Snowdrops

A. The snowdrops represent the frailty of the children ( the narrator especially) and his teacher, as well as being a metaphor for new life as they come out at the end of winter when everything is beginning to come alive again. The gentleness of the snowdrops contrasting with the starkness of winter contrasts innocence with the harsh reality of life.

B. The narrator is, emotionally, very young. He isn’t stupid, but he can’t grasp that people’s intentions may not be as they appear at face value. For example he thinks that his teacher just wants to show them some flowers, but really she wants to see the young deceased man’s funeral procession go by. He is also very observant as he notices his teachers dress on the day of the funeral, but doesn’t come to any conclusions (or even tries to make any) as to why she is dressed that way. He gets intense joy from the bacon in his sandwich, which is not how an older person or child would react to having a bacon sandwich, so he is still young enough to enjoy the very simple things in life. Edmund, however, is much less naive and is not as excited as the narrator by such simplicities. He is more of a trouble maker than the narrator, as he plays a trick on his class mate and plays up in class, he is not fascinated by the snow drops, makes jokes that the narrator has not heard before and is aware of the funeral.

C. Miss Webster was ‘friendly’ with the Meredith boy, but she obviously knew him quite well and had serious feelings for him as she stops mid-way through telling her class a story to make sure that they can go into the yard ( under the guise that they are going to look at the snowdrops) and she can watch the funeral from there. She isn’t a part of the actual funeral and has her own private mourning session, dressed in black, behind the bars of the schoolyard fence

D. The adult world in snow drops seems somber and depressing, with nothing particularly nice happening, everyone is dressed in grey or black and there is a funeral. The adult world has many layers and conflicts, whereas the child’s world seems one dimensional, the children eat and go to school and draw pictures, with no major climax or drama.

E. Overall, the story seemed really dry to me and although there were many layers and metaphors etc, nothing grabbed my attention.