calling Year 11 English Lit: An Inspector Calls: I think the Inspector Did It

[Waterparc]

please help. DS1 has to study An Inspector Calls. He was doing a question on the ending and we have just realised that Eva was killed by the Inspector who then prepped the other characters to confess in order to have the perfect defence.

is there a better explanation?

Oh man there was supposed to be a there to make that seem funny and not mean!

I'm overthinking posts. Time to go to bed.

Oh I see, my grinning smileys are invisible. Why are my grinning smileys invisible?

Sounds like a line from a depressing GCSE poem. Grinning smiley.

My dd did languages at a level. All the topics they learnt to discuss were drug overdoses, self harm, alcoholism etc.

My ds did drama. The plays he had to act in involved a family with a sister dying of anorexia. Then another play where he was a dad who'd been killed by his daughters who he'd been abusing.

So jolly subjects all round to study!

Thank you Thunder. Understood.

@ThunderInMyHeart feel sorry for the teachers who have to teach it every year! I have never liked it and teaching it for the last 7 years hasn't improved my feelings!

DS in yr10 is doing
An Inspector Calls
Of Mice and Men
Macbeth

I did two of those for O level in the early 80's. Can't believe these are the best at building a love of the classics.

"I did have a student one year insisting that the inspector had been Eva's pimp and had killed her. That was irritating. Why does the inspector make the speech about the millions of Johns and Evas if he killed her?"

because criminals trying to implicate others tend not to confess?

by the way I think that student will go far. I'd give that student a job.

scripts at dawn! A challenge!

IHeartKingThistle. go on then. show me why my theory isn't right using only material in the play.

Because she killed herself? I suppose you could argue it was a murder dressed up as a suicide, but the whole meaning of the play hinges on it being a suicide. Plus if you kill someone and make it look like a suicide, you don't need to go and interrogate a random family for a whole evening.

Plus I don't think she is one person anyway; no evidence to suggest that all the Birlings and Gerald knew the same girl (except Eric and Sybil). Which also reflects the point of the play 'millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths'.

If a student wrote your theory in an exam and backed it up intelligently they'd probably still pass (if it related to the question they'd been asked). But as believing your theory makes it hard to also believe the moral of the play, I think they'd struggle. Still, GCSE rewards original thought very highly!

Can't believe I just spent 5 minutes of my half term writing about An Inspector Calls!

I’ll never have Lord of the Flies taught in my department. There are no girls in it. Doesn’t this give you a great opportunity to talk about why not and examine representations of women and girls in literature? I know my Y10s last year were extremely interested in the weak portrayal of women in Frankenstein - even though it was written by a woman. We had a lot of interesting discussions about patriarchy and misogyny - discounting such an amazing book so rich in meaning and allegory and metaphor which students respond to so perceptively on those grounds seems really short sighted. A lot of my students went on to do their S&L presentations on aspects of feminism and the way women have been represented in various ways as a result of our discussions around the Lit text. Lots of the Flies was an integral part of those conversations.

:)

This play is so one note . All the subtlety of something... not very subtle. It is all "rich people all mean" vs "poor person absolutely blameless" and not responsible for own destiny. There are a few shades of grey in life, whatever one's station!

Also, now, upon re-reading it, I can't help thinking that Eva was very unreasonable to snigger at Sheila in the hat shop. Can you just imagine if Sheila had posted on MN that a shop assistant had smirked when they were trying something on? I bet 99% of posters would be incensed on behalf of OP and encourage her to complain to shop manager.

Oh no - the mumsnet version of An Inspector Calls!!!

No girls in Lord of the Flies? Huh?
That’s because the boys were from a boys’ school. 🙄

What a LUDICROUS reason not to study the novel, the author of which gained a Nobel prize for literature.

it's the capital letters that persuaded me....

Cool.

I'd ditch The History Boys, too. Gives the impression that only boys can go to a grammar school and aspire to study History at Oxford [SARCASTIC]

I want to read (or for the dcs to study) GOOD BOOKS. Who cares if the characters are boys, girls, Yetis or amoebas?

No girls in Lord of the Flies? Huh?
That’s because the boys were from a boys’ school.

Er, thanks?

I want to read (or for the dcs to study) GOOD BOOKS. Who cares if the characters are boys, girls, Yetis or amoebas?

I think it's important for all the children we teach to see themselves represented in the materials we present them with. So many of the texts we read are dominated by men/boys, yes, for obvious reasons of which I am well aware, but I don't want to teach a text in which the female experience is omitted entirely - though I do agree it would make for an interesting discussion, it wouldn't be enough, imo.

In my school, boys are allowed to dominate everything, and I'm bloody well not reinforcing that through the texts I teach.

I see your point about omitting the female representation but I know I provided a strong and positive feminist-orientated diet of literature through texts that weren’t feminist themselves - with Macbeth, Frankenstein and LotF there was huge scope to see how women were regarded and portrayed and the vast, intense scope of misogyny behind it.

A number of mine last year pointed out there is no LGBT representation in the Lit texts and that led them to investigate suppression of homosexuality over time and some researched theories about gay interpretations of literature as well.

I think to dismiss something like LotF on feminist grounds is missing a massive opportunity!

IrmaFayLear
HTH. That reasoning is flawed.

Feminist grounds.🤣
The utter stupidity.

Your students are losing out due to your attitude. Does your Headteacher know about this omission?

I do take your point, Brickbeard, and have had similar discussions about the other texts you mention with students over the years. It's just that I don't want to teach a text with no females at all when there are alternatives.

Silentsta, the students are not missing out as they are studying another text that is of equal merit imo and, crucially, is on the syllabus, meaning there is no reason whatsoever why my headteacher should be remotely interested in my decision.