Cathy Come Home Text Analysis

Cathy Come Home English text analysis • What was the purpose of the text and who was the target audience? The purpose of the text is to inform the reader about what the film is about. It uses words like ‘documentary’, ‘social issues drama’, ‘docudrama’. In the first line of the text it impresses upon the readers the importance this film played in changing the social-economic viewpoint of the viewers. “First broadcast by the BBC in 1966, it was a pivotal in the launch of the housing charity Shelter, and instrumental in changing the law regarding homelessness. The target audience for the text would be adults, with a certain level of education and social/ political awareness possibly someone of middle class background as Jon Fortgang uses mostly sophisticated language such as polemical and inexorable. The sentence structure is quite long and complex as well. • Comment on the writer’s style and language technique. The language used by Jon Fortgang is mostly formal and the sentence structure and paragraphs are quite long and sophisticated. There are some parts of the text that is informal such as “rough and ready documentary”, “With baby on the way, money is tight. This is done so as to relate to his readers. The first two sentences and the last three sentences of the review are emboldened to emphasis importance of the text, he also uses positive adjectives such as powerful and pivotal. He also lets his readers know that the film is “One of the most important British works ever, and is then reinforced again in the second to last paragraph of review and relates and how the issues covered in the film can be related to what is happening today. List at least 3 facts given in the review. – First broadcast in 1966, it was pivotal in the launch of the housing charity Shelter and instrumental in changing the law regarding homelessness. – Directed by Loach before he made the transition from TV to cinema. – It is written by Jeremy Sanford and is acted by Carol White and Ray Brooks. • Identify at least 3 opinions given and comment on the language used. – “A milestone in British film making and still one of Loach’s most direct and watchable works.
Issues and characters are carefully balanced, Sandford’s writing is credible and intelligent and the intervening decades has done nothing to lessen the films impact. ” – “If a film is measured by its impact on the real world then ‘Cathy Come Home’ surely ranks as the among the most important British works ever. ” – “Seen by a quarter of all Britons at the time of its broadcast, this is a powerful but also easily digestible social issues drama and perhaps the saddest aspect of the film is its clear and continued relevance. ”
The language used in these opinions are all positive adjectives impressing upon the reader just how powerful and influential this film was at the time of its screening. Although some of it cannot be proven fact such as “Seen by a quarter of all Britons at the time of its broadcast. ” This would be impossible for him to know about unless he had actual statistics that told him the viewing figures for that time. Summarisation of ‘Cathy Come Home’ in 100 words Directed by Ken Loach, ‘Cathy Come Home’ is a powerful docudrama dealing with a young family’s descent into homelessness.

The story follows a young couple Cathy (Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks) who decide to set up home together. Cathy soon falls pregnant with their first child and money soon becomes a problem. Unfortunately Reg has an accident costing him his job. It is this catalyst which causes the family to lose their home. Moving from one place to another they struggle to survive. With tensions rising between the couple, the family is forced to split up, possibly for good.