Eric Birling

Question 1

. Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?

Answer 1

Rhetorical question; directed at an audience who realises the value of workers as forming the backbone of the war effort

uses comparative adjective to stress the disparity between rich and poor: imitates his father’s motto

Question 2

‘well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.’

Answer 2

euphemistic language-
men abuse their priviledge to practice their basal desires

dynamic adverb ‘easily’ suggests fluency between ‘states’ thus implying that upper class men don’t commit themselves to posterity

creates a paradox between the image of wealth and the truth behind it which suggests the injustice of capitalism

Question 3

‘you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble’

Answer 3

euphemistic language- sense of shame and oppression is inherited from older-generation

perhaps symbolic of war guilt being passed on from WW1 and acting as a catalyst for WW2

Priestley presents capitalism as a neglectful parent - the ‘father(land)’ was used to describe fascist Italy. Disparaging the right-wing method of government (parenting)