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Skellig Essay Questions

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Skellig Essay
Analyse the themes of imagination, belief and disbelief in the novel.
Skellig, a novel by David Almond, is something rare; something that encapsulates the fleeting nature of childhood. Almond uses many different literary techniques to achieve this, and I will be focusing on and discussing three of the most prominent: imagination, belief and disbelief, throughout my essay. Using these themes as a base, Almond incorporates many controversial topics into the book, making a statement about his own beliefs and disbeliefs, and leaves the rest up to the reader’s imagination.
Imagination takes its hold in the reader’s brain from page one, and continues to keep the readers mind on edge all the way through to the very last page. A true …show more content…

One example of this is Mina’s strong opposition towards going to school “See how school shutters you,” She said. “I’m drawing, painting, reading, looking. I’m feeling the sun and the air on my skin. I’m listening to the blackbird’s song. I’m opening my mind. Ha! School!” (Page 58). Mina is a character who has an abundance of opinions, someone who fills her conversations with poetry, and things she has learnt. She is the one who teaches Michael about the Archaeopteryx, about sculpting, drawing, William Blake, and about friendship. As Michael and Mina have to choose to believe their eyes when they see Skellig’s true form, and to keep helping him without any parental or adult supervision “What is he?” I said. “We can’t know. Sometimes we just have to accept that there are things that we can’t know. Why is your sister ill? Why did my father die?” She held my hand. “Sometimes we think we should be able to know everything. But we can’t. We have to allow ourselves to see what there is to see, and we have to imagine.” (Page 140). Michael’s parents have to believe that their baby will get better. Coot has to believe that Michael will come back to him and play sports as they used to, and Grace has to believe that her son will finally visit her in

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