Animals

Question 1

Who wrote it

Answer 1

Alan Bissett

Question 2

Billy opens his funeral jacket to reveal a long silver blade hanging by a loop

Answer 2

• Billy’s willing to use violence and his paranoia about people being a threat to him is enlightened when he brings a weapon to a funeral
• phrase ‘funeral jacket’ becomes iconic as he is ready to send someone to their funeral while wearing the jacket

Question 3

Billy’s home town. A place he wears like a scar

Answer 3

• implied that billy has never left his home town
• abuse he had as a child has stayed with him like a physical scar that doesn’t fade
• some people wear scars proudly to show they aren’t scared of violence-this hints at Billy’s intimidating side

Question 4

Billy running from a belt which streamed from Dad’s hand

Answer 4

• metaphor ‘streamed’ is an image from nature so it suggests that the father used the belt so often that it seemed a natural part of him
• billy is a victim of abuse

Question 5

God knows how many times he hit us

Answer 5

-‘god knows’ is commonly used when something is uncountable showing just how much the father hit them

Question 6

Whenever dad went for the two of us billy would push me aside away from the violence

Answer 6

• ‘whenever’ shows that every time Billy’s father would attack them Billy’s firs instinct was to protect his brother instead of himself
• this is a large contrast from what he is now
• billy is protective and brave

Question 7

Billy cuffs him across the back of the head and he recoils like a puppy threatened with a cattle prod

Answer 7

• ‘cuffs’ suggests an instinct of habit slap as if billy hits his children all the time
• ‘like a puppy’ the boy is small and vulnerable he is defensless animal at this stage like billy once was

Question 8

But billy. My hero big brother… snarling. Raising his hand to the children… I can’t forgive dad that

Answer 8

• climax of story
• moment where the narrator realises that billy has become their father and the person he once new has been lost forever
• sums up the theme of the story-cycle of abuse
• the series of short sentences creates a tone of utter dejection and loss, almost as if he can’t bring himself to think it
• ‘hero’ is a reference back to how the narrator saw billy as a child emphasises how much billy has changed.