Pigeon English: Writer's Methods and Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Writer's methods and techniques

The best responses at GCSE don’t limit their analysis to individual words and phrases. Examiners are really looking for analysis of Kelman's overall aims, so try to take a ‘whole-text’ approach to writer’s methods and techniques. Each of the below topics do just that:

• Narrative and perspective

• Imagery and symbolism

• Structure

• Setting

Narrative and perspective

• Pigeon English is written from a first-person perspective, with Harri as the narrator: 

  • We, as the reader, only see and hear of things that Harri is aware of, with the story centring on and following only him

  • The novel mostly focuses on “present” action, but Harri does digress occasionally to talk of the past, through memories from his perspective

• The first-person narrative means that we get to see things as Harri sees them:

  • This also gives the potential for an unreliable narrator, as Harri is only young and only relaying things from his point of view

  • This means we have to trust that what Harri reads from others is the truth, and must remember that it is what Harri believes, not necessarily fact

• Kelman uses this to great effect as we near the denouement of the novel, where we the reader know the narrative is coming to an end:

  • Our feelings of finality contrast with Harri’s state of mind

  • At the conclusion of the novel, Harri is as happy as the reader has seen him as he approaches his cruel fate

• By keeping the narration from Harri’s point of view, Harri delivers the story through his stream of consciousness:

  • We get to see how his upbringing and immaturity colour his thoughts on events

  • The mix of language, his misunderstanding of new terms, and his general sense of childlike wonder are constantly underlined as he tells us what he thinks in his voice

  • We can start to tell when Harri is lying, unsure or exaggerating by becoming familiar with his language:

    • Harri says “everybody agrees” 11 times, and it is always to back up something unsubstantiated or something we as the reader can question as true

• Using Harri to narrate the story often leads the reader to a sense of irony:

  • We can often see where Harri is being misled, or where his naivety is taking him towards trouble

  • This only frustrates us further about the situation he is in, as the audience could guide Harri, but like countless others in real life, we are not there to save him

Imagery and symbolism

• Kelman uses imagery and symbolism throughout the novel to convey different meanings and ideas to the reader:

  • Kelman is sometimes subtle with his symbolism, like when he uses the rain (almost a background detail) around instances of violence

  • Other times, he is more direct, for example when using the repeated symbol of the pigeon

The pigeon

• Harri’s pigeon is the key example of symbolism in the text:

  • Kelman places the pigeon into his story to tell us many things about Harri

  • The pigeon can be seen as a symbol of Harri’s desire for freedom, for flight away from his circumstances:

    • In drawing a pigeon on Auntie Sonia’s cast, Harri is wishing for her freedom, hoping that she can escape her current circumstances

  • The pigeon is also an analogue for Harri, as pigeons are not well regarded birds:

    • Pigeons are seen as dirty, carrying disease, which symbolises how people see and treat immigrants

  • Harri is also shown as the only character throughout the story who likes pigeons, showing how he is different and will challenge prejudices, much like he does with Altaf

Rain

• Rain is another key symbol, although used more subtly:

  • We see rain mentioned around death

  • The story starts with the rain at the scene of the dead boy’s murder:

    • The rain is washing the street clean of the dead boy’s blood as his mother stands by 

    • This could perhaps show how futile it is for people in the area to attempt to protect their children, as the rain cannot be stopped by us

  • It also rains at the funeral:

    • It is not just a bleak day because of the conditions, but also how it reflects on the community

  • Finally, Harri is running through the rain as he runs home at the end of the novel:

    • This can be seen as subtle foreshadowing that death is again close

  • In a country where it rains often, the rain over London represents the unrelenting nature of violence in the capital, and how we are used to it, even if we are miserable beneath it

Blood

• Another symbol in the novel is blood:

  • Harri has a fascination with blood, but one he does not understand or always consciously notices

  • After seeing the blood at the scene of the dead boy’s murder, Harri struggles to process the death and violence in his community

  • We see this as he fixates on the blood in his art class, frustrated that he cannot get the colour right

  • He gets so lost in this that Poppy is concerned watching him do it, suggesting Harri is struggling with what he saw

  • Later, Harri and Dean find the dead boy’s wallet:

    • Harri fights the urge to taste the blood on the wallet, again showing he is confused and does not know how to deal with the violence

  • The colour of blood shocks him in exactly the same way at the start and end of the novel, with Harri calling it crazy:

    • This shows how he has not been able to process the reality of the violence in the estate

• Kelman uses the children drawing scars on themselves to not only represent how used to violence they are, but also indicate the psychological scars that this cycle of violence creates

Structure

• The plot of Pigeon English follows a circular structure, with the start and finish mirroring each other in significant ways:

  • The novel begins at the scene of the unnamed dead boy’s murder, and ends at the scene of Harri’s

  • Kelman repeats phrases from the start at the finish, in relation to Harri noticing the blood

  • Kelman does this to remind us of the cycle of violence and death that these boys and this community are stuck in

  • By using the same language, Kelman may also be telling us that Harri has been unable to change and grow within the story, or that this was his fate all along

• The novel is structured into five chapters, each a subsequent month of the year:

  • This structure gives the novel the feeling of a diary, and Harri’s narration is not dissimilar to that of a child writing his days down

  • The orderly structure does contrast with Harri’s wayward storytelling, his youthful exuberance often leading him wherever his thoughts go, even when not relevant

  • By separating the story into months, Kelman helps the reader see a snapshot of Harri’s life, a specific time rather than just the events happening freeform 

Foreshadowing

• Kelman uses foreshadowing throughout the text to evoke the reader’s sympathy at Harri’s situation

• The author also uses foreshadowing to build towards the climax, teasing the drama of what is to come:

  • Harri hints at his fate throughout, often talking casually about his own death

  • At the funeral, he talks about his own coffin, and then mentions he’s worried he might be next, which he is

  • Later, he says he would rather be killed by Julius’ bat than be stabbed as a knife is too sharp

  • He also offers to swap his life for Agnes’ when he worries about her death, foreshadowing his death just after her recovery

  • There are moments with his friends where Harri talks about his possible fate:

    • He offers all his books to Daniel Bevan if he dies first

  • Even Dean foreshadows the death by telling Harri that they’ll find their killer when someone else gets killed

• By using foreshadowing often, Kelman also keeps the reader in a state of tension:

  • This may have been done to put the reader into Harri’s shoes, and to replicate the fear that would be present to many in that environment

Climax and resolution

• Pigeon English leaves the reader with a powerful ending, Harri dying alone on the steps of his building:

  • By finishing how we started, Kelman robs us of a resolution to these problems:

    • This could be the author telling us that this is a story continuing elsewhere, continuing for others who are trapped

• The reader is left not only with the problems Kelman speaks of in society clearly not solved, but also left to wonder what happens to everyone else:

  • By placing the story entirely with Harri and his ending forcing the story to an abrupt end, we are left knowing the characters will remain stuck in the cycle of violence and death as it inevitably starts over and repeats again 

• The climax of the novel leaves the reader with the message that violence and death is a constant battle:

  • The novel has no resolution, but neither have we found one to youth violence and violent crime

Setting

• Pigeon English is set in a fictional housing estate in London

• With the story told almost entirely by Harri, we only get descriptions that interest him, which limits our wider view of the world he lives in:

  • By setting the story in London, the reader can fill in details from context

• The setting of London is often contrasted with descriptions of Harri’s home in Ghana:

  • Harri only ever speaks about his home in glowing fashion 

  • Mentions of death in Ghana are paired with the beauty in how people act or the colour of the world around them

  • By contrast, London is rainy and grey, the people are cold, and events like the funeral are drab and miserable compared to Ghana’s colourful celebration of life

  • This reminds us further of the changing lives of immigrants who move in hope of fortune, but often end up in areas struggling with poverty

• The bleak nature of the setting, with Harri only able to see the car park and bins from his balcony, and the trees caged, reminds us of the environment the residents are in:

  • By relaying this consistently, Kelman is reminding us of the lack of hope in the area

• By setting his story in a real city, and a fictionalised estate that takes aspects of those in London and his own growing up, Kelman is grounding the story in reality:

  • This drives home his commentary in the text

  • It is why this is a social realist story, focusing on real life issues and commenting on a real setting

Sources

Kelman, S. (2011). Pigeon English. Bloomsbury