Key learning points

1. ‘Propping Up The Line’ is a short story by Ian Beck written using a third person narrative voice.
2. Beck was inspired to write the story to “honour” his grandfather who was gassed in the trenches during World War One.
3. Gas attacks killed about three percent of people immediately.
4. There were long term physical and psychological effects for those who survived gas attacks.
5. Many people who write about World War One try to convey the horrors of gas attacks in their work.

Keywords

• Third person narrative - when the person telling the story isn’t a character in the story and tells us about the characters using their names, or ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘they’

• Short story - a fictional text which is shorter than a novel and can often be read in one sitting; a writer might focus on one event, or linked events, and evoke a particular tone or mood

• Wilfred Owen - a British soldier and poet (1893-1918) best known for his poems about World War One

• Simile - a language technique whereby a writer describes something by comparing it to something else using 'like' or 'as'

Common misconception