplifting and unsettling as we lack real control over fate.
Heavy use of juxtaposition shows us the endless possibilities of life. It also emphasises duality – a key Gothic motif.
This is also reflected through Frank’s dual gender throughout the novel.
Use for qs about character – Frank, as our narrator, ends the novel with a final insight into duality: both his and our own. It also shows that Frank appreciates his powerlessness when it comes to deciding fate – he cannot control anything.

24. How could you answer the following questions?
Choose a novel in which an incident reveals a flaw in a central character. Explain how the incident reveals this flaw and go on to discuss the importance of the flaw in your understanding of the character.

25. Key flaw is violence first explored in murder of Blyth.
First murder – Frank has no moral compass, a direct result of misuse of science
Further explored with burning bunnies
Emotional climax reveals the true reason for this flaw and dislike for Frank is replaced with pity.

26. Choose a novel in which the story’s emotional twists ensure that your interest in held until the end. Explain briefly how these twists involve you in the story and then discuss how they lead to a deeper appreciation of the text as a whole.

27. Emotional twists – elements of the novel that make us feel and what they reveal about greater themes
Murder of Blyth – what abuse can lead to, man is capable of.
Maggots – misuse of science
Genitalia – emotional climax/ pity as we see first hand the effects of abuse/misuse of science.
Duality explored in denouement as our uncertainties are replaced with a deeper understanding as to the true nature of life.

28. Choose a novel or short story in which one of the main characters is not in harmony with her/his society. Describe the character’s situation and go on to discuss how it adds to your understanding of a central concern of the text.

29. Not in harmony as always trying to control and acts in ways that won’t allow participation in society – a result of the misuse of science
Extreme violence – Blyth’s murder
Banks uses the Factory as a symbol and also references Classical philosophy to show how Frank has no control over his life – taken away from him in every sense. His futile attempts to gain control signify that he can never be in harmony with those around him.
Emotional climax demonstrates exactly why he has not been able to harmonise with society –we see the extent of the abuse.