A230A - BOOK2 - CHAPTER 3

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

لم أسجل المادة  وهذا تلخيصي بعد توفر المادة العلميةبفضل من الله
أهديه لكل من طلب الملخص مني
وأشكر الاخ (كويتي محب)
الذي قام بتوفير نسخة من الجابتر لي لا ترجو منكم إلا الدعاء



مجموعة قصائد محتملة EA300A

هذي كانت اجتهاد لا اكثر العام الماضي
راح يجيكم اي قصيدة من كتاب الشعر وتشرحونها

شنو تشرحون موجود في ملخص مقالة الشعر.
وطبعا جتنا وحدة من هالقصائد وهي قصيدة
oh home work في الفاينال

______________________________________



127


THE MAGIC BOX, by Kit Wright


I will put in the box

the swish of a silk sari on a summer night,
fire from the nostrils of a Chinese dragon,
the tip of a tongue touching a tooth.

I will put in the box

a snowman with a rumbling belly
a sip of the bluest water from Lake Lucerene,
a leaping spark from an electric fish.

I will put into the box

three violet wishes spoken in Gujarati,
the last joke of an ancient uncle,
and the first smile of a baby.

I will put into the box

a fifth season and a black sun,
a cowboy on a broomstick
and a witch on a white horse.

My box is fashioned from ice and gold and steel,
with stars on the lid and secrets in the corners.
Its hinges are the toe joints of dinosaurs.

I shall surf in my box

on the great high-rolling breakers of the wild Atlantic,
then wash ashore on a yellow beach
the colour of the sun.








105


HOMEWORK


I'm going to do my homework
As soon as I've had my tea.
I'm going to get on with my homework -
After I've watched TV.

I'll just run around the garden,
And then I'll work really hard,
As soon as I've telephoned Jane,
And sent off that birthday card.

I'm going to get on with my homework,
As soon as the rabbits are fed.
I'm going to get on with my homework,
Before it is time for bed.

What! Bedtime already? It can't be -
To get all those good marks
I planned, I simply must do my homework!
Oh Mummy you don't understand!


Elizabeth Smith



89

HOMEWORK! OH, HOMEWORK!

Homework! oh homework
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you
away in the sink,
if only a bomb
would explode you to bits.
Homework! oh homework!
you’re giving me fits.

I’d rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pen ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework
my teacher assigns.

Homework! oh homework!
You’re last on my list
I simply can’t see
why you exist,
if you just disappeared
it would tickle me pink.
Homework! oh homework
I hate you! You stink!

Jack Prelutsky


__________________




104



JACK FROST IN THE GARDEN

Jack Frost was in the garden;
I saw him there at dawn;
He was dancing round the bushes
And prancing on the lawn.
He had a cloak of silver,
A hat all shimm'ring white,
A wand of glittering star-dust,
And shoes of sunbeam light.

Jack Frost was in the garden,
When I went out to play
He nipped my toes and fingers
And quickly ran away.
I chased him round the wood-shed,
But, oh! I'm sad to say
That though I chased him everywhere
He simply wouldn't stay.

Jack Frost was in the garden:
But now I'd like to know
Where I can find him hiding;
I've hunted high and low-
I've lost his cloak of silver,
His hat all shimm'ring white,
His wand of glittering star-dust,
His shoes of sunbeam light.

John P. Smeeton






97


THE VISITOR
Ian Serraillier

A crumbling churchyard, the sea and the moon;
The waves had gouged out grave and bone;
A man was walking, late and alone. . .

He saw a skeleton on the ground;
A ring on a bony finger he found.

He ran home to his wife and gave her the ring.
“Oh, where did you get it?” He said not a thing.

“It’s the loveliest ring in the world,” she said,
As it glowed on her finger. They slipped off to bed.

At midnight they woke. In the dark outside,
“Give me my ring!” a chill voice cried.

“What was that, William? What did it say?”
“Don’t worry, my dear. It’ll soon go away.”

“I’m coming!” A skeleton opened the door.
“Give me my ring!” It was crossing the floor.

“What was that, William? What did it say?”
“Don’t worry, my dear. It’ll soon go away.”

“I’m reaching you now! I’m climbing the bed.”
The wife pulled the sheet right over her head.

It was torn from her grasp and tossed in the air:
“I’ll drag you out of bed by the hair!”

“What was that, William? What did it say?”
“Throw the ring through the window! THROW IT AWAY!”

She threw it. The skeleton leapt from the sill,
Scooped up the ring and clattered downhill,
Fainter. . . and fainter. . . Then all was still.


__________________




77

Brian’s Picnic

We’ve cheese rolls, chicken rolls,
Beef rolls, ham;
Chose now, quickly, Brian
Bacon, beans or spam?
I WANT A DOUGHNUT!

We’ve egg and cress and sausages,
Good old lettuce leaf;
Come on ,Brian, take some now -
There’s turkey, tuna, beef…
I WANT A DOUGHNUT!

We’ve treacle tart and apple tart,
Biscuits, blackberries, cake -
Take which one you feel like,
Brian, come along now, take!
I WANT A DOUGHNUT!

There’s jelly or trifle
Everything must go
Quickly, Brian, pass your plate -
Is it a yes or no?
I WANT A DOUGHNUT!

LAST CHANCE!
We’ve sponge cake, fruit cake,
Eat it any way!
Peanut butter, best rump steak…
What is that you say?
I WANT A DOUGHNUT!


By Judith Nicholls






71


On the Ning Nang Nong

On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!



Spike Milligan






6

Please Mrs Butler


Please Mrs Butler
This boy Derek Drew
Keeps copying my work, Miss.
What shall I do?

Go and sit in the hall, dear.
Go and sit in the sink.
Take your books on the roof, my lamb.
Do whatever you think.

Please Mrs Butler
This boy Derek Drew
Keeps taking my rubber, Miss.
What shall I do?

Keep it in your hand, dear.
Hide it up your vest.
Swallow it if you like, love.
Do what you think best.

Please Mrs Butler
This boy Derek Drew
Keeps calling me rude names, Miss.
What shall I do?

Lock yourself in the cupboard, dear.
Run away to sea.
Do whatever you can, my flower.
But don't ask me!



Allan Ahlberg






41



FOUR O’ CLOCK FRIDAY
Four o’clock, Friday, I’m home at last
Time to forget the week that has passed.

On Monday, at break, they stole my ball
And threw it over the playground wall.
On Tuesday morning, I came in late,
But they were waiting behind the gate.
On Wednesday afternoon, in games,
They threw mud at me and called me names.
Yesterday, they laughed after the test
‘Cause my marks were lower than the rest.
Today, they trampled my books on the floor,
And I was kept in because I swore.
Four o' clock, Friday, at last I’m free,
For two whole days they can't get at me.





78


Wha Me Mudder Do
By Grace Nichols


Mek me tell you wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do

Me mudder pound plaintain mek fufu
Me mudder catch crab mek calaloo stew

Mek me tell you wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do

Me mudder beat hammer
Me mudder turn screw
she paint chair red
then she paint it blue

Mek me tell you wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do
wha me mudder do

Me mudder chase bad-cow
with one ‘Shoo’
she paddle down river
in she own canoe
Ain’t have nothing
dat me mudder can’t do
Ain’t have nothing
dat me mudder can’t do

Mek me tell you





ص 5 و ص 106


وبس اختصرت لكم جذي مو لان يجون ولكن تدربون نفسكم

اعتقد انهم اهم شي بالكتاب ومثل مواصفات اللي ذكرها الدكتور



اول قصيدة لاحظو swish
rumbling

هي onomatopoetic


parallelism

I will put in the box


deviation
a fifth season and a black sun
a cowboy on a broomstick
and a witch on a white horse
ماكو شمس سودة؟
والفصول اربعة مو خمسة
الكاوبي على مكنسة ؟
والساحرة على حصان؟
صار العكس


القصيدة الاولى magic box

فيها نستخدم الحواس الخمس

نلاحظ اوا سطر ان حط في الصندوق صوت حفيف الساري

والصوت هل ينحط في صندوق؟


استخدام الاسمء اللي يطلق عليها اسم abstract noun
وهي كلمات تعبر عن شي
ما نلمسه
ما نشوفه
ما نسمعه
او نشمه


يعني كلمات شعورية محسوسة وليست مادية ملموسة

عشان جذي القصيدة تعكس

الشخصية والافكار والذكريات



طبعا القصيدة فيها موضوع متكرر ومعروف في قصائد الاطفال وهو magic


تاخذ استعاب وانتباه القارئ الطفل من خلال انه تشغل حواسه الخمسة




____________


توضيحين مهمين EA300A

بالنسبة للمقالة

اهتمي فيها من ناحية civil servant

بشيين :

الدكتور وشلون ارتفع جيم لهالمستوى

لما يطلبون شرح مقالة مراح تشرحينها من اولها لاخرها

انت راح تناقشين افكارها الاساسية وتضفين الامثلة من فهمج

فبس افهمي هالفكرة مثل المكتوب بستدي قايد

وهذي اهم نقاط المقالة باختصار :


♦ The civil servant was constructed as a heroic individual working for the safety and security of the state.

Most books for boys from the period give their heroes only physical expertise, and thus they cannot be said to imply directly a future in the administrative classes for their heroes and readers.

on the island, Livesey takes on the role of local health inspector. As the island's medical expert, he works to bring the island under control by mapping its healthy and unhealthy sites.

Silver works directly against Livesey's control of the island.

Because the pirates have no public health experts, there is an unsafe society.

Because the pirates society has no body of knowledge upon which they can draw, to enter into it is to remain an isolated and vulnerable individual.

Jim represents the upwardly mobile lower-middle-class nations of respectable culture, but respectable culture in this moment comes perilously close to a kind of petty blinkered individualism.

The settled world may be respectable but with too much respectability comes a lack of heroism.

The local community is a collection of meek and petty individuals who will not, as Livesey does, fight for the greater good.

Livesey has the expertise and respectability of the settled world in combination with the bravery and derring-do of the pirated.

The narrative is often aware that the doctor is potentially an unsatisfying compromise between the meek townspeople and the disorderly pirates.

Indeed, the narrative acknowledges one of the great dilemmas of children's literature – the stories full of bad characters are almostalways more existing than the stories about good characters.

One of the reasons that the pirate society exists in the first place that the British government does not provide pensions for ex-servicemen.

Clearly, the pirates' society does not take care of its members, but, as the Squire points out, neither does settled society.

The pirates are a product of settled society and its lack of public assistance.

In other words, there would be no pirates if ex-servicemen were probably rewarded by a public welfare system.

It stands to reason that if the pirate identity created by the state then it can be taken away by the state.

The pirates are defeated in battle, but more importantly, they are defeated by Livesey, the civil servant, who brings them under state control.

It is as if public assistance has the ability to destroy the pirate identity.

When Jim leaves his post to go explore the island, he exists outside the captain's log and outside the settled world.
He makes it back just in time to be reckoned in the account.

Later when he deserts his post to capture the Hispaniola he operates outside the logbook, and thus he comes perilously close to being lost to the good side.

Even before the mutiny begins, Jim gives an accurate accounting of manpower when he computes the numbers on the good side versus of those on the bad.

The ability to keep track of the other side becomes difficult as the war rages.
As the account grows imprecise, the good side's victory is threatened.

At the end of the novel, when Jim returns to his post after having deserted it to retake the Hispaniola, he is given the job of counting the treasure, and, in this way, he is absorbed back into the state apparatus.

Having proved that like the pirates he has the spirit to 'make England terrible at sea', he must then prove his administrative hierarchy to assume a position with more responsibility than his original position, cabin boy

The counting is much more like drudgery than fighting to retake control of a ship, but Jim expresses great pleasure at performing the task. He is back inside the settled world of account ledgers and defined ranks.

By the novel's end, Jim is enclosed inside a hierarchical work space, but it is a work space that remains connected to the romance of the global trade network. In the task of counting money, he achieves a kind of romantic drudgery.

♦ Undoubtedly, Treasure Island's great appeal is that it is a wish fulfillment; it allows a young boy to leave home, to run away from both his mother's authority and the drudgery of waiting tables in a tavern; it allows young Jim to break free of social constraint into the of romance.

♦ When he negotiates his way back into the settled world, he does so as a figure that combines the heroism found in the adventure world with the technical expertise found in the settled world.

♦ He achieves a respectable career but one that, in working for the good of society, is not involved in crass commercialism. 



_________________________



بالنسبة لتحليل القصايد

ففي المقالة حاطينلكم الجزئيات اللي تناقشونها

فلازم تفهمونهم

انزين؟

بعدين تدورونهم بالقصيدة عادي

والقصايد بسيطة بس انتو محتاجين تتدربون

وانا حطيت اهني اهم القصايد بالمفاهيم

مو شرط يجون لكن اذا حليتهم تقدرون تحلون اي قصيدة

تمام؟


المهم الحين انا بحط نقاط مو حل كامل من قصيدة تيدي اتوقع 106

اهم الاشياء :
THEME وهو الموضوع او الهدف
TOOLS الادوات والتقنيات اللي تضمنتها

عندكم كم قصيدة موجودين في بلوك 3 اكتيفي 3 ص 122

المواضيع:
FANTASY
MAGIC
FAIRY
MORAL
FAMILY

المحيط؟ SETTING
PASTORAL
DOMESTIC
SCHOOL


طبعا لازم يكون فيه LESSONS

الادوات في المقالة



نرجع لتيدي


INTRODUCTION

توضحون انها قصيدة طفل وتتميز بوجود خصائص شعر الطفل


توضحون SETTING
والقصة بشكل عام شنو ؟

The poem is setting in domestic sphere.
There are a mention to the family members such as the father and the mother and their regular behaviour

مثل؟



there is a child who is looking for his teddy bear

this poem is telling the domestic life of a child

وتتوسعون طبعا

وتشرحون الموضوع



من ناحية تحليل اللغوي

هالقصيدة فيها parallelism

sometimes

but not today


طبعا فيها imagination

و personification

يعني تيدي شلون يكون داخل صندوق ادوات الخياطة؟
ويخيط دلاغاته الصوفية؟

الخ



كل قصيدة غير عن الثانية وتختلف من ناحية الموضوع
ومن ناحية الادوات

لان مستحيل كل الادوات موجودة في قصيدة وحدة


بالتوفيق

A230A - BOOK 2 - CHAPTER 2

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

لم أسجل المادة  وهذا تلخيصي بعد توفر المادة العلميةبفضل من الله
أهديه لكل من طلب الملخص مني
وأشكر الاخ (كويتي محب)
الذي قام بتوفير نسخة من الجابتر لي لا ترجو منكم إلا الدعاء



The Old Man and The Sea By Ernest Hemingway



The Old Man and the Sea is a novel. written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an agingfisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.
 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
_____________________________
 
 
 
 
_____________________________ 
 
Best study Guides click it!

 
good luck
 
 

A230A - BOOK2 - CHAPTER 1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

لم أسجل المادة  وهذا تلخيصي بعد توفر المادة العلميةبفضل من الله
أهديه لكل من طلب الملخص مني
وأشكر الاخت (دنيا جديدة)
التي قامت بتوفير نسخة من الجابتر لي لا ترجو منكم إلا الدعاء
 
الاشياء المهمة في هذا الجابتر هي:
التقنيات الشعرية 
تحليل الشعر والاكتيفيتيز الخاص به 
موضوعات الشعر 
الشاعر نفسه واسلوبه -ووردسورث-
 





Series of Important Sites




موقع لتوثيق المصادر:



مواقع لدراسة النصوص الأدبية:



يتبع.....

IMPORTANT FILES ON NORTHERN LIGHTS


هذي مجموعة ملفات تفيدكم في الواجب ان شاء الله 

وادعولي ..






__________________________________________

المكتبة الالكترونية:

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PHILIP PULLMAN'S HIS DARK MATERIALS: ESSAYS ON THE NOVELS, THE FILM AND THE STAGE PRODUCTIONS.
Amy S Rodgers
http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=403d846b-de5b-4faa-95b3-2f4ea445dd8e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=74616900
التحميل:
http://www.gulfup.com/?HOPGgR 
______________________________________________________
 
'Nothing Like Pretend': Difference, Disorder, and Dystopia in The Multiple World Spaces of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
 Sarah K  Cantrell
http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=7e2caf67-763a-4d57-8586-f37c9d1ba7b8%40sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=55199401
التحميل:
http://www.gulfup.com/?TjR2Z3 
 ______________________________________________________
Philip Pullman
 William L Howard
 http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=0ea92e66-bd4a-42a6-96bc-bf88671605fa%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=103331LM62319790306072

 Biography
Philip Pullman describes himself as a storyteller rather than a writer, a distinction that stresses the primacy of the story and its need to be told over any technical prowess or psychological needs of the author. Praised highly for that narrative ability, Pullman has written prolifically and created a significant opus to much critical acclaim.
Born in Norwich, England, one of two sons of Alfred Outram and Audrey Merrifield, Pullman lived in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) where his father, a Royal Air Force pilot, died in a plane crash in 1953. Pullman’s mother then left him with his maternal grandparents in Norfolk for two years while she lived and worked in London. He formed a deep attachment to his grandfather, an Anglican clergyman, whose storytelling left a lasting impression on the youth.
Pullman’s mother married an airman friend of his father, and the family moved to Australia for eighteen months, where Pullman remembers discovering comic books and further developing his love of narrative. Eventually, the family moved to North Wales, where he attended school at Ysgol Ardudwy Harlech, Gwynedd. Pullman credits an influential teacher there, Miss Enid Jones, with teaching him to write clearly. He would send her copies of his books throughout his career. He was the first in his family to attend college. In 1968, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Oxford University, where he studied literature.
Pullman taught in middle schools in Oxford for the next twelve years. Interested less in rigorous standards enforced through testing than in developing his students’ creative imaginations, he recited literature, wrote plays for his students to perform, and effectively served an apprenticeship during these years for his later career as a young adult author. He continued teaching as a part-time lecturer at Westminster College, Oxford, specializing in Victorian literature and folktales.
Pullman believes that young adult audiences are more prone to demand good storytelling from an author than jaded adult audiences. After a brief and unsuccessful foray into adult fiction, he wrote successful children’s books, including the Sally Lockhart series. These novels depict an intrepid young female investigator living in Victorian England. Often exposed to the shadowy underworld of London, she seeks information essential to her identity.
Pullman’s masterpiece, the Dark Materials series, also was marketed for a young adult audience, although Pullman insists that he had adult readers in mind as well. These books, like the Lockhart series, focus on the adventures of an orphaned girl — in this case, Lyra Belacqua. Her determination in Northern Lights to find her best friend leads her on a dangerous journey to save children from scientists seeking to control the universe. In the second book of the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, she joins forces with Will Parry. In the third volume, The Amber Spyglass, she and Will fight in a cosmic battle for supremacy in heaven. The trilogy concludes with Lyra’s coming of age and romantic attraction to Will.
Pullman has been nominated for, and won, many awards. The Ruby in the Smoke was awarded the International Reading Association Children’s Book Award in 1988. The Shadow in the Plate was a finalist for consideration by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. In 1996, Northern Lights was selected for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the Carnegie Medal, and Children’s Book of the Year in the British Book Awards. In 2001, The Amber Spyglass won both the Whitbread Prize for best children’s book as well as the overall Whitbread Book of the Year Prize, the first children’s work to win this prestigious honor. He won the Nibbles Author of the Year Award in 2002 and in 2005, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
Philip Pullman settled in Oxford with his wife Judith (Speller), whom he married in 1970. They had two sons, James and Thomas.
Essay by: William L. Howard

__________________________________________


CHAPTER 4: Philip Pullman.
 
Millicent  Lenz
 
http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=76f3defd-21bd-4aef-b6fc-10daa3244884%40sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=24121717
 
 
 التحميل:
http://www.gulfup.com/?4UNJ4D 
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‘A Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven’: His Dark Materials, Inverted Theology, and the End of Philip Pullman’s Authority.
 
Jonathan Padley
 
http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=f2c9d9c9-e998-4b36-a8bd-8d297ec3a4f8%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=18740356
 
التحميل:
 http://www.gulfup.com/?4tpscc
 
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Literary Contexts in Novels: Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" 

By Sandie Byrne

http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?sid=eb7ccb55-a4b6-4fc3-9eaa-ddc7e1cd0647%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=23184782


 "Barnard and Stokes were two […] 'renegade' theologians
  who postulated the existence of numerous other worlds like
  this one, neither heaven nor hell, but material and sinful.
  They are there close by, but invisible and unreachable. The
  Holy Church naturally disapproved of this abominable heresy,
  and Barnard and Stokes were silenced."
~~Philip Pullman, "The Golden Compass"
Content Synopsis
"The Golden Compass" is the first volume in a series of novels, "His Dark Materials" (a trilogy to date, but with an additional short story published and a fourth volume promised) which, though initially released by a publishing company associated with younger readers, has proved to be "crossover" fiction, that is, suitable for and equally popular with readers of all ages.
The story is set in a world and time parallel to our own, but with important differences. The power of the Church is absolute, and articulated through a tangle of rival colleges, councils, boards and courts. Ideas which in our world would be explored by scientists are in this world investigated, or suppressed, by theologians.
The story opens in a parallel Oxford, in the Hall of Jordan College. Lyra Belacqua, a twelve year-old girl who has been brought up by the male Fellows of the college, wants to see the innermost sanctum of the Fellows, their Retiring Room. Hiding in a cupboard to avoid discovery, she inadvertently sees the Master of the college poison the wine to be offered to her uncle, the arrogant and powerful Lord Asriel, an explorer who is due to give a talk at the college that evening about his latest expedition. Lyra warns her uncle, who orders her back into the cupboard and tells her to observe the Fellows' reaction to his talk. When we meet Lyra we also meet something inseparable from her. In this world, everyone has a dæmon, a creature in the form of an animal which is invisibly but closely connected to them. The dæmon could be interpreted as the spirit or soul, or anima/animus; in all but a very few cases males have a female dæmon and females male; but it acts as an independent entity. The connection is emotional and affectionate; the actions of the dæmon can express the emotional state of the human, and when the person dies, the dæmon disappears. The dæmons of children shape-shift according to mood or need. Lyra's dæmon, Pan, short for Pantalaimon, can be a mouse and hide in her pocket, or an ermine, his favorite sleeping-form, or a bird, to fly to seek something out, or an inconspicuous moth, as when we first see him. Once the child reaches puberty, the dæmon begins to choose one form more and more often, and by adulthood, when the young adult's character is fully established, has fixed on one kind of animal.
Lord Asriel shows the Fellows three things during his lecture. The first is evidence of the existence of Dust and its relationship to children. Dust particles, invisible to the naked eye, come from the sky in streams. The second is some slides, taken on his expedition to the Arctic region of their world, which show what seems to be a city skyline in the middle of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. Lyra hears one of the scholar's mention the names Barnard and Stokes in connection with this, but the reference means nothing to her. The third thing Asriel mentions is evidence of what happened to the last expedition to the Northern Lights, the scalped and trepanned head of its leader, Stanislaus Grumman.
The Master of the college had been willing to kill Lord Asriel because he had been warned of appalling consequences should Asriel's research continue; consequences which would involve Lyra. The warning comes from an alethiometer, a truth-measure, one of only six ever made. It is a complex device, and thus very difficult to interpret. The Master knows that something momentous is going to happen, that there will be a terrible betrayal, and that Lyra will be the betrayer. He wants to protect her for as long as possible, but knows that he cannot for much longer.
Lyra is by no means a typical heroine: "She was a coarse and greedy little savage" and has passed her childhood "like a half-wild cat" (37). She is graceless and unkempt, lies, boasts, and steals, but is also brave, loyal, energetic, and clear-sighted. She dislikes being cleaned up, having lessons, paying attention, sitting still, and authority. She enjoys playing on the roofs and in underground passages, crypts, and cellars of the college with her best friend, Roger, the kitchen boy, leading her gang, fighting rival gangs, and fraternizing with the Gyptians (water gypsies) on the rivers and canals of Oxford. But the gangs are diminishing. All over the country children are disappearing. Rumor suggests that they have been taken by the "Gobblers." One day, Roger is missing.
Shortly after Roger's disappearance, Lyra is introduced to the beautiful Mrs. Coulter and told that she is to live with her in future. Before Lyra leaves, the Master gives her the alethiometer, advising her to hide it from Mrs. Coulter. In London, Mrs. Coulter buys Lyra fine clothes, takes her to parties, and makes much of her. She also, however, shows an implacable, even cruel side. When Lyra displeases her, Mrs. Coulter's golden monkey dæmon hurts Pan. Lyra learns that Lord Asriel is a prisoner in the far north, that Mrs. Coulter is working for the Genera Oblation Board of the Church, which she discovers is the origin of the nickname "Gobblers," and that her work involves the capture of children. Lyra escapes Mrs. Coulter and hides in the back streets of London. Two men almost capture her, but she is rescued by one of her Gyptian friends, Tony Costa.
The Costas are on their way to join John Faa, Lord of the Western Gyptians, and they take Lyra with them in their boat, hiding her from the many people searching for her. John Faa tells Lyra the true story of her birth, her 'uncle,' Lord Asriel is really her father, and her mother is a beautiful scholar, wife of the politician Edward Coulter. As a baby, Lyra was given into the care of a Gyptian woman and hidden on Lord Asriel's estates. When Edward Coulter came looking for the child, her nurse fled with her to Asriel's house, where Asriel challenged Coulter to a duel, and killed him. As a result, the courts confiscated Asriel's property and land, and ordered the child to be placed with nuns. Asriel, however, stole her back, and hid her in Jordan College, where the Gyptians have been watching over Lyra ever since. Although Asriel stipulated that Lyra's mother should never be allowed to see her, her mother's position in the machinery of the Church is now so high that she could not be stopped. Her mother, Lyra learns, is Mrs. Coulter.
The Gyptians decide to send an expedition north to rescue the children kidnapped by the "Gobblers." John Faa finds that Lyra is learning how to use the alethiometer, which could help them to find the missing children, and so reluctantly allows her to go with them.
On the journey north, they meet beautiful witches, a Texan balloon aëronaut, Lee Scoresby, an armored warrior-bear, Iorek Byrnison, and what they think at first is a ghost. The 'ghost' is alive, just (in this world an obscene, terrible, unthinkable thing) a child without a dæmon: "A human being with no dæmon was like someone without a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out" (215). The purpose of the Oblation Board becomes clear. They are the perpetrators of an unspeakable cruelty: separating children from their dæmons. The child, unbearably bereft, dies.
Lyra is captured by hunters and sold to the experimental station run by the Oblation Board. Roger and Billy Costa are among the children held there, and the three find both the place where children and dæmons are separated, and the caged and fading severed dæmons. Mrs. Coulter arrives at the station and the children fake a fire drill in order to release them. Lyra is caught, and she and Pan are put into the separator and prepared for "intercission." Mrs. Coulter stops the process just in time, and Lyra escapes again. She organizes the children into a gang, and they try to fight their way past the guards and their wolf dæmons. In the nick of time, witches, and Iorek Byrnison arrive, and the children escape, only to have to face a long march across the frozen Arctic. Mrs. Coulter nearly snatches Lyra and Roger, again, but a witch clan-queen, Serafina Pekkala, saves them and Lee Scoresby carries them away.
Serafina Pekkala knows that although Lyra believes she came north to find and rescue her friend, in fact she was destined to follow Roger north in order to bring something important to her father. Lyra thinks it is the alethiometer, but in fact it is Roger. Asriel has learned how to harness the immense energy released when child and dæmon are separated. He wants to enter the other world he knows exists, to trace the source of Dust, which he has deduced is an elementary particle; a particle that alters its nature "when innocence becomes experience" (373). Dust, he says, is what theologians call original sin. He has come to the same conclusion as the Oblation Board, though for different reasons; Dust must be destroyed. He tells Lyra that somewhere is the origin of Dust and therefore of "all the death, the sin, the misery, the destructiveness in the world", and goes on: "[h]uman beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die" (377). He severs Lyra's friend Roger from his dæmon in order to release the energy that will open a window between worlds, killing Roger in the process. Mrs. Coulter arrives and is briefly reconciled with Asriel, but refuses to join his cause. He goes through into the other world, and Lyra, knowing that he is wrong; that if the Oblation Board believe Dust to be an evil, it must be good, follows her father.



Historical Context
The story was published in the UK in 1995 under the title "Northern Lights." When it was published in the US, an editor changed the title to "The Golden Compass." Philip Pullman did not acquiesce, but his web site reports that at the time he did not have the clout to do anything about it. The story is more or less contemporary, as we see from the next volume in the trilogy, "The Subtle Knife," which is primarily set in our own world. Though parallel in time, to readers from our world, Lyra's world seems like a mixture of periods, including an all-powerful church with complex church hierarchy belonging to the middle ages or Renaissance; regions yet to be fully explored or "discovered" by the west; early modern to eighteenth-century technology, and a few developments from the nineteenth century (such as hot air balloons).


Societal Context 
 
 
The societal contexts of "The Golden Compass" are inextricably bound up with its religious and technological contexts. The society it depicts is both like and unlike our own, and could be seen as an allegory of and warning to our own society. Within Lyra's world we are shown a number of distinct societies, each providing different ways of interpreting, ordering, and understanding life. The witches are beautiful and magical, and have great longevity, but their society is based on a clan system and riven by political conflict. The bears led by Iorek are strong and loyal, and skilled craftsmen. Their society is organized and effective, but militaristic and oppressive to all but the leaders. The Gyptians are resourceful, able to make and mend and make-do with almost nothing. Their society is family-oriented, and led by wise and experienced elders, but they are on the larger society's lower rungs. The Fellows at Jordan College are scholarly, well-intentioned, and kindly, but isolated, unworldly, and ultimately ineffective. Their society has narrowed down to the confines of college and the books under their noses. The Church is highly effective, and has managed to dominate the wider society, but its own labyrinthine construction weakens it as courts and councils jockey for power, negating each other's actions.
In our own world, this volume and the sequence have received critical acclaim and become bestsellers, bought by and for both adults and children. Michael Chabon, in "Dust and Demons," suggests that much in the novels is of questionable suitability for children, including the complex character of Lyra, but adds that the ambivalent character of the stories and their crossover appeal relates to the themes of the stories themselves (5).


Religious Context
The title of the series comes from Book II of John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost," and refers to the "dark materials" of God; the elements from which he has made the world and from which, if he so ordains, he will make more worlds. Milton was a Christian and a Puritan at the time of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, and the subsequent Restoration of the monarchy in Britain. His great poem tells the story of original sin; of the choice made by Eve which led to the expulsion from Eden. It has often been said that Milton inadvertently made Satan the most interesting character in his poem; an energetic and compelling character whose rhetoric is powerful. A parallel character in "His Dark Materials" is the leader of the rebellion against religious authority, Lord Asriel.
Although "Paradise Lost" is a Christian poem, Pullman uses its themes to make the case against organized religion; suggesting that the church has used the threat of damnation and the promise of an everlasting afterlife to keep people in subjection, and that ignorance rather than innocence is the state it desires in its subjects. "His Dark Materials" depicts a parallel "fall" which involves not a choice and a loss of innocence, but rather than a sin to be deplored and expiated for all time, it is a sign of humanity's finally coming of age and abandoning the superstitions and childlike dependencies of its prolonged childhood.
Another important influence is the work of William Blake. Like Blake's poetry and engravings, Pullman's trilogy expresses a mistrust of authority, particularly self-proclaimed and absolute, unfounded authority. The God of this trilogy, "The Authority," an angel of incredible age, is like the authoritarian and aloof patriarch in Blake's poem "To Nobodaddy," an ancient, bearded old man, who has become an excuse for the exercise of earthly powers. The opponent of that God and his Regent, and thus a "Satan" figure, (though for much of the trilogy he doesn't fully understand) has a name reminiscent of one of Blake's rebel angel-type figures, Asriel. In the philosophy of the trilogy, both this God and those who use worship of him as their vehicle of power must be destroyed. Humankind must depend upon itself, not a father-figure; must cease to base its happiness on a belief in future life, and concentrate on truly living this life; must cease blindly to obey the dictates of religion, and work out a true moral code. The trilogy could be seen as a response or alternative world-view to children's fiction with an overtly Christian message, such as "The Narnia Stories" by C.S. Lewis.
In a review published in "The Times", Erica Wager called this "remarkable writing: courageous and dangerous, as the best art should be," and asserted that: "Pullman envisions a world without God, but not without hope" (12).



Scientific & Technological Context
In Lyra's world, Enlightenment rationalism has not become the dominant mode of thought that it has in our own world, and that which in our world would be scientific or technological discourses are in this world closer to the philosophical or alchemical discourses of the eighteenth century and earlier. Technological developments have been made, but there are no internal combustion engines, no nuclear power, and no computers. There are hot air balloons and Zeppelins, but no airplanes; the Retiring Room at Jordan College is lit by lamps, and Asriel's lantern has to be hand-pumped. "Anbaric" lights are relatively rare. As well as technologically developed artifacts, there are also things that in our world would belong in the realm of the mystical, mythical, or magic: the alethiometer; the witches and their pine-cloud flying sticks; sentient bears; a "spy fly" device; and, of course dæmons. Ideas and theories which we now take for granted, such as quantum mechanics, chaos theory, the divisibility of the atom, and the possible existence of multiple universes, are heresy in Lyra's world, and those who disseminate them are silenced. Nonetheless, much of the plot rests upon what we would call "real" science.


Biographical Context
Philip Pullman studied English at Exeter College, Oxford, on which he loosely based his Jordan College. While he was writing the trilogy he was living in Oxford, working in a shed at the back of his garden. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a school teacher for a number of years and later taught trainee teachers at Westminster College, also in Oxford. He was therefore very well acquainted with contemporary and classic children's literature before he began writing it. He has been the awarded several prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, the Astrid Lindgren Award (with illustrator Ryoji Arai), the Publishers' Weekly best Book of the Year Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award (for "The Amber Spyglass," the third in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy), in the first instance of that prize going to a book classified as for children (though read by many adults). Pullman produced illustrations for the first two volumes of the trilogy and small pictures as running heads for the second, to indicate which world the characters are in at the time. These were not printed in the first US editions of the novels, but are present in the 2002 editions published by Knopf.
Complementary Texts
Philip Pullman's, "The Subtle Knife" (1997)
"The Amber Spyglass" (2000)
"The Book of Dust" (the fourth volume in the sequence; forthcoming) "Lyra's Oxford," illustrated by John Lawrence (2003)
John Milton's "Paradise Lost" (1667)
William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience"
Adaptations
"His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass" (2007) Dir. Chris Weitz
Discussion Questions
1. How does Philip Pullman establish sympathy for Lyra without falling into sentimentality or mawkishness?
  • 2. How well do Philip Pullman's representations create a sense of real children in real childhoods?
  • 3. How is Mrs. Coulter invested with a sense of menace before we know her real purpose?
  • 4. At what point in reading the novel do we realize that it is not set in our own world, and how do we learn this?
  • 5. What are readers' initial responses to Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter likely to be? Do these change later in the novel?
  • 6. At what point in the book do readers learn about Lyra's destiny and why does she not learn of it at the same time?
  • 7. Why is the alethiometer a better and more interesting device in the novel than another prediction device such as a crystal ball would be?
  • 8. In what ways do Pullman's witches differ from traditional representations of the witch?
  • 9. The UK edition of the novel is called "Northern Lights." What is the significance of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) n the story?
  • 10. Some aspects of the story might seem frightening or upsetting for younger readers. How does Philip Pullman handle these?
Essay Ideas
1. Write an essay about Philip Pullman's creation of the dæmon and its importance, not as a plot device but in terms of imaginative writing.
  • 2. Write an essay about moral and other ambiguities of characters in the novel.
  • 3. How does the passage from John Milton's "Paradise Lost" set the themes of the novel?
  • 4. How does Philip Pullman avoid the trap of sentimental anthropomorphism in his depictions of talking animals such as the armored bears?
  • 5. Write an essay about the ways in which science, philosophy and religion overlap in the novel. 
Works Cited
  
Michael Chabon, "Dust and Demons." "Navigating the Golden Compass: Religion, Science and Dæmonology in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials." Ed.
Glen Yeffeth. Dallas, Texas: Benbella, 2005
Gribbin, Mary and John Gribbin. The Science of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials.' New York: Knopf, 2005
Philip Pullman, "Northern Lights." London: Scholastic, 1995; rprnt, 2001. US edition, The Golden Compass. New York: Knopf, 1996; rprnt, Laurel Leaf, 2003
Erica Wagner, review of "His Dark Materials", The Times (18 October, 
  2000) T2, 12
 
For Further Study
Philip Pullman's home pages at http://www.philip-pullman.com
Random House (USA) has a web page on "His Dark Materials" which includes information on "how to read the alethiometer" and reference to a book "The Science of 'His Dark Materials'" by Mary and John Gribbin http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/index.html
Random House Philip Pullman pages at http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/index.html
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By Sandie Byrne