THEME 1 HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS Focus on ... figurative language
Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal defi nition.
We use fi gures of speech to say something that does not need to be understood literally. For example, ‘This jacket cost me an arm and a leg.’ In this example the speaker is using fi gurative language because they did not literally use their arm and leg as payment for the jacket.
When a writer uses a metaphor they are speaking fi guratively. They say one thing but mean something different. Rose Tremain uses fi gurative language when she tells us that Lev ‘would break his back working’.
Work in small groups to come up with as many examples of fi gurative language as you can. Share your examples with your classmates.
Understand
1. Locate the underlined words in the extract. Use your dictionary to fi nd a defi nition of each word and add these to the vocabulary list on pages 1–2 of your Portfolio.
2. Why is Lev leaving his home country? 3. How old is Lev? 4. Describe the landscape observed in the opening paragraph.
Explore 3 3 1. How do you think Lev is feeling as he travels away from home?
2. Lev recognises that both he and his fellow passenger have ‘separate aches and dreams’. What do you think these might be?
3. The extract is from the opening pages of the novel The Road Home. Do you think it is a good opening? Explain your answer.
Create
Lev has just arrived in London. Continue the story as he begins his new life in a strange and unfamiliar place.
