Edexcel English IGCSE: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

Levine’s feelings towards the people at the donkey race are generally positive, as they contribute to the exciting atmosphere. However, after the race, the atmosphere becomes more sinister.

Levine’s attitude towards her guides before and during the race is wholly positive. She appreciates their optimism, which contributes to the thrilling build-up of tension before the race: they are “fired up with enthusiasm”. She repeatedly describes them as “lads”, which portrays fondness for their boyish enthusiasm. During the race, she also expresses admiration for Yaqoob’s driving skills. He chose “exactly the right moment” to enter the entourage, and found the “perfect place”. The plosive alliteration in this phrase reflects Levine’s own excitement at having the opportunity for a good picture of the event. She portrays Yaqoob as a skilful driver, with his skills portrayed as animal-like intuition: he has “quick reflexes” and “nerves of steel”.

Similarly, the portrayal of the spectators and jockeys during the race is positive, as they contribute to the overwhelming but thrilling atmosphere. The spectators create a loud and exciting environment: they “cheered and shouted”, and make other noises such as “tooting” and “ringing”. The description of the spectators “standing” on, “hanging out of” and “perched on” various vehicles is given in a long sentence with a number of short clauses; this reflects Levine’s breathless excitement, showing that she enjoys this raucous atmosphere. Levine is also excited by the jockeys taking part in the race. She portrays them as ridiculous by highlighting the strange scale of their arrangement: they were “perched on top of the tiny carts”. This creates a humorous image for the reader.

After the race, the atmosphere becomes more tense and volatile, resulting in slightly more unpleasant portrayals of the people at the race. The result of the race is contested, causing arguments between various stakeholders. The language used to describe the angry crowd suggests that Levine was intimidated by the crowd. The use of triples and the passive voice in the sentence – “Voices were raised, fists were out and tempers rising” – shows the building anger in the crowd, and creates the frightening sense of a faceless mob of people. The crowd is also portrayed as a violent animal, which “swallowed up” the guides. At the end of the passage, Yaqoob reveals that he doesn’t have a driving license. The guides find it “hilarious”, but this contrasts with Levine’s evident disapproval. The description of what could have happened if he had caused an accident is in a long sentence without many pauses, highlighting how catastrophic and complex the situation could have been.

Levine is fond of and excited by the people at the donkey race, as they contribute to the exciting atmosphere of the race. However, this excitement soon turns to aggression.

Edexcel English IGCSE: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

Emma Levine is originally from England, and in this passage, she is travelling through Pakistan. There are many differences between these two countries, some of which are highlighted in the event described in this passage.

In the build-up for the race, a number of unexpected things occur which seem to go unquestioned by people native to the Pakistani culture. The guides, for example, suggest that Levine climb into the boot of their car to get the best picture; this is certainly unusual and at worst, dangerous. Humour is employed as the image of Levine uncomfortably “perched” in this strange position is combined with the length of time that they have to wait. To Levine, the hour-long wait for the race to arrive feels like “eternity”; the fact that Levine is from a Western culture probably exacerbates this and justifies such hyperbolic language, since she is probably more used to attending carefully planned events with a strict schedule. This cultural difference is highlighted by her difference with local people: whilst she begins to “lose faith” that the race will happen at all, the guides “remained confident”. These two expectations are contrasted within one sentence. Similarly, passers-by call out “Coming, coming” when asked about the event: this vague reply is clearly frustrating for Levine, but perhaps reveals the patience of Pakistani culture, in contrast to Levine’s expectations for things to be on time and exactly as planned.

Levine highlights cultural differences by making references to scenes which are more familiar to the reader. The first example of this is in the title. “A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat” juxtaposes something familiar and formal with something strange and grotesque. This combination of the familiar and unfamiliar is somewhat unsettling, and prepares the reader for a description of something unusual. When describing her experience as part of the donkey race’s entourage, Levine uses metaphors relating to Western culture, to help the reader to understand how strange and unfamiliar the experience was: “This was Formula One without rules” and “city-centre rush hour gone anarchic”. These are familiar scenes to the reader, which are considered fairly chaotic anyway; by describing this event as even more chaotic, Levine shows how different sports events are in Karachi. Despite these differences, Levine celebrates the diversity between the two cultures. When describing the jockeys using whips on the donkeys, she clarifies that they weren’t using them “cruelly”. This shows the awareness of a Western reader’s potential reaction, but also ensures that her portrayal of cultural differences is not a condemnation of diversity.

This passage is exciting because it describes a scene which is unfamiliar to the reader, and teaches them about the way that sporting events are run in a culture very different to their own. 

Edexcel English IGCSE: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

Edexcel English IGCSE: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

In this extract from ‘A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat’, Levine portrays the excitement and madness of the donkey race using a variety of language techniques.

After the build-up of tension in the beginning of the passage, the arrival of the donkeys and their entourage is thrilling and overwhelming. Levine appeals to the reader’s senses to portray the exciting atmosphere of the scene. For example, the donkeys arrive in a “cloud of fumes and dust”: an image that adds visual drama for the reader. In this climactic description, Levine also captures the noisiness of the scene. The vehicles are “roaring”, and this personification suggests that even the cars cannot remain quiet in this excitement, like the people who “cheered and shouted”. Onomatopoeia is also used to create a vivid experience for the reader: “horns tooting, bells ringing, and the special rattles”. The description of the scene comprises long, complex sentences. For example, the sentence beginning “Men standing on top…” contains an unusually high number of short clauses. This sounds disjointed, which creates a sense of breathless excitement and also reflects the chaotic disorder of the event.

Levine portrays the bizarre nature of the event, including the chaotic character of a sports event which we expect to be well-organised. The scale of the race is large and impressive, and Levine uses size contrasts to capture the strange nature of the scene: for example, the donkeys are “dwarfed by their entourage”. This hyperbolic language captures how the hype surrounding the race is almost more exciting than the race itself. Levine also uses metaphors relating to more familiar cultures to help the reader understand the chaos. The metaphors “Formula One without rules” and “city-centre rush hour gone anarchic” use familiar scenes which are generally quite chaotic in nature but framed by rules and social norms; by describing the donkey race in these terms, Levine implies that it is unimaginably chaotic. The description of the chase adopts an extended metaphor of hunting animals, which emphasises the primal wildness of the atmosphere. The common phrase “survival of the fittest” evokes images of a dangerous hunt, and the descriptions of the speed and agility of Yaqoob’s car could also be used for an animal. The “effective horn” of the car could be interpreted as a pun on animal horns, since both types of horn encourage others to move out of the way. This extended metaphor makes the event sound wild and even dangerous.

Towards the end of the passage, the atmosphere changes from excited to troublesome, as people argue about the outcome of the race. At this change of atmosphere, Levine leaves, and the over-riding impression that the reader has of the race is one of thrilling chaos.

Edexcel English IGCSE: A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

This passage begins with a build-up of tension, as Levine waits for the race. Then, in a burst of activity, the drama of the event itself is described. The end of the passage returns to a state of tension.

At the beginning of the passage, excitement for the race is followed by concern that it may not happen. The opening paragraph builds optimism and excitement amongst Levine and her guides. The guides “loved the idea” of joining the race, and said it was “no problem” to get involved. This builds the expectation that something thrilling will happen soon. Because of this expectation, even more tension is created when the race doesn’t start immediately. The tone shifts from enthusiastic to hopeless. Levine hyperbolically states that they “waited for eternity”, which is in stark contrast to the energy of the previous sentence, in which the guides were “fired up with enthusiasm”. There is tension between Levine’s hopelessness as she begins to “lose faith” in the race, and the guides, who “remained confident”. These two views are contrasted in a simple, compound sentence; the reader is excited to find out who will be right.

Following the slow pace of this build-up, the race bursts onto the scene with dramatic intensity. The donkeys appear in a “cloud of fumes and dust”, which creates a visually dramatic scene; the dust-cloud makes it seem as though they are moving very fast, and also creates an air of mystery, since they are partially obscured from sight. Levine also creates a sense of drama through her portrayal of the noisiness of the scene. Onomatopoeic vocabulary is employed to capture the overwhelming nature of the event: “roaring”, “revved”, “tooting”, “ringing”, “cheered and shouted”. There is also drama in the dangerous nature of the driving. An extended metaphor of an animalistic hunt is used to create an atmosphere of wild abandon: “quick reflexes” and “effective horn”, for example.

At the end of the passage, an atmosphere of tension returns. The excitement ends with the short, blunt sentence: “The race was over.” However, tension is created when the next paragraph begins with a connective, undermining the reader’s expectations that the excitement is finished. The crowd becomes irate, and the tense danger of this crowd is captured in the triple structure describing their actions: “Voices were raised, fists were out and tempers rising.” The use of the passive voice in this dramatic statement creates the sense of a frightening mob of people. Levine and the guides decide to leave as a result of this building tension.

Levine’s description is full of tension and drama. The excitement of the race is heightened by the tension before it, and this drama contributes to the tense atmosphere that follows.