Emulating Atwood’s use of an untrustworthy character in ‘Alias Grace’
I can emulate Atwood’s use of dehumanisation, disconcerting labels and conflicting emotions to craft my own untrustworthy character voice.
Emulating Atwood’s use of an untrustworthy character in ‘Alias Grace’
I can emulate Atwood’s use of dehumanisation, disconcerting labels and conflicting emotions to craft my own untrustworthy character voice.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Arguably, Atwood crafts an untrustworthy voice for the narrator of ‘Alias Grace’.
- To emulate Atwood’s use of an untrustworthy voice, we might attach a disconcerting label to the character.
- We might then demonstrate how the character has conflicting feelings towards this label.
- We may then compare the label to something fashionable that may enhance the character’s appearance.
- The character might also be dehumanised in someway to imply that they don’t have the same human emotions.
Keywords
Alias - a false name used to conceal one's identity; an assumed name
Untrustworthy - not able to be relied on as honest or truthful
Dehumanise - to remove from a person the special human qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people, etc.
Disconcerting - making someone feel uncertain and uncomfortable or worried
Conflicting - being in conflict or disagreement; not compatible
Common misconception
That we can always trust the narrator in a story to tell us the truth about events and people.
Writers will sometimes create unreliable or untrustworthy narrators.
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Emulating Atwood’s use of an untrustworthy character in ‘Alias Grace’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Emulating Atwood’s use of an untrustworthy character in ‘Alias Grace’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
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Explore more key stage 4 english lessons from the Fiction: inner musings unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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