Year 12 English AOS1 Unit 4 Reading and Comparing Texts

Comparative Texts Prompts have 3 Categories:

1. Character-based prompts:

   1. ‘How do characters in both texts explore the idea of belonging?’
   2. ‘Compare the ways in which individual and collective memory affects the lives of characters in both texts’

2. Thematic prompts:

   1. ‘Compare what the two texts suggest about racial discrimination’
   2. ‘How do the authors of Black Diggers and The Longest Memory explore the idea of identity?’

3. Views and values prompts:

   1. ‘What is the impact of one group assuming mastery over another both on attitudes and lives in Black Diggers and The Longest Memory?’
   2. ‘Both Black Diggers and The Longest Memory argue that individuals cannot escape the roles that society imposes on them’.

What to do first

1. Choose a prompt you CAN answer
2. Dissect prompt words and look them up if needed (use your dictionary)
3. Is the prompt character based / theme based or a value prompt?
4. Take the basic idea/message from the prompt and break it down
5. What are the authors trying to demonstrate about the subject matter?
6. If the prompt has quotes, work out who said them and in what context
7. Look for similarities and differences in the messages of the texts
8. You need 6 quotes to cover ideas in the prompt (3 per text per body paragraph)

Easiest Prompt Plan Process = Cause / Response / Consequence

Comparative Texts Pair Example = Black Diggers and The Longest Memory

Prompt: ‘Compare what Black Diggers and The Longest Memory say about injustice’

Introduction = States your main contention about the prompt 

Body Paragraph 1 = Cause = cause of the injustice / historical context culture of racism / restrictions to freedom / dispossession / marginalisation

Body Paragraph 2 = Response = response of characters to injustice / Bertie / Mick / Archie / Stan / Chapel/ Lydia / Cook / Mr Whitechapel

Body Paragraph 3 = Consequence = consequence of injustice on individuals / trauma/ loss of belonging / loss of identity / remembering / trying to forget / whipping of Chapel / death / loss of hope

Conclusion = Sums up your essay including the message from the authors

What is the Context for injustice?

In both texts the notion of racial superiority, whereby skin colour correlates with intellectual and moral capacity, is a form of justification for both slavery in the American Deep South and the marginalisation of Aborigines in Australia

What are the Authors Value Statements about injustice?

Both authors demonstrate that injustice is detrimental and its effects are long lasting even generational.  They promulgate the idea that entrenched racism is not merely physically harmful but emotionally devastating as well.