The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Brief Overview

Posted on November 26, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 12 students studying Yoko Ogawa’s ‘The Memory Police’ in the VCE Victorian Curriculum for 2024 Unit 3 AOS1 Reading and Responding to Texts.

Introduction

Yoko Ogawa’s ‘The Memory Police’ is a dreamlike exploration of the role of memory in creating and sustaining cultural identities. Set on an unnamed, untethered island, the novel chronicles the work of the omnipresent Memory Police in slowly and deliberately destroying the memories, and eventually the very personhood, of the island’s residents.

It is a dystopian novel with an unnamed young novelist where mundane objects like ribbons, hats, perfume, books and memories are vanishing mysteriously. Then nature inexplicably disappears like roses, birds and more worryingly, people are taken away and body parts stop working. The ruthlessly efficient Memory Police (totalitarian agency) offer no explanation for their actions, and the islanders ask no questions. There is an inevitability to their work, as explained by the unnamed narrator’s flashbacks to her childhood, and the disappearances that have marked every major occasion in her life. The behaviour of the Memory Police is rendered sinister by the fact that readers are not given an insight into the why of their actions; it is all that residents and readers alike can do to infer the logic behind the erosion of life on the island. The apocalyptic atmosphere of the island, the frightened people, the misery of a fragmented community and disappearing traces of a free world are clearly portrayed in the story.

Despite the Memory Police giving the appearance of being able to exert total power, there still remain ways to counter them. The unnamed narrator works methodically with her major ally, known only as ‘the old man’, to provide the only resistance they can imagine – hiding the narrator’s editor, R, who is one of a small number of people who retain the capacity to access their memories, despite the disappearances. The narrator draws inspiration from like-minded souls operating in secret across the island, hiding individuals and, in some cases, whole families from the Memory Police. This hugely risky undertaking is not the only way that the narrator appears to challenge and resist the edicts of the Memory Police. She works with R to finish a novel, even after novels have been disappeared. The three close friends spend much of the text reflecting on the relationship between memory and the soul, but they spend little time explicitly discussing what appears to be one of Yoko Ogawa’s major concerns: the power of art to provide resistance in times of political conservatism.

Genre & Structure of the Text

First published in 1994 in Japan and translated by Stephen Snyder in 2019, the novel is a first-person narrative that addresses issues of loss of individualism under a totalitarian regime as the theme of this allegorical text. Critics have situated Ogawa’s work within a literary canon of speculative, science and dystopian fiction that concerns itself with efforts to rewrite and reshape history to support the efforts of authoritarian rulers. Her work can also be considered magic realism, as the characters are subject to phenomena that challenge a reader’s understanding of the laws of nature. The cumulative effect of these surreal events adds a mystical, fablelike feel to the text, while offering a warning for contemporary audiences about what their world may yet become.

Nestled within this largely chronological structure are a series of flashbacks that allow the reader to develop a sense of what life looked like for the narrator prior to the death of her parents. These flashbacks serve to underscore the significance of the narrator’s developing understanding of the form and function of the Memory Police. As an adult she is able to reimagine her memories of childhood, often under R’s guidance. These flashbacks thus serve a dual purpose: they offer insight into how the narrator came to be, whilst also foreshadowing the seemingly unstoppable march towards the erosion of everything that once made the island a functional society.

The text includes a novel-within-the-novel. In The Memory Police, the narrator’s preoccupation with her own work again serves to foreshadow her understanding of what is happening to the world around her, whilst also affording her an agency that she is denied in her day-to-day life. Her profession, and the reader’s access to her work, also acts as a reflection on the role of the arts and artists in both documenting and reflecting on the major historical and political events of their times.

Perspective of the Text

The Memory Police asks readers to consider the role of power, memory, and history in contemporary society. Ogawa’s world is the logical extension of the work undertaken by conservative governments worldwide, where history is written and rewritten to serve dominant narratives about war, government, and economics. Written at a time when Japanese society was still wrestling with the demons of World War Two, Ogawa’s work renewed conversations around Japan’s role in the war and its atrocities committed by the Japanese empire in its forced colonisation of the Asian mainland and other countries in the Pacific. A common refrain Japan has used as a nation is to sidestep responsibility for wartime acts and to forget in order to be disconnected from the past like Ogawa’s novel. The novel’s explicit discussion of the way that memory and storytelling can be weaponised to target minorities and empower ruling parties contributes to reader understanding of some of the philosophical questions that have arisen in response to many of the most complex moments in recent human history.

The Memory Police and Echoes of Nazi Germany

It is impossible to ignore the echoes of Nazi Germany and the treatment of Jewish people that Ogawa draws on, especially regarding the Memory Police themselves like the SS and the loaded imagery of the hidden enclave the narrator builds in her home to hide R which is similar to ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. Ogawa took inspiration from the secret hidden annex in Amsterdam where German Jewish girl Anne Frank and her family hid for over 2 years from the Nazi’s during WWII.

In March 1944, Anne wrote in her diary, “The brightest spot of all is that at least I can write down my thoughts and feelings; otherwise, I would be absolutely stifled.” In August of that year, the inhabitants of the annex were captured by the SS. Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February 1945, just two months before liberation. She was fifteen years old.

Many elements of Anne Frank’s life in hiding are incorporated into The Memory Police. “Anne’s heart and mind were so rich,” commented Ogawa in a conversation with Motoko Rich. “Her diary proved that people can grow even in such a confined situation. And writing could give people freedom… I wanted to digest Anne’s experience in my own way and then recompose it into my work.”

Chapter Summaries.

Chapter 1 The narrator remembers her mother, who kept her memories. She establishes a central tension of the text: the ever-widening gap between those who remember and those who forget.

Chapter 2 Birds disappear – a particularly painful and personal disappearance for the narrator, whose father was an ornithologist. The Memory Police arrive to search her house.

Chapter 3 The narrator explains her work as a novelist, and her artistic preoccupation with that which ‘had been disappeared’ (p. 15). The reader is introduced to the old man.

Chapter 4 En route to her publisher, the narrator encounters the Memory Police. She meets with R, her editor.

Chapter 5 The narrator works on a novel wherein the protagonist is a typist loses her voice. Professor Inui and his family flee their home after receiving a summons from the Memory Police – just as it had happened to her mother.

Chapter 6 The typist experiences a flashback to her own childhood. The narrator continues to work with R, and she worries for the safety of the Inui family. Roses disappear.

Chapter 7 The narrator visits the old man, and they discuss the impact of the continued disappearances on life on the island.

Chapter 8 The relationship between the typist and her teacher deepens. The narrator shows R around her home, and she discovers that he is able to retain all of his memories, despite the disappearances.

Chapter 9 Winter descends on the island, and the Memory Police strengthen their grip on the community. The narrator discloses R’s secret to the old man, and they begin a plan to hide R in the narrator’s home.

Chapter 10 R agrees to take up residence in the narrator’s house.

Chapter 11 R and the narrator become increasingly intimate. They discuss R’s experience with memory. The narrator works with a replacement editor, and the old man makes contact with R’s wife.

Chapter 12 In the narrator’s novel, the typist and her teacher grow closer as he gives her a private lesson. R seeks work of any kind to ward off feelings of uselessness and depression as his world becomes ever smaller. Two new disappearances sweep the island: ‘first, photographs, and then fruits of all sorts’ (p. 94).

Chapter 13 The old man is taken into custody. R tries to reassure the narrator, and they continue to discuss the nature of memory, and the ways that the outside world is changing without him.

Chapter 14 The old man is released from custody, revealing that he was suspected of being involved in a smuggling operation. R’s baby is born, and he continues to adapt to life in hiding.

Chapter 15 Tension increases in the narrator’s novel, as the teacher renders his student voiceless. The Memory Police now focus on eliminating calendars; the worst effect of this particular disappearance is the trapping of residents on the island in a perpetual winter.

Chapter 16 R and the narrator organise a celebration for the old man’s birthday. R gifts the old man an orugōru (pp. 145-146), a long disappeared traditional music box. The celebration is cut short by a visit from the Memory Police.

Chapter 17 The Memory Police search the narrator’s home. She fears that they are looking for R, but it becomes clear that their visit was motivated by a raid on her neighbours’ safe room. R comforts the narrator after the raid.

Chapter 18 The typist feels a growing disconnect between her soul and her body. The narrator’s life contracts further as she tries to limit actions that might result in drawing the attention of the Memory Police to her and to her home. She furtively listens to R bathe, aware of the uneasy intimacy between them.

Chapter 19 The narrator is asked for help by an old woman, who appears to be seeking refuge from the Memory Police. Novels are the next significant item to be disappeared, which sharpens R’s sense of urgency to help restore some of the narrator’s memories. The narrator adopts her neighbours’ abandoned dog, Don.

Chapter 20 After the disappearing of novels, in order to earn a living, the narrator takes a job as a typist. R continues to try to activate the narrator’s memories. This effort feels futile to the narrator and the old man. The narrator realises that she is in love with R. An earthquake strikes.

Chapter 21 The narrator and the old man narrowly escape the earthquake and the resultant tsunami. They find R safe, but the narrator’s home, including the safe room is badly damaged.

Chapter 22 The old man comes to live with the narrator. They discover that the narrator’s mother had found a way to use her art to retain disappeared items by hiding these inside her sculptures. R furthers his efforts to awaken the narrator’s soul.

Chapter 23 The narrator and the old man venture to her mother’s cabin in search of additional disappeared items. On their way home, they narrowly escape being searched by the Memory Police.

Chapter 24 The old man contemplates the changes in his life. His imminent death is foreshadowed as he begins to struggle physically with everyday tasks.

Chapter 25 The narrator recovers the old man’s body. After his funeral, she feels increasingly lonely and disconnected. A new disappearance signals a new phase for the island’s residents, as they find themselves without the use of their left legs.

Chapter 26 The narrator re-establishes contact with R’s wife. Another body part disappears – the right arm. The narrator becomes increasingly reconciled to her own inevitable disappearance; however, R maintains that he will be able to shield her from this fate.

Chapter 27 This chapter is an entire extract from the narrator’s novel. It has been written at great effort under R’s instruction. It chronicles the last minutes of the typist’s life as she is completely absorbed into her teacher’s room.

Chapter 28 The narrator details the disappearance of the island’s inhabitants. She encourages R to make his way back in the world, leaving her alone, disembodied and without a voice, in what was once his secret room.

Characters

Unnamed narrator Ogawa’s narrator is the reader’s set of eyes on the island. She is unnamed, and the reader is not provided with much detail about her physical attributes. Despite this lack of conventional information, the reader’s most intimate relationship is with the narrator, who tells the story in the first person. The narrator is a novelist, compelled to tell the story of things that disappear, we see the world through her eyes, but we are intimately aware that she is slowly, but forcibly, losing her memory.

Narrator’s mother The narrator’s mother was a sculptor who worked skilfully before her untimely death, to retain her memories. The text opens with the narrator reminiscing about her mother’s attempts to preserve memories in her daughter, and in her art. Her death, whilst in the custody of the Memory Police, acts as a warning sign for those closest to the narrator about the power of these law enforcers. The narrator’s mother acts a guiding force for the narrator, her drive to preserve that which was disappeared seemingly acting as a formative experience for the narrator.

Narrator’s father The narrator’s father was an ornithologist. He, like the narrator, lost his memories as intended by the Memory Police. Ogawa’s references to his work provide a rhythm within the novel; every time that the narrator encounters physical reminders of her father and his life’s endeavours, she reconnects pieces of her life, and builds on the memories that she is able to awaken with R’s assistance.

The old man The old man is a constant in the narrator’s life. The two are connected through the nurse who raised the narrator – he was the nurse’s husband. The old man provides a kind of practical support that seems to tether both the narrator and the narrative itself to something concrete. Every time that the narrator appears to be losing her sense of confidence and her will, he responds with a kind pragmatism.

R R is one of the few people in the narrator’s life that she trusts. Their desires are inextricably connected, as they work painstakingly together on appraising and editing each word and line of her novels. By the very nature of their shared work, the relationship between the narrator and her editor is close, and yet it still seems surprising when R declares his secret to her, in her basement. He appears to be emboldened by the revelation about the narrator’s mother’s determination to remember and to record reality, and their relationship quickly deepens.

Professor Inui and family Professor Inui and his family connect the narrator to her mother. Helping them as they escape is the narrator’s first effort to actively resist the Memory Police.

Don The narrator’s anxiety levels rise when her neighbours are taken away by the Memory Police. Unexpectedly but also unsurprisingly, the narrator takes their dog, Don, into her home. The dog, too, acts as a steadying presence in the narrator’s life, giving her another tether to the visceral, mortal realm. Don also acts to triangulate the reader’s experience of Ogawa’s world, revealing how the wishes of the Memory Police organise life for all living beings on the island.

The Memory Police The Memory Police are rendered as a brutal, cruel, and professional unit. They operate as a group, giving civilians on the island little opportunity to negotiate their treatment. They generate fear, working from both their reputation and their highly visible actions. They act as enforcers, but readers do not know for whom – the Memory Police are the only face of authority that we see. This works to enhance the reader’s understanding of their menacing quality, but also raises questions about the rationale behind this seemingly totalitarian power.

The typist in the novel-within-a-novel The narrator’s construction of the typist character provides important insight into her own daily concerns. The typist is rendered mute early in the novel, but ‘was continually struggling to speak’ (p. 55). She initially does not want to accept her fate, but feels ‘increasingly oppressed, as though [she] were being backed into the corner by a powerful force’ (p. 91).

The teacher in the novel-within-a-novel The typist’s teacher is a domineering figure, who manipulates and entraps his students. He acts as an enforcer, but positions himself as a protector.

Neighbours There is a small cast of neighbours and townspeople operating in the background of the narrator’s life. These minor characters act to reinforce the degree of risk that the narrator and the old man are undertaking. They are subject to forces that the narrator will have to encounter.

THEMES
memory	connection	craft of writing
art	alienation	totalitarian police state
loss	isolation	identity
surveillance	storytelling	creation vs destruction
tyranny	fate vs free will	longevity
defiance	censorship	resistance
forgetting & disconnection from the past & history	power	cultural identities

SYMBOLS
hearts	snow	hands
food	memories	birds
disappearances	narrator’s novel	typist in the novel
Memory Police	book burning	the protagonist narrator
roses & rose garden	the weather

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian Curriculum

VCE YEAR 12 MAINSTREAM ENGLISH TEXTS FOR 2024

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Margaret

I AM BOOKED OUT WITH NO SPACES AVAILABLE TO TUTOR MAINSTREAM ENGLISH ON THE VICTORIAN CURRICULUM ONLY FOR YEAR 12 IN 2024

However, for Mainstream English Year 12 Students studying in 2024 on the Victorian English Curriculum I am covering Some of the texts from the VCE 2024 English List 1 Not All of the texts.

Please note I do not teach Year 11 English, EAL English or English Language.

I will Post New Year 12 Resources during the year to help students studying these texts.

Keep up to date with new notes just published on my website by checking “Resources for Year 12”.

These are the Mainstream English Year 12 Texts I am Covering for 2024:-

NOVELS VCAA List 1

Go, Went, Gone by Erpenbeck

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jackson

The Memory Police by Ogawa

SHORT STORIES

Runaway by Munro

Bad Dreams and Other Stories by Hadley

PLAYS

Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

POETRY

False Claims of Colonial Thieves by Kinsella & Papertalk Green

Poems Selected by Seamus Heaney of Wordsworth

FILMS

Sunset Boulevard Directed by Wilder

LIST 2 FRAMEWORKS

Writing about Personal Journeys

Writing about Play

Writing about Country

Writing about Protest

Online Tutoring of English Using Zoom

Bad Dreams and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley: The Basics

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 12 students studying Tessa Hadley’s ‘Bad Dreams and Other Stories’ in the VCE Victorian Curriculum for 2024 Unit 3 AOS1 Reading and Responding to Texts.

Introduction

Tessa Hadley is a British writer of 6 novels and 2 short story collections. Her 10 narratives in ‘Bad Dreams and Other Stories’ are realist in style and set in England between the early 20^th century and the present day. They typically examine the experiences of women, often in terms of the psychological ramifications of family relationships, sexual encounters, or seemingly innocuous events. The stories turn things upside down into new thresholds that are crossed, pushing character’s feelings of safety into another new perspective on the problem.

Transformation

Many stories deal with transformation and the need for her characters to process new experiences with sometimes seismic shifts of understanding and memory that can occur in a lifetime. The reader asks if the retelling of the event or relationship helps to clarify how one feels, or does it layer one’s experiences with a new perspective, recasting the memory, changing the plots points?

Experiences

The stories speak deeply to the experience of change and loss and misery dealt to women who care for themselves, for other people, or for abstract principles like love or justice. While some situations might be considered ‘everyday’ these experiences are shown to be significantly formative, shaping identities or facilitating transitions from innocence to experience. While gaining experience can be revelatory, it can also be fraught with danger and in some stories the characters are punished for their desire to have that particular experience.

What is important is the uncovering of secrets in the revelatory experiences. When secrets are revealed their impact can be shocking as well as enlightening.

Bad Dreams Story Collection
An Abduction p.1-29 3^rd person omniscient Jane Allsop protagonist	The Stain p.31-55 3^rd person omniscient Marina protagonist	Deeds Not Words p.57-65 3^rd person limited Edith Carew protagonist
One Saturday Morning p.67-86 3^rd person limited Carrie protagonist	Experience p.87-111 1^st person Laura protagonist	Bad Dreams p.113-126 Shifting 3^rd person limited Unnamed young girl protagonist
Flight p.127-152 3^rd person limited Claire protagonist	Under the Sign of the Moon p.153-182 3^rd person limited Greta protagonist	Her Share of Sorrow p.183-194 3^rd person omniscient Ruby protagonist
Silk Brocade p.195-215 Shifting 3^rd person limited Ann Gallagher protagonist

Themes from Stories
Transformation of a person	Transformation of clothes or specific items	Memory & remembrance
Dreams	Change	Social status & social change
Relationships between families & couples	Growth & development of children & naivety	Empathy, sympathy & tenderness
Death, loss & misery & disability	Tragedy & atonement	Love, forbidden love & sexual encounters
Identities & crisis of identity	Wry humour	Epiphany & perception
Delusions & disappointment	Self-improvement	Re-telling of an event
Hope & hopelessness of life	Happiness in the moment or event	Secrets and their revelations

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian Curriculum

Why Compare ‘Never Let Me Go’ and ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’?

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 12 English students studying Unit 4 AOS:1 Reading & Comparing Texts in the Victorian VCE Curriculum for 2023 the dystopian novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro and the dystopian collection of stories ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’ by Steven Amsterdam.

Introduction

Novels ‘Never Let Me Go’, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005), and ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’, by Steven Amsterdam (2009), offer thought-provoking views into alternative realities so close to our world that the parallels are obvious. Advances in medical treatments through gene therapy, and experimentation with cloning, are current issues where technological capability is, at times, ahead of the ethical considerations and restraints. Similarly, the Covid-19 pandemic, the environmental impact of climate change, the rise of oppressive political regimes, and the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ are also much-debated topics in our own society.

Why Compare these 2 Texts?

Whilst these are two quite different novels, they both have young first-person protagonists who are exploring the worlds in which they live, searching for meaning and exploring their identities within this context. They form close friendships, fall in love, and create a sense of family and belonging. They also face loss, betrayal, and existential crises of a very real kind.

Speculative/Sci-fi or Dystopian Fiction?

Set in a parallel present or recent past, both novels can be categorised as speculative, sci-fi or dystopian fiction. The societies created in each text are recognisable to readers, even quite ordinary in the case of ‘Never Let Me Go’, but with a twist that jolts readers to question occurrences that might have once seemed acceptable by giving us a different viewpoint. In the case of ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’, we start somewhere familiar (Y2K panic) then are soon catapulted into an environmental catastrophe and a pandemic (Covid-19 or plague similarities) —although not beyond the bounds of belief—and the resulting social and political chaos. As with most speculative fiction, the texts ask ‘what if…?’ and try to answer it with their narratives.

Questions Survival

Each text leads us to question what we are prepared to do to ensure our survival, collectively and individually. Both novelists position readers to see that human beings will ignore what they know is right, that they will bend their values and change their moral belief systems to get what they want, or need, to survive. Would you be prepared to steal, lie and cheat to meet you and your family’s needs? Would you be prepared to sacrifice the lives of other beings for your own?

What Makes us Human?

The novels, however, also come back to ideas about what makes us human. What is the essence of our ‘humanness’? They both suggest that what humans need above all is to belong, to find a tribe to protect them and to know who they are. Most times, these tribes are beneficial, but they can also be exclusive, divisive and threatening. The texts offer views of each of these. Mostly, however, each novel shows the importance of family or the need to belong to a family by whatever definition you give to this.

How much can we Control?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us came to recognise that we can only control what we can control. Both of these novels celebrate this idea. Whilst the characters cannot control everything around them, what they do show is their resilience, their ability to adapt and change like the narrator of ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’, or their ability to find the positives in the people around them like Kathy in ‘Never Let Me Go’. This is all we can control.

Narrative Perspective & Style

Both have 1^st Person Perspective of the Protagonist

Both novels are written in the first person, from the perspective of the protagonist. Amsterdam’s unnamed narrator relates events in a fairly straightforward manner with not a great deal of internal monologue. The dialogue is narrated as it happens, and is often direct dialogue, related without any commentary from the narrator. It is written in the present tense and the readers are positioned to feel a close affinity with the narrator as he progresses through episodes of his life. Perhaps because of the nature of the discontinuous episodic structure, he is rarely shown to think back over his life to past events. Readers observe the way that the pragmatic narrator moves forward to deal with the next thing and then the next.

Contrastingly, readers meet Ishiguro’s narrator, thirty-one-year-old Kathy H. at a crucial moment in her life and in a state of emotional reflection, and all that is revealed is filtered through her memories. Written in the past tense, in a nonlinear time scale of memories Kathy uses a conversational and colloquial tone with use of analepsis (flashbacks) and prolepsis (flash forwards). However, the novel often positions readers to feel less sure of the accuracy of the naïve Kathy’s interpretation of the people and events of her past. In a sense, even though Kathy is recalling her own past, the author makes it clear that she is, at times, an unreliable narrator. Her interpretation of Ruth’s motives, for example, are somewhat naïve. Further, Ishiguro sometimes gives us Tommy’s dialogue as a differing perspective, but this perspective is also filtered through Kathy’s fond memories. The narration of ‘Never Let Me Go’ is complex and invites further consideration as do the writer’s intention.

Structure & Questions in ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’

Image result for Book cover for Things We Didn't See Coming

In ‘Things We Didn’t See Coming’, the episodic structure of 9 stories /discontinuous narrative/ gaps can make it a frustrating read for those readers who might want a continuous narrative with neat resolutions. The first story ‘What We Know Now’ takes place on December 31, 1999 and the other stories are progressively later. For the most part, each new chapter opens a new episode without any reference to the events or people who were in the previous one.

The novel asks a number of ‘what if’ questions which it attempts to answer:

What if climate change immediately impacted our country?
What if the country and city divide became political?
What if the planet was overcome by a plague of insects?
What if a virus wiped out the majority of the population?

CHARACTERS IN ‘THINGS WE DIDN’T SEE COMING’
Unnamed narrator/protagonist in all 9 stories	Otis narrator’s father in ‘What We Know Now’ & ‘Best Medicine’ stories	Cate narrator’s mother in ‘What We Know Now’ story
The grandparents of narrator in ‘What We Know Now’ & ‘The Theft That Got Me Here’ stories	Liz & Jenna are mother and daughter who protagonist meets in ‘Dry Land’ story	Margo is narrator’s love interest in ‘Cakewalk’, ‘Uses for Vinegar’& ‘The Forest for the Trees’ stories
Juliet is corrupt politician in ‘The Forest for the Trees’ story	Jeph 14-year-old orphan who has the narrator as a guardian in ‘Predisposed’ story	Karuna interviews narrator in ‘The Profit Motive’ story

Structure & Questions in ‘Never Let Me Go’

See related image detail. Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) | Never let me go, Books you should ...

In ‘Never Let Me Go’ the novel is divided into 3 parts, with further chapter divisions. Part 1, chapters 1-9 is set in Hailsham. Part 2, chapters 10-17 is Life after Hailsham. Part 3, chapters 18-23 is Kathy’s life as a carer. The novel starts in ‘England, late 1990’s’ following narrator Kathy H. as a thirty-one-year-old carer who is about to become a donor and explores her memories of the past.

The novel asks a number of ‘what if’ questions which it asks the readers to consider their answers:

What makes us human?
What rights must all humans have?
What does an individual ‘owe’ society?
How we live our lives in order for it to be meaningful?
Why we should fight to ensure equality amongst all humans?
Why is organ trafficking unethical?
Is human cloning the future or is it unethical, just playing God?

CHARACTERS IN ‘NEVER LET ME GO’
Kathy H. narrator/protagonist	Ruth best friend of Kathy at Hailsham	Tommy student at Hailsham/has relationship with Ruth & later Kathy
Chrissie & Rodney veterans of the Cottages	Miss Lucy guardian at Hailsham	Miss Emily head guardian at Hailsham
Madame Marie-Claude founder of Hailsham and collects creative work of students for her gallery	Miss Geraldine guardian at Hailsham	Keffers looks after maintenance at The Cottages

COMPARISON THEMES IN BOTH TEXTS
dystopian society	humanity & compassion	human nature
forms of power & control	conformity & acceptance	survival
identity & freedom	dangers of technology	Information & knowledge
love & friendship	family	fear, hope & despair
empathy & compassion	impact of politics on people	bildungsroman
love & relationships	personal agency	memory, the past & time
fate, free will & choice	science without ethics	individual versus society
science fiction versus realism	manipulation of truth	exploitation & inequality
constant surveillance	dehumanisation	corporate domination

KEY CONCEPT	IDEAS FROM NEVER LET ME GO	IDEAS FROM THINGS WE DIDN’T SEE COMING	ENRICHED UNDERSTANDING OF THE KEY CONCEPT
The Importance of Connection	The students support each other through childhoodThey drift apart in adulthoodThey revisit their close bonds when the donations begin	Relationships can sometimes be destructiveWe need connection to others to surviveAt the end of our lives, connection matters	While we may drift apart from those we love over the course of our lives, both authors emphasise the importance of connections during hard times
Memories & The Present	The past can be a refugeThe details of the past can be hazyWe can get trapped in our memories	The past can be irrelevant, or at worst, a burdenThe present is what matters	While memories of the past can offer us safety and comfort, they cannot protect us from the present or our futures
Power & Control	Power structures exist that keep people in their place in societyThere is little point in struggling for control	Power structures are ambiguous and temporaryWe have control over our own lives	In the face of ever-changing and increasingly authoritarian power structures, the only control we have is over how we live our lives
Ethics & Morality	In the future we will be forced to make increasingly difficult ethical choicesWhat is a life worth?What is human?	Difficult circumstances lead to tough moral decisionsThere is rarely any clear ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ for every situation	Both authors reveal how difficult moral and ethical situations impact entire nations and individuals
Hope & Despair	The clones are capable of hope despite the knowledge of their fatesHumans are hopeful, even in the face of impending death	Some people fear the future and they may be proved rightSome people are willing to do whatever it takes to survive	In the face of our mortality, both authors demonstrate that life is filled with moments of both hope and despair

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian Curriculum

How to Compare Ransom by Malouf and The Queen by Frears

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for students in Year 12 studying ‘Ransom’ in comparison to ‘The Queen’ in AOS1: Unit 4, Reading & Comparing Texts, Analytical Text Response, in the Victorian VCE 2023 Mainstream English Curriculum

Image result for The Queen DVD Cover — **The Queen**

Image result for Comparing. Size: 115 x 100. Source: www.onlinewebfonts.com — Comparing Ransom &
The Queen

Introduction

Each of the texts, Stephen Frears’ film ‘The Queen’ and David Malouf’s novel ‘Ransom’ offers a re-interpretation of an aspect of history. ‘The Queen’ revisits Princess Diana’s death in 1997, and ‘Ransom’ retells a section of Homer’s ‘The Iliad’. While the texts are different in style, content, nature and form, they are linked by common issues, themes and ideas such as family, grief, leadership, authority, power and change. Both Director and Author aim to offer a new understanding of their respective historical stories by re-imagining the role and function of their chosen characters and social milieus.

Both texts explore the impact that the death of a famous person has on rulers, and on ordinary people. The texts show that rulers may be invested with authority in their public roles, but their personal lives and their bonds of family are resolutely human in nature. The nature of extreme grief, and the difficulty of dealing with it, is central to each narrative. Most important of all, each text investigates the different ways in which rulers may be perceived by their people, and how they may hold or exercise power, and the ways in which old certainties invariably need to make way for changing values in new times. Finally, each text emphasises that rulers are often under as much control as the ruled.

Why Compare Ransom and The Queen?

Public Figures in Contemporary Society

Public figures, especially leaders such as politicians and royalty are often victims of ridicule and harsh criticism in our contemporary society. Prime Ministers, Presidents, and members of Royalty, are under constant public scrutiny in many societies. There are expectations of leaders in the way they manage their working and personal lives, and they have to fulfil the impossible expectation of pleasing everybody. Whilst leaders and royalty do receive money for their efforts, this only serves to place more pressure on those expectations.

Important Issues are Raised in Both Texts

In comparing David Malouf’s novel ‘Ransom’, set in Ancient Greece, and Stephen Frear’s film ‘The Queen’, set in the 1990s, many important issues are raised. What do we expect from public figures? How has the changing world impacted on our expectations of leaders and royalty, in particular? Furthermore, both texts involve the ‘retelling’ of history and the past, which requires interpretation and carries with it, ethical implications.

Both Texts Deal with Death and Grief

Both texts deal with death and grief on a personal and global scale and challenge us to consider what are the acceptable protocols and when is it time to challenge these protocols and traditions. In the case of ‘The Queen’, it is clear that the perspective offered is that the British Royal family were judged harshly as not responding appropriately and ‘humanely’ to the death of Princess Diana, who was one of the most admired, followed and loved ‘public figures’ of all time. Her death in 1997 came out of the blue and plunged millions into grief and shock.

Personal Grief in a Public Dimension

In Malouf’s reimagining of a section of ‘The Iliad’, Priam’s personal grief over the death of his son forces him to take action that went against the usual protocol or behaviour of a King at that time. ‘The Queen’ and ‘Ransom’ explore the nature of personal grief and its public dimension, which affects others. Whilst the film explores the harsh criticism that the Royal Family received in trying to maintain the traditional rules of the monarchy, Malouf’s novel reveals the criticism King Priam received in taking risks and stepping out of the boundaries of his role.

The two texts suggest that grief is real and powerful, and that death must be honoured and grieved appropriately, or else there will be bitter consequences. This is a relatively new and modern understanding, with the increasing availability of grief counselling, grief literature and public memorials.

Change and Risk Taking is Challenging

In the film ‘The Queen’ and the novel ‘Ransom’, change and risk taking are seen as challenging and controversial, but also essential to move forward and not stagnate. While Malouf has reimagined how Priam would be challenged to change and take the opportunity to stop ‘thinking in the old way’ and ‘try something new’, the Queen in 1997 did struggle to keep up with changes in society. She is disturbed to realise that ‘the way we do things in this country’ is changing and the Queen is obliged to embrace change in order to manage the events surrounding Princess Diana’s death.

The Relevance of the Monarchy in Modern Britain

For a long time, there have been many people questioning the relevance and validity of the monarchy in a country such as Britain, where the monarchy has been a figurehead for a long time. This suggests ongoing debate about what the Royal family represents and how they go about doing these things. At the same time there are many devoted fans and believers in the monarchy, who want things to continue as they are. What is the compromise?

We can also look at how things were in 1997 and how they are now, with the Queen’s death in 2022 and a new monarch Charles III on the British throne. In comparison to the film, the Royal Family demonstrated public grief at the death of Queen Elizabeth II. May be they learnt their lesson from the inaction of 1997 what the public really wanted to see from their royals was a showing of actual grief instead of sticking to protocol and tradition.

Similarities in Ideas in the Texts but the Approach is Different

While there are similarities in their ideas, the film and the novel, the approach each text takes to exploring these is different. At the heart of the film is an appraisal of the way that Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Queen coped with the social and political ramifications of Princess Diana’s sudden death. The central focus of the novel is the impact of grief on leaders, soldiers and ordinary people, precipitated by the contentious deaths of each of Patroclus and Prince Hector. In ‘Ransom’, readers are encouraged to empathise with, and understand, those whose emotions are intense and whose lives are altered as a result. The film, in contrast, offers a critique of the Royal family’s initial lack of public response to the Princess’ death, as they concentrate instead on adhering to the protocols and traditions of the institution of the monarchy. The film shows the Queen ignoring advice from her new Prime Minister and her son, and underestimating both the power of her ex-daughter-in-law (and of the media that had created her image) and the needs of the grieving British people.

Malouf’s Characters Show Pain and Emotion

Malouf’s characters are in pain, and their emotion is the engine of their deeds; any behaviour they engage in to enact and define that pain is acceptable. Their grief and anger seem to excuse any behaviour. Another key idea explored in the novel is the question of who controls the narrative and how it is controlled. Consider carefully the impact of Malouf’s writing style and the way in which he conveys the characters’ desire to control not only what is happening around them, but the future stories that will be told about them and the decisions they make. In highlighting the ephemeral [short-lived] nature of control, Malouf prompts readers to consider that it is hard to be in charge and to make proper decisions when in the midst of roaring emotions. The novel also considers the fragility of the link between identity and performance.

‘The Queen’ Asserts Tradition and Stability Over Emotions

Frears presents characters in the film that assert tradition and stability over emotions. No matter the situation, for royalty, the old ways must remain. The public reaction to Princess Diana’s death, and the new Prime Minister Blair’s approach to fulfilling his own leadership role are seen as threats to the power of the monarchy. Yet, Frears reveals how the swing and push of events force the older royals to change, and shift their position, at least on the outside. Personal emotion for the royal family is demonstrated to be perpetually guarded unless within the privacy of spaces far away from public scrutiny. Like Malouf, Frears explores a number of ways of projecting power, and offers a view of the precarious nature of power, whether one is in an inherited or democratically-elected position of leadership, or in the public gaze of the media as Diana is. Consider how viewers are positioned by Frears to feel sympathy and empathy (or not) for the central characters and reflect on the significance of his directorial decisions.

Each Text is Examining Individuals’ Responses to Recognisably Human Events

Regardless of the privilege, tradition and tropes [figures] of power which shape the identity and public role of the protagonists of both texts, each individual leader’s innate humanity is illuminated in the varying ways that they respond to grief. Both the novel and the film concur about the idea of the importance of the need to be able to overcome individual, personal hurt, for the sake of the greater good.

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian Curriculum

Judgement Theme Comparison in ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller and ‘The Dressmaker’ by Rosalie Ham

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 12 English students studying Unit 4 AOS:1 Reading & Comparing Texts in the Victorian VCE Curriculum for 2023. Judgement is an important theme comparison between the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller and the novel ‘The Dressmaker’ by Rosalie Ham.

What Kind of Judgement is in Both Texts?

Legal judgement in insular and conservative societies
Religious judgement in The Crucible and the role of punishment
Social judgement is a pervasive and destructive force in Salem & Dungatar
Self-judgement with both protagonists harshly judging themselves based on their pasts
Inter-personal judgement of protagonists with blame, guilt and need for atonement

Who is Judged in The Crucible?

Tituba, Goody Osborn = lower class, vulnerable women
John Proctor = by the court, by himself, by his wife Elizabeth
Innocent individuals = Rebecca Nurse

Who is Judged in The Dressmaker?

Tilly = by herself, by the community – blamed for Stewart Pettyman’s death
Molly = by the community – for having an illegitimate baby (Tilly)
Dungatar community – for secrets & fashion

Who Judges Others?

The Crucible	The Dressmaker
The Court / Danforth = the law	Sergeant Farrat = the law though he is lax
The Church / Reverend Parris / Puritism	Mr Almanac / Beula Harridene = self-appointed judges
Salem society judges each other = outcasts are judged first then no one is beyond judgement	Dungatar = the towns people judge each other by secrets kept, fashion and appearances

Who is Not Judged in The Crucible?

The Court in Salem is above reproach = Judge Danforth used black & white hypocritical thinking hanging innocent people “a person is either with this court or must be counted against it, there can be no road between” (Danforth)
Arthur Miller’s authorial intent is to point out the hypocrisy of the Court in Salem in an allegory for the Communist witch hunts in 1950’s America
Innocent people were hung in Salem like Rebecca Nurse who sacrifices her life for moral integrity that was lacking in the witch trials “another judgement waits us all” Rebecca is judged by her Christian beliefs

Character Focus Similarities of Protagonists Regarding Judgement – Note Different Endings

The Crucible – John Proctor	The Dressmaker – Tilly Dunnage
Protagonist of the play	Protagonist of the novel
Non-conformist – farmer against strict Puritan rules	Non-conformist – outcast where she lives & through fashion & born illegitimate
Religious judgement – can’t say 10 Commandments / works on the Sabbath – all counts against him in Salem’s Puritan society	Legal judgement – as a child allegedly murdered Stewart Pettyman
Social & self-judgement – had indiscrete affair with Abigail – but trying to redeem himself & atone	Social & self-judgement – blames herself for Stewart’s death – her guilt is a ‘black thing’ inside her she cannot escape it (p.184)
Self-judgement & atonement – ending is honourable & noble	Self-judgement & revenge – ending is destructive & justified punishing the town

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Compare how ‘The Longest Memory’ and ‘The 7 Stages of Grieving’ explore the notion of betrayal

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Margaret

This resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum studying the Comparative Texts ‘The Longest Memory’ and ‘The 7 Stages of Grieving’.

Below is a Draft Essay Plan how to answer the notion of betrayal in both texts.

Quotes Included in Prompt:

Quote #1 “I want to keep you alive, that is all. I do not care about your happiness; your life is everything to me.” (The Longest Memory p.135 ‘Forgetting’)

Quote #2 “I might be related, she answered, I never knew my family – maybe I could meet my real family and if not, I get to have a good cry, anyway.” (The 7 Stages of Grieving p.47 Scene 7)

Prompt: “Compare how the two texts portray the theme of betrayal”.

Define betrayal = It refers to ideas around disloyalty, faithlessness and the breaking of trust. It is concerned with not keeping your word and with giving up your integrity.

NOTE TO STUDENTS = Quotes must be included in your analysis of the prompt.

Comparative Text Essay Structure

Introduction = Main Contention & Message of Authors
Body Paragraph 1 = Cause/Accept Prompt / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
Body Paragraph 2 = Response/Develop Prompt Further / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
Body Paragraph 3 = Consequences / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
Conclusion = Sum up briefly / Message of Authors

Suggested Draft Introduction / Main Contention / Message of Authors

Fred D’Aguiar’s ‘The Longest Memory’ and Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman’s ‘The 7 Stages of Grieving’ explore issues around the betrayal of individuals and groups because of complicated ideas around racial superiority and discrimination. The writers explore the injustices that both African American slaves and Australian Indigenous people faced from groups that they should have been able to trust, but who breached that faith. In ‘The 7 Stages of Grieving’, the audience gains an overview through fragments of Indigenous history from the ‘Dreaming to Reconciliation’. In doing so, they can see the continuous anti-Aboriginal prejudice that individuals and institutions have used to betray the Indigenous community, destroying their families and leaving them with deep sorrow and grief. In contrast, ‘The Longest Memory’ explores one plantation over a shorter period of time. However, the effects of betrayal still leave nothing but grief and tragedy in its wake in the novella. Both texts demonstrate that when people or institutions that should have everyone’s interests at stake, instead choose the interests of only one group, the results are devastating.

Body Paragraph 1 focus = individuals betray others / include quote #1 with explanation

Body Paragraph 2 focus = groups and institutions betray by choosing the interests of one group over the other

Body Paragraph 3 focus = how the disloyalty and breaking of trust affects individuals and generational distress / include quote #2 with explanation

Suggested Draft Conclusion / Message of Authors

Whitechapel’s betrayal of his son in the opening scene of ‘The Longest Memory’ shocks both the readers and the other characters. While Whitechapel offers the explanation, he wanted to protect Chapel from further harm. More significant is the chain of broken trust in the overseer and Mr Whitechapel that such an injustice is carried out. The novella points to a much broader social and political responsibility and guilt for the unfairness of Chapel’s brutal death. On a similar note, ‘The 7 Stages of Grieving’ also points to a breaking of trust in the social and political sphere where institutionalised racism that began with the invasion in 1788 has continued to recent times. The play posits that the whole society is responsible to atone for the lack of trust and the injustices committed against indigenous Australians. Both texts demonstrate how whole societies that practice racism and injustice must atone for their self-interest and broken trust that caused generational trauma.

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The Hate Race and Charlie’s Country Comparative Texts

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 12 English students studying Unit 4 AOS:1 Reading & Comparing Texts in the Victorian VCE Curriculum for 2023. Racism is an important theme comparison between the memoir ‘The Hate Race’ by Maxine Beneba Clarke and the film ‘Charlie’s Country’ by Rolf de Heer.

Why Compare ‘The Hate Race’ and ‘Charlie’s Country’?

Introduction

Maxine Beneba Clarke’s memoir ‘The Hate Race’ and Rolf de Heer’s film ‘Charlie’s Country’ explore the shifting experiences of racism in Australia. The texts foreground the complex and traumatic impact of racism on individuals, as well as the broader social ramifications of institutionalised racism. Beneba Clarke and de Heer shine a light on the corrosive and unexpected impacts of racism, and the way that this can shape an individual’s experience of the world around them. The texts reveal fundamental truths about the role of racism in contemporary Australia.

A comparison of ‘The Hate Race’ and ‘Charlie’s Country’ offers insight into the common experiences of people of colour, whilst also highlighting the unique experiences of First Nations people. The texts focus on modern day events, dispelling any notions of the elimination of racism in modern Australia. They share a grounding in the historical evolution of racism on both national and global scales. They offer insight into two very distinct geographical locations, again revealing the varied manifestations of both institutional and interpersonal racism.

The pain that is central to the experience of the protagonists in both texts is reflected through the prisms of the memoir and film respectively. Beneba Clarke’s work chronicles the experience of a child through the reflective lens of an adult. Conversely, de Heer’s film showcases the cumulative impact of racism on an adult.

‘The Hate Race’ Memoir is an Autobiographical Work

‘The Hate Race’ is an autobiographical work, a factual yet subjective narrative of events, experiences and emotions from the author’s own life. Specifically, the book is a memoir, since it does not reflect on Clarke’s whole life but on a particular and significant period of it – her childhood. The narrative illuminates how this period would inform the rest of her life (as suggested by the Prologue and Epilogue) when the adult Maxine undergoes experiences intertwined with the discrimination she faced for years as a young person. The book can also be considered a form of bildungsroman or ‘coming of age’ narrative that charts the social, emotional, and psychological growth and development of its protagonist.

‘The Hate Race’ situates the experience of an individual childhood within a broader social landscape. Beneba Clarke’s use of the memoir form allows her to paint a vivid picture of the social and historical forces that shaped the experiences of the author and her family. ‘The Hate Race’ offers an account of an Australian childhood that is distinctly recognisable—a fact that makes the characters’ experiences of racism all the more uncomfortable and undeniable.

The Title ‘The Hate Race’

The title signifies for minorities in Australia, life is constantly akin to a race. There is no rest, no comfort, and no sense of home when your mind is preoccupied with all the ways you don’t belong. Being denied a firm sense of self, and constantly being forced to justify one’s own existence is not easy, and becomes a ‘race against time’ to see who can cope and rise above, and who will be swept away along with the tide. If people of colour stop running, they run the risk of being consumed by the hatred themselves and become so cynical and disillusioned that they forget their culture and accede to the Anglocentric, white majority.

Structure of ‘The Hate Race’

The text follows a largely chronological structure, which has the effect of simulating the cumulative nature of Maxine’s experience of racism. There is an acute sense of the role that racism plays in ensuring childhood and adolescence are experienced differently by children of colour. The carefully placed layers of trauma may not have been fully comprehended by the author as a child, but the adult Beneba Clarke reflects the depth and extent of her wounds through a story told ‘just so’ (p. 3). The chapters of the memoir offer vignettes; seminal moments from Beneba Clarke’s childhood to reflect unflinchingly the toll on a life lived as a person of colour in Australia. Again, as Beneba Clarke notes in the text’s acknowledgements, these memories are about a ‘very specific’ (p. 257) aspect of her life. Racism alone is not her life story, but equally her life story cannot be told without understanding racism.

‘Charlie’s Country’ Film is a Fictional Drama

In contrast to ‘The Hate Race’ which is a factual memoir, ‘Charlie’s Country’ is a fictional drama that incorporates some details from life and some elements of the story that comes from the life of the main actor protagonist Charlie played by David Gulpilil. However, de Heer did not want the film to be interpreted as ‘being about one particular (real) individual’ but rather as ‘being about issues much more widespread, much more representative of many individuals’ (de Heer 2014). In this way, ‘The Hate Race’ and ‘Charlie’s Country’ approach some of their common themes from different directions. While the autobiographical genre of ‘The Hate Race’ concentrates on ideas central to the protagonists’ life, ‘Charlie’s Country’ is more interested in the impact of broad issues on an individual.

Rolf de Heer’s ‘Charlie’s Country’ is a stark, fictional film that adopts many of the hallmarks of documentary filmmaking; this is a film that aims to heighten consciousness about the plight of Aborigines impacted by the Australian Government’s intervention, in 2007, in the Northern Territory. The injustice of institutionalised racism is at the heart of this collaboration between Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil. Their film focuses on the life of one Aboriginal man, Charlie, whose struggles to find a way to live in the modern world whilst staying true to his cultural identity are constantly thwarted by local, white authority figures.

The Title ‘Charlie’s Country’

The title of the film reflects a simple reality – this is Charlie’s country. Rather than a ‘country’ de Heer speaks of the Indigenous notion of connection to and respect for one’s traditional lands and country. Nurturing this connection is a sacred responsibility and the film reminds us that, despite Charlie’s many trials and tribulations, the land on which he lives is truly his own.

Structure of ‘Charlie’s Country’

The film adopts a chronological structure, tracking Charlie’s decision-making in regards to his attempts to regain meaning and purpose in his life as he tries to return to a more traditional way of relating to his environment. The structure of the film is also circular, Charlie ends up back in the place where he began, and seems in a similar state of something like static, confined despair. There is little sense that his journey has been moving forward, rather the places he finds himself (bush, hospital, prison) seem a series of sideways stumbles with no plan or intention. This echoes Maxine’s journey in ‘The Hate Race’, which begins and ends in the adult Clarke’s life, with matching scenes of discrimination, suggesting that her experiences repeat themselves over and over.

Charlie’s Country can be divided into 3 parts:

Part 1 – Intervention
Part 2 – Bush
Part 3 – Jail

Common Themes in ‘The Hate Race’ and ‘Charlie’s Country’
Racism & bullying	Discrimination– institutional versus interpersonal	Identity – personal and national
Prejudice	Growing up black in a white country	Intergenerational disadvantage
Belonging	Resilience & resourcefulness	Hopelessness & lack of agency
Repression	Gap between generations	Power of language & culture
Struggle of being an outsider	Friendship	Trauma & hate

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian Curriculum

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque: The Basics

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 11 English students studying in the Victorian VCE Curriculum.

The Author Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque was born in Osnabruck, Germany in 1898. He joined the German Army in 1916 to fight in World War 1, and was wounded. After the War ended in 1918, Remarque published his novel ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ – ten years later in 1928.

The novel is very realistic about the harsh realities of being an ordinary soldier in war, including none of the usual glory propaganda. It was a firmly anti-war novel and became an instant international success. In 1930 a film based on the novel was released. As the German Nazi party rose to power and prominence, the novel was being attacked as being anti-German or unpatriotic in 1931, and the film was banned. In 1932 Remarque and his wife fled to Switzerland for protection and by 1933 the Nazi Party banned Remarque’s books and burned them on bonfires.

The fact that ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is based on the German soldiers’ experiences during War highlights the universal suffering and futility that War brings.

The Novel in Context of World War I – 1914 – 1918 (Estimated 9.7 million military soldiers died)

The First World War was one of the biggest wars that had ever been fought and saw the introduction of weapons of mass destruction such as gas, as well as other new war technology. There are many reasons for the outbreak of World War I, however the trigger was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian student. Other factors included diplomatic fall-outs, irrational nationalism, and a build-up of military might.

Europe was split into two opposing camps. France, Russia and Great Britain were in the Triple Entente and Germany, Italy and Austria/Hungary were part of the Triple Alliance. On July 28, 1914 Austria/Hungary declared war on Serbia, so Russia began to get ready for war, and then Germany declared war on Russia and (later) France. However, when Germany invaded Belgium – a neutral country, Britain joined the war for fear of follow-up attacks. Later the United States joined the Allies.

After Germany moved into France, the trench warfare began. This was a new method of warfare that had never been tried before and had been a military officer’s brainchild. It meant that both sides had dug trenches underground, and the middle became known as “no-man’s land”. The conditions in the trenches were horrific, especially as they were always wet and muddy and filled with rats, lice and disease. There was shelling and firing by guns all day and night, and no protection from the heat or winter cold. Many soldiers not only died from being hit by guns and grenades, but also from the diseases that were rampant in those conditions or deadly poison gas. The War also caused much mental anguish and suffering for the soldiers.

Propaganda in WWI Why Men Enlisted to Fight – Both British & German

If we look back to the time of the break out of World War 1 – 1914 and before this, the world was a much different and slower place. Mass communication, electronic media and global travel were barely available and this may explain the success of war campaigns to lure young men, some still in school, to sign up and fight for their country.

The values of the time were that:

It was an honour to fight for one’s country in a war
Those who did not fight were cowards and should be punished
People who went to war were heroes
There was much glory and pride in being a soldier

At the time, there were people who were ‘conscientious objectors’, who did not believe in war, but standing out for this cause was seen as a betrayal. Thus, we see that in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, all of Paul’s class signed up to fight in the war, even though they were so young. The older men in the community were at first seen as too old to fight, so the first soldiers chosen were teenagers and those in their early twenties. The love of country and patriotism was valued highly, even though no one really knew about the horrors of war, back at home. Whilst there were official war photographers, artists, and reporters, most of what they were allowed to report back and produce would have been censored by their governments. All countries used propaganda to create fear amidst their citizens about the enemies, and to reinforce the need for men to sign up as soldiers.

The Truth about the Horrors of War

The truth about the horrors of World War I began to unfold as the soldiers realized they were just fodder for a huge killing machine that was war. Trench warfare was a new ‘idea’ that was being tested, and it allowed for massive amounts of death and disease. Paul and his friends realise when it is too late that there is no glory in this killing machine; they are just here to die. The fact that ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is written by a German soldier reflects the universality of the horrors of war.

Poetry about War – Wilfred Owen

The same sentiments and experiences are also found in Allied writing, art-works and poetry written by those who were there – for example poems by Wilfred Owen such as ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ about the horrors and pity of war. Owen’s poetry presents the utter brutality of trench warfare truthfully. The experience for the soldiers was a shocking one especially as many of the soldiers were just young teenagers who had been fed propaganda about how noble it would be to fight for one’s country in the War. In fact, the common saying was “How sweet and noble it is to die for one’s country”, but the soldiers quickly realised they had just been sent to killing fields.

Plot Summary of the Novel

Paul Baumer, 19 joins the German Army to fight in World War 1. Several of his friends from his class were inspired to join the War by their patriotic school master, Kantorek. They feel they have been tricked after a few weeks at war, as the soldiers are subject to cruelty, brutality, and suffering, often leading to death. In fact, after just two weeks, Paul’s company of soldiers’ experiences losses of over 50% of the men. One of Paul’s friends Kemmerich, also a classmate is in hospital with gangrene and dying. Another friend Muller becomes pragmatic and hopes for Kemmerich’s boots when he dies.

Life is made very unbearable by the cruel and sadistic Corporal Himmelstross. Life in the trenches is disgusting and many men are struck down by disease or death. Soon there are only 32 of Paul’s company remaining alive. Not only is war hell but Paul realises that when he has leave, he feels nothing and is just numb. When he has time to go home on leave for a few weeks, Paul finds he cannot relate to others. However, he goes to visit Kemmerich’s mother and tells her that her son’s death was painless. This lie makes her happy.

Back at war, Paul is forced to stab a French soldier to death and he is filled with remorse and guilt. He realises that the enemy is just another victim of war like all soldiers. Looking through his identification, he learns the man’s name was Gerard and he has a wife and two children, which upsets him even more. By 1918 just before the War ends, Paul is the only original member of his company left. Paul is killed in October 1918. The novel ends with a statement from the Army report for this day as ‘All quiet on the Western Front’.

The Narrator of the Novel

Who is telling this story? The novel is written mostly in the First person from the perspective of Paul Baumer until the end of the book, where it changes briefly to Third person – as a report excerpt. As such the reader follows the rise and fall of Paul’s sense of life and enthusiasm. We feel his betrayal and despair, his inability to feel pain as it may overwhelm him.

Structure of the Novel

It is divided into twelve chapters, where there is some overlap, reflecting the confusion and loss of time. The reader goes on Paul’s incredible journey from innocent adolescent to jaded and despairing ‘hollow man’ who has lost everything. The last few chapters especially reflect the desperate chaos that ensued once America joined the war and Germany was clearly losing the war. Due to the lack of resources and younger men, the dying soldiers were now being replaced by older men, and the pace became even more frantic and destructive. When Paul dies, and his death is objectively reported in the third person of a military report – “All quiet on the Western Front.”

Themes of the Novel

The Horror of War – The novel presents the horror and brutality of war, which was a sharp contrast to War literature before this novel. Traditionally war books, poems, songs etc. glorified war as a patriotic honour and duty. The novel presents war from the point of view of the ordinary soldier so it cannot hide the truth and the horror of the immense suffering. World War I was a complete shock and introduced a ‘new’ method of French warfare – long, drawn out battles, new technology/weapons, which increased the death toll. The novel ends with all the major characters dead – including the protagonist and narrator, Paul.

Nationalism – The novel depicts the lies behind nationalism, exposing it as a powerful tool. Paul discovers that war has nothing to do with ideals, but rather it becomes a fight to stay alive. Moreover, there is no real sense of fighting an enemy. The enemy becomes the government and authority figures that sent them to the War.

The Effects of War on Soldiers – Clearly millions of soldiers died or were seriously injured by the War. Those that did not die and managed to return home would never be the same again. Months or years of constant exposure to physical danger constant attacks and living with fear had severe consequences on their nerves and emotional well-being. To add to this burden, the trenches were filthy, rat-infested and damp/water logged habitats. The soldiers were also dealing with lice infestations and diseased/decaying corpses all around them. Sleep was disrupted; food was lacking or of poor quality and medical care was very limited and poor. This is a toxic burden that made life for the soldiers unbearable. To survive, many of the soldiers had to disconnect from their feelings. As Paul discovers, although this leads to a general numbness that becomes all pervading, it protected the soldiers from mental anguish to some extent. The men became somewhat desensitized to the suffering and deaths all around them.

Friendship Bonds – The bonds between friends and sticking together seemed to be the only thing that kept the men alive and sane, and sometimes even this was not enough. It is especially touching to see how the more experienced soldiers looked after the new recruits who had never seen so much death and suffering. In Chapter 4, a shell-shocked young recruit seeks comfort from Paul and begins to cry as he is supported and told he will soon get used to it. Throughout the novel, Paul and Kat are very close and have a rare moment of intimacy and celebration of friendship as they eat the goose. (Chapter 5) Paul is constantly watching others die, but at this moment with Kat he acknowledges the humanizing power of friendship and relationships.

Betrayal and the Loss of Innocence – These two themes belong together because when the young men, filled with life and hopes for the future entered the war, they had been encouraged to do so by the very people who had guided them their whole lives – parents, teachers, and other authority figures. As soon as they arrived at the war, they were shocked into the reality of what the war was and the first thing they lost was their innocence, and it would have been impossible to feel betrayed by those they had trusted. In fact, Paul and the others see right through the lies and become quickly aware of the reality, and that they are just part of a giant killing machine, and need to be sacrificed to make the governments ‘plans’ a reality. The horror of war is never-ending and the recruits just keep on coming and being sacrificed for some lofty ideals.

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Analysis of ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ by Ursula K. Le Guin

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Margaret

This Resource is for Year 11 English students studying in the Victorian VCE Curriculum.

Did you Love The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin or Hate it?

Science Fiction as a Genre is sometimes defined as being an analytical and foretelling narrative at which a type of prediction is made. Quite often Science Fiction is so bizarre that you read it and become so confused you put it down and never pick it up again.

For those students who have read The Left Hand of Darkness did you get the story the first time? Or did it take you repeated readings to understand it? Once you read the novel a couple of times so many layers become obvious that you can understand why Le Guin won many prestigious literary awards for her writing.

I must admit the first time I started to read The Left Hand of Darkness I had to ‘get my head around’ the structure of the narrative, the names of the characters, the countries, the Hainnish calendar and Ursula K. Le Guin’s terminology for her fictional Hainnish Universe all set in the year 4870. While The Left Hand of Darkness is definitely part of the Science Fiction Genre, the narrative does also cover other Genres such as Fantasy, Mythology, Legend, Folklore and Feminism.

This Analysis Uses Shortened Versions of the Names of Characters

In this analysis of The Left Hand of Darkness, I have used a shortened version of the names of the two main characters rather than use their much longer versions that Le Guin has in the novel. So Therem Harth rem ir Estraven is just ‘Estraven’ and Genly Ai is just ‘Genly’. All my page number references are for the 1992 Orbit Edition of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (as pictured above).

Le Guin’s Purpose of Meaning

Le Guin’s purpose in this novel was not, in her own words, “[to predict] that in a millennium or so we will all be androgynous, or [to announce] that… we damned well ought to be androgynous.” Rather, she is observing that, in some ways, “we already are.” Le Guin’s purpose is not to convince us to move in a certain direction towards the future; rather, she is enabling us to examine ourselves from a different perspective and embrace alternate forms of identity and reality.

Two Halves of the Whole – Yin and Yang

Once I began to understand that The Left Hand of Darkness is not simply a science fiction novel; I could see how Le Guin’s described the novel in her own words as ‘a thought-experiment’. It forces us to examine ourselves and the nature of our existence. It provides a deep, scholarly, metaphorical analysis on gender, patriotism, and the concept of opposites.

The more I delved into the story I began to appreciate the characters of Genly and Estraven and how Le Guin developed the concept of “self and other”. Then I discovered the clever contrasts Le Guin explored of the binaries and the juxtapositions that exist on almost every level of the novel.

What fascinated me the most was the Daoist philosophy of yin and yang, opposites and reversals, which is shaped so beautifully by Le Guin. In true Daoist fashion, The Left Hand of Darkness not only highlights opposites for the sake of contrast, but stresses the necessity of accepting both extremes to realise the whole. The entire story is one of integration, on the personal, international and cosmic level, from existing divisions towards reconciliation and balance.

Le Guin asks us to question the very nature of binaries [dualism] themselves as Estraven said in the lines of the Handdara to Genly (p.190):

Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light
Two are one, life and death
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.

The Bond between Genly and Estraven

The central bond between Genly and Estraven is explored by Le Guin with immense subtlety. Le Guin cleverly describes the changes in a relationship that almost founders on misapprehensions and mistakes. Estraven is Genly’s surest and most selfless ally, and yet is the person Genly most distrusts. In his innocence and ignorance it seems that Genly will not survive the power struggles of which he has become the living symbol.

As Genly comes to accept Estraven as he is, he becomes less absorbed, more aware of his actions on his companion and in the end a wiser and more appreciative person. Genly’s companionship (is it really love?) with Estraven profoundly changes him and how he perceives the alien world that is now his home. Genly’s growth highlights the notion that one’s own wholeness of being can arise from a relationship in which both parties strive to accept one another. Estraven admits to Genly that they were “… equals at last, equal, alien, alone” on the Gobrin Ice (p.189).

However, in a heart-breaking reversal of expectation it is Estraven who finally pays the price in chapter 19 ‘The Homecoming’.

The Inhospitable Landscape of Gethen

What I did love was Le Guin’s wonderful creation of the inhospitable landscape of Gethen. The journey that Estraven and Genly make together on foot across the Gobrin Ice is described in all its frozen spendour. I was awestruck by the bleak beauty of this fictional planet and the prose and imagery of Le Guin as Estraven and Genly trekked through a “deep cold porridge of rain-sodden snow” (p.176), past a volcano with “worms of fire crawl down its black sides” (p.184). Le Guin took not only Genly and Estraven on a bitter winter journey, but us as readers, as we too saw the raw fury of nature on display in Gethen.

What is the Significance of the Title?

The title comes from the Handdara religion recited in a poem by Estraven on page 190 (shown in detail above). It refers to dualism and the importance of unity of opposites.

Le Guin’s Style of Writing

Le Guin’s writing style is descriptive with finer details of life on Gethen from architecture to weather patterns, diets to travelling habits. The novel is a blend of nature writing with anthropology and an understanding of a people’s connection to that place. Her treatment of Gethen as both a setting and a character infuses her world with vivid descriptions of landscape, character stories, adventures and traditional mythology.

Le Guin’s Narrative and Tone

Some stories are in 1^st person narrative when Genly is reporting or from Estraven’s journal but when myths, legends or tales are told the narrative is in 3^rd person omniscient. The myths form a backdrop for the story and explain specific features about Gethenian culture as well as larger philosophical aspects of society.

Le Guin presents the novel as Genly’s field report to the Ekumen so his tone is exact. As Genly develops understanding of the Gethenians he evolves with more awareness and he becomes descriptive.

Estraven’s chapters take on a journalistic tone since they are journal entries. The mythological stories have a folk tale tone.

The narrative can also be seen as a Bildungsroman or coming of age story of Genly as his journey of transformation.

The Plot in a Nutshell

The plot consists of 3 major sections and a brief conclusion. The first section is set in Karhide, the second in Orgoreyn, the third on the Gobrin Ice and the conclusion is set in Karhide.

In a nutshell it is the story of an icy snowbound planet called Gethen (Winter) where a solitary envoy from the Ekumen, Genly Ai is sent to try and persuade the inhabitants of Gethen to join a federation of nations for the purpose of expanding trade and an interplanetary alliance. Gethen is an isolated and harsh world of ice and snow whose inhabitants are unique in their physiology as they are androgynous beings; neither male nor female. Unfortunately Genly discovers two hostile nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn gearing up for war and his arrival feeds the rivalries between the two states.

In Karhide, King Argaven is reluctant to accept Genly’s diplomatic mission. In Orgoreyn, Genly is seemingly accepted more easily by the political leaders, yet he is arrested, stripped of his clothes, drugged, and sent to a work camp.

Rescued by Estraven, the deposed Prime Minister of Karhide, Genly realizes that cultural differences, specifically shifgrethor, gender roles and Gethenian sexuality, had kept him from understanding their relationship previously.

During their 80-day journey across the frozen land of the Gobrin Ice to return to Karhide, Genly learns to understand and love Estraven and is able to fulfill his mission to join Karhide and Orgoreyn within the federation of the Ekumen.

Major Themes/Issues/Ideas

Language / communication / storytelling / gender / politics/ religion / fear of difference & fear of change / the ‘other’ / acceptance / duty / man & the natural world / warfare / love / human relationships / dualism / yin & yang / unity / loyalty / betrayal / honour / ethnic differences /respecting differences / sexuality/ androgyny

Symbols and Motifs

Shadows / light / darkness / the ansible [communication device] / religious teachings / keystone / yin & yang / shifgrethor [equality or honour]

Characters – Major

Genly Ai = the first Envoy of the Ekumen on Gethen. He is the protagonist of the novel, a native of Terra (Earth).

Estraven, Therem Harth rem ir = is a Gethenian from the Domain of Estre in Kerm Land in the southern part of the Kardish continent. He is Prime Minister of Karhide at the beginning of the novel.

Argaven, Harge XV = is the King of Karhide during the events of the novel.

Tibe, Pemmer Harge rem ir = is Argaven’s cousin and later becomes Prime Minister of Karhide when Estraven is exiled.

Obsle, Yegey, Shusgis = are Commensals that rule Orgoreyn.

Faxe, The Weaver = is a Foreteller of Otherhord

Ashe = is Estraven’s former kemmering

Characters – Minor

Goss = helps Genly find his way to the Fastnesses

Mavriva = is a fur trader who helps Estraven

Thessicher = is a old friend of Estraven but later betrays him

Arek = is Estraven’s dead brother

Sorth = is Estraven’s son

Esvans = is Estraven’s father

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