A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat: Emma Levine

A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat: Emma Levine

1. Themes/Main Ideas Explored

   • Excitement
     • superlatives
       • "best"
         • exaggerating suggest her immense passion + excitement
     • Hyperbole
       • "We waited for eternity"
         • Infers her adreneaine is kicking in, reflected through impatience, enthusiam and anxiety
     • Metaphor
       • "fired up"
         • Reiterates their adrenaline. Slang for in an energised and excited state
   • Chaos
     • Onomatopeia
       • "horns tooting, bells ringing and the special rattles"
         • Various sounds create an atmopsphere of disorder and comotion
     • personification
       • swallowed up by the crowd
         • swallowed; violent verb. crowd is reflected as a monster (neg. connotations) mirrors atmosphere i.e havoc
     • Power of 3
       • "Men standing on top of their cars and vans, hanging out of taxies and perched on lorries"
         • Various body positions suggest area is very crowded and races are alluring. Crowds usually suggest chaos and commotion
   • Tension/Suspense
     • Use of punctuation
       • semi colons
       • hyphens
       • Commas
         • Slows down the pace, creating suspense allowing the reader to digest the text in fragments --> emphasis
           • Suspense gives the impression that the atmopsphere she is in is enticing, thrilling and exciting
     • Connectives
       • "Suddenly"
   • Carefreeness/Childishness
     • Informal language
       • "lad"
         • casual language, depicts a personal relationship. Could suggest experience has personal meaning towards her
     • dialogue
       • "I asked the lads if we could join the wacky races"
         • Shows spontaneity and unpredictability much so a child would do
   • Obscurity/ Ridiculousness
     • Humor
       • "Donkey"
         • Unusual animal to use;could reflect silliness/ Levine;s unique personalty how it attracts her attention
       • "But i don't even have my licence yet because i'm underage"
         • Links to carefreeness. humour,, self reflection, mellow concluding sentence
     • Vivid imagery
       • "villager on a wobbly bicycle"
         • Again, unusual sight to see --> humorous and further emphasises silliness depicted throughout
   • Danger
     • Common phrases
       • "t was survival of the fittest"
         • Common phrase depicting the most superior and powerful usually killing the weak. Used amongst natural world in death, must connote danger
     • Use of certain verbs
       • "Swerve"
         • Harsh and agile verb, used to show desperation and distress
     • personification
       • "roaring in their wake"
         • Roaring used for lions and animals of superiority. Suggest violence which links closely to danger

2. Audiences Response

   • Entertaining to see her ridiculous and humorous experience
   • Insight to her personality, gain an understand of what she pays attention, acknowledgises, remembers and sees.

3. Content

   • Emma Levine describes her experiences throughout the Karachi Races in ASia

4. Purpose

   • Account of her experience.: solidify her experiance

5. Emotions she experiences

   • Roller-coaster-like experiences
     • Initially:
       • Carefree
       • Excitement
     • Near Ending
       • Suspence
     • Ending
       • Humour and relief
     • Middle
       • Danger
       • Chaos
     • Ultimately --> Unpredictability makes the text humorous, exciting, entertaining and suspencfull
       • BUILD UP OF TENSION THROUGHOUT TEXT