Curtain Call at the Lantern

Teacher key. Do not link to this page from student materials, and do not upload it to a public folder.

Teacher key

Section numbers map to obscured file names, so students cannot step through the story by editing the address. Start page: index.html. Recap page: p-5b0c4132.html.

Page map

Route notes

• Fullest ending (45, The Real Me): reach the stage at 35, accuse Crane at 36 with four or more of clues B, D, I, J, K, L including K or L (three if the SHARP flag is held), then read the speech at 37 (needs clue K).
• Ending 44 (Curtain Call): same proof, but hand Crane to the inspector at 37.
• Endings 40 to 43: wrong accusations (Kez, Halloran, Imogen, Blackwood). Ending 39: right suspect, thin evidence. Ending 46: refuse the case at section 1. Ending 47: take Blackwood's cheque at section 18.
• Crane clues are found at: B (8), D (24), I (15), J (28), K (22), L (32 via Jonah's errand, unlocked at 6 once clue C and clue D or G are held).

Comprehension questions with indicative content

Credit any valid sociological point, developed with evidence from the story.

A. Structure and action

1. Outline two differences between the Structuralist and Interactionist views of the relationship between the individual and society. [4 marks]

   • Structuralism: society as a framework of rules that guides, constrains or determines behaviour; a "satellite" view (macro).
   • Interactionism: society constructed through meaningful social action and choice; a "street corner" view (micro).
   • Award marks for two distinct differences with a brief development or example.

2. Using the story, explain how Giddens' Structuration theory tries to combine structure and action. [6 marks]

   • People create rules through repeated practices (action); the rules become externalised and "reflect back" on behaviour (structure).
   • Fenn and Crane chose their identities, yet the class structure shaped every choice.
   • Power and resources explain why some rules are negotiated and others imposed.

B. Nature, nurture and the self

3. Crane says some people are "born to command a room". Using the case of feral children, explain one problem with this claim. [4 marks]

   • Feral children (e.g. Genie) fail to develop normal speech and behaviour without human contact.
   • If behaviour were instinctive we would expect them to acquire it naturally, and they do not.
   • Culture varies across time and place, which instinct cannot explain.

4. Explain how Mead's concepts of the "I" and the "Me" help make sense of Sir Edwin's planned speech. [6 marks]

   • The "Me" is the social self: how others expect us to behave; the "I" is the unsocialised response.
   • Edwin performed "Sir Edwin" (the Me) for decades; the speech was the "I" trying to speak.
   • Link to Cooley's looking-glass self: identity as reflected by others.

5. Evaluate the view that identity is a performance (Goffman). Refer to at least two characters in your answer. [10 marks]

   • Explain dramaturgy: front stage/backstage, impression management, scripts and roles.
   • Crane, Edwin, Imogen, Halloran and Blackwood all perform roles for audiences.
   • Evaluation: what is left of the "real me"? Personal vs social identity; structural constraints; postmodern fragmentation; the cost of failing to perform.

C. Agencies of socialisation and social control

6. Identify and explain two differences between primary and secondary socialisation, using an example from the story for each. [4 marks]

   • Primary: intimate, face-to-face, emotionally charged (Imogen and her father); secondary: detached, formal, instrumental (St Aldhelm's).
   • Parsons: school loosens the hold of the family and introduces instrumental relationships.

7. Explain what the story shows about the hidden curriculum and the correspondence between school and work. [6 marks]

   • Bells, queues, uniforms, deference to authority, separation of boys from their backgrounds.
   • Jackson's hidden curriculum; Bowles and Gintis: schools prepare pupils for hierarchy at work.
   • Fenn's accent was policed: knowledge and manner valued by the elite.

8. Assess the importance of the media as an agency of socialisation, using Halloran's Sentinel as an example. [6 marks]

   • Short-term effects (imitation, desensitisation); long-term effects (fear, consumerism, agenda-setting).
   • Halloran manufactured a folk devil before the crime and set the agenda afterwards.
   • Evaluation: limits of media power; audience interpretation; other agencies.

9. Distinguish between formal and informal social control, giving one example of each from the story. [4 marks]

   • Formal: police tape, arrest, CCTV, school detentions; written rules.
   • Informal: Kez's crew testing outsiders; disapproving looks; Crane's etiquette.

D. Culture, ideology and power

10. Explain the difference between roles, values and norms, using the role of "usher" or "headmaster" as your example. [4 marks]

    • Roles: labelled positions played in relation to other roles; role-sets.
    • Values: general beliefs about how role-players should behave; norms: specific rules for playing the role.

11. Using Lukes' three dimensions of power, explain what Blackwood's cheque shows. [6 marks]

    • Decision-making; preventing decisions; removing the issue from the agenda entirely (getting people to believe nothing needs to change).
    • The cheque works by closing the agenda quietly, without force.

12. Explain how high culture and popular culture are used to maintain class boundaries, with reference to the Grand Lantern and Club Kaleidoscope. [6 marks]

    • High culture as taste barrier; invented tradition; cultural hegemony.
    • Popular culture as mass, commercial, "low"; hybridisation (Bhangra) challenges the boundary.
    • Edwin's secret funding as a break in the barrier.

E. Social identities: class, gender, ethnicity

13. Explain two ways class identity is shown in the story. [6 marks]

    • Accent, deportment, taste, cultural capital (Bourdieu); "not working class" (Brooks).
    • Occupation as the marker of class (Crompton); the dock tag; upper-class business elite.

14. Using Connell's concepts, explain the masculine identities of Kez and Blackwood. [6 marks]

    • Kez: marginalised and retributive masculinity after the loss of manufacturing work.
    • Blackwood: hegemonic masculinity: leadership, control, unemotional authority.

15. Explain why Anisa says "everyone is ethnic". [4 marks]

    • Ethnicity is not "race"; everyone has an ethnic background and identity; labelling "minorities" treats it as other people's property.
    • Ethnic identity as negotiated and constantly changing through contact.

16. Explain what is meant by hybrid ethnic identities, using the Club Kaleidoscope as an example. [6 marks]

    • Conventional hybridisation: mixing styles to create new identities (Bhangra = Punjabi rhythms and electric guitars).
    • Contemporary hybridisation: gradual changes under immigration and globalisation.

F. Modernist and postmodernist theories of identity

17. Explain one function of culture and one function of identity, using an example from the story for each. [6 marks]

    • Mazrui: communication, perception, identity, values, motivation, stratification, production and consumption.
    • Adams and Marshall: identity gives structure, purpose, self-control, consistency and direction.

18. Evaluate the view that, in postmodern societies, identities are chosen rather than given. Use the story as evidence. [10 marks]

    • Postmodernism: fragmentation, decentred identities, "identity shopping" (Ritzer's malls).
    • Edwin and Crane chose new identities; but the class structure limited what they could choose and what they had to hide.
    • Counter: modernist arguments that class, gender and ethnicity still structure identity; consumption as a symbol of status; Neo-Marxist critique.

19. "Identity is never finished; it is always negotiated." Discuss with reference to the ending you reached and one alternative ending. [12 marks]

    • Use Mead, Goffman, Giddens; compare a "fixed" and a "negotiated" view.
    • Endings as different outcomes of structure and action: labelling, agenda-setting, power, or negotiation of a life story.