“Private Peaceful”
Chapter 1
worksheet answers
Five Past Ten
Present
1.
“I’m alone at last.”
“I won’t dream it away . . . every moment of it will be far too precious.”
“I’ve had nearly eighteen years of yesterdays and tomorrows, and tonight I
must remember as many of them as I can.”
“Tonight . . . I want to feel alive.”
Flashback
2.
Big Joe
Charlie
the oldest son
does not attend school
always sings “Oranges and Lemons”
loves nature
is very kind and gentle
kind to Tommo on his first day at school
is three years older than Tommo
has done everything and knows everything
is strong
always looks out for Tommo
Mother Peaceful
kind
patient
protective of Big Joe
3.
Father Peaceful’s death
Father was a forester and one day Tommo went with him in to the woods. He
was burying a dead mouse when a strange noise made him look up. Tommo
did not realise that it was the creak of a dead tree about to fall. As it fell
Tommo froze with fear and could not move. His father pushed him free, only
to be crushed to death by the tree.
“Father needn’t have died that morning in Ford’s Cleave Wood.”
“I have killed my own father.” P17
4. Old fashioned school
 Separate Tiddlers from Bigguns
 Headmaster is like God
 Headmaster is fearsome
 Classes line up in rows first thing in the morning
5. Big Joe believes a soul of a dead person can change in to a bird and fly up to
Heaven. He also believes Heaven is at the top of the church tower, which is
where he is found after he goes missing following the death of Bertha, the fox
hound.
6. Class
The front row of pews in church is kept for the Colonel and his family. He is the
Lord of the Manor and must be shown respect.
Chapter 2
Twenty To One
Flashback
1.a) Big Joe had meningitis a few days after birth. He was so ill that he was
expected to die. He now has learning difficulties, cannot read or write and
had difficulty with speech.
b)
At school, Big Joe comes to show Tommo a slow worm. Once he has gone,
Jimmy Parsons, a known bully, tells Tommo that Joe is “a loony, off his head,
off his rocker, nuts, barmy” so Tommo attacks him. P23
c)
Tense is changed to create drama, immediacy, an ability to relive the moment.
2.
Molly “ seemed to want to be with us all the time. We didn’t discover the
reason for this until a lot later. I remember Mother used to brush Molly’s
hair.”
Molly’s home life is strict and harsh so she does not want to be there.
I contrast the Peaceful home is warm and welcoming.
Mrs. Peaceful treats Molly like the daughter she never had.
3.
Charlie steps into the fight between Tommo and Jimmy Parsons. As
punishment he is given six strokes of the cane from the Head but does not cry.
4. a)
The Colonel
 Big Joe innocently blows raspberries at the Colonel who overreacts and
holds a grudge.
 The Peaceful cottage is tied to their father’s job. After his death, the
Colonel could put them out but instead wants Mrs. Peaceful to look after
his wife in the Big House.
 He does not care who looks after the Peaceful family and even suggests
that Big Joe could go to a “lunatic asylum in Exeter.”
Grandma Wolf
 Gives orders
 Believes in “waste not, want not.”
 Is nasty to Big Joe and treats him like a baby.
 She even smacks Big Joe.
 She criticises both Mrs. Peaceful and the family.
b)
Similarities between the Colonel and Grandma Wolf
cruel
critical
bossy
powerful
unsympathetic to Big Joe
snobbish
Chapter 3 Nearly Quarter Past Eleven
Flashback
1. Molly’s homelife is hard. Parents are older and God fearing. Her father is
very strict and believes in corporal punishment. She is an only child.
P37 Molly was “forever being sent to her room, or strapped by her father for
the least little thing.”
The Peaceful father was a good man, loved by his family, unlike Molly’s
father so Tommo thinks he should be dead instead of Mr Peaceful.
2.
Molly
kind
flowers on the mouse’s grave
gave Big Joe the “birthday mouse”
brave
standing up to Grandma Wolf when she is cruel to Big Joe
energetic
climbing trees
daring
skinny dipping
superstitious fortune telling with the stones
3.
Grandma Wolf
cruel
in her actions to get rid of mice
smacks Big Joe for protecting the mice
gets rid of Big Joe’s birthday mouse and all his other pets
snobbish
about the Peaceful family. P37 “Molly’s father was groom up
at the Big House. ‘They were proper people.’”
4.
Foreshadowing
P39 “We did get rid of her in the end too, but thankfully without the use of rat
poison. Instead a miracle happened, a wonderful miracle.”
After the death of the Colonel’s wife, Grandma Wolf moves out of the
Peaceful home into the Big House, and Mrs Peaceful is in charge again.
P43 “We were liberated, and all was right with the world again. For a while at
least.”
No Grandma Wolf
Mother is back home
 No source of income
 Molly becomes ill
 They are threatened with the loss of their home
Chapter 4
Ten To Midnight
Present time
P47 “Tonight I want very much to believe there’s a heaven, that, as Father said, there
is a new life after death, that death is not a full stop, and that we will see one another
again.”
Foreshadowing – Charlie will be shot in a few hours for disobeying a command.
Tommo needs to believe in an afterlife where he will rejoin his much loved older
brother.
Flashback
1.
Relationships
 Molly joins the Bigguns class
 When Tommo is 12, Molly now 14 and Charlie now 15 leave school.
 Charlie and Molly work at the Big House six days a week and speak aout
this.
 Molly treats Tommo more “like a little mother . . . than a friend.”
 “I saw them walking away from me through the water meadows holding
hands.”
 p55 “I felt a sudden ache in my heart. I don’t think it was anger or
jealousy, more a pang of loss, of deep grief.”
2.
Colonel as villain
The Peaceful brothers are caught poaching in the Colonel’s river. Molly was too ill to
keep look out and Tommo has fallen asleep. The Colonel’s sentence if for both boys
to report to the Big House next day where he will give them a beating and make them
clean out the hunt kennels.
The Colonel plans to shoot Bertha, Charlie’s favourite hound.
3.
Yellow aeroplane
A) Simile
b) Alliteration
c) Onomatopoeia
“a sound of intermittent droning, like a thousand stuttering
bees.”
“circled above us like some ungainly yellow bird.”
“squawking and splahing”
“bouncing and bumping”
“squawking and splashing”
Chapter 5 Twenty-Four Minutes Past Twelve
Flashback
1.a) Mother Peaceful offers 6d. for “a useless dog” so now the Colonel cannot say
it is stolen.
b) Bertha has been wandering off into the woods on the Colonel’s estate. It turns
out that she has been following Charlie and Molly who meet in the forester’s
shed. When the Colonel finds her in his woods he shoots her.
2. a) Molly’s parents believe that Charlie is a thief and a bad influence. He is
leading Molly “into the ways of wickedness and sin.”
b) Mother Peaceful points out that Charlie and Molly are 17 and 16, which is
surely old enough to start a relationship.
Chapter 6
Nearly Five To One
Flashback
1.
Big Joe believes that Heaven is on the top of the church tower.
p77 “Big Joe was pointing upwards and asking Mother if Bertha was up in
Heaven now with Father.”
p82 Molly “I think he’d wasn’t to be wherever Bertha is. So he’d want to be
in Heaven, wouldn’t he?”
p83 “ . . . Big Joe believes that Heaven is at the top of the church tower.”
2.
Everyone in the community joins in the search for Big Joe. They leave the pub
and the Colonel calls in the police. They search throughout the night and
when Big Joe is found and Charlie rings the church bell, everyone, of all
classes, runs to the church.
Chapter 7
Twenty-Eight Minutes Past One
Present time
1.
England – “a church tower reaches up skyward because it is a promise of
Heaven.” It is square, strong and reliable.
France – “spires that thrust themselves skywards like a child putting his hand
up in class, longing to be noticed.” These are showy and ostentatious,
somehow immature and needing attention.
2.
The church with the broken spire is a symbol of the vulnerability of such
buildings and even of faith as God’s house is a target also. Tommo is
doubting whether there is a God at all.
Flashback
3.
Word choice
Honesty
“I shan’t tell you it’s all tickety –boo.”
Personification
“They’ve beaten brave little Belgium, swallowed her up
in one gulp. . . unless we beat them at their own game, they’ll
gobble us up as well.”
Hyperbole
“boys with hearts of oak” etc
Structure
Rhetorical questions
Repetition in threes - numerous examples
Use of second person pronoun
4.
The Colonel threatens to evict the Peaceful family unless Charlie enlists.
5.
Tommo’s reasons to enlist
6. Symbolism of the tunnel
Chapter 8
out of the light into dark
from hope to despair
from life to death
Fourteen Minutes Past Two
Present time
1.
Charlie’s watch is
but
2.
He’s always been with Charlie.
He’s inspired by the Sgt. Major and the
attraction of the uniform.
He wants to impress Molly.
He has to prove to himself that he “ain’t a
coward.” The old lady’s words haunt him.
“The best watch in the world.”
“a wonderful watch”
“A truly wonderful watch would make the time.”
Charlie’s watch was given to him as a token of self-sacrifice and bravery
under enemy fire. Charlie has always thought of others before himself. Now
Tommo cannot bear to think about the future as it will not contain Charlie.
Flashback
3.
Sergeant Horrible Hanley
p114 “our chief scourge and tormentor” able to create never ending misery
and pain.
“eyes of steel” - cold, unfeeling, unbending
“a lashing snarl in his voice” – giving commands which whip and hurt others
“even more fury, even more pain, even more punishment” – even at a time of
war, Sgt, Hanley is punishing his own recruits if they do not work hard
enough.
4. a)
b)
Tommo is younger and physically weaker than Charlie. So, to aggravate
Charlie, Sgt.Hanley picks on Tommo for having a dirty rifle. Tommo is not fit
to take the punishment which all the other soldiers must watch. Eventually
Charlie cannot watch this any more and breaks ranks to confront Sgt. Hanley.
As a result, Charlie is marched off to the guardroom under arrest. This is what
Hanley has been hoping for.
Sgt. Hanley is
a bully
cruel
victimising
deviously cunning
5. a)
b)
Field Punishment Number One
p118 “Charlie was lashed there in the rain, legs apart, arms spread-eagled”,
totally trapped and vulnerable.
“like Jesus hanging on the cross in the church back home in Iddlesleigh.”
Charlie is a Christ figure, suffering without complaint to save other people.
What a friend we have in Jesus becomes “What a friend I have in Charlie.”
After Tommo was wounded on the front line, Charlie disobeyed Hanley’s
suicidal command to charge as he felt he had to stay and look after his
wounded brother. As a result he has been found guilty at a court martial and
been sentenced to death, giving up his life for others, like Jesus.
Chapter 9
A Minute Past Three
Present time
1.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
and here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
A candle is a symbol of light and life. Charlie is about to face everlasting
darkness, i.e. death. In his case it will not be a chopper but a rifle shot which
will kill him.
Flashback
2.
Captain Wilkes
P120 Good for morale, he says, and he’s right too.
The captain was a choirmaster and a teacher back home in Salisbury, so
he knows what he’s doing.
We have never come across someone who treats us with such kindness and
consideration.
p125 meticulous about tidiness and cleanliness, “ because of the rats.”
p128 Wilkie’s heading the patrol and we’re glad of that.
p134 He left Charlie his watch when he was sent back to Blighty.
“keeps us together”
“breaks up our squabbles”
“jollies each of us along”
caring p129 In the attack, he looks out for Tommo.
Brave and dependable p132 – 133 Charlie carries the wounded Captain back
from the front line and visits him in hospital as he said he would.
3.
Charlie is good for morale. P127
4.
The Belgian girl reminds Tommo of Molly. She is gentle, friendly, kind, shy
and pretty.
Chapter 10 Twenty-Five Past Three
Present time
1.
It appears that it is Tommo who is going to die. He is offered company
throughout the night. The padre visits. He is offered anything he wants to eat
which sounds like a final request.
Flashback
2.
disturbing aspects of no-man’s land or the attack
two dead horses
smell of death in the trench mud
the unburied on No-man’s land
the enemy weapons
the waste of life
the fear
etc . . .
3.
p139 The body in rigor mortis with the hand outstretched to Heaven is like
his father blaming Tommo for his death.
P144 He has a belief that stars are the spirits of the deceased, one is father
and one will be Charlie. (cf. Lion King.)
4.
Tommo
5.
p149 Sergeant Hanley “Hanley snapping at our heels, his voice had become
a vicious bark inside each of our heads.”
He is a predatory wild dog, hounding them and giving them no peace.
courage / love / anger / jealousy / hatred / stoicism . . .
Chapter 11 Nearly Four O’Clock
Present time
1.
morning at home
companionship
happiness
innocence
success
wonder
v
morning at the front line
loneliness
fear
experience
failure
dread
etc
2.
p150
“This may be my last sunrise, my last day on earth.”
“I know whose death it will be and how it will happen.”
Flashback
3.
Gas attack p153
“rolling towards us”
“dreaded killer cloud”
“deadly tendrils are searching ahead”
“feeling their way forward”
“scenting me, searching for me”
“swallowing everything in its path”
4.
The German soldier is acting out of pity. Tommo is ill, alone, unarmed and
defenceless.
Moral – man to man we are all the same have no real reason to hate or kill.
5.
People at home are too precious and innocent to be contaminated by violent
tales of warfare, suffering and death. It is best to protect them and stop
needless worry over things they are powerless to prevent.
6. a)
p161 Sgt. Hanley “had taken away our spirit, and drained the last of our
strength, destroyed our hope.”
He calls the soldiers cowards and drills them to the point of exhaustion.
Anna’s death causes Tommo deep grief and sorrow. He has not felt like this
since his father died. He cannot believe in a God who would let this happen.
b)
7. He is alone, in pain and spiritually lost. All is going wrong and he wants it to
end.
Chapter 12 Five to Five
Present time
1.
It still reads as if Tommo is to die soon. The previous chapter ended with him
“welcoming death”. Field Marshal Haig has confirmed the sentence that
“Private Peaceful will be shot for cowardice.” He says he does not want it to
happen “in some dark prison yard with grey walls all around.” He says
“Please let it be quickly over.”
2.
Charlie was charged with deliberately disobeying an order given by Sgt.
Hanley to go over the top. Instead he stayed with Tommo who was seriously
wounded.
3.
The Court Martial is a farce.
It is prearranged
with all the Top Brass
who all listened to Sgt Hanley only
no character witness for Charlie
his previous foot injury was told as if it was deliberate to get
Charlie out of danger
he is presented to be a coward
4.
Hanley’s death is too late. If it had happened on the Front Line, Charlie would
not have been court-martialled.
5.
Charlie has always known how their father died as Tommo relived it in his
nightmares. He knows Tommo was not to blame. He is relying on Tommo to
look after little Tommo and to marry Molly. Together they sing Oranges and
Lemons for Big Joe.
Chapter 13 One Minute To Six
1.
Charlie’s courage
he was not stumbling
He was not struggling
He was not crying out
He was walking with his head held high
He walked out with a smile on his face
He refused to wear the hood
He was singing when he died.
2.
The other soldiers were all “standing to attention outside their tents” as a a
mark of respect for Charlie.
3.
Tommo promises
4.
His memory has highlighted all the good parts of his relationship with he
brother and made us realise what a brave and honest man Charlie Peaceful
was.
to look after and marry Molly
to look after little Tommo
to look after Big Joe and mother
to tell the truth about Charlie’s death
to give little Tommo the watch and tell him the story
behind it.