S5 - Brooklyn Cop

Hey folks,

I'm sure we are all revising hard, what with the exams less than a month off now. Tick tock, tick tock.

The question set today was "Choose a poem which you know well which has a memorable character. Write about the character, explaining why you found it memorable."

If I were looked at this question in an exam, I'd follow the following 8 paragraph plan:

Introduction - "Brooklyn Cop" is a poem, by Normal MacCaig. There's my triangle of text, genre and author. Then I'd have a couple of sentences summarising the poem - explaining that it is about a tough cop working a dirty beat in Brooklyn, USA. I'd explain that it is about how the cop confronts violence every day in his job, and that a part of him likes this. I'd make sure I explained that this was why I thought he was memorable.

My link paragraph would talk about the areas I was going to explore, and what I was going to show in each. For example: The character is memorable for his size and strength and his frightening appearance. MacCaig uses extended metaphor, careful words choice, and symbolism to suggest that not only is he a man who enjoys his violent job, but a well rounded three dimensional character, who also loves his wife and fears that one day he might not return.

Then I'd write PEE paragraphs in following areas:

• "Gorilla" - talk about extended metaphors, physical description of him, and why he needs to be so big, savage and beastial.


• All other the physical bits here - "heiroglyphs" etc - and talk about the suggestion that he likes and even seeks out the violence. This would lead me onto ...


• "Nightstick" - I'd talk about how he is memorable (see - referring back to the question) because his baton means he gets to be close to the people he is hitting, and how, unlike a gun, you can use it again and again. This also creates the impression that he likes violence. I'd also talk about symbolism of "night" in nightstick - is our eponymous cop the barrier that stops the "night" taking over the streets - maybe even referring back to "Hotel Room, 12th Floor" to show how clever I was


• I'd talk about his softer side, and how he is a three dimensional character, by showing how he says "see you, babe" to his wife.


• Finally, I'd discuss the deliberately ambiguous ending, and say it makes for a memorable character because it has so many interpretations - "And who would be who have to be
  his victims?" - because it is strange to think of policeman as having victims. Maybe he is so brutal, we feel sorry for the criminals who will become his victims.

In my final paragraph, which would be my conclusion, I'd sum up what I'd said and make sure I'd answered the question. I'd probably say something like "this was a great poem because I've never thought about policemen enjoying the violent side of their job before, and it helped me to understand more about what it must do to a person to be so close to agression every day."

Then I'd nad in my essay and take a 20 minute break before turning up for Mr Sharpe's after school exam practice session. But that's just me.

Brooklyn Cop
by Norman MacCaig

Built like a gorilla but less timid,
thick‑fleshed, steak‑coloured, with two
hieroglyphs in his face that mean
trouble, he walks the sidewalk and the
thin tissue over violence. This morning,
when he said, "See you, babe" to his wife,
he hoped it, he truly hoped it.
He is a gorilla
to whom "Hiya, honey" is no cliché.

Should the tissue tear, should he plunge through
into violence, what clubbings, what
gunshots between Phoebe's Whamburger
and Louie's Place.

Who would be him, gorilla with a nightstick,
whose home is a place
he might, this time, never get back to?

And who would be who have to be
his victims?