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About Margaret

Qualified English Teacher, BA/BT UNE, Registered with VIT, located in Berwick Victoria 3806. Contact 0418 440 277, email contact@englishtutorlessons.com.au

Every Man in This Village is a Liar by Megan Stack A Brief Synopsis

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What is Every Man in This Village is a Liar about?

A few weeks after the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre on 9/11, journalist Megan Stack, a 25-year-old national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, was thrust into Afghanistan and Pakistan, dodging gunmen and prodding warlords for information. From there, she travelled to war-ravaged Iraq and Lebanon and to other countries scarred by violence, including Israel, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, witnessing the changes that swept the Muslim world, and striving to tell its stories.

Every Man in This Village Is a Liar is Megan Stack’s unique and breathtaking account of what she saw in the combat zones and beyond. It is her memoir about the wars of the 21st century. She relates her initial wild excitement and her slow disillusionment as the cost of violence outweighs the elusive promise of freedom and democracy. She reports from under bombardment in Lebanon; documents the growth of unusual friendships; records the raw pain of suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq; and, one by one, marks the deaths and disappearances of those she interviews.

The Prologue

The Prologue is Megan’s way of looking back on 10 years of killing and dying. She says that “… the first thing I knew about war was also the truest, and maybe it’s as true for nations as for individuals: You can survive and not survive, both at the same time” [p.4]. Megan reflects that the US determination in the wake of the September 11 attacks to go out and ‘tame all the wilderness of the world’ was an instinctive response. With the benefit of retrospect Megan surveyed the damage this folly has done to the US, to the affected nations in the Middle East and to her. In the end she judged that September 11 was the beginning of a ‘disastrous reaction’.

The quote “Every man in this village is a liar”

Megan realises that in the new reality of the war on terror, truth is no longer an absolute but the servant of political necessity. In Pakistan someone said to Megan, “Every man in this village is a liar” [p.9]. She explains it as “… one of the world’s oldest logic problems … If he’s telling the truth, he’s lying. If he’s lying, he’s telling the truth. That was Afghanistan after September 11” [p.9].

Conflict in the Text

The text is primarily concerned with Megan’s encounters with violent military conflicts in the Middle East. It does also deal with conflict on many levels. Not only does it examine deadly force used by countries at war it also considers how people subjected to this invasion or assault live with the constant fear of arrest, torture or death.

Megan also contemplates her own survival of what covering these wars has done to her as a person. In effect she documents the political and also moral price of the war on terror for America. She speaks about ‘sacrifice’ in chapter 8 [p.96] in countries that have historical conflict that stretches back over centuries. As a result Megan asserts that “Violence is a reprint of itself, an endless copy” [p.96].

Writing an Essay on Conflict

The challenge when writing a Context Essay is to think outside the box when it comes to the IDEAS that the Context is based on. The task in the SAC’s or Exam is to determine the exact nature of the relationship between an idea and the text. The set texts are chosen so that they reflect the issue of encountering conflict on many levels. It is a good idea to use the characters in the set text as a way to explore the context but also to consider the implications of their actions, responses and efforts to resolve their conflict. The next task is to use the prompt you are given in the SAC or Exam as a starting point for your ideas in your own writing.

Ask yourself questions about Conflict

The Context of Conflict asks you to question the types, causes and consequences of conflict. There are many different types of conflict, ranging from:

  1. Internal conflict: When a person is confronted with a difficult choice to make. It is a mental or emotional struggle that occurs within a character‘s mind.
  2. Conflict of conscience: When a person struggles internally either because they have done something they feel is wrong, or are being asked to overcome their conscience and do something that they feel is wrong
  3. Cultural conflict: When people from different cultural backgrounds disagree, find it difficult to live with one another or even fight because of their inability to understand one another (either literally, in terms of language, or because of different beliefs, traditions and cultural practices)
  4. Interpersonal conflict: When two or more people disagree or fight
  5. Physical conflict: When there is a conflict that leads to physical violence
  6. Familial conflict: When there is conflict between people from the same family
  7. Generational conflict: When there is conflict between people from different generations (this often overlaps with familial conflict)
  8. Class conflict: When there is conflict between people of different social classes
  9. International conflict: Conflict between countries. Think about the text Every Man in this Village is a Liar by Megan Stack where conflict in the Middle East is on a regional level that involves countries after 9/11. Think about the complexities and issues of Conflict and nationhood / Conflict and political power / Conflict and cultures / Conflict in paradox / Conflict without hope or despair /Conflict and conscience.
  10. National conflict: Conflict within countries, such as different ethnic groups.
  11. Local community or neighbourhood conflict
  12. Science and Religious conflict: Conflict between science and religion is based on two conflicting ways of knowing, one based on faith and authority and the other on observation, reason and doubt. Think about the text Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht where the great religious powers of the Catholic Church bring all their ideological firepower to battle against Galileo’s science because he was a threat to their supremacy in the universe. Think about Conflict and power / Conflict and morality / Conflict and truth / Conflict and the individual. In terms of more recent conflict with the Catholic Church have a think about writing on the Royal Commission Investigation into Child Sexual Abuse in not only Catholic institutions but also other groups who abused children. Think of the consequences for the victims of conflict and the emotional stress and trauma taking on the might of the Catholic Church long after the physical conflict is over.

Conflict also asks you to think about how it arises

What are the causes of a particular conflict, or conflict in general? The causes of conflict may range from ignorance and prejudice, to self interest and fear, to the struggle for power, justice or truth. One might even argue that conflict is an essential or inevitable part of human life.

Finally, Conflict asks you to think about its consequences 

You might like to think about how individuals, or a society as a whole, respond and react to conflict. The way an individual or a community responds to conflict reveals a lot about them, especially their strengths and their weaknesses. You might also like to think about the lasting consequences of conflict for individuals, families and communities. Conflicts rarely end once the war is over, or the fight has been won. There are winners and losers in every conflict, who remain affected long after the conflict is over. The consequences may range from trauma and physical and emotional pain to more positive outcomes, such as change, opportunity and growth. One thing is certain: people are changed by experiences of conflict.

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I for Isobel by Amy Witting: A Brief Synopsis for Year 12 English

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Front Cover

I For Isobel is a narrative text that tell stories which draw us into circumstances, relationships, fortunes and misfortunes of people’s lives and the themes, values and ideas in the story.

Key Knowledge for Writing an Essay on a Narrative Text

To write a High/Excellent essay students need to know:

  1. How structures, features and conventions such as narrative viewpoint, settings, symbols are used by the author to construct meaning and explain how they impact on the reader.
  2. The characters, ideas and themes in the text. How characters change and develop. How the important ideas and themes are presented can be through the behaviour and beliefs of characters. Characters embody values through their thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs and actions.
  3. Social, historical and cultures values embodied in the test. Analyse how the values are presented that could be through the characters or authorial comment.
  4. Ways in which different interpretations are possible might be through the positive or negative outcomes for the main character.
  5. Analysis and interpretation of the text are closely related but do differ. An analysis of the text looks at key textual features such as plot, narrative voice, characterisation and the role of key sections of the text such as beginnings, crisis points and resolutions. Whereas an interpretation pulls together the different elements of a text to present an explanation of what the text means.

No Viewpoint or Interpretation of a Text is the Ultimate or Right One

In fact interpretations of the text can vary significantly by personal responses in the way readers respond differently. The interpretations and readings can also differ in the literal or surface meaning of a text as well as deeper levels of implied meanings. Many views are possible and may be equally valid. It is a student’s task to support your viewpoint by using compelling evidence from the text and a logical sequence of ideas to create a credible argument. It is important to identify:

  1. What is the narrator really telling you about the world they describe?
  2. Do the characters decide their own fates?
  3. Or are they in a world in which their fates are decided for them?
  4. How you respond to the characters is important because you may lean towards being sympathetic to one and more critical of others. Back up your view identifying the characters using key quotations to focus your interpretation on critical points in the text.
  5. What happens to these characters – are they punished or rewarded in the text?
  6. What is your view of the text’s ideas, themes and values? Do you agree with how the author has presented them?

Interpretation of I for Isobel

In Charlotte Wood’s Introduction to I For Isobel : ‘A Potent Victory’, she describes the text as “… a simple coming of age story, the tale of Isobel Callaghan who must pretend to be nicer, stupider, duller than she is, because the reality of what she is, intellectually gifted, powerfully desiring, is a threat not only to her family but to society itself” (viii).

On the surface, I for Isobel seems to be a simple fictional narrative about a girl growing up in a family and society that show her few kindnesses. Yet, on a much deeper level, I for Isobel is about loneliness, child abuse and the lack of love; it is the story of a girl, who from a young age, is verbally attacked by her mother and mostly ignored by her father. Not surprisingly, this childhood produces an adolescent who has low self-esteem, lacks confidence and is liable to panic attacks.

However, the novel is also a portrait of the artist as a young woman with imagination, intelligence and courage to finally recognise, with joy, her true self and the writer she is to become. The last sentence that Isobel joyfully says “I met someone” (p.181) is a revelation that in fact Isobel has ‘met’ herself attaining a sense of unity and purpose. Isobel’s escape from the forces that shaped her is a victory, a powerful claim for self-hood. It is an irrevocable statement of ‘I’, I for Isobel.

Isobel Callaghan is Protagonist and Narrative Voice

Isobel is the novel’s central character, its protagonist. The novel’s title contains her name and the narrative voice is third person limited perspective meaning that every person, scene and incident is described from Isobel’s point of view. Therefore, as readers learn about the world in which Isobel lives, they also learn about Isobel herself. Sometimes the narrative voice shifts between third person and first person, and between past and present tenses. This technique allows the narrative to shift between the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings, as if permitting the reader to inhabit that character’s consciousness, and a more distanced, detached point of view.

The Opening Chapter 1 “The Birthday Present”

I for Isobel opens with Isobel’s mother, May Callaghan’s words “No birthday presents this year!” (p.3) Every year at the same time May said this, every year Isobel chose not to believe it, but in fact “experience told her that there would be no present” (p.3). While older sister Margaret always received birthday presents, Isobel never does. From the beginning of this narrative it is clear that there is an ongoing pattern of emotional abuse inflicted by May Callaghan on Isobel.

The opening of the narrative is significant because it gives readers a clear path to their own interpretation of I for Isobel (as identified above). What the narrator is telling us about their world, the people in it and their fate is largely determined by the ways in which Isobel tries to satisfy her mother’s expectations, or at least, avoid being punished or scolded. Isobel is repressed, her mother is abusive and she has trouble fitting into school as she is too smart. In effect, Isobel is not acceptable at home or school. Isobel observes the world as warily as an alien trying to pass for a native.

The Opening Chapter tells us about Emotional Abuse and Being a Victim

Throughout her childhood, Isobel is emotionally abused by her mother. The narrative’s unsympathetic portrayal of Mrs Callaghan and its emphasis on the debilitating effects of abuse are integral to the reader’s understanding of Isobel as an alienated artist figure. The narrative charts the writer’s struggle for self-expression against the obstacles placed in her path. Therefore, Isobel’s recognition of herself as a writer is inseparable from her experience of childhood abuse. In fact, one interpretation could be that Mrs Callaghan may represent society’s indifference to the artist or even to art.

May Callaghan’s Cruelty is her Power over Isobel

One fact stands out and that is May Callaghan’s hatred for Isobel is commonplace throughout the novel and it is devastating. It manifests in the most vindictive emotional and psychological abuse of Isobel. Mrs Callaghan insults Isobel at every opportunity, calling her an idiot, a liar and a ‘nasty little beast’ (p.34). May Callaghan’s dismissal and disregard for Isobel is evident in horrible childish competitiveness and the scoring of petty points is so transparent, even nine year old Isobel recognises it.

The unspeakable truth in this narrative is that May Callaghan does not love her child but uses her power over Isobel for cruel purposes. If Isobel refuses to react to her mother’s cruelty, she makes her mother even angrier prompting her to find alternative ways to upset her. However, if she does react, she sets herself up as a victim of her mother’s control. This engenders a form of powerlessness that Isobel must overcome later in her life.

Isobel’s quest for a sense of identity is the story of the novel

How people establish a sense of their own identity both socially and privately are at the centre of the novel’s thematic concerns. Isobel’s quest for identity, including her self-doubts, the obstacles in her path and her eventual sense of purpose and well-being is clearly signposted by the novel’s title. “I” is the first letter of Isobel’s name and it is also the letter/word by which people identify themselves as themselves. Isobel is not so much at ease with the flesh-and-blood people she meets, and least of all with herself, until a lucky encounter and a little detective work reveal her identity and her true situation in life.

The Truth about the Cat Poem and the Cruelty of her Parent’s Deception

In Chapter 5 “I for Isobel”, Isobel revisits the key settings of her childhood, the church, the school and her childhood home in an attempt to discover “… a small authentic piece of her lost self” (p.166). Isobel’s greatest shock is when she meets Mrs Adams, who had been a neighbour of the Callaghan’s. The source of Isobel’s anxiety when meeting Mrs Adams, is a poem Isobel wrote when she was nine, about Mrs Adam’s cat, Smoke, which had been published in the newspaper. Her parents convinced her that Mrs Adams would be furious because her name had been published in the paper. Mr Callaghan’s “…pompous talk about libel and slander” (p.177) was ridiculous but, to Isobel’s childish innocence, seemed terrifying plausible. Her parents’ teasing caused Isobel “… years of misery … years of terror” (p.174). To find the truth that Mrs Adams not only liked the poem but wanted to thank Isobel by giving her a scrapbook strikes Isobel as forcibly as anything in her life. As Isobel struggles with her emotions she cries “Artesian tears, rising from the centre of the earth” (p.177). As Isobel hurried crying along the street she remarked her parents were “Cruel, deceitful bastards” (p.177). Then she roared aloud, “Spiteful tormenting bastards” (p.177).

The Revelation “I am a writer”

Once her tears are released, Isobel gains a new sense of her identity: “I am a writer. I am a writer” she tells herself (p.177). In order to make her new self-belief and identity become real and tangible, Isobel purchases an exercise book from a corner store. For Isobel, reading had been, and continues to be, a means of escaping from the reality of family and social life. Writing, however, involves a retreat from society in order to reflect on and better understand it. The ability to ‘be’ in the world on her own terms leads, in turn, to greater self-acceptance than Isobel has ever known.

Themes, Ideas and Values to consider in I for Isobel

Emotional abuse and being a victim

  • Types of abuse in particular emotional or psychological abuse
  • Isobel’s negative self-image
  • Other victims and the desire to see oneself in others
  • Transformation of victim into writer

Identity

  • Isobel’s ‘double’ personality is related to her uncertain sense of identity
  • Embroidery a metaphor for self-images

Truth and lies

  • Realism versus subjectivity – may be due to Isobel’s tenuous grasp on reality
  • Hope and idealism versus experience

Time

  • Knowing the time is to be able to order experiences
  • Isobel has the opposite experience of never being prepared for events or able to anticipate what other people expect of her

The word factory

  • Is a metaphor for how Isobel perceives the words that seem perpetually inside her head, words are both a gift and a burden to her
  • Speech and tone of voice – during times of great emotion, Isobel is virtually speechless
  • The word factory as a loom – the words are spinning inside Isobel’s head for what reason?

Literature

  • Words and serious literature becomes a medium between Isobel and the world, enabling her to take a more confident and assured place within in it.

Other Values to Consider in Isobel’s Experiences in the Novel

  1. Love / hate
  2. Rejection / shame
  3. Life / love
  4. Madness / intellect
  5. Isolation / coming in from the cold
  6. Domestic life / artist
  7. Repressed / accepted
  8. Bullied / standing up
  9. Despair / saintly

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The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet

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Image result for pictures of romeo and juliet

The Significance of the Chorus in the Prologue

The Chorus was played by a single actor, whose purpose was to explain and comment on the action of the play.  He is not a character and has no personality.

This opening speech by the Chorus serves as an introduction to Romeo and Juliet.  We are provided with information about where the play takes place, and given some background information about its principal characters.

He simply tells us that we are now in Verona, and that this is a city divided by civil war between 2 noble families.  Their quarrel is an old one, an ‘ancient grudge’.  We never learn its cause, it seems to have become a habit for the Capulets and Montagues to hate each other.  However, if we cannot know the cause of the quarrel, we can be warned of its cure.

The words of the Chorus would be used by Shakespeare to silence the audience and settle them into an appropriate mood for the first scene.

Sonnet = a 14 line poem

Line #

Sonnet Prologue

Explanation
1 Two households, both alike in dignity, 2 families of nobility ie. same social status
2 In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, Where the play is set in Verona
3 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Old violent quarrel that has been long   standing
4 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. Civil meaning belonging to fellow citizens where the conflict has been bloody
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes Bred from deadly vital organs of both   parents
6 A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Ill-fated lovers appear from these 2   quarrelling families
7 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Unfortunate disasters are mended by the 2 lovers
8 Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. Their respective children’s death brings each family together
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, The course of the lovers love for each other is doomed to death
10 And the continuance of their parents’ rage, The parents are enraged at the deaths
11 Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, But only the deaths of their children can stop the conflict and strife of the families
12 Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; The business lasting 2 hours
13 The which if you with patient ears attend, The audience must watch with expectation
14 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. To fulfil the prophecy of this Prologue as Romeo & Juliet will certainly die

 The Obvious Function of the Prologue

The obvious function of the Prologue as introduction to the Verona of Romeo and Juliet can obscure its deeper, more important function.  The Prologue does not merely set the scene of Romeo and Juliet, it tells the audience exactly what is going to happen in the play. The structure of the play itself is the fate from which Romeo and Juliet cannot escape.

“Star-crossed Lovers”

The Prologue refers to an ill-fated couple with its use of the word “star-crossed,” which means, literally, against the stars.  Stars were thought to control people’s destinies.  But the Prologue itself creates this sense of fate by providing the audience with the knowledge that Romeo and Juliet will die even before the play has begun.  The audience therefore watches the play with the expectation that it must fulfill the terms set in the Prologue.

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Every Man in this Village is a Liar by Megan Stack

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What is Every Man in This Village Is a Liar about?

A few weeks after the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre on 9/11, journalist Megan Stack, a 25-year-old national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, was thrust into Afghanistan and Pakistan, dodging gunmen and prodding warlords for information.  From there, she travelled to war-ravaged Iraq and Lebanon and to other countries scarred by violence, including Israel, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, witnessing the changes that swept the Muslim world, and striving to tell its stories.

Every Man in This Village Is a Liar is Megan Stack’s unique and breathtaking account of what she saw in the combat zones and beyond.  It is her memoir about the wars of the 21st century.  She relates her initial wild excitement and her slow disillusionment as the cost of violence outweighs the elusive promise of freedom and democracy.  She reports from under bombardment in Lebanon; documents the growth of unusual friendships; records the raw pain of suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq; and, one by one, marks the deaths and disappearances of those she interviews.

The Prologue in Every Man in this Village is a Liar

The Prologue is Megan’s way of looking back on 10 years of killing and dying.  She says that “… the first thing I knew about war was also the truest, and maybe it’s as true for nations as for individuals: You can survive and not survive, both at the same time” [p.4].  Megan reflects that the US determination in the wake of the September 11 attacks to go out and ‘tame all the wilderness of the world’ was an instinctive response.  With the benefit of retrospect Megan surveyed the damage this folly has done to the US, to the affected nations in the Middle East and to her.  In the end she judged that September 11 was the beginning of a ‘disastrous reaction’.

The Quote “Every man in this village is a liar”

Megan realises that in the new reality of the war on terror, truth is no longer an absolute but the servant of political necessity.  In Pakistan someone said to Megan, “Every man in this village is a liar” [p.9].  She explains it as “… one of the world’s oldest logic problems … If he’s telling the truth, he’s lying.  If he’s lying, he’s telling the truth.  That was Afghanistan after September 11” [p.9].

Conflict in the Text

The text is primarily concerned with Megan’s encounters with violent military conflicts in the Middle East.  It does also deal with conflict on many levels.  Not only does it examine deadly force used by countries at war it also considers how people subjected to this invasion or assault live with the constant fear of arrest, torture or death.

Megan also contemplates her own survival of what covering these wars has done to her as a person.  In effect she documents the political and also moral price of the war on terror for America.  She speaks about ‘sacrifice’ in chapter 8 [p.96] in countries that have historical conflict that stretches back over centuries.  As a result Megan asserts that “Violence is a reprint of itself, an endless copy” [p.96].

Ways to Look at Conflict

Have a look carefully at this brilliant Conflict Flowchart to see what light it might shed for you on the ideas connected with the Context ‘Encountering Conflict’ and the text Every Man in this Village is a Liar.  conflict flow chart

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A Brief Analysis of This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff

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This Boy's Life : Bloomsbury Paperbacks Ser. - Tobias Wolff

Tobias Wolff is the Narrator and Protagonist of This Boy’s Life

In This Boy’s Life Tobias Wolff the author, is an adult reflecting back on his rough upbringing.  His narrator and protagonist Toby Wolff recounts his life with three abusive fathers and an impulsive mother.  At a young age Toby decides to call himself Jack which represents a type of alter ego he builds for himself as he invents ways to escape from the grim reality of the life the adults around him have constructed.  His life is filled with domestic violence, alcohol abuse, criminal activity, bullying and emotional neglect.

The Significance of one of the Quotes at the Beginning of the Book

Before we read the memoir This Boy’s Life, the author Tobias Wolff presents us with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “The first duty in life is to assume a pose.  What the second is, no one has yet discovered”.  It is clear from the beginning of the book the author has made the issue of identity and the struggle to attain a certain type of identity a major component in this memoir.

This Boy’s Life is a Story of Two Boys

As we read further into the book, the protagonist Toby Wolff struggles to find an identity by assuming various characteristics he thinks those around him will admire.  In fact This Boy’s Life is really the story about two boys, Toby and Jack.  Toby is an ‘A’ grade student, a boy deeply concerned about the world’s esteem, a loyal support to his mother, destined for Princeton like his brother Geoffrey.  Jack, on the other hand, is a liar, a thief and violent.  Both boys are versions of the same boy, a dreamer constantly searching for his identity, but never belonging to the world he craves.  His alter ego is “the splendid phantom who carries all [his] hopes” of fleeing the harsh environment of his horrific childhood.

Breaking Down an Essay Prompt on This Boy’s Life

Let’s look at breaking down an Essay Prompt on This Boy’s Life using the TEEL structure for Expository Essays.  We begin with a Draft Introduction that contains the Main Contention and Topic Sentences that will form our Body Paragraphs and finish with a Draft Conclusion.  Remember that the body paragraphs are not complete in this draft essay but are simply a starting point to build on for the rest of the essay.

Here’s the Prompt:

“We were ourselves again – restless, scheming, poised for flight” (p.221)  Explain what Toby means by the statement.

Draft Introduction

On the surface, This Boy’s Life seems bleak and pessimistic and the hardships faced by Jack and Rosemary certainly test their resilience.  Yet Jack and Rosemary are dreamers in constant search of changing their circumstances.  Rosemary confidently strives to better her situation and seeks change from a characteristic need to be unconventional.  Jack, however, is forced into an imaginary life to cope with a reality that is too grim to bear.  The quote appears late in “The Amen Corner” when Rosemary has landed a job in Seattle and a woman she knew has offered to put her up instead of renting.  This means Rosemary can leave her abusive marriage to Dwight and look forward to a future based on her capabilities.  For Jack he had just applied and won a scholarship to the elite Hill College, all based on a total fabrication of his talent and suitability to that life.  Together they are ready for a new life using their survival strategies to demonstrate a hope of eventual triumph over adversity.

Draft Body Paragraph 1

Topic Sentence = Jack and Rosemary are dreamers looking for a brighter future which bonds the two of them together.

Evidence = “I was caught up in my mother’s freedom, her delight in freedom, her dream of transformation”.

Explanation = Jack relates the powerful influence of his mother on his character.  Unfortunately, Rosemary’s unconventional search for freedom and fulfilment has had serious consequences for Jack.  Rosemary has moved through three abusive marriages and is not able to support Jack properly.  All her abusive husbands put Jack into vulnerable situations and none of them are responsible enough to stop Jack’s bad behaviour.

Draft Body Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence = Jack believes in his invented world to cope with a reality that is too grim to bear.

Evidence = “I believed that in some sense not factually verifiable I was a straight-A student”. In the same way Jack believed that he was “… an Eagle Scout, and powerful swimmer, and a boy of integrity”.

Explanation = Jack’s imagination helps him construct successful versions of himself which often verge on fantasy.  His application to the elite school Hill is an example of his belief in his fabrication of his true self.  The truth according to Jack was “… known only to me, but I believed it more than I believed the facts arrayed against it”.  Jack’s alter ego carries his hopes of fleeing his horrific childhood and of belonging to a world of stability, capability and convention.

Draft Body Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence = Both Rosemary and Jack are excited and alive at the prospect of change but the truth is both fraught with one disaster after another disaster with them always on the verge of “flight” from the bad situations they find themselves in.

Evidence = After three marriages Rosemary learns that staying away from Jack’s father was sensible not living with him “I’d be a fool if I did”.  Jack sees the Army provides his craved-for stability and regularity.  “It was good to find myself back in the clear life of uniforms and ranks and weapons”.

Explanation = Both Rosemary and Jack learn from their bitter experiences that the optimism and freshness of being “still half-created, being green in life” exacts a high price in terms of comfort, security and integrity.

Draft Conclusion

Although the prospect of change is a necessary aspect of the lives of Rosemary and Jack, its origins are steeped in negativity rather than any true creativity.  For both the need to act on bad circumstances becomes so familiar it fashions the ideas of their own identities.  Yet they continue as dreamers in a constant search of personal freedom and fulfilment.   Together they refuse to be defined by their circumstances despite all the evidence to the contrary.

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Metalanguage for Drama and Plays

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Plays have Some Special Features

Although many features of drama are similar to those of other narrative fiction genres, plays have some special features, most of which are directly related to the fact that a play is intended to be heard and seen as a live performance.  As drama is spoken, there is no narrative voice to describe places and characters or to explain characters’ thoughts and motives.  With the aid of stage directions, the dialogue has to create the characters and the context for the narrative, generate the narrative momentum and generally fill the audience in with background information.

Elements of Drama

Many students will be familiar with drama associated with news and programs on television that have heightened emotions, extremely intense situations, unpredictable and even horrific outcomes.  Most of these elements of drama are found in great tragedies in movies and stage drama like the works of William Shakespeare.  Elements found in tragedies include conflict, suspense, distress, pain and suffering.  Comedies, on the other hand set up conflicts of a different order, they are often based on misunderstandings between characters and fraught relationships.

Metalanguage [the language to describe language devices]

When you look at metalanguage for drama and plays there are some specific terms that are distinctly different from narrative texts.  However, many terms can be interchangeable with drama to create the appropriate meaning in the context of the drama or play being performed.

Below is a list of Metalanguage for Drama & Plays

The list incorporates other terms from narratives that you can consider when describing significant moments in a play that you are studying.

Metalanguage for Drama & Plays

Word

Definition
Act The major sections into which plays are divided.  Each act includes several scenes.
Allegory Story in which there are 2 meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic representation of the story.
Alliteration Repeating the initial consonant sounds of words close together to achieve an effect.
Allusion A reference to a famous figure or an event from literature, history or mythology.
Analogy A comparison to things that are very alike.
Antagonist A character opposite to the protagonist (main character).
Aside A short speech that a character gives directly to the audience.  Other characters remain on stage but it is understood by the audience that they cannot hear the aside.
Caricature Exaggerated description of a person.
Context Environment and situations surrounding the text.
Chorus A group of actors in Greek tragedy who are not characters in the play.  They speak between acts and comment on the morality of the characters’ actions and decisions.
Dialogue Anything said by one character to another character.  A play is written in dialogue.
Drama A work intended for performance on stage by actors.  Most drama is divided into the genres of tragedy or comedy.
Denouement The unraveling of a plot.
Dramatic irony Irony understood by the audience but not the characters in the play.
Epilogue Closing part of a speech or play.
Epitaph Statement carved on a tombstone that sums up a person’s life.
Eulogy Speech at a funeral.
Euphemism Indirect way of saying something that is unpleasant.
Fable A short story that has a lesson in life.
Flashback Device used by writers and film makers to return to events in the past.
Imagery Pictures created with words.
Irony Literal meaning is different from intended meaning.
Melodrama Play based on exaggerated or sensational part of a story.
Metaphor Figure of speech comparing one object with another.
Mise en scene Stage or film setting with all the elements that form the scene.
Monologue A part of a drama in which a single actor speaks alone.
Paradox A statement that appears to contradict itself but has some element of truth to it for example beautiful tyrant.
Personification A type of metaphor in which objects or animals are given human characteristics.
Plot Sequence of events in a text and play that tells the story.
Playwright The writer of the play.
Prologue Introduction to a play.
Protagonist The main character.
Repetition Repeating words over again for effect.
Scene Smaller sections into which the play is divided within each act.
Set Backdrops, furniture and props on the stage used to set the scene.
Setting Time and place in which the action occurs.
Soliloquy A speech made by a character when alone on stage.  Soliloquies let the audience know what the character is thinking and feeling.
Stage directions Made by the Director to help create meaning and establish settings and sound effects for the audience to follow.
Symbol Something used to represent something else.
Theme Central idea or issue behind the text or drama.
Tragedy Drama that tells of serious events that end with disastrous consequences.
Tragic hero Main character who suffers a down fall due to defeat or weakness in their character.

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‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel

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Night

This resource is for students in Year 11 studying the Victorian Mainstream English Curriculum, AOS1, Unit 1, Reading & Creating Texts.

Context of Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece autobiographical account of surviving the Holocaust while a young teenager.  It is a candid, horrific and deeply saddening piece of Holocaust literature.  Set in a series of German concentration camps, Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors.  It records the unspeakable yet commonplace occurrences, the everyday perversion and rampant inhumanity, of life inside a death camp.  At times, it is a painful memoir to read but it does eloquently address what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

Elie Wiesel records his own terrifying personal experiences of the Nazi death camp horror through his narrator Eliezer.  Night traces Eliezer’s journey as a young Jewish boy who agonizingly witnesses the death of his family, the death of his innocence and the death of his God.  While Eliezer parallels Elie Wiesel’s own biography and is intensely personal, it also is representative of the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Jewish teenagers during the Holocaust.  Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

Each chapter raises questions that have haunted the world since Hitler’s rise: How could the world allow such a staggering number of innocents to be persecuted and executed? Why does one man survive when his body, mind and spirit are brutalized for months, even years, when his neighbour, or father, does not?

Year 11 AOS1: Reading & Creating Texts

Non-Fiction Narrative such as Night by Elie Wiesel

Area of Study 1 in Year 11 focuses on reading and understanding narrative texts, then responding to them analytically.  The chosen text, such as Night by Elie Wiesel, explores a range of experiences and offers interesting insights into human experience and human condition.  Texts such as this help us to reflect on how individuals respond to challenge and adversity, what they value, what gives them hope and why they behave the way they do.  The ‘why’ is the most interesting question for students to explore.

Types of Non-Fiction Narratives such as Night by Elie Wiesel

Biography, autobiography and memoirs are popular forms of book-length non-fiction narratives.  They tell a story, the story of someone’s personal experience.  These texts share many of the structural features of other narrative genres, for example, they usually have a climax and some sense of resolution.  Biographies, autobiographies and memoirs give us insights into the lives of others whose experiences are unique.  They can increase our understanding of many issues, human suffering and dilemmas.  They can present “the untold story” of someone who lives through a situation such as Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust, recount an unknown event that affected the course of history or simply bring us stories of courage, resilience and heroism.

Point of View and Selection of Events in a Biography, Autobiography and Memoirs

To a great extent these texts tell the ‘truth’.  They are accounts of real events happening to real people.  However, in any genre the writer selects what to include and what to leave out of the story, and this is no less the case for non-fiction narratives.  These texts often aim to be detached from their subject and are written from a certain perspective, evident in the information included and what is omitted.

For autobiographies and memoirs, that is first-hand or ‘eyewitness’ accounts, the writer will remember the facts from a particular point of view.  For example, the events of Night are narrated by Elie, a Holocaust victim.  If a bystander or an officer in the German army was to recount the same events, their recollections would no doubt be different. Therefore the author’s purpose in writing a non-fiction text, whether to give testimony, find answers, reveal a hidden story, can also affect the way in which he or she recalls or shapes the account.

In studying Night by Elie Wiesel it is important to identify the writer’s perspective on the people and events in the narrative.  This will help you appreciate the tone and style of the writing and understand why certain themes are explored and certain values are expressed.

Importance of Context and Setting

One way of understanding an author’s viewpoint in non-fiction narrative writing is to undertake research about the life and times of the subject.  Studying Night by Elie Wiesel you should research the author and the history of World War II,  Nazi Germany, concentration camps, lives of survivors of such camps and the social and political context in which the events took place.

Create a Timeline

Creating a timeline is also useful to record the significant events in the narrative along with the historical significance.  Annotating on the timeline any crises and turning points in the narrative, a climax and some sort of resolution as well.

Consider the Subjects – The People of Non-Fiction

Make a summary of the subjects, the people in the non-fiction.  List these important facts about them:

  1. Name
  2. Brief words about them
  3. Their appearance
  4. Most important relationship
  5. Most important thing that happens to them
  6. Key quotes, by them, to them, or about them
  7. Main function in the text
  8. Most important thing he or she contributes to our understanding of a main subject or theme

Themes and Values

Identify the central theme of the non-fiction text.  Develop some ‘big ideas’ related to the central theme by creating a concept map.  Identify values demonstrated in the text by making a summary of the following:

  1. Choose 5 people from the text, the main subject and four other significant individuals
  2. Based on what they say, think or do, summarise the views expressed by each
  3. Make a note of the consequences of their behaviour
  4. Does this show the writer’s approval or disapproval of their values, or of the values of their society?
  5. As Night is an autobiography, how does the writer judge his own actions, decisions and attitudes?

Identify the World View Illustrated in the Text

Ask yourself these questions about the world view illustrated in the text:

  1. ultimately hopeful or doomed?
  2. getting better or getting worse?
  3. a frightening place or a beautiful place?
  4. a place of abundance or dearth?
  5. a place of restrictions or of freedom?

Summarise your conclusions in a few sentences that include evidence from the text that supports your conclusions.  This is vital information that you need to write an analytical essay on the non-fiction text you are studying.

Metalanguage for Non-Fiction Narratives

Use metalanguage when writing about your particular texts that includes what is relevant to the subject, the point of view and the type of narrative.  Words to include in this list are

  • autobiography
  • biography
  • biographer
  • non-fiction
  • memoir
  • point of view
  • subject ie. the person or a set of events

Here is some Valuable Research on Night by Elie Wiesel to use for Analytical Text Responses

Use the following research to summarise your reading and understanding of the text to help you respond analytically in an essay.

Background on the Author Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a small town in Transylvania that was then part of Romania but became part of Hungary in 1940.  Wiesel’s Orthodox Jewish family was highly observant of Jewish tradition.  His father, Shlomo, a shopkeeper, was very involved with the Jewish community, which was confined to the Jewish section of town, called the shtetl.  As a child and teenager, Wiesel distinguished himself in the study of traditional Jewish texts: the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), the Talmud (codified oral law), and even, unusual for someone so young, the mystical texts of the Cabbala.

The Jews in Hungary During World War II

Until 1944, the Jews of Hungary were relatively unaffected by the catastrophe that was destroying the Jewish communities in other parts of Europe.  While anti-Jewish legislation was a common phenomenon in Hungary, the Holocaust itself did not reach Hungary until March 1944.  The German army occupied Hungary, installing a puppet government under Nazi control.  Adolf Eichmann, the executioner of the Final Solution, came to Hungary to oversee personally the destruction of Hungary’s Jews.  The Nazis operated with remarkable speed: in the spring of 1944, the Hungarian Jewish community, the only remaining large Jewish community in continental Europe, was deported to concentration camps in Germany and Poland.

Eventually, the Nazis murdered 560,000 Hungarian Jews, the overwhelming majority of the pre-war Jewish population in Hungary.  In Wiesel’s native Sighet, the disaster was even worse: of the 15,000 Jews in pre-war Sighet, only about fifty families survived the Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel’s Family Deported to Auschwitz in 1944

In May of 1944, when Wiesel was fifteen, his family and many inhabitants of the Sighet shtetl were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.  The largest and deadliest of the camps, Auschwitz was the site of more than 1,300,000 Jewish deaths. Wiesel’s father, mother, and sisters all died in the Holocaust.  Wiesel himself, the only survivor of his family, was liberated by the American Army in 1945.

Genre of Night

As an autobiography, Night is not a formal history, but rather a portrayal of a life and time from a limited point of view.  It is not a novel because the events and people portrayed really did exist.  The text is a mixture of testimony, deposition and emotional truth-telling which is similar to works in the memoir genre.  It is clear that Eliezer is meant to serve, to a great extent, as author Elie Wiesel’s stand-in and representative.  Minor details have been altered, but what happens to Eliezer is what happened to Wiesel himself during the Holocaust.  It is important to remember, however, that there is a difference between the persona of Night’s narrator, Eliezer, and that of Night’s author, Elie Wiesel.

Summary of the Narrative

Night is narrated by Eliezer, a Jewish teenager who, when the memoir begins, lives in his hometown of Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania.  Eliezer studies the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) and the Cabbala (a doctrine of Jewish mysticism).  His instruction is cut short, however, when his teacher, Moshe the Beadle, is deported.  In a few months, Moshe returns, telling a horrifying tale: the Gestapo (the German secret police force) took charge of his train, led everyone into the woods, and systematically butchered them.  Nobody believes Moshe, who is taken for a lunatic.

In the spring of 1944, the Nazis occupy Hungary.  Not long afterward, a series of increasingly repressive measures are passed, and the Jews of Eliezer’s town are forced into small ghettos within Sighet.  Soon they are herded onto cattle cars, and a nightmarish journey ensues.  After days and nights crammed into the car, exhausted and near starvation, the passengers arrive at Birkenau, the gateway to Auschwitz.

Upon his arrival in Birkenau, Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters, whom they never see again.  In the first of many “selections” that Eliezer describes in the memoir, the Jews are evaluated to determine whether they should be killed immediately or put to work.  Eliezer and his father seem to pass the evaluation, but before they are brought to the prisoners’ barracks, they stumble upon the open-pit furnaces where the Nazis are burning babies by the truckload.

The Jewish arrivals are stripped, shaved, disinfected, and treated with almost unimaginable cruelty.  Eventually, their captors march them from Birkenau to the main camp, Auschwitz.  They eventually arrive in Buna, a work camp, where Eliezer is put to work in an electrical-fittings factory.  Under slave-labour conditions, severely malnourished and decimated by the frequent “selections,” the Jews take solace in caring for each other, in religion, and in Zionism, a movement favouring the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine considered the holy land.  In the camp, the Jews are subject to beatings and repeated humiliations.  A vicious foreman forces Eliezer to give him his gold tooth, which is prized out of his mouth with a rusty spoon.

The prisoners are forced to watch the hanging of fellow prisoners in the camp courtyard.  On one occasion, the Gestapo even hang a small child who had been associated with some rebels within Buna.  Due to the horrific conditions in the camps and the ever-present danger of death, many of the prisoners themselves begin to slide into cruelty, concerned only with personal survival.  Sons begin to abandon and abuse their fathers.  Eliezer himself begins to lose his humanity and his faith, both in God and in the people around him.

After months in the camp, Eliezer undergoes an operation for a foot injury.  While he is in the infirmary, however, the Nazis decide to evacuate the camp because the Russians are advancing and are on the verge of liberating Buna.  In the middle of a snowstorm, the prisoners begin a death march: they are forced to run for more than fifty miles to the Gleiwitz concentration camp.  Many die of exposure to the harsh weather and exhaustion.

At Gleiwitz, the prisoners are herded into cattle cars once again.  They begin another deadly journey: one hundred Jews board the car, but only twelve remain alive when the train reaches the concentration camp Buchenwald.  Throughout the ordeal, Eliezer and his father help each other to survive by means of mutual support and concern.  In Buchenwald, however, Eliezer’s father dies of dysentery and physical abuse.  Eliezer survives, an empty shell of a man until April 11, 1945, the day that the American army liberates the camp.

The Importance of “Night” as a Symbol

The Bible begins with God’s creation of the earth “without form and void; and darkness [is] upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2 New International Version).  God’s first act is to create light and dispel this darkness.  Darkness and night therefore symbolise a world without God’s presence.

In Night, Wiesel exploits this allusion.  Night always occurs when suffering is at its worst and its presence reflects Eliezer’s belief that he lives in a world without God.  The falling of night is used by Wiesel to create an atmosphere of darkness, a back drop against which to describe danger and suffering, fear, loss of hope, loss of faith and loss of life.

The imagery of night is repeated throughout the book to help us visualise and make sense of the sketches.  Eliezer notes the time of day as the worst things happen at night.  This backdrops the association that Wiesel experienced during his time in the camps.  It also conjures up dreams and nightmares of the psychological journey Wiesel went through.

The first time Eliezer mentions that night fell when his father is interrupted while telling stories and they are informed about the deportation of the Jews in Sighet.  Similarly it is night when Eliezer first arrives at Birkenau/Auschwitz and it is night, specifically “pitch darkness”, when the prisoners begin their horrible run from Buna.  It was at night that Eliezer’s faith is utterly destroyed and he can never forget the horror of that night.

One of the Most Notable Quotes

(Page xix in ‘The Foreword’ Modern Penguin Classics Version 2006)

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.

Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.

Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.

Never.”

 It is perhaps Night’s most famous passage, notable because it is one of the few moments in the memoir where Eliezer breaks out of the continuous narrative stream with which he tells his tale.  As he reflects upon his horrendous first night in the concentration camp and its lasting effect on his life, Wiesel introduces the theme of Eliezer’s spiritual crisis and his loss of faith in God.  Both the form and content of this passage reflect the inversion of Eliezer’s faith and the morality of the world around him.  Everything he once believed has been turned upside down.  Eliezer claims that his faith is utterly destroyed, yet at the same time says that he will never forget these things even if he “live[s] as long as God Himself.”

Significance of the Final Passage of Night

“One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto.  From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.  The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” (p.115)

This is the final passage of Night, Eliezer’s final statement about the effect the Holocaust has had on him.  Eliezer implies that even though he has survived the war physically, he is essentially dead, his soul killed by the suffering he witnessed and endured.  Yet, when Eliezer says, “the look in his eyes, as he stared into mine,” he implies a separation between himself and the corpse.  His language, too, indicates a fundamental separation between his sense of self and his identity as a Holocaust victim, as if he has become two distinct beings.  The corpse-image reminds him how much he has suffered and how much of himself, his faith in God, his innocence, his faith in mankind, his father, his mother, his sister, has been killed in the camps.  At the same time, he manages to separate himself from this empty shell.

The image of the corpse will always stay with him, but he has found a sense of identity that will endure beyond the Holocaust.  As dark as this passage is, its message is partially hopeful.  Eliezer survives beyond the horrible suffering he endured by separating himself from it, casting it aside so he can remember, but not continue to feel, the horror.

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Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Synopsis

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 Front Cover

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll  –  A Play by Ray Lawler

Why is Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Still Relevant Today?

This ground-breaking piece of Australian drama premiered at MTC in 1955.  It is surely dated, with many colloquialisms and morals of the times not heard of today.  However, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (‘The Doll’) still captures an audience.  This is not necessarily because of its Australian-‘ness’, but more because of its series of universals.  This is a play about ordinary people, which people can immediately relate to.

For sixteen summers, Roo and Barney have spent their long layoff from the cane-cutting season down in Melbourne having a high old time with two Carlton barmaids, Olive and Nancy.  However, back for their seventeenth summer, it seems time has finally caught up with them.

The Driving Force Behind Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is Sadness 

The driving force behind the play is surely the desperate sadness which permeates the very heart of the play.  This sadness is brought about by the fact that a group of people are trying to stay young, and are refusing to realise they are growing old.  They have a lack of understanding of the growing process, and so stick with what they know best – their youth; ultimately to their downfall.  We see the very young along with the very old in this play, we see the beginnings of a cycle of women in a situation, each one determined to make their life work, although they have seen the downfall of the older woman.

Emma hasn’t had an easy life, and although Olive has seen this, she hasn’t learnt any lessons from her, except that she wants to have it differently.  Bubba, similarly, can see that Olive’s life was less than perfect in the outcome, and is determined to make it work for her – she sees the opportunity in Johnnie Dowd, but fails to understand why it is that the group of friends have fallen apart.  The audience doesn’t know whether Olive will turn out like Emma, hardened and cynical, but ultimately wise, which is an audience-capturing in the thoughtfulness.

The Joke – Facade of Men Trying to Stay Young

We can see that the men who at one stage came down like ‘eagles flyin’ down out of the sun’ are coming down this summer battered and bruised.  They are not the fit young men they were – Roo has a bad back, and Barney has had many blows to his ego regarding the studliness he once enjoyed.  Behind his joking facade, we can see that he is actually a rather pathetic man, who is prepared to break the unwritten code of mateship to save his own skin.  This act of self-preservation has lost Barney the respect and friendship he once had from Roo, as can be seen when they fight in Act II Scene 2.  The audience, however, sympathises with Barney, because they can see that behind his facade he is really hurt and sad when he is laughed at by women.  The audience sympthasises with this because everyone knows how it feels to be laughed at.

Nancy is the Only One Who Embraces Change

Nancy, the only main character we don’t actually meet, has realised she is getting old, and wanted to get out of the slowly crumbling dream of the lay-off, consequently getting married, and leaving Barney and the others.  She embraced change in a way that Olive cannot understand – Olive believes Nancy’s choice as being traitorous to the dream, “She made a mistake – Marriage is different, and Nancy knew it.”  Through this, we can see a crumbling, insecure world with people who cling, like Olive, or change and grow after the coming of realisation, like Nancy and Roo.

Olive Clings to a Reality that Cannot Continue

Olive clings to a reality that cannot continue. Pearl sees this, and is used in this play as a critical voice, so the audience can size up the characters and compare their actions.  Pearl sees the lay-off for what it is, “…if you’d only come out of your day-dream long enough to take a grown-up look at the lay-off…”  Is it a faith for Olive, or a fantasy?  “I’m blind to what I want to be.”

Roo Sees His Future is Doomed Unless he Embraces Change

Roo, however, sees, perhaps too late, that it is doomed, and wants to embrace change in an effort to retain as much as he can. In listening to what Emma has to say, he understands, finally the reality.  It is the bluntness with which Emma presents the reality to Roo that makes this scene so appealing.  We can see again how ordinary these peoples’ lives are.

Olive Sees Roo’s Change as Being Traitorous

However, Olive sees Roo’s attempt at change as being traitorous.  She believes that if Roo leaves with Barney, as he usually does, it is the only thing she has left – the last shred of the dream for her.  Her youth has gone, and she suddenly realises that she has lost everything, except for the memories, and the desperate hope that if he leaves, it will all be magically better next time, when Roo says, “Olive, it’s gone – can’t you understand? Every last little scrap of it – gone!”  She becomes so intense, she believes that her ideal life has been stolen from her: “You give it back to me – give me back what you’ve taken.”

Roo’s Reality is Profoundly Sad

Roo’s reality is profoundly sad. He refers to it as “…the dust we’re in and we’re gunna walk through it like everyone else for the rest of our lives!”  This ‘dust’ he refers to suggests mortality, and the fact that everything has been smashed to dust, and cannot be reconstructed.  He smashes the seventeenth doll as a powerful visual image – there is no attempt at resolution, or subtlety – the smashing is borne of a brutal, primitive instinct of helplessness and frustration.  This adds enormously to the play’s appeal.

The End is Unresolved

The end is unresolved, and a change from the usual ‘happy endings’, and relies on the vitality of the characters to play it out.  The tension between the fantasy and reality is most seen here, as the ultimate theme of mortality is reinforced.  This ending shows the brilliance of the play in its theatrical nature – there is no sentimentality in the play – only shocking realities that confront the audience about their own everyday lives.

Impending Doom

These people are so ordinary, but throughout the play we get a sense of impending doom, which makes this almost a Grecian drama – the climaxes show the characters’ humanity, and enthrals the audience.  This play has been labelled by some critics as ‘the tragedy of the inarticulate’ – a tragedy of people who feel intense emotion and symbolism, but cannot express their feelings.

Does Olive Suffer from a Psychological Disorder Rejecting the Idea of Growing Old?

Some critics believe that Olive suffers from arrested development, a psychological disorder in that the person rejects the idea of growing old and remains childlike in many ways, e.g. dressing like a child, or carrying dolls etc.  It is a detachment from reality that Olive seems to possess, however she also has spirit and vitality, unlike many sufferers of this condition.  She has given up the conventional morals of the times, and takes risks to glory in a dream of her own fabrication.  Olive has a great wit and we can see some of her mother in her cynical comments.  So this view of Olive as having this condition is a rather narrow one indeed.

Is The Play a Representation of the Growth of Australia from Colonisation?

Other critics feel that Lawler had some ulterior motives in writing this play – they believe he draws parallels to the growth of Australia itself; it’s confrontation of colonialism and development to a recognised nation.  By the 1950’s the colonialistic view of Australia by its inhabitants and its ‘Mother Country’ Britain had begun to change, and during the World Wars Australia realised how far away from Britain it actually was, and decided that trade deals and treaties were best made with America and the Asian nations, and these would have to be recognised because Australia itself sits on the Asia-Pacific rim, further from Britain than any of her other large colonies.

Themes in the Play

  • Maturity
  • Stereotypes (especially male/female of the 1950’s)
  • Ageing and time
  • Change
  • Ideals, dreams vs reality
  • Mateship and Loyalty
  • Expectations

The Themes of Mateship and Loyalty are Crucial in the Play

1.       Roo and Barney

The theme of mateship is also explored readily in this play; we see the loyalties that each person has, and what they are prepared to sacrifice them for.  It especially comes under scrutiny when Barney pretends that his friendship with Roo hasn’t suffered from his leaving him up North.  Although Barney offers emotional and monetary support to Roo, Roo knows just how much Barney betrayed him up North, and shows him how their trust and loyalty has broken down over that incident.  Barney doesn’t realise until it is too late just how much Roo suffered when he abandoned him, and then tried to pretend that nothing happened.

2.       Roo and Olive

Roo is also fiercely loyal to Olive, and he is confronted by Barney about this when Barney wants to leave to go back North.  Roo knows how much the lay-off means to Olive, and doesn’t want to abandon her, like Barney did him, because he knows just how much damage that can do, when loyalties are tested like that. Olive also has loyalties to Roo, but her priorities are with the layoff, and her dreams – which is where the loyalties begin to come undone.  She doesn’t realise that she cannot have loyalties in something that is based on crumbling foundations.

3.       Nancy, Bubba and Emma

Nancy realised she cannot have loyalties in something that is based on crumbling foundations when she left to get married.  Although she has moved on, Nancy still sends Barney a telegram to wish them well; which shows her loyalties are still somewhat with them.  Bubba is very loyal to the other characters of the play – she has grown up with them always in her life, and believes that this situation is the ideal way of life for.  She bases her dreams on what has been the stable elements in her life.  Emma is also loyal; for all her wisdom and sardonic comments, her loyalty is to Olive, her daughter.  She is also somewhat loyal to Roo, as she sees him as the potential husband of her daughter, so offers to help him out when he is broke, although she knows the value of money very well.

The Play Works Because it Touches our Sense of Compassion

This play ultimately works because it touches our sense of compassion; we feel pity for the breakdown of the relationships in the play, and for the characters, and for the situation – we feel pity for them growing old.  We feel pity for the characters’ desire to build an ideal world; we see Bubba’s fears for the future, and her determination to overcome them, and at the other end, we see the outcome in Emma’s wisdom: although she hasn’t built herself an ideal world, she has learned to walk in her ‘dust’ and make the most of what she has.  This play is about how ordinary people hurt in themselves, and how they can hurt one another, and how people are reluctant to change – a human flaw that resides, to some extent, in everyone.

Is the Play a Tragedy – Fatal Flaws?

There are indeed ‘fatal flaws’ in the two main characters, Olive and Roo.  Olive’s is her naivite, and her strong ideals and the holding on to these ideals that breaks her down in the end.  The breaking of the dolls is significant here, because it shows the dissolving of her innocence.  Roo’s flaw is his ‘dirty lousy rotten pride’ that is the undoing of him – he won’t recognise that he is too old for the type of work he is in, and the fact that he gets a job in the paint factory shows the extent to which his pride is broken.  The characters, however, never seem to be able to manage to talk about what they are losing – they resort to fighting, and smashing things, but never seem to be able to fully understand how they have lost their dreams or why it happened.

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The Life of Galileo Play by Bertolt Brecht

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In his notes, Bertolt Brecht says of this play, “But it would be highly dangerous, particularly nowadays, to treat a matter like Galileo’s fight for freedom of research as a religious one; for thereby attention would be most unhappily deflected from present-day reactionary authorities of a totally unecclesiastical kind.”

With this comment, Brecht demands that his audience sees this play as more than a battle between science and religion.  It is, as he says:

  1.  a conflict between progressive and conservative thinking
  2.  a conflict between political activism and political indifference
  3.  a conflict between freedom and oppression
  4.  a conflict between the individual and authority

Underlying all these is the central tenet of inquiry.  Without inquiry, without “hypothesis” or “doubt”, we are merely “goggling”, [or “gawping”] and “Goggling isn’t seeing”.  The Life of Galileo suggests that it is only through the process of questioning – and engaging that society can learn and grow.  How much success we have depends on our preparedness to “have a look for ourselves”.

In terms of conflict in the play students should consider: 

  1. Conflict between Science and Religion – While Galileo is ultimately defeated by the triumph of faith and superstition over knowledge and reason, Andrea’s escape to Reformation Holland with the ‘Discorsi’ is a step toward resolving the conflict in favour of science.
  2. Conflict with the Self – Brecht’s characters demonstrate how easily the individual evades moral responsibility by submitting to a higher authority, be it church, state, community, and so on, but also shows that moral compromise can create deeper inner conflict, which is not so easily dismissed.
  3. Individual vs. the State – Brecht suggests that when the freedom of the individual to expose a fallacy and reveal the truth is denied, the ensuing conflict will always be resolved in favour of the state.
  4. Conflict within the Community – In The Life of Galileo, Brecht represents the Church as offering stability, but in a way that leads only to stagnation.  The play demonstrates that conflict is essential in effecting change for the better.  As with all serious conflict, the effects are always damaging and nobody escapes unscathed.

The Life of Galileo is like a Chameleon

Brecht’s play The Life of Galileo is always going to be like the chameleon.  There was constant adaptation by Brecht during the twenty years he worked on the play and the play reflected the changes that he witnessed in Europe over that period.  Brecht had watched with the rest of the world the often horrifying events of the first half of the twentieth century and he had moved from the old world to the new during the latter part of his life.  All these influences were to be reflected in the final form taken by The Life of Galileo and audiences continue to adapt the ideas of the play to their own perceptions of current events.

Questions Explored in Brecht’s Play

There will continue to be new situations in which questions explored in Brecht’s play will be raised.  There will be situations involving the relationship between the individual and authority; there will be questions about the problems of remaining true to one’s opinions and beliefs or questions about the need for old ideas to give way to new.  As these situations arise the play will change its alignment and it will be able to be applied to those new situations.  Over its life the play has been read as the story of the conflict between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century, it has been read as the struggle between the Nazi politicians and industrialists and the Communist workers of Germany in the 1930s.  It has been read as the struggle between McCarthyism and the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the American writers and artists of the late 1940s.

Brecht’s plays are important because Brecht was an innovator in the theatre.  He was both a theorist with a carefully detailed rationale about the purpose of dramatic performance and a playwright who was experienced in stagecraft.  He knew the techniques he wanted to use to achieve his desired outcome.  Like his character Galileo, Brecht was able to see new possibilities and he persevered with them even when many, particularly those experienced in the American theatre, were critical of the content of his plays or advised him that they would not be successful.

Looking at the Big Issues Raised by this Play

I suggest that students studying The Life of Galileo will need to look at some of the big issues that have always confronted people and which are raised by this play.  They will need to explore the notion of freedom for the individual in relation to various forms of authority, they will be challenged to discuss the idea of “things worth fighting for”, they will be challenged to look at the past and the present to see if there are new ideas that are struggling to find acceptance.  When they look at the issue of Galileo’s recantation, they may never reach a conclusion in the inevitable discussions that will take place about what Galileo should have done.

For many people, The Life of Galileo is not really successful as theatre because it is too didactic.  For them it is “a play for reading”.  To just “read it” is to ignore the fact that it is drama.  It should be experienced as drama, drama of a particular kind.  Then it is possible to come to grips with the question of whether Brecht’s play is successful.  It is also possible to determine if the success is in spite of Brecht’s theories rather than because of them.

Different Perspectives on Galileo

Rather than presenting one interpretation of the text, I suggest that students use these outlines below as a framework for developing a number of different, detailed responses to Brecht’s work.

1.        Power

One view of the text is that it is about power and the struggle for power.  Brecht presents his conflict by having the Church as the holder of power using its energies to maintain that power.  In this situation someone like Galileo who has new ideas is a threat.  Furthermore, Galileo, by the nature of his scientific discoveries, becomes allied to those people in society who can make use of the discoveries to improve their commercial enterprises.  The prelates of the Church fear that these merchants being receptive to one set of new ideas might embrace any new ideas including those which undermine the authority of the Church.

Using this perspective on the text it is easy to read the story as a metaphor for the class struggle.  While Brecht’s own position as a communist was subjected to modification, his sympathies remained with political structures that involved a centrally controlled economy even if he was repelled by the later excesses of totalitarian communism.

The position of Virginia in this perspective is interesting since she is caught up in the power struggle but she is unable to exert any influence over events that affect her.  Mrs Sarti is also worth looking at as a character who is both powerful and powerless.

2.     An ethical perspective

The Life of Galileo can be viewed from an ethical perspective.  Such a perspective involves analysing the action of the main characters in the light of what they ought to have done.  Should Galileo have recanted?  Should Barberini have supported Galileo against the Inquisitor?  What justification does the Inquisitor have for silencing Galileo?  Should Andrea have turned his back on Galileo?  Ought Andrea have been reconciled to Galileo because of the secret writing of the Discorsi?  Should Andrea have lied to the guards so that he could successfully smuggle the Discorsi over the border?  Did Galileo betray his profession?

These questions challenge the values that are being presented in the text by particular characters.  Brecht’s own discussion of the ramifications of Galileo’s recantation is important (pp 10-11)  The broader questions (What things are worth fighting for?  Is there anything that a person should be prepared to die for?) could also arise when looking at the text from this perspective.

3.    A philosophical approach

Someone taking a philosophical approach to the text will possibly see it as the exploration of the nature of truth, the paramount importance of seeking the truth regardless of all other considerations and the relationship of scientific inquiry to questions of morality.  The philosophical perspective also sees the The Life of Galileo as a play about the nature of authority and the consequences of a challenge to authority by the individual.

There is also the interest by Brecht in the notion of “new times”, the sense that there are periods in history when new attitudes and new understandings are developing.  A possible result of this is that a breakthrough in one area will cause a rethinking of assumptions in other areas.  Galileo calls Andrea to be aware that “this is a new time”, (p. 6).  The “new time” idea is revisited in scene 14 when Andrea asks Galileo, “So you no longer believe a new age has started?” (p. 109)

4.            Historical views

An historical perspective on the The Life of Galileo would examine the story of Galileo and his work against the changes in science and religion that were occurring at the time.  It might see the play as a presentation of the conflict over the respective roles of the individual and the Church in salvation.  When Galileo says, in response to Sagredo’s question “So where is God?”, that God is “Within ourselves or nowhere” (p. 28), he is entering the debate about these roles.  The question and its answer also raises the theological question of how to hold God’s transcendence and immanence in tension.  These are questions which have continued beyond the historical period covered by the play.  The matter of the use of vernacular languages in liturgy and theological disputation and the importance of the growing commercial classes and their reluctant acceptance of ecclesiastical constraints are part of the story of the Church and its relationship with its adherents.

The historical perspective can also see The Life of Galileo as providing a view of the relationship between science and religion, particularly the Christian religion.  Bellarmin claims that “Science is the rightful and much-loved daughter of the Church” (pp. 60 – 61). This point of view is echoed by contemporary writers such as John Polkinghorne who holds that the Christian doctrine of creation “provided an essential matrix for the coming into being of the scientific enterprise” (One World : The Interaction of Science and Theology, 1986, page 1)

5.            A psychological perspective

Ordinarily this kind of perspective would be the one most commonly used.  However because of Brecht’s stated intention in writing his plays it is a perspective that works almost by default.  The concern in the play is not with the revelation or development of character or the understanding of or identifying with the characters.  It is Brecht’s expectation that the members of the audience will try to grapple with the ideas and complexities of the central issues.

As a result of this, character studies would show the characters “standing for” ideas and theories.  In the case of Galileo and possibly Andrea there is arguably a much more conventional presentation of character.  Emotions are evoked even if that was not the intention and the sympathy of the audience is engaged.

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The Quiet American by Graham Greene

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In applying the theme of conflict to an analysis on Graham Greene’s mid-1950s novel The Quiet American, we cannot avoid the constant, juxtaposed pairing of motifs that create the plot basis of the narrative: non-involvement versus action, neutrality versus commitment, ‘‘dégagé’’ versus ‘‘engagé’’.  The idea of conflict is both explicitly and implicitly explored in the text at a societal as well as a personal level.  Being set in Vietnam before the defeat and subsequent withdrawal of the French, provides a backdrop to a clash between personal and political ideologies.  Throughout the novel there is a running debate on the issue of foreign intervention in Indochina.  In terms of political symbolism, it is Fowler and Pyle’s rival attempts to possess Phuong that reflect the West’s attempts to possess and control Vietnam itself.

The Crux of this Novel and the Central Dilemma

The text raises key questions of its protagonist Thomas Fowler.  How long can a non-participating observer — a cynical, middle-aged British journalist paid to report only the facts of conflict — stand on the sidelines until he is compelled to pass a personal and moral judgment upon another, and to become involved?  Fowler clearly points out to Pyle “I don’t know what I’m talking politics for.  They don’t interest me and I’m a reporter.  I’m not engagé’’… “I don’t take sides.  I’ll be still reporting, whoever wins” (p.88).  We are forced to question whether there is any such thing as the moral high ground.  Sooner or later Fowler finds out what Captain Trouin tells him is the truth “One has to take sides.  If one is to remain human” (p.166).

A Moral Choice

Does Fowler have Pyle killed as a result of his jealousy over Phuong’s desertion of him for the American?  Or is he asserting his humanity and taking sides?  He sacrifices his friend to prevent further needless civilian deaths but Greene is ambiguous on how far Fowler’s motives are honest.  Greene in fact makes Fowler deal with a moral choice but he is left with a guilt that is reluctant to let him go.  Human life according to Greene is muddied, even chaotic with dark and contradictory elements in Fowler that leave the reader with more questions than answers at the end of the novel.

The Exposition of Conflict

The exposition of conflict is played out through the relationship between Fowler the journalist, who is also the first-person, confessional narrator of the novel, and Pyle, a young American governmental representative.  Pyle, described by Fowler as a “quiet American”, (p. 9) is inoculated with a textbook education — little more than an academic and ideological theory — on how the creation of a political and military ‘‘Third Force’’ might bring the values of American-style democracy to a Vietnam being destroyed by a war waged between French colonialism and the insurgency of nationalist communism during the early 1950s.

Personal Conflict

Complicating and intensifying matters is the more personal conflict arising in Saigon between the two characters when Pyle falls in love with Fowler’s mistress, Phuong; behind the scenes, with the collusion of a ‘‘third force’’ in Phuong’s grasping older sister, Pyle succeeds in winning her.  Embittered, and a man accustomed to deserting wives and girlfriends rather than them leaving him, Fowler breaks down in the toilet, symbolically, of the American Legation building: ‘‘… with my head against the cold wall I cried.  I hadn’t cried until now.  Even their lavatories were air-conditioned, and presently the temperate tempered air dried my tears as it dries the spit in your mouth and the seed in your body’’ (p.139).

Interconnected Conflicts and Love, Personal Relationships and War

This is black comedy rather than tragic drama.  It is also one example in the novel of where the wider, large-scale conflict of war and ideology, as viewed from Fowler’s stance, intersects and coalesces with the personal.  For Phuong may also be interpreted in a wider sense as representative of the culture, nature and beauty of a ‘‘feminised’’, perhaps idealised image of traditional Vietnam being fought over by an old, tired, cynical Europe and a thoroughly modern, optimistic, yet unworldly United States.

Through Fowler, Greene’s ferocious contempt for the popularity and insidious spread of American values, affluence, behaviour and antiseptic cleanliness is obvious.  He even associates the name ‘‘Pyle’’ with constipation and haemorrhoids in one sequence.

For example, although the novel is narrated by Fowler, Greene ensures an alternative — and accurate — point of view through two sequences in which the British journalist receives a letter and a telegram from his deserted and badly hurt wife, in which she refers to Phuong and to his serial emotional insecurity and weakness: ‘‘You pick up women like your coat picks up dust … I suppose like the rest of us you are getting old and don’t like living alone … You say that we’ve always tried to tell the truth to each other, but, Thomas, your truth is always so temporary’’ (p.108-110 ).

Engagé  – Commitment

Engagé is foretold in a scene in which Fowler accompanies Trouin, a French air force pilot, on an aerial bombing mission, in which a sampan and its crew are casually obliterated.  Who should feel responsible for this, and for the dropping of napalm on villages?  The pilot only, carrying out his nation’s orders?  Trouin insists that at some point everyone, including Fowler, will be forced to take sides, because you cannot stand aside and be dispassionate: ‘‘It’s not a matter of reason or justice. We all get involved in a moment of emotion and then we cannot get out. War and Love — they have always been compared’’ (p.144).

Fowler’s moment is the realisation that Pyle’s covert activities in organising a ‘‘democratic’’ Third Force have brought bloodshed to the streets of Saigon.  Yet it is more complex than this.  It is also a moment that deeply involves the personal — ‘‘War and Love’’ (p.144) — for Fowler’s immediate reaction is that Phuong has been caught up in the bombing, and that Pyle is directly responsible.  Phuong is safe, but Fowler is fully engagé for the first time: ‘‘I thought, ‘What’s the good?  He’ll always be innocent, you can’t blame the innocent, they are always guiltless.  All you can do is control them or eliminate them.  Innocence is a kind of insanity’ ’’ (p.155).

Dégagé – Professional Neutrality

Ironically, Pyle’s ‘‘elimination’’ at the hands of the local communists can be traced back to Fowler’s non-partisan, dégagé newspaper coverage of the war, and the fact that the communists trust him. ‘‘Mr Fowler, you are British.  You are neutral.  You have been fair to all of us,’’ (p.120) says one of their sympathisers, Mr Heng.  This reputation of professional neutrality from conflict, and the consequent insider knowledge supplied to him by the communists, is precisely the factor that has awoken Fowler to Pyle’s quiet ‘‘insanity’’, and drawn him into engagement.

Is Fowler a Murderer by Proxy?

Regardless of cause, motive and justification, is Fowler, by proxy and at arm’s length, a murderer?  At the end of the narrative, with his estranged wife willing to divorce him, he tells Phuong, ‘‘Here’s your happy ending’’ (p.180).  But the words are charged with cynicism and self-recrimination.  For according to Graham Greene — the unhappy country in which the author’s moral and emotional compass swings and points — there is secrecy, guilt, sorrow, and an aftermath in which peace, a quiet resting place of the soul, will never be realised.

By the conclusion of The Quiet American, the interconnected conflicts of love, personal relationships and war have reached some sense of relief and resolution through the agency of Pyle’s death.  In one moment Fowler, whose constant refrain throughout the narrative has been, ‘‘Let them fight, let them love, let them murder, I would not be involved,’’ (p.20) now becomes fully engaged and complicit.  Fowler’s usual response to the conflict that surrounds him has been to sit on the sidelines.  However, when the conflict comes closer, threatening to undo his carefully cultivated equilibrium, his cynicism does not protect him from the horrors of war.

No Definitive Sense of Personal Redemption for Fowler

At Phat Diem, Fowler is confronted with a canal “full of bodies” (p.43) and at this time his own values are unexpectedly challenged by Pyle’s actions.  He is reminded of the truth in what Captain Trouin said that “One day something will happen.  You will take a side” (p.143).  However, it is the bombing in Place Garnier that is the turning point for the hardened journalist.  Haunted by images of the carnage he has witnessed, he realises that inaction can also have lasting consequences.  Fowler’s moral conflict is stark.  Does he betray the man who saved his life?  Does he become complicit in the assassination of another human being?  Does he allow Pyle to continue to “… play with plastics” (p.125) unchecked and kill more innocent people?

Yet when he does engagé, Fowler ends up with a hollow victory.  While Fowler may have gained in humanity by becoming ‘involved’, inevitably he feels guilt for his role in Pyle’s murder.  Paradoxically, he has become like Pyle “… I had betrayed my own principles; I had become engagé as Pyle, and it seemed to me that no decision would ever be simple again” (p.175).  Nonetheless, Fowler expresses remorse for the part he played in Pyle’s death.  He remarks at the end of the novel “Everything has gone right with me since he had died, but how I wished there existed someone to whom I could say that I was sorry” (p.180).  In the end I believe Fowler is fully engagé and complicit.

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