idiot abroad

analysis:

prose extract

• short questions

video extract

• short questions

compare and contrast
350 words

after the fall break, we will have 50 mins to do this. The e assessment will give us 40

• Outline two ways in which Pilkington gives you a sense of perspective in the first 8 lines of the text? [2 marks]

In Karl Pinklington’s An Idiot Abroad,He gives us perspective very quickly, by opening with “The odd thing with china is, they like to go out of their way to do things differently”, which can be seen as a form of racial prejudice through the eyes of a white man. By saying that the Chinese “go out of their way” to do things “differently”it shows us that he has based his opinions off of stereotypes.

• Identify two ways in which the author makes the description of the toad killings memorable. [2 marks]

When the author describes the killing and dismemberment of the toads, he strips the scene to its essentials. He then tries to link the things in the scene to things that everyone can relate to, for example, when he says “they were a basic pair of scissors similar to the ones i’ve got at home”, it is supposed to connect with the reader, knowing that the reader either has scissors, or has definitely interacted with them in the past.

he also uses gruesome imagery to convey this.

• Select two examples of humour from the text and analyse the effect of each on the reader. [4 marks]

One example of humor in the text is when the writer says “I thought they aged overnight like a pear”. The writer uses personification to compare a pear to a human bein. Another example of humor in the text is when he refers to the goldfish in his hotel room, contemplating whether they’re for company or a snack.

• Outline two ways in which sound plays a role in this scene. (Do not include comments on the use of voice-over here). [2 marks]

One way that sound is used in this scene is the background noise of the vehicles, horns, music box type music, which white people might consider “oriental sounding”. It plays a role in this scene by making it sound busier than it really is. Another thing they do with the sound is they make the roosters, and animals louder to make the setting seem more like a marketplace.

• What is the overall effect of the voice-over in this extract? Select two examples of voice over commentary and analyse their effect on the viewer. [4 marks]

Having been to these parts of the world, understood the culture, and seen markets like these, the voice-over of the white man saying that the food “looks like a load of condoms in water and jam” is disheartening and offensive. It makes him sound ignorant, arrogant and uncultured. The fact that the man is saying these things as jokes, for the sole purpose of getting his small-minded viewer base to laugh makes him appear insensitive, and uncivil. When Pilkington says “he seemed like a normal bloke” in reference to the bus driver eating the egg, he is indirectly saying that his first impressions of him were “normal”, but then his opinion changed, and he now sees the driver as freakish. He takes a prejudicial standpoint, by saying that the driver is not “normal” for eating the egg.

• Outline two ways in which Pilkington makes the scorpion eating scene humorous through his spoken language in the scene. Give an example of each. [4 marks]

Pilkington tries to make it funny by taking something like a scorpion, which is completely bizarre and unheard of to a foreigner, and showing how it's normal for Chinese people to see it as food. He compares the scorpion to “a bit of chicken leg”, and he tries to alienate this woman for eating the scorpion so casually. The other example of this is when he tries to narrate everything that the woman is doing, but by exaggerating. An example of this is when he says “she’s eating them off of one stick, and she’s looking at the other like she can’t get enough of them”. The camera then pans to the woman eating the scorpion, showing the audience that she is not in fact “looking at the other like she can’t get enough of them”.