2011 Paper 2 Section III Module C
Explain how Songs of Innocence and Experience and ONE other related text of your
own choosing portray the consequences of moving into the world.
Prescribed text: Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (poetry)
Related text: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel)
Introduction
names the texts,
authors and
responds directly
to the question
Topic sentence
connects style and
purpose in both
texts while
distinguishing the
contexts
The opening point
about childlike
form is developed
further with
respect to both
texts
Close reading of
Blake’s poems
focusing on the
opposition of
innocence and
experience and the
consequences
Lots of examples
are given from
different parts of
the poem to
support each
point
Connects to
The passage of life from childhood to adulthood is never an easy one. As
people move into the world and experience life they find that there are
consequences. This is clear in the poetry of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and
Experience and in Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis.
Both texts use a simple childlike form to convey serious social and political
discrimination. Blake’s poetry was written in the late eighteenth century
period of the Industrial Revolution at a time of great poverty when people,
especially children, were exploited to keep factories and houses working
efficiently. It was a time of strong Christian beliefs but Blake questioned the
institution of the church for not caring for the weak, young and poor.
Satrapi’s text is set in twentieth century Iran at a time of great political
upheaval when one political regime was replaced by another oppressive
religious regime. Both writers focus on youth to show the innocence of the
times and they use forms that are associated with young people. Blake’s
simple rhyming and rhythmic stanzas, which sound like nursery rhymes, belie
a harsh reality that is in stark contrast to the form the ideas are presented in.
In doing this, Blake is showing the hypocrisy of the world the children move
into. Satrapi uses the graphic novel form, relying on black-and-white images
to convey her message. Like Blake, Satrapi’s form may be innocent but it
suggests more than it appears to on the surface. The black-and-white contrast
is a play on the innocence of the white colour and the experience or evil of
the black world that she enters.
The title of Blake’s text and the pairing of many of the poems consciously set
up innocence and experience as binary opposites, representing childhood and
adulthood, respectively. Blake makes clear, however, that it is the way we
perceive the world that changes and not the world itself. Even in the state of
innocence there are hints of the evil presence of institutions and of negative
individuals. The consequence of growing up and achieving a state of
experience is that there is a developing awareness of aspects of life that
should not be acceptable. The two poems entitled “The Chimney-sweeper”
illustrate this idea. The harshness of the chimney-sweeper’s life is obvious
even in the Song of Innocence. The child is sold, his friend Tom’s head is
shaved, they sleep in soot and death is never far, as indicated by the
thousands of sweepers who are metaphorically “lock’d up in coffins of black”
and who visit Tom in his dreams. The boys live with the hope of resurrection
in death when angels will free them from their coffins if they “do their duty”.
This is in sharp contrast to the cynical tone of the sweeper in Songs of
Experience. He realises his exploitation is condoned by the church (“God, his
priest and king”) and that his life is a misery. The paradox in the metaphor of
“heaven of our misery”, specifically refers to the way heaven was
misrepresented as a way to control the boys. Experience of the world makes
the sweeper bitter but he still does his job.
Like Blake, Satrapi realises the ways children are controlled. By opening her
1
previous
paragraph with
the word like
Details are given
as evidence to
support the topic
sentence that
children are
controlled
Consequences are
considered in the
discussion of
forewarning
A link between
the two texts is
made in the topic
sentence while
comparing the
contexts
Evidence can
appear in brackets
as well as being
part of the
sentence
autobiography with a chapter called “The Veil” she is signalling that this is a
symbol of oppression. Her first image of herself has the accompanying text:
“This is me when I was ten years old. This was in 1980”. A mid shot of a girl
whose cross face is overwhelmed in a black veil suggests the negative impact
of the veil on innocent children. The date alerts the audience to the fact that
this is an event based in truth. The next frame “a class photo” shows how
each child lost her identity by taking on the veil. In contrast, there is a frame
with a black background and white lines of people’s arms held up in anger to
show the background history of the violence that led to this event. The final
double width frame of the playground shows the confusion of the children in
what they say in the speech bubbles. One declares “It’s too hot” while
another steals someone’s veil to play skippies, and others innocently play
horsies, “execution” and dress up as the “monster of darkness”. These
innocent exclamations are a forewarning of the fear that is to be experienced
as they move into a world that seeks to silence difference in the name of a
religion that also holds political control.
Blake’s world, which is so much earlier chronologically than Satrapi’s, is also
one of rigid control. His poem “London” in Songs of Experience has a much
more ominous tone than the poems in Songs of Innocence. Echoing greens
only exist in innocence; cities are places of experience. The consequences of
experience are frightening and mark the faces of everyone the poet meets.
The repetition of the word “every” emphasises the despair that Blake feels.
His sense of sight is overwhelmed as every face has “marks of weakness,
marks of woe”. His sense of sound is also accosted as he hears the “cry of
Man”, the “Infant’s cry of fear”, the “Chimney-sweeper’s cry”, the “Hapless
soldier’s sigh” and “the youthful Harlot’s curse”. Male, female, young and old
are feeling pain. Blake implies that institutions such as the church and royalty
are complicit in this. He paints a bleak picture of the consequences of
experience as being like chains (“manacles”) that people can’t break from.
The final stanza is about the terrible consequences of sexual experience, at a
time when syphilis was affecting many men who passed it on from prostitutes
(“harlots”) to their wives and unborn children.
Return to the
related text
with direct link to
question in the
word
“consequences”
Satrapi is shocked by the consequences of growing up in Iran. Her story
moves from personal to political messages as she compares the story of her
uncle who was locked up for going against the regime to her own adolescent
rebellion. Her uncle’s incarceration is indicated by a black background against
which he stands white and innocent. The affection for her uncle is shown by
their closeness visually. The impact of his death is shown in the following
double page, which starts with a newspaper with the headline “Russian spy
executed” and a full page image of her as a child floating through the universe
as stars and planets go past under the words “and so I was lost, without any
bearings … what could be worse than that?” In the image a jagged speech
balloon offers an answer: “Marji, run to the basement! We’re being bombed!”
Through careful selection of words placed against stark but expressive images
we get a strong sense of the control and fear that was experienced by Satrapi
in the world that Iran became.
A short effective
conclusion that
ties all points and
texts to the
question
Both texts show that experience of the world is not always easy. The
consequences can be devastating and in both cases there is a resultant loss of
innocence.
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