3.2.1.11The text at a glance
Harrison Opoku has recently arrived from Ghana with his mother and sister; his father and baby sister remain there. A boy is murdered near the estate and Harri decides to investigate with his friend Dean. He is drawn towards the Dell Farm Crew, and the novel ends with his death. Sections are narrated by a pigeon.
Published in 2011 and partly inspired by the killing of Damilola Taylor in 2000. The novel is set among a migrant community in social housing, and Harri's language blends Ghanaian expressions with multicultural London English.
- dramatic irony
- the reader understanding dangers the narrator does not
- multicultural London English
- the contemporary urban dialect Harri picks up
- choric narrator
- a voice standing outside the action and commenting, the role the pigeon plays
3.2.1.11Characters
Harri's innocence shapes the whole novel: his enthusiasm keeps the tone light over very dark material, and the gap between his understanding and the reader's makes the ending devastating.
Lydia adapts to the estate in the opposite direction from Harri, showing two responses to the same pressure.
The pigeon comments from outside the plot and its warnings go unheard, which prepares the reader for an ending Harri cannot avoid.
3.2.1.11Themes
Innocence, belonging and violence run together. The estate is both community and threat, with danger and ordinary kindness in the same space. Family is present but unreachable, made so by telephone calls to Ghana.
Common mistake
Writing that Harri joins a gang. He is drawn towards the Dell Farm Crew and resists; the novel is careful about the difference.
3.2.1.11The writer's methods
The blended idiom maps Harri's position between two cultures and makes the estate strange and fresh, while his misreadings of slang repeatedly signal dangers he cannot see. Violence is reported in a flat, unfrightened register, which is more disturbing than description would be.
Worked example
Answer:
- The child narrator creates the novel's dramatic irony
- The pigeon's warnings are never heard
- The estate is community and threat at once
- Harri's misread slang is what endangers him
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 2, Section A. The question is worth 34 marks and two essay questions are offered on your text and you answer one; no extract is printed, so quotations must come from memory. Allow about 45 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks, AO4 4 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.
Four of the marks are for AO4: vocabulary and sentence structures used to control meaning, and accurate spelling and punctuation. These are the cheapest marks on the paper and the easiest to lose by rushing the final paragraph.