. . . I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, t
he most discordant hymns. . . . For the talent show, I was to play a piece called "Pleading Child" from Schumann's Scenes from Childhood. It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was. I was supposed to memorize the whole thing, playing the repeat parts twice to make the piece sound longer. But I dawdled over it, playing a few bars and then cheating, looking up to see what notes followed. I never really listened to what I was playing. I daydreamed about being somewhere else, about being someone else. What does the narration in the excerpts reveal about Jing-mei's character? The song is much too difficult for Jing-mei, so she cannot concentrate no matter what she does.
She thinks the talent show is a big joke and is not willing to work for it.
She is trying her best, but she keeps getting distracted by her own imagination.
She believes she cannot succeed even if she tries, so she doesn't bother to try.
Both works were done in their native language. The officials of the Church were portrayed as
corrupt and evil. The stories had
something to do with journeys. They also
use the first person in their works.
They made literature more accessible to the people.
One of ways Golding shows conflict between savagery and civilisation is when Jack and some of the other boys are killing the first pig. Jack chants “kill the pig, cut her throat, spill the blood”. This suggests savagery as the boys are being violent and aggressive when killing the pig and they don't care about it.
