Our Day Out Analysis Essay Example

has not had a lot of guidance at home. This can be seen when she is crossing the road at the beginning of the play with Les the lollypop man you can also hear that she has an obvious lack of education, in most cases it seems as if she is unable to find the words to use, for example. "Y'know....

. ll the thingy like. The dirt an' that (pause) I like them nice places. "This quotation suggests that she hasn't got a wide range of vocabulary, and she is a girl who dreams of escaping her inner-city existence. However the chances of this is 1 in a million and she knows that she will most probably never escape the run down area that she is lives in.

Carol can be seen as funny or pathetic, personally I would go with that she is funny more than pathetic as pathetic is a bit harsh because of the situation she is in. To prove my point this is a quote from Carol."Will we have to get a boat? This is after she was told she was going to Conwy castle in Wales, also there was a coach stood directly in front of her. Mrs Kay is in her early forties, and is the teacher of the Progress class.

She is a pragmatic teacher who believes there is more to education than a diet of books, facts and writing. She is spontaneous and likes adventures for the children. She thinks they need to learn about life skills and see new places other than the same old street corners of Liverpool. She is a favourite with the children

and past students who used to be in her class.She is like a mother figure to the kids, and looks after them as if they were her own, the bus driver commented about them having lemonade or chocolate, however Mrs Kay wanted them to have a great day so she pulled him over to the side and had a word with him. "Ronny, the kids with me today don't know what it is like to look at a bar of chocolate.

Lemonade never touches their lips. " This way the kids were able to sneak the lemonade and the chocolate on board without the bus driver knowing. Unlike Mrs. Kay, Mr. John Briggs is the authoritarian Deputy Headmaster as he is very strict and tries to discipline the children.He feels very strong about education and doesn't think having fun links in with it.

He is very arrogant and shouts and commands the children instead of asking politely, for example "Sit down now, come on move. " Unfortunately the children don't listen or respect him in the way that they should. The styles of teaching are very different between Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs; however between the two of them I personally would prefer Mrs. Kay and think I would enjoy a school trip with her.

This is because she is more laid back, treats the children well and is easy to talk to.However there is a disadvantage to this style of teaching as some children may try to take advantage of her, especially when she offers privileges. Willy Russell uses a lot of dramatic devices in his plays and tries to show comparisons and metaphors

for situations. This can be seen at the scene of the zoo when they come across the bear in a pit. Mr Briggs feels that the bear is dangerous and should be kept in the pit; however Ronson is trying to say that he feels it is cruel to keep it in the pit and feels it is only dangerous because it is trapped.Mr Biggs feels that they are treated well and wouldn't know any other life, but Ronson disagrees with this.

There are many similarities between the bears living conditions and the way the children are treated at school. The bear will most probably never leave the pit like the children may never leave Liverpool. Because the Progress Class children don't have the chance to go out very often, they act badly and out of control, this can be seen in the sweet shop where the children were badly behaved and stole sweets.Mr Biggs doesn't care about the bear and thinks that the bear would not want a different life.

He thinks that this is the same for the Progress class but this isn't how the children feel. Willy Russell's puts more descriptions and information in his stage direction in the play. The scene between Ronson and Carol shows this as he identifies the actions used, so you can imagine what they are doing even though they are not talking. For example (Ronson answers by picking up the rabbit and gently stroking it. Carol reaching over to join him stroking the rabbit but he pulls it close to him protectively).

From what you read from the play, you can see that the children are demonstrating

that they could care for an animal if they were given the opportunity to and this shows that they probably didn't have a pet at home. This is why i think they were so desperate to take the animals from the zoo. The scene on the cliff is the most dramatic scene in the play and has the most dramatic tension in it as Carol threatens to jump off the cliff and kill herself. This is because Carol doesn't want to leave Wales as she knows that she isn't going to get a good job or even be able to leave Liverpool.In this scene Mr.

Briggs mood changes, he starts the conversation with Carol in his usual way which is very abrupt and shouting at her 'Now come on! I'll not tell you again'. He soon realizes that this isn't working and begins talking to her as an adult and is calmer. "You're talking as though you've given up on life already. You sound though life for you is just ending but instead of beginning. " Because he is treating her with more respect and being nice, Carol agrees to leave the cliff but slips and Mr Brigg's manages to grab her.When he pulls her up he cuddles her.

Although we saw a different side to Mr Briggs I think he was being genuine and was most probably scared that Carol would jump. However he soon changed when he got back to the school so that his reputation would not be damaged. This was shown in the last scene when he removes the film from the camera and then he looks at the film and

then up at the school. He pulls open the film and exposes it to the light, crumples it up and puts it into his pocket. This is because he did not want anyone to see him having fun with the children.It was a dramatic ending, especially when he drove past Carol as if nothing had happened or been said on the Cliff.

It also showed that the day out hadn't changed anything. However I do think that Mr Briggs realised that shouting isn't always the best way of dealing with things. Despite the brilliant day that Progress Class had, they still came back to the same problems that had been there the day before. This included Carol's poor home life and Mr.

Briggs being his nasty self and still not trusting the children. However the children were able to see another side of how their lives could be and were able to learn a lot from the day.