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GCSE Fiction Analysis Practice
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GCSE Fiction Analysis Practice
Read the original fiction extract carefully. For each question, support your ideas with short quotations and explain how the writer’s choices affect the reader.
Fiction extract
Read the extract before answering the questions.
The station clock had stopped at 11:17, but the platform lights still flickered above the empty tracks. Rain ticked on the glass roof. Eli stood beneath it, clutching a damp envelope in his coat pocket. The paper inside had softened at the edges; he had read the message so often that he knew every word by heart.
A train was supposed to come at midnight. The timetable promised it, though the station looked as if it had been forgotten years ago. Weeds pushed through cracks in the platform. At the far end, a bench leaned towards the tracks, its green paint peeled away in long curls. Eli tried to imagine his sister waiting there, tapping her boot impatiently as she used to do. The thought warmed him for a moment, then slipped away.
A bell rang somewhere beyond the station. Eli turned. Nothing moved except the rain. Then, from the tunnel, came a thin line of light. It grew brighter, spreading across the rails like a blade. The ground trembled beneath his shoes. He took the envelope from his pocket and unfolded it once more. Beneath the familiar words, in handwriting he did not recognise, someone had added: “Don’t get on.”
The train emerged from the darkness without a sound. Its windows were black. As it slowed beside him, every door opened at once. Eli looked down at the warning, then towards the empty carriage. From inside came the sharp, familiar tapping of a boot.
Analysis questions
1.How does the writer use language in the opening paragraph to make the station seem isolated and unsettling? Refer closely to specific words and images.
2.How does the writer organise the extract to build readers’ interest, from Eli waiting on the platform to the train’s arrival?
3.How does the writer create tension and suspense when the train arrives in the final two paragraphs? Use detailed references to the extract.
4.“Eli is a character readers can sympathise with.” How far do you agree? Give your view and support it with evidence from the extract.
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