- We find out about the Hoopers and particularly the eldest one’s fascination with moths.
- The Kingshaws arrive; the interrogation of Charles and the fight. We find out about Edmund’s obsession with his battle plans and the nature of the relationship between father and son. We begin to learn about Charles’s fears.
- Charles goes for a walk and is attacked by a crow. The attack is witnessed by Edmund who devises a cruel method of further torturing Charles – the crow on the bed and Edmund’s sheer delight in it. We learn that Charles actually liked his school and why.
- Kingshaw finds a secret room. We find out about Mrs Kingshaw’s hopes and much more about Charles’s character; his weaknesses and his acceptance of his shortcomings. Hooper meanwhile finds the room and discovers Charles’ plan to run away. Mrs Kingshaw and Mr Hooper are getting on so well he decides to have a cocktail party and she throws herself into the planning of it.
- The adults go to London; Mrs K reveals her selfishness and we learn more about Charles’ feelings about his mother; Charles makes his bid for freedom and we see that he thinks of himself as a failure; how does this affect his chances? Why does he feel so strongly? He heads for Hang Wood. How does he feel once he’s inside? We also learn some things about his life at school.
- As Kingshaw enters Hang Wood his feelings are quite unexpected, both to him and to us. Note the style of writing, the emphasis on description and atmosphere. Then everything changes as Hooper intrudes. Forming an interlude in the novel this is an opportunity for the boys to work out their differences.
Newspaper article about the ending of: I’m The King of The Castle
As a piece of original writing coursework you are going to compose a newspaper report of the death of Charles Kingshaw.
Layout:
- A headline either tabloid style or broadsheet (think of your audience) E.g. Bullied boy kills himself or Child suicide in country village and for section 2 (see below) Bullying: the secret horror of our children
- Side bar headings (sub headings) at intervals throughout your article.
- Paragraphs – in tabloids these are often only one sentence long, in broadsheets usually no more than two or three.
- Columns – two or three; word-processed or hand written
- Style of vocabulary – tabloid will be more dramatic, emotive and full of human interest, people’s feelings, thoughts, speculations will be much more personal etc, broadsheets will be more factual, less emotive, more dispassionate, interested in causes, statistics and detail, will be more general
- Write in the past tense for section one, present for section 2
What to include:
- Where found; who by; under what circumstances, when etc
- Facts about his life, parents, schools, home life, how they’d come to Warings
- Facts known about his death and the reasons for it – here you can, if you wish, discover that Mrs Boland found both the notes (but remember this is not true!!) and this would lead you to an investigation into the bullying or you can just interview the other characters and speculate on the reasons for his death from reading between the lines
- Interviews with Mr Hooper, Mrs Kingshaw, Edmund, Mrs Boland and Fielding. You might also include interviews with Devereux or Charles’ headmaster at St Vincent’s.
- And a second section on child suicide – for this you must do some research, find out some statistics, facts and reasons. Do a general piece on bullying, how to spot the signs in your child, friends etc and suggestions of what to do about it
- Pictures, graph, map
- So the first section will be writing to entertain but the second section will be writing to inform so make sure the styles and layout are quite different. 800 – 1000 words, one or two sheets, single or double-sided.