Tma_C

Tutor Marked Assignment C Part A 1. The start of the story is set within the busy traffic of a Monday morning commute. The author describes how the traffic is very slow moving, and paints a picture of the frustration of the motorists as they accelerate and slow down constantly on their journey. He mentions that one of the characters, a postman is sorting out the Christmas post so we know that the time of year is winter, therefore we can imagine that the setting is a cold and dark morning. The use of this detail coupled with the description of the setting adds to the atmosphere of a dreary start to the week. 2. The writer uses a surprise introduction of new character that completely contrasts the ordinary everyday events of the story so far. The author makes use of the bizarrely dressed character who is on stilts, and adds the line ‘Do you want to go on a Magical Mystery Tour'’ to suggest that he story could take on an extraordinary twist. 3. (a) In all there are five significant characters mentioned in the opening of the story. Reg who is established as the main character of the piece. Regs boss, although not introduced is mentioned in Regs thoughts and with his stated nickname ‘Old hatchet face’ we can begin to picture him as an unlikeable adversary of Regs. Gerry the Postie who Reg passes on his journey is described as ‘wheezing’ as he works, so we can picture him as being unfit or perhaps badly affected by the surrounding polluction of the near by traffic. The taxi driver who witnesses Reg’s accident is quickly established as a jocular type as he quips ‘Timber’ in response to the collision that knocks down the Harlequin girl, who is the fifth character to be mentioned. (b) The first thing we learn about Reg, the main character in the story is that he is a cyclist. The author makes reference to the fact that he is using a high tech pollution mask, so we can begin to envisage that this is most probably his main mode of transport. The writer suggests that Reg has been late for work before and that he probably doesn’t have a very good relationship with his boss. From this we can deduce that Reg is most likely to be unhappy with his working life, maybe he is a down trodden, unappreciated member of the company. 4. The brief dialogue spoken by Reg at the start of the story comes across as quite stuttered. This could be from the shock of the accident, and because he is fumbling to remove his pollution mask, or it could point towards Reg being quite a nervous person, or not used to speaking to members of the opposite sex. The Harlequin girls reply of ‘Would you like to go on a Magical Mystery Tour'’ Shows that she is unfazed by the accident and not upset that Reg crashed into her. It also adds to the absurdness of her character and the situation.