Use this 9 minute film on Valentine’s Day with your intermediate students to introduce reading expectation 2.4, Elements of  Style. Grade 7s and 8s are expected to be able to explain and tell why certain literary devices enhance a text. These include: parallel structure, analogy, comparison, contrast, irony, foreshadowing, allusion, juxtaposition, simile, metaphor, personification, pun, hyperbole, oxymoron, and symbolism.

Here are some questions that might guide your discussions about contrast, irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism with your students:

1.Why did the animators choose to make this film in an artistic style that highlights contrast? (Black and white, colour and no colour, clean and dirty, country and city, alive and dead, etc.)

2.Explain how the symbol of the flower helps the viewer understand the main idea of the film.

3.Foreshadowing is used in the film to create a sense of foreboding. Find an example and explain how it prepares the viewer for what happens in the film.

4.“The Invention of Love” could be described as an ironic title for this film. Explain using examples from the film.