An Angel at My Table, Janet Frame

1. The author: misdiagnosed with schizophrenia as a child

1.1. The book cover: the multiple pictures of her represent her supposed/fake multiple personalities

2. The main protagonist:

2.1. Occupation: writer

2.2. Family: - difficult childhood - sisters (one died) - brother with epilepsy - cat

2.3. Context of childhood: WW2

2.4. Hobbies as a child: - read /study - writing poems and sending them to newspapers

2.5. Personality/specificities: - imagination - "ordinary life" - schizophrenia = "disability"

3. First paragraph:

3.1. Periods of time: - childhood: "my early years" - adolescence / "last years at school"

3.2. Key words used: struggling / whirlpool / memories --> childhood : horizontal --> adolescence : vertical

3.3. Equal memories of those periods of time? - memories disorganized - horizontal: remembers her childhood as an impression - vertical: remembers her adolescence with precise events (many facts she doesn't remember, but she aknowledges them)

4. Disability for the author: - uses her disability to achieve her dream - compares hers to famous poets' or writers'

5. "A pure autobiography":

5.1. Why it's impossible to write: because your memories change in time.

5.2. Second degree of interpretation: her schizophrenia may have changed her memories and created an invisible barrier.

6. A teenager thinking about poets: - she was a bit in love with poets she used to read - she wondered whether her ambition was to become one or marry one - poets had a lot of imagination, like her : she compares herself to them