The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing,

The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing,

Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit by Sylvia Plath and Chemistry by

Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers explores complex family

relationships.

Choose three stories, where the writers present difficult

relationships between family members, compare and contrast these

relationships.

The three stories I have chosen to study are: ‘Flight’ by Doris

Lessing, ‘Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit’ by Sylvia Plath and

‘Chemistry’ by Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers

explores complex family relationships, through a variety of

techniques: imagery, mood and atmosphere, symbolism and structuring

the stories to built up to a climax, when there is a point of

realisation for both character and reader. All three stories begin by

presenting idyllic family relationships but as the stories progress

things change.

The story Flight by Doris Lessing is about an unnamed old man who

keeps pigeons, he worries about his granddaughter, Alice. He has seen

his other granddaughters leave home, and he is possessive of Alice and

jealous of Steven, her boyfriend. The old man argues with Alice about

her behaviour, and complains to his daughter, Alice's mother Lucy. At

the start of the story the old man shuts up his favourite pigeon,

rather than let it fly. When Steven, the boyfriend, makes him a

present of a new pigeon, he is more able to accept what is going to

happen, and he lets his favourite go. The ending of the story is has

more than one possible meaning: Alice has tears on her face, as she

stares at her grandfather. But I do not know if they are for him, for

Steven, for herself, or for some other cause. And we do not kn...

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...d that she is to blame for the damage to the snowsuit.

In this story, Plath explores the themes of: corruption and betrayal,

material possessions and human values, man and superman, fantasy and

reality.

One way the writer uses to explore these themes is the use of

symbolism; in the story flying is a symbol of possibility and

imagination. At the start, the narrator dreams of flying, and seems

able to believe in her dreams. At the end, flight is no longer a

possibility and the airplanes vanish with Superman's cape.

The story contrasts two costumes – one is Superman's famous blue suit,

with the red cape trailing behind; the other is Paula's powder-blue

snowsuit. They seem to represent opposing ideas. Superman's costume is

a symbol of justice and miraculous deliverance from evil. Paula's

snowsuit comes to represent self-indulgence and petty materialism.