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Gattaca and Nineteen Eighty Four are Social Commentaries

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Image result for gattaca imagesFor Year 11 students studying AOS1 Unit 2 Reading and Comparing Texts look carefully at the context of the futuristic dystopian science thriller film Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol and the dystopian totalitarian state novel Nineteen Eighty Four written by George Orwell.

Image result for 1984 imagesPay particular attention to the message of the Author/Director when you write your comparative text essays.

Social Commentaries in Context

Both Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol and 1984 written by George Orwell are social commentaries which explore the broad social wrongs of a totalitarian government.  Both texts depict a futuristic, dystopian society in which individuality is destroyed in favour of faceless conformity.  Protagonist Winston in 1984 cannot understand the rhetoric of the government party and on a similar note, Vincent in Gattaca is trapped, unable to achieve his dreams because of his imperfect genome.  Both characters demonstrate individual rebellion against society and explore the significant social injustices of their respective totalitarian states.

Destruction of Individuality

Destruction of individuality is explored by both Niccol and Orwell to expose the broad social wrongs of an oppressive society.  In 1984 Winston fights to maintain his individuality in a society that has eliminated “love, friendship or joy of living” by making him hollow.  As Winston is tortured in order to be psychologically broken down by O’Brien’s relentless interrogation in Room 101, he is eventually made to accept that 2+2=5 and that he ‘loves’ Big Brother.

Similarly, in Gattaca destruction of individuality and the consequences of an oppressive society are found in close up shots focusing on Vincent’s cleaning process and the constant DNA checks to reinforce how authoritarian societies can demolish all sense of self.  As an ‘Invalid’ Vincent must take extreme measures to overcome the prejudices of a genetically controlled society if he is to achieve his dream of joining Gattaca and going into space.

Message of Niccol in Gattaca

Director Andrew Niccol celebrates the power of self-belief in the film Gattaca to inspire individuals to scale the heights of their desires and dreams to motivate them to succeed against the odds.

Message of Orwell in 1984

Writer George Orwell was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppression he observed in communist countries and he wrote 1984 as a warning to the West of totalitarian regimes who used powerful measures to control their citizens.

The Most striking differences between Gattaca and 1984

The most striking difference between Gattaca and 1984 is the total victory of the Party over Winston and Julia’s attempts at resistance/rebellion against Big Brother compared with Vincent’s ability to undermine and find the flaw in the Gattaca DNA system to achieve his dreams of going into space.  Another important difference is that Winston is broken by the absolute power of the Party to suppress his individual happiness and thoughts of any freedom against the oppression.  Whereas, in contrast, Vincent proves that the philosophy underpinning discrimination by DNA is flawed and that his success is determined by other variables that are not within the control of science.

Resistance, courage and determination of Vincent against the regime in Gattaca

Vincent possesses a dream, an ambition and is willing to use courage and determination to do whatever is required to achieve it, even in the face of insurmountable odds.  Vincent is able to undermine the discrimination of Gattaca by purchasing his ‘Valid’ status with the use of Jerome’s DNA in order to circumvent the Gattaca system.  His metamorphosis into Jerome allows him to join the elite Gattaca space program.  Yet he stays true to himself, maintains his vision and integrity to achieve his goal in spite of a society that is designed to ensure he fails in any attempt to better himself.  He does use a process of deception to join Gattaca but he does not aspire to be one of them, rather he uses Jerome’s DNA as a tool to achieve his dream of flying in space.

Introductions for Comparative Texts On the Waterfront and The Crucible

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Image result for pictures of on the waterfront DVD coverFor Year 11 students studying AOS1 Unit 2 Reading and Comparing Texts it is important to be very clear in your Introductions to make your Main Contentions and Message of Author/Message of Director answer the essay prompt.

Image result for pictures of the crucible book coverPlease see 3 prompts comparing the film On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller.

For clarity I have colour coded the Main Contention / Message of Author / Message of Director

Prompt #1            Both The Crucible and On the Waterfront explore how easy it is for one group to control an entire community.  Discuss.

Throughout both texts it is fear that enables the mob boss Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront and the judges and court in The Crucible to influence their respective communities and control the majority.  Predominantly it is fear of unemployment which leads to poverty that controls the longshoremen making them vulnerable to the power and corruption of Johnny’s mob.  However, it is fear of the unknown, in particular the Devil, that enables Deputy Governor Danforth and his court to manipulate and control the Puritans of Salem.  The desire for individual freedom stands in stark opposition to the powerful authority of the mob boss and the totalitarian authority of the theocratic state.  In both texts those authorities in power are willing to ruthlessly crush any hint of rebellious thinking but underestimate the resolve of a select group of determined individuals who are prepared to stand up rather than bow to the corrupt actions of those in power.  In The Crucible it is those characters like John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey who pass the most severe test of all in the ‘crucible’: death; by choosing to maintain their personal integrity and refusing to justify an unjust court to save their lives.  On a similar note, in On the Waterfront it is those characters like Joey Doyle and KO Dugan who show moral integrity and courage to stand up to Johnny Friendly and speak out against the corruption on the waterfront, but their murders show the risks for others to see the world in terms of moral choices.  In the end it is left to an unlikely character Terry Malloy to abide by his conscience and need for justice to testify against the mob at the Waterfront Crime Commission and stand up for what is right and good.

Prompt #2            Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront and Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible tell similar stories when you compare the characters of Terry Malloy and John Proctor.  Discuss.

Both texts On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and The Crucible written by Arthur Miller highlight similar stories with their respective protagonists who are plagued by their sins and desperately seek redemption.  Miller’s protagonist John Proctor views himself as a highly flawed man who has sinned against God and man’s laws by his adulterous affair with a teenage servant girl Abigail.  As a consequence of his ‘single error’ Proctor is a tormented character, unable to forgive himself for succumbing to temptation and as a result publicly confesses his sin to the court in order to save his wife Elizabeth from going to jail but in doing so damns himself.  Miller presents Proctor as a heroic man who maintains his integrity even to the point of death, in the face of a demonstrably corrupt authority.  On a similar note, Kazan presents the redemption of his protagonist Terry Malloy and his transformation from a self-confessed “bum” to a symbol of the power an individual can exercise even in the face of seemingly insurmountable corruption.  Terry’s journey towards a moral perspective allows him to grapple with questions of loyalty and conscience only to discover that ultimately one’s greatest loyalty must be to what one knows to be right.

Prompt #3            Compare how Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible and Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront parallel the McCarthy era of the 1950’s in America.

During the McCarthy era of the 1950s in America, countless individuals, some innocent and some guilty, were subjected to a wide range of injustices and punishments, ranging from ridicule in society to the loss of their lives.  Two dramatic works, a play The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller and On the Waterfront, a film directed by Elia Kazan can both be seen as parables that are illustrative of the events of the McCarthy Era itself.  The play and film have similarities dealing with power, corruption, executions, fear, hearings and trials.  Both texts have their own relative strengths each revealing different facets of McCarthyism in their own unique ways and are representative of the different experiences and reactions of Miller and Kazan to the phenomenon of McCarthyism.  In both the play and the film, the protagonists, the environment in which they are placed, and the situations and trials they endure, are closely parallel to the events of 1950s America.  Kazan testified before Senator McCarthy’s Committee, naming names and giving details of people he knew were affiliated with the Communist Party and his personification of Terry Malloy was Kazan’s parallel to his own positive interpretation of identifying wrongdoers.  In direct contrast Miller viewed Kazan’s testifying as a betrayal and considered the tyrannical judges in Salem to be in parallel with the HUAC.  Miller’s personification of John Proctor was a parallel with his own negative interpretation and refusal to slander and black list Communist screenwriters to the McCarthy Committee.

Essay Introductions and Message of Author in Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

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Image result for picture of burial rites agnes

This Post follows on from my earlier Post explaining Message of Author and its importance in analytical essays for Year 12 Maintstream English.

Look at these 4 prompts and my Essay Introductions where Message of Author is colour coded.

Essay Introductions / Message of Author in Burial Rites

Prompt #1                 “I understand that these people did not see me.  I was two dead men.  I was a burning farm.  I was a knife.  I was blood”.  Discuss how the reader’s perspective of Agnes is formed in the novel.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent explores the reader’s perspective in her novel by a complex structure of official documents and the many narrative voices that have their own viewpoints of Agnes in discovering her secrets and the extent of her guilt.  The significance of the quote is that Agnes realises that these people standing around did not see her as a person.  They see the implication of the murders of Natan Ketilsson and Petur Jonsson as “two dead men”, the image of the “burning farm”, the murder weapon “a knife” and the consequences of the murders the “blood”.  Kent enables the reader’s perspective to be formed by some characters who have biased viewpoints about Agnes.  As readers we see how unreliable as narrators they are with their own personal agendas and prejudices against her.  As Agnes tells her own story other characters change their perspectives of her as the novel progresses.  Kent’s stated intention to present a “more ambiguous portrayal” of Agnes is evident from the start of the novel and this ambiguity is fuelled by the very fabric of the novel that is composed of many narrative voices.

For Reference Only = Ambiguity [uncertainty] explanation = Hannah Kent attempts to challenge the audience’s perception of Agnes based on her murder of Natan through promoting a deeper understanding of her former life.  Kent adopts the idea that people are not ‘monsters’ but have a mixture of unconscious motives.  Kent characterises Agnes so that by the change of perspectives and the change in judgements she is able to create a more ambiguous and arguably more realistic, ‘human’ character.  Kent’s ability to create such uncertainty about Agnes also relies on the dilemma regarding the morality of her act of murder.

Prompt #2                 “Discuss the ways in which Kent manipulates the reader’s compassion for her characters”.

19th century Iceland society harshly judges those on the margins.  In her novel Burial Rites Hannah Kent cautions readers about stereotyping those individuals confined to a marginalised position in society through no fault of their own.  Kent criticises the harsh religious and social policies of the patriarchal institutions that stereotype Agnes as a murderer.  In order to manipulate the readers’ compassion for her characters the author compares the binary of evil characters against the good to develop our empathy for those who support Agnes.  Then she takes Agnes, Toti and Margret on a spiritual and emotional journey transforming them at the start of the novel from a judgemental mindset to value compassion at the end of the novel.  By encouraging readers to recognise the ambivalence of Agnes’ crime she suggests there are often extenuating circumstances that need to be considered before judging her guilty.  As Agnes divulges her personal stories of her life to Toti, Margret and the family at Kornsa she searches for forgiveness and compassion in her listeners.  Kent is able to manipulate the readers to view those characters with kindness as the listeners develop and change responding to Agnes’ emotional demands so that the ultimate journey towards compassion is shown in the cathartic and confessional aspect of Agnes’ story telling mission that gives her a renewed passion for life. 

Prompt #3                “This valley is small and she had a reputation for a sharp tongue and loose skirts”.  Burial Rites explores how a society measures an individual’s worth.  Discuss.

19th century Iceland was a conservative society deeply divided by class with power residing in the hands of a relatively few men dominated by an uncompromising religious ethos and traditional gender expectations.  It is clear in the novel Burial Rites by Hannah Kent that the measures Icelandic society used to value an individual’s worth are based on prejudice, ignorance and bias, cruelly stereotyping people according to gender and social status.  Kent explores how society as a whole did not look favourably upon women of low social standing who were ‘too clever’ or who deviated from their conventional roles as an obedient wife or daughter.  According to Kent, the protagonist Agnes Magnusdottir struggled against the limitations and expectations forced on her by society, some of which are due to her gender and others that are the consequence of her position as a landless servant.  In a conservative context Agnes is viewed as ‘different’ by many who know her and she is resented for the perceived airs she gives herself.  The text examines how many characters view Agnes’ qualities and her worth in both negative and positive ways that set her apart from her peers.  The fact that Agnes is ‘different’ makes it easier for people to believe the worst and contributes to the stereotypical perception that she must also be a ‘murderess’.  Ultimately Kent allows Agnes to go on a figurative journey that involves reclaiming her worth as an individual at least in the eyes of Toti and the family at Kornsa with whom she establishes a connection.

Prompt  #4                “Burial Rites demonstrates that fear is more powerful than love”.  Do you agree?

In Hannah Kent’s haunting novel Burial Rites, two of the most potent forces are fear and love.  Fear is rampant in 19th Century Iceland, the fear that accompanies abject [hopeless] poverty and uncertain mortality [death], as well as the fear that arises from living in a patriarchal society fortified by brutality and injustice.  For most Icelanders in the text, fear is a persistent element in their lives of “mud and struggle”.  Fear is also a political tool of repression used by the Danish authorities and Blondal’s determination to make an example of Agnes.  Agnes execution is an opportunity to send a strong message to the Icelandic community of the consequences for such a ‘grave misdemeanour’.  However, individuals are also motivated by love and in Agnes Magnusdottir’s case, to her great cost.  For many of the characters, charity and love are the primary drivers for their actions, illustrating that love has the capacity to prevail over prejudice and cruelty.  While fear and love are both shown by Kent to be powerful influences in the novel, indeed, at a personal level, they are often intertwined with love presented as the greater force, as it can overcome fear.

Construction of Meaning and Author’s Agenda in Ransom by David Malouf

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AOS1, Unit 1 Reading & Creating Texts, Year 11 English & AOS1, Unit 4, Reading & Comparing Texts, Year 12 English

Construction of Meaning / Structure of Texts
When reading texts to construct meaning, readers increase their understanding by recognising the craftsmanship of the writing and the choices the author made to portray the topic in a certain way.
Ransom written by David Malouf

Genre

Narrative fiction.  A novel that uses the final section, Book 24 of Homer’s The Iliad an epic poem, to tell the tale of Hector’s slaughter and Priam’s subsequent visit to Achilles to plead for his son’s body.

Malouf takes some of the generic features from the classical epic and re-makes them in a less formal novel.  The character of Somax is Malouf’s own creation.

Historical context

The story of Achilles, Hector and Priam and Troy date back to 70 BC.  The novel Ransom is set during the Trojan War but begins after Agamemnon called on Achilles to surrender Briseis to him and Achilles refused, withdrawing his Myrmidon forces from the latest battle against Troy and creating an open intended insult.

Malouf begins his narrative of Ransom with the brooding Achilles pondering his options after revoking his support for the Greek cause and insulting Agamemnon.

What Malouf does is he re-works Homer’s epic of the Trojan War with its heroes and brings to life another side of both Achilles and Priam that requires them to face emotions and overcome dilemmas by acting in more honourable ways.  The narrative allows the characters to liberate themselves from a crisis of personal values and a loss of self-esteem, something quite different from the view of human action in The Iliad.

Structure & Narrative Perspective

The 5 chapters of Ransom focus on different perspectives of key characters set in separate settings associated with each character.

The Introduction of the conflict told through Achilles’ thoughts in part 1 leads to the complication in part II of Priam deciding to ransom Hector’s body.  Priam’s journey with Somax to Achilles’ camp further the action of Priam’s quest and adds a contrasting pastoral interlude in part III.

The meeting of Achilles and Priam in part IV is a dramatic climax.  A short conclusion in part V describes Priam’s journey back to Troy as the truce begins.  The closing focus on Somax as an aged storyteller offers a miniature epilogue to the action and is a lighter more comic ending.

The narrative is told in the present tense through a third-person voice, which does change to first-person or third-person limited perspective to reveal the thoughts and feelings of a particular character.  The shifts in narrative voice allow the text to convey each character’s thoughts and reflections on events, characters and settings round them.

Language Style & Shifts in Narrative

Malouf’s language style, sentence construction and vocabulary choices often reflect the action or atmosphere of the narrative paying close attention to the character’s thoughts, actions and the features of the world in which they find themselves.  For example the description of Hector’s dead body trailing behind Achilles’ chariot spans most of page 26.

Descriptions are at other times precise, realistic, economical and evoking character’s moods.  For example Somax’s pikelets explain a simple world that Priam is discovering a fresh way of appreciating the small experiences he can enjoy that were absent from his formalised life of a king on page 118.

At some times he chooses more evocative complex words that carry connotations that enrich the narrative as when Achilles feels the notes of the lyre and this emits a dreamlike quality.

Malouf often uses word patterns of imagery like he does in his poetry, such as the way water, earth, air and fire are connected with different characters in Ransom.  He connects bodies and minds in these terms.  His words share feelings in the reader so that the reader can experience a specific theme in the novel.  Water is an element that moves in waves but is also described as ‘shifting’ and ‘insubstantial’ on page 4.

Shifts in the narrative point of view give characters an individual presence in the reader’s mind.  By changing the narrative focus Malouf gives value to diverse views.

Tragedy & Comedy

While the novel is predominantly tragic, Malouf invites the reader to consider comic moments in part III when Priam and Somax travel together and meeting Hermes on their journey to the mildly ridiculous description of Somax’s affection for his mule.  These occasions of humour present the reader with brief but vital moments of reprieve amid the violence and brutality inherent in the narrative.

Tragedy is evident in the human loss and failure in a world where characters face harsh consequences for their actions.  Nothing about Achilles ritual rage and the speed of his chariot carrying its macabre cargo are positive.  The reader gains a sense of tragedy and horror as Achilles turns into almost a mad man mistreating Hector’s body over and over again for 12 days.

Imagery & Senses

Malouf uses sensory imagery to encourage readers to envisage and imagine the events and changing moods within the narrative.  For example he utilises appeals to the senses of sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing to engage the reader in Priam’s childhood experiences as Padarces.

Voices are combined with images of the sea combining vision and sound at the beginning of Ransom “The sea has many voices” (p.3).

The elements of water, air, earth and fire show the vital connection between humans and the natural world helping to define how characters think and feel.

Animal imagery is used to present Achilles as wild, barbaric and merciless.  As a warrior he is imbued with ‘an animal quality he shares with the wolves …” (p.35).

Concept of the Journey

The concept of the journey in the text allows the characters to experience a range of settings, including places they “never till now even considered” (p.192).

Malouf describes the journey into the landscape brutalised by war that Priam has never seen.  Across the Scamander River Priam and Somax see a landscape which is “one of utter devastation” (p.155).

Unfamiliar settings are also described when Achilles goes to the laundry tent in the Achaean camp to see Hector’s dead body being washed by women.  These are elements that are strangely alien yet familiar to him as he thinks of his mother (p.192).

Themes

Taking a chance, choosing action = Priam acts in an unexpected way to achieve a positive goal when he decides to follow chance rather than passive customs.  The novel invites us to ask questions about our own beliefs if we should believe in fate or chance.

Pity and compassion = Priam pleads with Achilles to release Hector’s body.  He appeals to humanity and in doing so raises the question of what is means to be human.  The novel questions the values of basic respect for each other and showing compassion.

Gender roles and power = The novel is set in a world where political power belonged to men and the role of warriors fighting each other was a key aspect of men’s identity.  The role of women is limited and the influence is second to men.  Yet Malouf does explore the feminine side of his characters when he talks about the ritual actions of local women in the story and Somax’s daughter in law and granddaughter.  Achilles softer side is more to do with his mother the sea goddess Thetis that allows him to embody a duel self.

Storytelling = The nature of stories is an important theme in the novel.  Malouf blends the relationship between stories, history and myths which is how he was able to give fresh life to ‘crevices’ found in Homer’s ancient tale.

Family / father & son / friendships = Affection for family and friends is a central value in the novel.  Love for family is at the centre of both Priam and Achilles actions and values.  When Priam asks Achilles for Hector’s body he appeals to Achilles to remember his love for his son Neoptolemus and Peleus’ love for him.  Close male friendships like Achilles and Patroclus and father-son loyalties are important in Ransom.

The Author’s Purpose / Agenda
The reasons why authors write are called the Author’s Purpose or Agenda.  Depending on the purpose, authors may choose all different sorts of writing formats, genres and vernacular [language].  There are 3 main categories of author’s purpose:

  1. To Persuade = the author’s goal is to convince the reader to agree with them
  2. To Inform = the author’s goal is to enlighten the reader about real world topics and provide facts on those topics
  3. To Entertain = authors write to entertain with a goal of telling a story.

Malouf is interested in the “untold tale”

In reinterpreting Homer’s Greek classic, the Illiad, Malouf alerts readers to the fact that he is more interested in the “untold tale” found in the margins.  Malouf says of Ransom in his afterword that “its primary interest is in storytelling itself” and the reason that stories are told and often changed.  In this case, the change becomes of paramount importance in Ransom as King Priam dares to re-imagine his role by stepping outside convention and inventing a different path.  In this retelling, or retold story, Malouf foregrounds the central act of ransom and refashions a novel for our times.

This focus on storytelling is evident from the opening line of the novel, when he has his narrator observe that “The sea has many voices” (p.3).  Just as Achilles needs to listen carefully to discern the voice of his mother amongst the many voices of the sea, so the reader needs to attend carefully to the different voices in Ransom.  Malouf gives voice to Achilles and Priam, well known from Homer’s Iliad, but he also gives voice to Somax, the simple carter, his own invention, as he appropriates a section of Homer’s tale for his own purposes.

 

Construction of Meaning in Invictus the Film

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Image result for pictures of invictus the movie

Year 12 English students studying Invictus the film as a comparative text with Ransom a novel in AOS1 Unit 4 Reading and Comparing Texts.

Why is Construction of Meaning in Invictus the Film Important?

When reading/viewing texts to construct meaning, readers/viewers increase their understanding by recognising the craftsmanship of the writing/film and the choices the authors/directors made to portray the topic in a certain way.

In order to achieve a high mark for essays students need to interpret the texts analytically which includes understanding the implications of:

  • how the author constructs meaning and structure in a text and
  • then explain what the author’s purpose or agenda was in writing the text

If you just write about the narrative only you are NOT answering the key criteria of AOS1

What the author SEES, THINKS, VALUES & BIG PICTURE / How?  Through LITERARY TECHNIQUES

  1. Type of Text = Movie / historical / drama / biographical / political / sports. Released in 2009.  Director Clint Eastwood.  Writer Anthony Peckham.
  2. Setting = South Africa between 1994-1995. 1st year of Nelson Mandela’s Presidency.  Post apartheid South Africa, start of Rainbow Nation.
  3. Title of movie = Symbol for ‘unconquered’ taken from Henley poem that inspired Mandela.
  4. Narrative Structure = The film progresses in a linear fashion with an introduction / middle / end with the history behind Nelson Mandela / his Presidency / rugby World Cup / conclusion winning the World Cup.
  5. Historical Context = Mandela is released after 27 years in prison and his 1st year of Presidency is the narrative as he uses the rugby World Cup in 1995 to unify South Africans.
  6. Themes = leadership / sacrifice / reconciliation / forgiveness / identity / family / politics / challenges / responsibility / racial tension / apartheid / inspiration / change / sport / revenge / documentary story / destiny
  7. Symbolism/Imagery = Flag of Springboks / Rainbow Nation Flag / South African Flag / Mandela’s clothes / Springboks jersey, cap and colours / Nkosi Sikelel / South African division between black and white / poor and wealthy / rugby catalyst for change
  8. Characters & Relationships = Mandela & his staff / Mandela & his family especially Zindzi / Mandela & the South African nation / Pienaar & his rugby team / his family / Black & white body guards / South Afrikaners & black South Africans
  9. Director’s Big Picture Values = Clint Eastwood was inspired by the book ‘Playing the Enemy’ by Carlin about the inspiration of Mandela to use a rugby game to help unify a nation. He also appreciated the element of ‘the underdog’ in sport to win and the support of sportsmanship.
  10. Music & Soundtracks = 9000 Days of Destiny / Nkosi Sikelel i Africa adds to position the viewers and the dramatic plot.
  11. Narrative Voice = Dialogue of characters – words are powerful tools / social and political interactions / media is a narrative device to create a back story on Mandela / Newspaper headlines / News casts on TV / TV broadcaster Johan de Villiers comments establishes the international community view on apartheid.
  12. Film Techniques =
    • Mise en scene
    • Setting
    • Lighting
    • Acting style
    • Costumes
    • Cinematography
      • Camera distance / close ups / medium shots / medium long shots / long shots
      • Camera angle / straight on / low angle / high angle / camera movement / pans
    • Sound
      • Dialogue and sound of action
      • Music soundtrack
      • Voice overs
      • Dream sequence of action in character’s mind

Fishbone Diagram as Brainstorming for Persuasive Writing

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 "Machili Jal Ki Rani Hai" Fish Poem Animated Hindi Nursery Poem Song for Children with Lyrics. "One of the famous kids songs depicting the story of fish and its life . Hindi Poems Hindi Poem Hindi rhymes 2D Rhymes 2D Rhymes 2D Rhymes English Education preschool SchoolWhat is a Fishbone Diagram?

A fishbone diagram, also called a cause and effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram (named after Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa who invented it) , is a visualization tool for categorizing the potential causes of a problem in order to identify its root causes.

Using a Fishbone Diagram in Brainstorming for Persuasive Writing

See my Post regarding the Process for a Persuasive Writing Essay.  I suggest using the fishbone diagram for brainstorming ideas.

The Fishbone Diagram Design

The design of the diagram looks much like a skeleton of a fish. Fishbone diagrams are typically worked right to left, with each large “bone” of the fish branching out to include smaller bones containing more detail.

Image result for Ishikawa diagram

Should Journalists be Bystanders or Moral Combatants in Relation to the theme of Conflict?

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Encountering Conflict was part of the old VCE English context curriculum prior to 2017.  Students can use these ideas related to conflict as a theme not a context in their essays.

This information is for general information only and is NOT part of the new VCE curriculum from 2017 onwards.

In the VCE English Exam from 2010, the essay prompt was:

‘It is difficult to remain a bystander in any situation of conflict’.

How to Tackle the Prompt?

Purpose of the piece: To explore the degree of difficulty associated with particular types of ‘bystander’ when confronted with defined ‘conflicts’. In an expository piece, you are essentially exploring the connection between ideas.

Examine the prompt:

  1. What is a bystander?
  2. An impartial observer
  3. An accomplice
  4. A reluctant or eager participant

What situations of conflict are there?

  1. Internal/conscience/external
  2. Interpersonal
  3. Mental/physical
  4. Familial/generational/domestic/class/cultural/racial
  5. National/local community/international
  6. Is it difficult?
  7. The nature of the difficulty
  8. The degree of difficulty
  9. The consequences, how individuals/society respond and react

Some ideas about conflict:

What are 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, 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.

Some ideas about being a bystander:

We are all bystanders. In the process of our development as individuals we have the chance to both observe and participate in the mass of challenges that confront us daily. This will inevitably force us to question and evaluate our own morals in the context of our upbringing and culture. Our responses will also challenge our own sense of pride and dignity and force us to question ourselves. There are times when we will face forces beyond our control but the test of our character will be in how we respond.

The passive nature of some character’s observation could suggest they approve of what is taking place. At the very least it suggests the bystander does not have the moral courage to intervene or is simply scared to break what is an accepted schoolyard practice. This incident is a microcosm of those who watch others being persecuted in society without taking action.

Expository Essay Response Plan

Introduction

First:                      Outline what the terms are (place any re-definitions you have here.) Add a Hook that brings the readers into your essay showing you understand the bigger picture behind the context and the text.

Second:                State your contention clearly.

Third:                    Outline your arguments briefly and carefully remembering your points will be used as topic sentences in your body paragraphs.

Body paragraphs

Support your argument. The support comes from the examples you wish to use, be that from the text, big ideas beyond the text, history, the world view, relevant current news, a famous person, your own opinion all relevant to the issue. In an Expository Essay you cannot use your own life or friends experiences, as this is more reflective. What do you want to say about the topic & the text studied? You must use TEEL to build your paragraphs:

  1. Topic sentence: In your topic sentence state your argument. The argument must exist alongside the text even though you spend the majority of the paragraph discussing a particular text or example.
  2. Evidence: State the example you’re looking at.
  3. Explanation: Explain how the example shows your argument, giving more evidence as you do so. Include quotes from the text where relevant.
  4. Linking sentence: Link your argument to your contention and use connective words to link logically onto the next paragraph.

Conclusion

Identify the discoveries and insights you have made. These should be clearly evident in your explanation. Use these insights to conclusively state what it is to be a bystander, the specific nature of the difficulties faced and how comparable these outcomes are to the various types of conflicts you have explored. Conclude with your text studied so that your readers are clear on how it is difficult to remain a bystander in any situation of conflict for the characters of the text you are studying.

Using the text Everyman in this Village is a Liar by Megan Stack we ask this question:

Are journalists bystanders or moral combatants when reporting on conflicts?

Consider these 2 questions in your expository or imaginative hybrid essay:

  1. Should journalists ditch the pretence of neutrality and express an emotional “attachment” to the good guys in any given conflict?
  2. If journalists allow themselves to become moral combatants, crusaders against “evil” rather than mere reporters of fact, is there a danger that they will be treated as combatants?

Megan Stack as a reporter of conflict

At first the 25-year-old Stack is avid and “naïve”, as any young reporter maybe, to be thrown unprepared into a war zone:

“I was a reporter,” she recalls, “who didn’t really know how to write about combat, covering America from outside its borders as it crashed zealously into war and occupation… It would be my generation’s fate, it seemed, to be altered by September 11. I got excited and felt that I was living through important times and went rushing in, and years later came away older, different, with damage that couldn’t be anticipated beforehand and can’t be counted after.”

And later, the awareness that to be there, on the spot, brings cachet among peers and the profession: “It was something we strove for, competed for fiercely, a privilege. And when we were done with it we simply went away again.”

In emphasising attachment over neutrality and emotionalism over objectivity, the new breed of attached reporters become more like an activist, an international campaigner, rather than a dispassionate recorder of fact and truth.

They become moral players in, rather than simply observers of, foreign wars. Other people in the media criticise the “bystander journalism” of the past – what was once known as being objective – and praise those new journalists who have self-consciously made themselves into “players” in conflict zones.

Inevitably Stack’s book ends as it has begun, with the line, “You can survive and not survive, both at the same time”. The emotional damage is palpable. There is no “redemption” – a favoured American urge to resolve a narrative – no explicable “clarity of vision” of this Middle Eastern excursion. Maybe, she implies, it will never come.

Journalists as Passive Bystanders to Stakeholders

When reporting a story as a foreign journalist, at what point do journalists transform from being a passive bystander to a stakeholder in the story being covered? The tension between these two identities raises questions that journalists have searched their souls about for generations: When does the reporter put down a notebook to try to change the outcome of a tense situation? Or is it enough simply to describe what others are doing? When should a photographer drop the camera and intervene? When is snapping the picture a way of intervening, rather than just a form of recording? Does the risk of an emotional wound bear on whether the journalist should act or stand by?

The idealistic journalists, with a moral conscience, may put aside the camera or notebook when there’s a reasonable chance their actions will help others or prevent harm. In the process, they can recognize the symptoms of stress and emotional injury in themselves and others, and they can better convey the emotional dimension of their stories.

People who are not willing to be bystanders in conflict

In Every Man in this Village is a Liar Atwar Bahjat a female Iraqi reporter is an example of a journalist who was not prepared to be a bystander but a moral combatant. It is individuals like Atwar Bahjat who act defiantly, and yet non-violently, in a regime that tries to repress them that must be recognised for their nobility. The horrific and suppressive nature of conflict has the ability to suspend individuals in fear and immobilize any chance of societal progression. It is this paralysis that oppressors in a conflict rely on to ensure that they can maintain the way of life that they demand.

Megan Stack’s memoir documents the ongoing religious conflict in Iraq, a country “united in fear”. She exposes the degradation of women and the divide between Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shiites. Western readers are overwhelmed by the violent and bloody history of Iraq and are confronted with the peculiar perception that it is an accepted part of life. However, Stack challenges this perception and shows that just as in any conflict, there are insurgents that are essential to leading the way for societal advancement.

Atwar Bahjat, a female, Iraqi reporter, is symbolic of a united Iraq; undivided by religious differences. Regardless the restraints put on her as a woman in a patriarchal society, Bahjat used her access to the media as a means to stimulate discussion of an alternate future for Iraq. Although Bahjat’s death may be perceived as a failed attempt for change, her presence in Iraq was essential to stimulate discussion and demonstrate the courage required to peacefully challenge the status-quo.

 

Identity and Belonging Theme

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Identity and Belonging

Identity and Belonging was part of the old VCE Context curriculum and is NOT included in the 2017 English curriculum from 2017 onwards.  Please use this information on Identity and Belonging as a theme only.

The Main Issues around the Theme of Identity and Belonging are:

  • Nature or nurture – what makes us who we are?
  • Defining ourselves through others – the paradox of belonging
  • The cost of belonging – sacrificing the self
  • Challenging and developing our identity – our identity develops as we grow and change
  • Choosing not to belong –being an outsider in mainstream society can be difficult

Here are my Essay Ideas for Identity and Belonging

Nature or Nurture

Ideas for an essay

Style and Purpose  =          persuasive essay / hybrid imaginative

Form                       =          deliver a speech at the wedding of your brother

Audience                =           guests at the wedding

Language               =           personal tone, descriptive, simple sentences, some humour

Explains speech

Tell the guests about the relationship you share with your brother, what it means to you, what you have learned from your brother and the impact they have on the family.

Defining ourselves through others

Ideas for an essay

Style and Purpose       =       imaginative writing

Form                           =        personal letter of refugee in Australia

Audience                     =        relative back in home country of refugee

Language                   =         personal tone, descriptive words used by family members

Explains letter

Write to an aunty left behind in the homeland about feelings of estrangement and alienation that came from being uprooted and transplanted on foreign soil.  The perilous journey to get to Australia.  Missing the sense of tradition and extended family. Remaining connected to the land and place where they once belonged.

The cost of belonging – sacrificing the self

Ideas for an essay 

Style and Purpose     =         imaginative / reflective piece

Form                           =         reflective piece in a diary entry

Audience                    =         only the author of the diary

Language                   =         personal tone, first person, anecdotes, unspoken feelings

Explains reflective

Masking the true self in order to belong.  Using a stream of unconscious and unspoken feelings never told to the family before.  Pain at having to disguise true feelings so that the family group would not disapprove.  Not wanting to go to university to study medicine like all the other family members.  Having to be always the ‘good’ child but afraid of disappointing parents.  Wanting another career totally different from parent’s expectations.

Some Other Ideas for you to Consider Writing Essays / Expository or Imaginative:

  • Stolen generation children now adults loss of both identity and belonging in society.  Not accepted as white or black and unable to relate to either groups.
  • Being homosexual in mainstream society / multi-cultural society and coming out
  • Realising you are trans-gender as a child or adult born in the wrong body
  • Unemployed youth who are struggling to find employment and they feel that they lack a purpose and a sense of belonging
  • Being subjected to racist principles that are “skin-deep”.  Your feelings when white people cannot see beyond superficial aspects such as your colour or appearance.

Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service

I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service.  My resources on this website are for general use only.  I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on how to answer a prompt.  However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.

 

 

 

 

What is Metalanguage in English?

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What is Metalanguage in English?

This is a question many students ask.  They see it on criteria sheets for assessment tasks but never really understand the term or how it is used.

The Answer is:

Metalanguage in English is a language that describes language

One of the key skills required by students in VCE is using ‘appropriate metalanguage to discuss and analyse [your] own and others’ authorial choices’. Metalanguage is simply the words used to describe the language choices authors have made, and the choices you have made about your own writing.

I have put together a list of metalanguage terms with an explanation of each that you might find useful when asked to describe language used in your set texts.  Once you read through this list I am sure you will already know many of the terms mentioned below:

Allegory: Simply put, it’s a story in which the characters or  incidents symbolise key ideas that are usually ethical. Allegory is usually used to describe longer versions of the ‘fable’ form.

Ambiguity: Double meaning, often used deliberately by authors.

Antagonist: The character who sets himself or herself against the protagonist.

Anti-climax: A sudden ‘descent’ in excitement or effect, sometimes deliberately used by authors.

Audience: The intended readership for this piece of writing. Is it for an adult audience? A specialist audience who would understand the technical terms? A younger audience?

Author: The creator of a text.

Autobiography: The story of a person’s life, usually written by that same person. Sometimes you might talk of a story or novel having ‘autobiographical elements’ – pieces of personal history made into the creative work. Romulus My Father, is autobiographical.

Character: A person in a novel, short story or play.  Can be either major or minor characters.

Characterisation: The writer’s skill in creating realistic or effective sounding characters.

Cliché: An over-used or outworn phrase that has lost its effectiveness.

Climax: The point of greatest intensity in a narrative.

Context: The historical, social and cultural environment in which the narrative is set, such as a particular country during a war.

Counterplot: A sub-plot which contrasts with the main plot, often used to add meaning to the main plot.

Crisis Point: A point of significant conflict or tension.

Dialogue: Conversation between characters in a novel or story.

Dramatic conventions: Departures from reality which the audience is used to accepting when watching a play.

Epigraph: A short quote or statement, usually at the start of a book or chapter.

Epilogue: A short final section of a novel or play.

Fable: A short narrative in which some moral truth is shown through a story.

Figurative language: The opposite of literal language, figurative language is the language of imagination, and it makes demands of the reader to understand the meaning.

Flash-back:  A very common technique in film, but also in novels where the narrative returns suddenly to an earlier time in the story.

Form: The overall format of your piece of writing: short story, poem, blog entry, film script etc. Each form has a general set of expectations and conventions that have developed over time.

Genre: The ‘kind’ or ‘type’ of writing. The style within the form; ‘detective fiction’, ‘love poetry’. Genres often have certain conventions or expectations which you can follow, or sometimes break with, to great effect. Famous genres include the detective fiction genre, the romance genre and the gothic genre.

Idiom: The natural speech of the person being represented.

Imagery: Images are pictures in words, a common feature of poetry. Similes (‘the moon was sailing across the night sky like a balloon’) and metaphors (‘the moon was a balloon sailing across the night sky’) are typical of how images are constructed.

Indirect speech: The reporting, in a story or novel, of what someone else has said.

Irony: A figure of speech in which the meaning is the opposite of what is spoken.

Jargon: Technical or difficult language specific to a profession or sub-culture.

Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things by stating one as the other.

Monologue: A speech by one person in a play; think of Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ speech.

Montage: A dramatic effect built up by a series of short scenes or impressions, often in apparently random order where the effect is more important than the content of each scene.

Narrative: Simply put: a story. The events occur in the order they appear.

Narrative perspective: The source of the story telling, the way the story is told.

Narrator: The person or ‘voice’ that tells the story.

Orientation: The moment at which the story begins.  For example a character has just made a discovery, or a shipwreck survivor has just made it to shore.

Person: The authorial perspective, first person ‘I’, second person ‘you’, or third person ‘she/he/they.

Personification: Giving human qualities to non-human objects such as animals, the sea, the wind, etc.

Plot: The framework of the story and the conscious arrangement of its events.

Point of view: Is this piece of writing told from a particular perspective or from the point of a view of a character with unique views of their own?

Prologue: Literally, a ‘before speech’, a short speech or introduction before the main story begins.

Prose: The opposite of poetry, prose is direct expression without rhyme and with no regular rhythm. Almost all novels are written in prose.

Protagonist: The main character in a narrative.

Pun: A play on words where a word is used in two senses.

Purpose: Often, this might be more about multiple purposes, but revolves around what this piece is trying to do: to persuade, to inform, to record and document, or to make the reader feel something specific?

Register: The variety and scope of language related to a specific type of communication setting, such as a formal register, or in the register of educational discourse.

Resolution: The section in which conflict is resolved.

Rhetorical Question: A question put for effect, that requires no answer, and expects none.

Setting: Where a novel or play takes place, often a real or historical place (the play A Man for All Seasons is set in historical England) but it may be imaginative (Nineteen Eighty- Four is set in an imaginary London of the future).

Stage direction: An instruction or explanation by the playwright as to how the play should be staged, but sometimes more than this to involve a description of the intended mood or a character’s feelings. Arthur Miller uses long and detailed stage directions in The Crucible.

Style: The overall direction and voice of the piece; how the writer says things. It might be in a ‘realistic’ style, an ‘exaggerated’ style, etc.

Structure: The way the elements of the text are arranged.  The text may happen chronologically, in parallel or move backwards and forward in time using flash-backs and/or flash-forwards.

Sub-plot: A minor or secondary story underneath the main story, very often paralleling the main story in some way.

Symbolism: The use of something simple and concrete to represent much more complex ideas or concepts. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a glass paperweight comes to symbolize something about the beauty and fragility of the past.

Tense: Is the piece set in the past, present or future? Present tense might be something like, ‘I am walking along the beach. The sun is shining.’

Tone: The sound of a voice at specific moments in the piece of writing. Of course this will change through a piece, but if you are striving for a particular or specific tone at a particular point it might be worth saying so. You will also need to comment on the tone of a piece of writing in your language analysis tasks.

Theme: A major issue running through and explored by the text, such as friendship or growing up.

Tragedy: A representation, often in plays, of a human conflict ending in defeat and suffering, often due to some weakness or flaw in the character of the main tragic ‘hero’.

Turning Point: A point at which decisive change occurs.

Values: Qualities that the author and/or characters believe are important, such as loyalty and integrity.

Voice: The overall sound of the writing.

World View: The author’s overall view of the world as illustrated by the text.  For example the author may portray the world and human beings as doomed or capable of improvement or redemption.  In Girl with a Pearl Earring, the world view presented is that choices made in life when young often determine people’s future directions and that those choices can be limited by historical context, gender and class.

Use the list above for describing the metalanguage of novels and short stories and how the language constructs meaning for the reader in these texts.

Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service

I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service.  My resources on this website are for general use only.  I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

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Synopsis of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Set in the 1840s on Christmas Eve, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens chronicles the personal transformation of the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, the proprietor of a London counting house.  A wealthy, elderly man, Scrooge is considered miserly and misanthropic: he has no wife or children; he throws out two men collecting for charity; he bullies and underpays his loyal clerk, Bob Cratchit; and he dismisses the Christmas dinner invitation of his kind nephew, Fred.  Moreover, Scrooge is a strong supporter of the Poor Law of 1834, which allowed the poor to be interned in workhouses.

As he prepares for bed on Christmas Eve in his solitary, dark chambers, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley.  In life Marley was very similar in attitude and temperament to Scrooge: remote, cruel, and parsimonious.  In death he has learned the value of compassion and warns Scrooge to reform his ways before it is too late.  Marley announces that Scrooge will be visited by three more specters: the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his unhappy childhood, revealing that the young boy’s experiences with poverty and abandonment inspired a desire to succeed and gain material advantage.  Unfortunately, Scrooge’s burgeoning ambition and greed destroyed his relationship with his fiancée and his friends.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is represented by a hearty, genial man who reminds Scrooge of the joy of human companionship, which he has rejected in favor of his misanthropic existence.

Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears in a dark robe and shrouded in mystery.  Silently, the ghost reveals the ambivalent reaction to news of Scrooge’s own death. Scrooge realizes that he will die alone and without love, and that he has the power and money to help those around him – especially Bob Cratchit’s ailing son, Tiny Tim.  Scrooge begs the ghost for another chance and wakes in his bed on Christmas morning, resolved to changing his life by being generous and loving to his family, employees, and the poor.

Classifying A Christmas Carol

For some readers A Christmas Carol resonates as a gothic ghost story, at times chilling and terrifying and at other times, extremely funny.  Other readers see the story as a time travel narrative.  Dickens in effect blended realism and the supernatural to create a world in which the gothic and the mundane sit side by side.  Dickens himself said he was here taking old nursery tales and “giving them a higher form” (Stone, Harry 1999, ‘A Christmas Carol: Giving Nursery Tales a Higher Form’).  With its dark, chilly setting and its supernatural visitors, A Christmas Carol draws on elements of the gothic novel when Scrooge’s door-knocker turns into Jacob Marley’s face.  The narrator provides a number of descriptions in which gothic elements are interwoven with freezing, icy imagery to emphasise the atmosphere of mystery and to remind us of the protagonist’s icy heart.

A Christmas Carol as a Cultural Myth

According to Juliet John, A Christmas Carol has become a “cultural myth” providing “a parable for the modern, commercial age” (John, Juliet 2011, ‘Dickens and Mass Culture’).  As a morality tale, in which evil is exposed, virtuous characters like the Cratchits are rewarded, and everyone celebrates at the conclusion.  However, there are issues raised in A Christmas Carol that remain unresolved at the conclusion of the novel. The sinister children of Want and Ignorance, do not go away just because Scrooge has been reformed, but the narrator tells us nothing of their future.  Their role is more allegorical than that of other characters. Dickens uses them as an important warning to his readers and to Scrooge as the frighteningly ugly face of 19th century poverty.  Unless social reform takes place urgently, Want and Ignorance will grow into hungry, resentful predators.  The fact that Dickens even raised the issue of the miserable lives of street children at all marks an important attempt by him to make his readers ponder their own social responsibilities.

Historical Context of A Christmas Carol 

While A Christmas Carol is primarily received as a ghost story, it is also a damning expose of social inequality in 1840’s Britain.  Dickens was deeply agitated by what he perceived as the inertia of the British government and wealthy middle classes to help those less fortunate than themselves.  A Christmas Carol was written at the beginning of the ‘Hungry Forties’ a period that encompassed the catastrophic Irish potato famine, as well as intense suffering for the English working classes.  Dickens uses A Christmas Carol to not only attack the Utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, who justified the centralisation of Poor Relief in workhouses, but also to lambast the work of Thomas Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population.  Whilst in abstract these principles might seem logical, when applied to suffering individuals, their underlying brutality becomes obvious.

Ebenezer Scrooge

For most readers Scrooge represents the worst charactertistics of his society.  Fixated with material goods at the expense of all human connection, particularly with his clerk Bob Cratchit, Scrooge is an allegorical embodiment of the forces of capitalism underpinning Britian’s economy in the 1840’s.  For Dickens, he represented everything that was wrong with society in an increasingly industrialised world where human relations took second place to profits.

Dualism in Dicken’s Writing

The world of the early Dickens is organized according to a dualism which is based in its artistic derivation on the values of melodrama: there are bad people and there are good people, there are comics and there are characters played straight. The only complexity of which Dickens is capable is to make one of his noxious characters become wholesome, one of his clowns turn out to be a serious person. The most conspicuous example of this process is the reform of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol shows the phenomenon in its purest form.

We have come to take Scrooge so much for granted that he seems practically a piece of Christmas folklore; we no more inquire seriously into the mechanics of his transformation than we do into the transformation of the Beast into the young prince that marries Beauty in the fairy tale. Yet Scrooge represents a principle fundamental to the dynamics of Dickens’ world and derived from his own emotional constitution – though the story, of course, owes its power to the fact that most of us feel ourselves capable of the extremes of both malignity and benevolence.

Redemption in A Christmas Carol 

Can A Christmas Carol be seen as a tale about redemption in a man who has ostracized himself from his society?  While the narrative is focused on Ebenezer Scrooge’s learning experiences and his reintegration into the community, his story also forms part of a broader allegory through which Dickens invites his readers to consider Christmas as a time of renewal and hope and to think about how they themselves might redeem and be redeemed.

The ‘Scrooge Problem’ – the Questioning of Scrooge’s Transformation

Elliot L. Gilbert’s essay: ‘The Ceremony of Innocence: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol’ addresses ‘the Scrooge problem’, that is, the critical tradition of questioning the sincerity of Scrooge’s sudden transformation from being mean-spirited to kind-hearted.  Gilbert admits that his support for Scrooge’s change of heart is not free from doubt, as similarly to House and Johnston, he feels that the ease of Scrooge’s alteration is questionable. Furthermore, to accept the overnight metamorphosis of a man who has spent a lifetime bullying clerks, revelling in misanthropy and grinding the faces of the poor, is ‘to deny all that life teaches in favour of sentimental wishful thinking.’

Gilbert’s essay provides a new hypotheses to explain the reader’s misgivings regarding the plausibility of Scrooge’s radical conversion; he is merely returning to his childhood innocence. He explains why he views A Christmas Carol to be metaphysical; it is because it portrays the journey of a human being trying to rediscover his own childhood innocence. Such innocence Gilbert claims is evident in Scrooge’s encounter with the ghost of Christmas past, when Dickens has Scrooge’s fiancé break off their engagement, because the man she sees before her is not the man she first knew. Here, he reveals that Scrooge was not always bitter and mercenary, and therefore not so different from the man we are shown at the end of the novel. Thus, Scrooge’s new self is believable as it is in part his old self.

Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service

I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service.  My resources on this website are for general use only.  I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.