Question 1
Read lines 1-5 (para one) List five reasons why people would think Ciaran was leading an unhealthy life. [5]
- He has a fat/bloated/big stomach
- His shirts do not fit/His stomach pokes through his shirt
- He likes ale/pub food/takeaways/tobacco (one mark for each- so three marks for all three even if on one line)
- He is lazy/doesn’t like exercise (one mark for each- so two marks for both even if on one line)
- He has a fat face/paunchy face/rotund stomach
Do not accept
- he is a man
- he is unhealthy
- he is old
- he doesn’t like being fat
- anything from elsewhere in the text
Question 2
Read lines 9-18 How does the writer show you the effect being with Ciaran has upon Niall’s behaviour?
You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate. [5]
- “cautiously? implies nervousness, hesitation, apprehension- he isn’t sure about getting in with his brother, perhaps doesn’t trust him or want to be there with him. OR he is cautious about the water or the boat
- His actions are that of someone who is scared/nervous “leg jiggled? and hands “taptaptapped? as if he can’t sit still, feels uncomfortable, uneasy- doesn’t trust his brother, or doesn’t want to be in the boat
- His voice ‘lost’ as if he cannot be found, he doesn’t have confidence to speak, feels weak in front of his brother
- The stones/wishing well coins are symbolic of his discomfort there and how he wants to be somewhere else. A wishing well is a childish notion, and fits with Niall’s whimsical personality
Niall cautiously stepped into the boat. He was his brother’s opposite: small, dark, careful. His face was marked with freckles, and they gave him a misleading look of youthfulness. He had pale blue eyes that always seemed to be wet with tears, and when he tried to look someone directly, his head ducked to the side with uncertainty. His brown hair had never greyed, nor thinned, and instead had continued to sprout in thick, soft, unruly curls all over his head. When nervous, his hands would run through his curls, rather boyishly, as if he were a shy kid on the first day of school. Sat in the boat, his leg jiggled up and down, and his hands taptaptapped the wooden sides. When Niall spoke, it came out as a hoarse whisper, as if his voice had become lost somewhere between the vocal chords and the mouth. He looked at the stones at the bottom of the lough shimmer in the sunlight like coins at the bottom of the wishing well. ‘I wish…’ he thought, ‘I wish…’.
Question 3
Read lines 19-24 What impression do you get of the relationship between Niall and his brother?
You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology. [10]
- Niall feels like the ‘worm’ suggests he has lower status/weaker character/more vulnerable/victimised by Ciaran. Ciaran dominates Niall- Ciaran uses Niall as ‘bait’ to get what he wants, Niall is used by Ciaran
- Niall cannot speak to Ciaran and surpasses his feelings ‘waved up/washed away’ he is too scared to talk to Ciaran/confront Ciaran
- The silence isn’t comfortable ‘it hung between them’ the two don’t know each other, despite being brothers it is as if they are strangers/uncomfortable/awkward
- Ciaran and Niall are set up as two opposing characters to contrast each other- Ciaran is cruel and ruthless, whereas Niall is more unsure and smaller- an unfair match and would create sympathy for Niall’s predicament
- Ciaran ‘spat’ ‘rambled’ and ‘swatted’, he is the one to set up his rod first- he is the dominant brother, and Niall copies him/follows his instructions. Ciaran is aggressive, and Niall is passive
Ciaran set up his rod, and load the bait onto his hook, and Niall watched him. The grubs wriggled and squirmed as the metal plunged into their centres, and in that moment, Niall felt like the worm- trapped and pathetic; at the mercy of someone bigger, stronger, harder. Fire waved up inside, and then washed away again. He went to speak, to ask Ciaran what he’d been doing with himself all these years, but the words vanished on his tongue…still the silence hung between them.
“Are yis gonna have a go or wha’?? he spat, opening a can of lager. And Niall, stirred from his thoughts grunted in reply, and began setting up his own rod. The silence had now been broken, so Ciaran rambled on about how good the fishing was here, and how his man down in Cork had told him this was the place to go to to catch trout- and how much better it was than the limestone lakes in the south. Mayflies buzzed overhead, and Ciaran swatted them away irritably.
Question 4
Read lines 25-29 How does the writer show you what Ciaran thinks of fishing?
You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate. [10]
- Ciaran is “delighted with himself? and gives an “arrogant triumphant grin? whilst Niall “sat back?. Ciaran is more involved, and the one who enjoys the fishing more than Niall
- Ciaran behaves in a competitive and aggressive way with his brother, reminding him that he had told him that the fishing was good there “Didn’t I tell yis?, and that he was right. Ciaran sees the fishing as a chance to prove to his brother, again, that he is the one in control
- Ciaran sees himself as more knowledgable about fishing “Did ya know this is the way to kill ‘em? it is “the? way, definitive, without debate
- Ciaran feels that he is an authority on the subject, and lectures Niall on the topic
- The fish as a symbol for Niall, he takes the blade and kills it ruthlessly and needlessly, a “flourish? and without “missing a beat? he left Niall’s life after destroying it, and without ever explaining why. These two incidences are linked
“Ah come on now!? Ciaran cried, delighted with himself. He lent forward and got to his feet, pulling and yanking the line, already feeling for the net to scoop the trout up. Silver flashed and danced out of the water, and Niall sat back as the trout was fished out in the net. The fish feebly twisted and jumped about at the bottom of the boat; its glittering scales half hidden by the tangled string of the net. Ciaran’s lip curled into an arrogant triumphant grin.
“Didn’t I tell yis!? he cried. And then said it again, and picked up the now pathetically flapping body. From his boot, he took a small, black, Japanese style stiletto blade. “Did ya know this is the way to kill ‘em, Niall? Did ya?? and with a delighted flourish he rammed the blade into the fish, and gave an expert twist of the handle, severing the creature’s spinal cord: the fish ceased all movements. Ciaran wiped the blade on his jeans, and then spun it round his fingers. Without missing a beat, he begun another monologue about Japanese spear fishermen.
Question 5
‘‘In the final part of this passage, the writer encourages us to think that Ciaran deserves his fate’’
To what extent do you agree with this view? [10]
You should write about:
- your thoughts and feelings about Ciaran as he is presented here and in the passage as a whole
- how the writer has created these thoughts and feelings
You must refer to the text to support your answer.
Ciaran deserved it
- The writer uses a flashback to when Niall was a child and being coerced into committing a crime by his older brother- who then abandoned him. The flashback implies that this event was very distressing for Niall as he still thinks about it, and explains why when Ciaran fell he did not save him
- Characterisation of Ciaran as villainous, he was “bigger, stronger, harder? and Niall is the worm on the hook, being used by Ciaran- unable to move/trapped/a minor character in Ciaran’s life
- The reversal of fortunes- Niall was imprisoned, and then at the end it is Ciaran who is taken prisoner by the water. The water is natural, and it is as if nature is correcting the wrong that has been done to Niall by taking Ciaran prisoner
- “Niall was always going to get a cut of the money to the next time…the next time…definitely the next time…But where was Ciaran when Niall was arrested? Gone. Legged it? Ciaran as an unreliable brother, taking advantage of his little brother, and then not there for him when he needed him
- The lough setting is symbolic of the loneliness and distance between the two brothers- isolated in nature and trying to rekindle their relationship. The lough could be symbolic of the womb/truth, and an attempt to join them together fails as Ciaran cannot talk about where he has been/why he left, and Niall cannot bring himself to ask
Ciaran did not deserve it
- Niall is anxious from the start- could he have misread Ciaran’s behaviour? His eyes are “watery? and is depicted as very childlike. Niall’s reaction was over the top, and should have helped his brother out, as he had no right to decide he should die
- Niall had committed the crime and was punished, Ciaran had no reason to also take the blame. The use of third person narration limits the sympathy to Niall as we never hear Ciaran’s version of events
- Niall is unwilling to ask Ciaran the reason why he has been gone- if he had asked him, then he might have had a good reason. Niall’s “rage flooded him? and he felt as if he were “having a heart attack?. This implies that Niall cannot deal with stress well, and possibly had always intended to kill his brother
- Niall is the trout: he is part of the circle of life, and he should accept that Ciaran is older and more powerful and the ‘fisherman’ whereas Niall is the catch, and sacrificed for the sake of the success of others
