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Carol Ann Duffy uses the poem Medusa to represent a relationship where the two partners grow apart over time. Duffy introduces the problem as a “suspicion, a doubt, jealousy”, the use of the three words to describe the same emotion can represent the uncertainty she felt about how she was feeling. These thoughts “turned the hairs on” her “head to filthy snakes”, demonstrating how the thoughts were pestering and frightening in her mind. Duffy uses the description of the snakes as “filthy” to represent how initially, the thoughts were dirty and dismissed by her and provides a contrast of what is to come in the poem. Duffy described the bride’s breath as “soured” to represent how on a monumental day such as the wedding day, she did not believe the words she was saying. The word “soured” also has the connotation of being spoiled or out of date which could be a symbol of how their relationship was expiring. As the stanza continues, she is described as a “foul-mouthed”, “foul tongued” and “yellow fanged creature” with, in context to the title of the poem, is in line with the transformation into the villain Medusa. Duffy may use this as an analogy to show the monster-like person she felt she was becoming with her partner, foreshadowing their ultimate separation. In the fourth stanza, the depiction of Medusa’s happiness continues as Duffy contrasts descriptions of positive connations with negative ones, to demonstrate how she was unable to see the beauty in the world around her in this relationship. Duffy uses the alliteration of “buzzing bee” to draw attention to the line when she contrasts with “a dull grey pebble”. Duffys’ use contrast could represent how she was unable to see the simple pleasures in life such as a “buzzing bee” or a “singing bird” as she was being weighed down by this relationship. The turning point of the poem is represented by Duffy’s use of enjambment using the description “love gone bad”. The use of enjambment disrupts the flow of the poem which could be used to represent how her realisation her relationship disrupted and removed the structure from her life. In starring “in the mirror”, Medusa comes to the realisation that she has turned into a gorgon with “fire spew[ing]” from the mouth of the mountain”. The figurative sense of “fire” is the hate and pain she felt from this realisation and “spewing” provides the image that it erupted all at once.

Pedro Camacho’s character development is used to represent the tension between reality and imagination in the book. At the beginning of the book, Pedro Camacho is presented as a character resting in his imagination but forced to live through reality which then develops into a character at the end forced into reality, completely stripped of his imagination. In a way, Mario the Author uses Pedro Camacho to show his own development as a person throughout the book. In the beginning, Mario is rather unrealistic, juggling his relationship with his Aunt, his job and his university seeing an imaginative future where that all occurred simultaneously. We see Mario move from an immature 18-year-old who is in love with literature and pursuing a perhaps idealistic life, and as the book progresses, namely toward the end, we see a realistic Mario, married to a woman his age with a different career. In some ways, this is a less exaggerated mimic of Pedro’s character development as a contrast to Mario’s character. Llosa (the author) uses Pedro to portray Mario’s inner imagination and feelings with the sentiment of being trapped and lost in reality whereas Mario represents the ‘reality’ of what happened, a typical ‘boy growing into a man’ scenario.

A personal essay is the use of someone’s various personal experiences to allude and argue a bigger picture and idea. The use one theme and pick experiences throughout their life to show something. This is different from a memoir as the latter focuses on a specific and detailed memory to describe a moment to someone else. A personal essay on the hand is an essay because it uses evidence to form an argument much like a real essay. That is not to say that a memoir is not arguing something, but they have the scope to go much more in-depth into a theme or idea whereas personal essays don’t necessarily use the same level of analysis but have the aim to change the reader’s point of view.

1) Mario Vargas Llosa tells the story is obviously older than the “Marito” who is living it . . . how would you describe the tone? what is the attitude of the narrator to the young man he was? 

2) if every other chapter, basically, represents one of Pedro Camacho’s serials —if they didn’t happen, in other words, what is the point of spending so much time on these characters/events/conflicts?

Given the title, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, the two main characters in the book, Aunt Julia and Pedro Camacho, are expressed individually in the book. In the parts where Mario narrates, we see Aunt Julia’s side of the story but Mario’s relationship with Pedro Camacho is very limited given his closed-off personality. In using half of the chapters for the serials, Mario is allowing Pedro Camacho to be expressed as an important character and the audience begins to understand him through the recurring ideas in his serials. For example, the repetition of the “man with an aquiline nose in the prime of his life” as the centre of the story may portray how Pedro sees himself. As the description is repeated continuously, it indicates that in some ways he is trying to convince himself of this description, ignoring that he is ‘missing out’ on reality. Additionally, as the man in his fifties is the main character in all of the serials, it could portray how Pedro feels he is at the centre of people’s lives and the world revolves around him.

3) If a story is basically, “one time, in one place, something happened” then it’s not really literature —it’s journalism or history or maybe even just gossip. Literature is usually thought to express something timeless —something true in a bigger sense. What might this novel be saying about life?

In Mario Llosa’s book, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, the author uses the characters and the layout of the book to represent the theme and idea that in this book reality and imagination are in conflict. Mario’s aunt claims the radio serials are “mere claptrap” but live “with their ears glued to the radio” establishing a basic premise of reality and imagination being in conflict. In this case, their imagination, that they were cultured and much-preferred books to serials conflicts reality, which is that they are very invested in the serials. As they believe that serials are “mere claptrap” the author is displaying how the aunts are in a state of denial about their own reality, establishing a conflict between reality and imagination. In contrast, Mario uses Pedro’s character who lives on the line of separation between reality and imagination and rather prefers his imagination. Pedro believes that dressing up as his characters allows the “day’s work to become more tolerable” and the author is thus demonstrating that Pedro uses his imagination to make reality more bearable. This is another portrayal of the conflict between imagination and reality as although Pedro has accepted the two but must suffer through reality to enjoy his imagination. Lastly, another aspect of this theme is the difference between the author of the book and the character Mario. This two-sided expression of Mario represents another time where reality and imagination are in conflict as Mario uses his reality, as an author, to write and portray his imagination through his book to represent his life.

Ta Nehisi Coates argues that there are certain words that belong to certain groups and shouldn’t necessarily be used openly or freely by those that are not associated with that group. One of the references he made was to the n-word and how it is not appropriate for a white person to use it in order to mock or associate themselves with the black community. I agree with this statement as it is a relationship and community that white people have no connection to this, they should not be allowed to use that word. Additionally, it is part of a mentality that certain white people believe they are entitled to what they wish, for example, they are entitled to the use of such a word. In a way, the fact that this word is taboo to those that are not black, it creates a social divide in which black people have the power over white people, contradicting history, and potentially the reason so many racist white people misuse this word.

The comparison of such is not extended to solely race, but many different groups have words that are ‘off-limits’ to those not within the group. For example, Coates mentioned that his wife and her friends refer to each other as ‘bitch’ but that it would not be correct for him to do the same. Historically, derogatory words such as ‘bitch’ were more widely accepted but it is interesting how people cannot grasp that the same avoidance of words such as ‘bitch’ should be extended to the n-word.