- Bad Blood By Lorna Sage
- Bad Blood Lorna Sage Summary
- Bad Blood Lorna Sage Analysis
- Bad Blood Lorna Sage
This passage, consisting of three paragraphs, out of Lorna Sage’s Bad Blood, is presented by an all-knowing first-person narrator. It revolves around a young girl’s, the narrator’s, school life and childhood experiences. It follows the evolution of a friendship between the narrator and her dear friend, or shall we say her “sworn enemy”(l 11), who is first introduced in the second paragraph, “Gail…had hair in ringlets, green-hazel eyes and pale, clear, slightly olive skin stretched tight and shiny over her muscles…” (ll 11-13).
The narrator first encounters Gail by having “fierce contests in the yard, duels almost…” (l 8) against her. At this point the…show more content…
Gail’s ascendancy is further demonstrated at the beginning of the third paragraph, “Once she’d thoroughly trounced me in public, Gail ignored me and held court in her own corner every playtime.” (ll 21-22). This also represents Gail’s physical advantage and her independent ability of holding court in her “own corner”.
Regardless of their conflicts, however, the narrator seems to admire Gail, which further demonstrates the idea of Gail’s supremacy; describing her as, “wiry and graceful” (l 19) and “she was so physically confident, in charge of her body even when she was five.”(ll 14-15). The narrator’s reverence is emphasized through the use of words such as “so” and “even” highlighting that it is unusual and extraordinary of a child of five to be “so” physically confident. The narrator is not the only one who looks up to Gail, “Other little girls might admire the ringlets and the dresses with smocking on the yokes, and the white socks that stayed up…” (ll 22-24).
In the second paragraph we read that the narrator eventually becomes friends with Gail, “In fact, she did become my very best friend, years later,” (ll 9-10). Instead of constantly arguing and fighting with each other they; “went round holding hands painfully fast and giggling together hysterically,” (ll 10-11). This could portray the contrast between expressing friendship when young and
The sample essay on Bad Blood Lorna Sage deals with a framework of research-based facts, approaches and arguments concerning this theme. To see the essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion, read on.
Bestselling author Lorna Sage delivers the tragicomic memoirof her escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post-WWII Britain—and thestory of the weddings and relationships that defined three generations of herfamily—in Bad Blood, an internationalbestseller and the winner of the coveted Whitbread Biography Award.Readers ofbooks like Angela’s Ashes and The Liar’s Club as well as fans. An analysis of Lorna Sage’s autobiography “Bad Blood”. While Sage was still studying, showing how the maternal figure is surrounded by a far too negative aura as the grandfather's figure is surrounded by one that is too positive (Sage realizes this anyhow: 'If he had lived longer we'd doubtless have grown apart. From a childhood of gothic proportions in a vicarage on the Welsh borders, through adolescence, leaving herself teetering on the brink of the 1960's, Lorna Sage vividly and wittily brings to life a vanished time and place and illuminates the lives of three generations of women. Buy a cheap copy of Bad Blood book by Lorna Sage. Bestselling author Lorna Sage delivers the tragicomic memoirof her escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post-WWII Britain-and thestory of the weddings. Fourth Estate, 2001 - Hanmer (Wales) - 281 pages. From a childhood of gothic proportions in a vicarage on the Welsh borders, through her adolescence, leaving herself teetering on the brink of the 1960s, Lorna Sage brings to life a vanished time and place, and illuminates the lives of three generations of women.
This passage revolves around a young girl’s life, how it has changed and what it has become. It is ironically, how a friendship has evolved into something that the two girls who are exposed in this passage have never thought it would become. Sage introduces us to what we can conclude to be herself in the first paragraph of this passage, whilst introducing us to her dear friend (or shall we say greatest enemy?) in the second paragraph.
The relationship between Gail and the narrator is one of typical young girl’s relationships with another girl. Sage develops the relationship between these two young girls from two very contradicting ways; Hate to Love. As the narrator mentions;
“…now she was my sworn enemy.”
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This quote makes it quite obvious how the narrator felt about Gail. When you use the word sworn enemy, it emphasizes the amount of hatred you have towards that person, which makes it crystal clear to us how the relationship between Gail and the narrator was. Yet, ironically, this all changes, within no more than 2 words from that quote, when the narrator opens up the relationship between her and Gail when she says;
Bad Blood Sage
“(she even had a funny name, like me)”
In this quote, the narrator starts to open up to Gail, accepting her, as she starts to compare her to herself. That is where the relationship actually began. Although they started off bullying each other and beating each other up, as shown when Sage says;
“Once she’d thoroughly trounced me in public…”
this quote, also, is pretty much right to the point, very straight forward, the narrator speaks openly and sort of what proud of being trounced, of being whitewashed by Gail, because it let to something they both treasure now a days, a relationship that could never go astray, a relationship and friendship that they don’t want to let go of…but, does that mean anything?
“…holding hands painfully, giggling together hysterically…”
Bad Blood By Lorna Sage
If this was read about a guy and a girl, the reader would quite quickly come to the conclusion of a special kind of relationship being introduced, but this one friendship isn’t like this. This friendship is consistent of the truth and of the honestly and loyalty towards the other. That is what the “holding hands painfully” can be referring to. The girls do not want to let go of this friendship, they’ve been through a lot and they are not willing to let something come in and take that away from them…but, also, does that imply on anything?
Bad Blood Lorna Sage Summary
“…days of our adolescent intimacy…”
In which point of view can we take this quote? Doesn’t this usually imply on a strong relationship between two people? One that consists of love, warmth and of – for sure – “intimacy”? You can’t go around now and hear a girl saying that she has had days of “adolescent intimacy” with another girl without thinking that something isn’t right…right? And, adolescences is a period of time when two people should come together and figure out the feelings they have towards each other…to figure out why it is really classified as intimate and not something different, something filled with a little bit less of love.
The word “hell”, what does that imply to? Pain? Ache? Struggle? Or all three? The first passage, or to be more specific, the first line, the first phrase even, emphasizes what “hell” is in perspective of the narrator. The use of the “;” means that there is a list after that word that will make it clear what the narrator meant to say, or what the narrator meant when he/she put the word into the passage itself.
“…small people’s purgatory.”
The word purgatory is linking itself to hell, because it means that this person is being pulled into a world that is painful for no reason. The description techniques of this passage are very straight forward, no awkward words are being used or tongue-tied phrases being put into place. The way the narrator describes Gail is indeed straight to the point, and that makes it much easier for the reader to become acquainted with the character, with Gail. Although, if taken into deep consideration, the way the narrator actually goes through Gail, can seem like there is a sense of jealousy towards her, because maybe she is better in some things that the narrator is;
“Was she already going to dancing lessons?”
Straight forward rhetorical question, we, the readers wouldn’t know the answer to because we haven’t had the full life of Gail, but what we can conclude is that she is asking this out of jealousy, not out of interest. If she was going to dancing lessons, the narrator would want to be just like her and start going to dancing lessons as well, which leads to the respect felt towards Gail from the narrator, although they were once sworn enemies.
“…admire the ringlets and the dresses with smocking on the yokes…”
it does mention somewhere before this quote that Gail lives with her grandmother, we haven’t come to know the reason for this yet, but what we can tell is that Gail is being treated like a doll by her grandmother, maybe because the grandmother doesn’t have anything better to do. She does these beautiful embroideries that are referred to as “smocking on the yokes” on Gail’s dresses and makes it look like she is very high class, maybe even if she really isn’t.
Bad Blood Lorna Sage Analysis
The fact that this passage is written by the real point of view of the narrator, we get to actually feel what Sage felt through those horrible days at school during those first few days and what she felt when her and Gail actually got to know each other and carry their friendship forward well into the future. I guess this plays a really important part on the way we can understand this passage, for example, would you enjoy a passage that was all about two girls (or even two guys, let us not be sexist!) that was all about bullying and all about racism and socialism and so on?
Bad Blood Lorna Sage
This passage, with the emphasis of the narrators’ feelings into it, shows us exactly how real friendships turn out to be, and it is true, this passage does reflect on the real way strong relationships are actually made! (I would know, it’s happened to me!) but for me, this passage was really a play back to my old life. I’ve gone through exactly what Sage, or the narrator has gone through, and turned out with a friendship stronger than ever! When you’re young, without a doubt you ought to feel jealousy towards a certain person in your grade/year, for some reason or another, which will, believe it or not, lead to a really strong friendship.