Poetry of Robert Frost

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Margaret

Robert Frost

Frosts poetry is a Metaphor for the ways in which we make sense of our lives

The ways in which people develop their imaginative landscapes, their attitudes and values and how they respond to the world around them are influenced by their sense of place. In analysing texts the landscape may be seen in literal or metaphorical terms. Places where we have lived and people we have lived with contribute to our outlook on life and how we respond to particular situations. For some people these memories stay with them throughout life. The imaginative landscape derives from the diversity of these experiences over the years. The physical landscape of a person’s life forms a literal and metaphorical yardstick with which to measure the passage of time and the acquisition of personal characteristics. The physical becomes intertwined with their imaginative landscape.

Robert Frost’s Imaginative Landscape

Encompasses both the beauty and dark side of the land and of human nature. While his love of the natural world is evident, inspiring him as a poet and a person, he does not romanticize it, rather he imbues it with strong moral tones, reflecting in his love of rural America.

As well as describing the physical world, Frost is also preoccupied with how the human figures are placed in the landscape and in time. His characters are aware of where they have come from and their history. They move in time from the past but also encompass the future. Frost’s imaginative landscape helps us to construct versions of ourselves by exploring where and who we have come from and who we might become.

‘The Road Not Taken’ Poem by Robert Frost

See the source image

The speaker stands in the woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that he will have the opportunity to do so. He admits that someday in the future he will recreate the scene with a slight twist, he will claim that he took the less-travelled road.

One of the attractions of this poem is its archetypal dilemma, one that we instantly recognise because each of us encounters it numberable times, both literally and figuratively. Paths in the woods and forks in the roads are ancient and deep-seated metaphors for life, its crises and decisions. Identical forks, in particular, symbolise for us the nexus of free will and fate. We are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two.

The Fourth Stanza Holds the Key to the Poem with 2 Tricky Words

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference”.

Those who interpret this poem as suggesting non-conformity take the word “difference” to be a positive difference. There is nothing in the poem that suggests that this difference signals a positive outcome. The speaker could not offer such information, because he has not lived the “difference” yet.

The other word that leads non-discerning readers astray is the word “sigh”. By taking “difference” to mean a positive difference, they think that the sigh is one of nostalgic relief. However, a sigh can also mean regret. There is the “oh, dear” kind of sigh, but also the “what a relief” kind of sigh. Which one is it? We do not know.

See the source image

If the the sigh is one of relief, then the difference means the speaker is glad he took the road he did. If the sigh is one of regret, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret. The speaker of the poem does not even know the nature of that sigh because that sigh and his evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the future. It is a truism that any choice we make is going to make “all the difference” in how our future turns out.

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Basic Debating Rules

Posted on June 22, 2021 by Margaret

This Resource is for students studying Mainstream English in the Victorian Curriculum.

Basic Debating Rules: Starting with an Explanation of What is a Debate?

A debate is basically an argument with strict rules of conduct. It is not a shouting match between two sides with different points of view.

Topic Sides

There are 2 sides in a debate:

The Affirmative agrees with the topic
The Negative disagrees with the topic

The Team Line

Three speakers work together as a team. The Team Line is the basic statement of “why the topic is true” (for the affirmative team) and “why the topic is false” (for the negative team). It should be a short sentence, presented by the first speaker of each team and used by the other two speakers to enforce the idea of teamwork.

The Debate Announcer and Time Keeper

The Debate Announcer introduces the topic and the students on each team
The Debate Announcer mentions that each speaker will be timed, the minimum speech is 3 minutes and the Time Keeper will tap on the desk when the 3 minutes has elapsed so the Speaker knows
Each team will have the same allowance for time

Speakers

Each side has 3 speakers who speak in order:

First Speaker of the Affirmative Side Must

define the topic
present the Affirmative team’s line
outline briefly what each speaker in their team will talk about
present the first half of the Affirmative case

First Speaker of the Negative Side Must

accept or reject the definition. If you don’t do this it is assumed that you accept the definition.
present the Negative team’s line
outline briefly what each of the Negative speakers will say
rebut a few of the main points of the First Affirmative Speaker
the First Negative Speaker should spend about one quarter of their time rebutting
Present the first half of the Negative team’s case

Second Affirmative Speaker Must

reaffirm the Affirmative team’s line
rebut the main points presented by the First Negative Speaker
the Second Affirmative Speaker should spend about one third of their time rebutting
present the second half of the Affirmative team’s case

Second Negative Speaker Must

reaffirm the Negative team’s line
rebut some of the main points of the Affirmative’s case
the Second Negative Speaker should spend about one third of their time rebutting
present the second half of the Negative team’s case

Third Affirmative Speaker Must

reaffirm the Affirmative team’s line
rebut all the remaining points of the Negative team’s case
the Third Affirmative Speaker should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting
present a summary of the Affirmative team’s case
round off the debate for the Affirmative team

Third Negative Speaker Must

reaffirm the Negative team’s line
rebut all the remaining points of the Affirmative team’s case
the Third Negative Speaker should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting
present a summary of the Negative team’s case
round off the debate for the Negative team
neither Third Speaker may introduce any new parts of their team’s cases

Importance of Rebuttal

In debating, each team will present points in favour of their case. They will also spend some time criticising the arguments presented by the other team. This is called Rebuttal.

There are a few things to remember about Rebuttal:

Logic – to say that the other side is wrong is not enough. You have to show why the other side is wrong. This is best done by taking a main point of the other side’s argument and showing that is does not make sense. A lof of the thinking for this needs to be done quickly and this is one of the most challenging aspects of debating.
Pick the important points – try to rebut the most important points of the other side’s case. You will find that after a while these are easer to spot. One obvious spot to find them is when the first speaker of the other team outlines briefly what the rest of the team will say.
Play the ball – do not criticise the individual speakers, criticise what they say.

The Manner of how you present your debate is important

The manner is how you present what you say and the best manner style is definitely not to shout and thump the table but to keep calm and present your points with a clear speaking voice. Here are a few tips that might come in handy with your debating style:

Use Cue Cards – debating is a lively interaction between two teams not just reading a speech off notes. Use cue cards like a prompt in a play as a reference if you lose your spot or train of thought.
Use Eye Contact – if you look at the audience you will hold their attention. If you spend the whole time reading from your cue cards or looking at a spot away from the audience, they will lose concentration very quickly. Keep the audience in your sight and their minds will follow your logic.
Your Voice – you must project your voice so that you can be heard but definitely do not shout. Use the volume, pitch and speech of your voice to emphasise important points of your speech. Sometimes a loud burst will grab the audience’s attention while a period of quiet speaking will draw the audience in and make them listen more carefully to what you are saying.
Your Body – Make your body work for you by using hand gestures with confidence. Move your head and upper body to maintain eye contact with all members of the audience. Stand straight up, definitely do not slouch over the desk or let the audience know you might be nervous.
Nervous Habits – avoid them like the plague. Playing with the cue cards, pulling strands of your hair, fiddling with your watch or bouncing up and down on your feet will all distract from what you are saying. Don’t let any one thing detract from your ability to persuade the audience.
Using Big Words – try to avoid going overboard with big words and confusing people. If you don’t understand the big words yourself then the chances no one else will understand what you are saying either. It would be a huge mistake to debate and get stuck on a word that you are not sure what it means but also one that you can’t pronounce.

The Marking Scheme in a Debate

Every adjudicator marks to a standard. You will get a mark out of 40 for matter, manner and method with a total mark out of a 100.

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Brief Synopsis of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Margaret

What is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens about?

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.

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ORAL & POV CRITERIA YEARS 11 & 12 MAINSTREAM ENGLISH

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Margaret

This Resource is for students studying Mainstream English in the Victorian VCE Curriculum. The criteria is a check list for students about to undergo an Oral Presentation or write a Point of View (POV) Essay.

See the source image — Follow the check list below to help prepare for your Oral or POV

KNOW THE ISSUE’S CONTEXT
- Have a clear understanding of the BIG ISSUE
- Why do you feel strongly about this particular issue?
- Select carefully your focus from the big issue
- Your Main Contention should be clear and easy to understand
- Do not have an ambiguous contention
THE AUDIENCE
- Decide who is your intended audience
- Make sure your target audience is appropriate for the issue
- The target audience will be connected to the public forum you choose to write your article in
WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?
- What exactly do you want to achieve through your arguments?
- What are your aims for positioning your audience?
- Are you wanting to:
  1. Shock
  2. As a Call to Action
  3. To effect change
  4. To ridicule
  5. To demonise someone
  6. To attack
WHAT IS YOUR FORM OF PRESENTATION / PUBLIC FORUM?
- A speech
- Opinion piece for a newspaper / online media such as ABC News Online or The Conversation or Crikey or Mamamia
- Letter to the Editor of a newspaper
- A debate in Parliament
- Guest panellist on a current affairs program
CONSTRUCT YOUR ARGUMENTS
- Clearly state your Main Contention
- List your arguments with evidence to support your reasoning
- Consider a Rebuttal & your Counter Arguments
USE PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES
- Opinions need emotive language to persuade
- Use Idioms as figurative language
- Consider your tone – are you forceful enough
- Don’t ‘tell’ with boring information be able to ‘show’ with descriptive language
STRUCTURE OF POV/ORAL
- Introduction / Hook / Main Contention
- Body Paragraphs – at least 3 + a Rebuttal
- Use single sentences or rhetorical questions in between body paragraphs to change structure and make it more interesting to read
- Conclusion

Unit 3 Reading & Creating Texts Year 12 English Analytical Text Response

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Margaret

Image result for pictures of people reading books

This is an educational resource for Mainstream English Year 12 students who are studying Unit 3: Reading and Creating Texts: Analytical Text Response.

This resource material assumes year 12 students have read their Analytical Text or in some cases watched the movie related to this unit.

Most English classes discuss either the Creative Task or Analytical Task in their year 11 ‘Transition Classes’ to year 12 English (some schools call this ‘Head-start’) before the end of Term 4 in 2019.

If you have not read your texts for either the Creative or Analytical Tasks or watched the movie, then please do this over the school holidays so you are ready for Term 1 in January 2020.

What are the Task Requirements for Unit 3 Analytical Text Response?

The Analytical Task is worth 30 marks for Unit 3.
The analytical text response must be in written form (an essay that responds to a prompt).
Approximately 800-1000 words in length, completed under SAC conditions, set by your respective school.
In this area of study students identify, discuss and analyse how the features of selected texts create meaning using textual evidence to support their responses and how they influence interpretation.
Students identify and analyse explicit and implied ideas and values in texts.

What does a High-level Analytical Response Include?

Students must show a detailed knowledge and understanding of the world of the text.
Look carefully at characters, events, settings, narrative, language and other textual features.
Support their interpretation of arguments and statements about the texts with evidence, including quotations that are integrated into the discussion.
Be able to discuss and analyse the values expressed by the text, especially the ‘Message of the Author’ in a text or the ‘Message of the Director’ in a film.
Clearly show that your response links to the text and essay topic given.
Structure the response logically using TEEL, with an Introduction / Body Paragraphs / Conclusion that develop your ideas and reasons why you support your interpretation of the essay prompt.
Use high-level metalanguage appropriately to discuss textual features which should include narrative voice, imagery, stage directions (if text is a play), cinematography (if text is a film) and explain their significance.

See below an Example Introduction Analytical Text Response for a prompt on After Darkness by Christine Piper. The Introduction has its Main Contention and Message of Author Colour Coded.

Prompt: “What else, through my misguided loyalty had I failed to see?” After Darkness shows that loyalty is not always a virtue. Discuss.

Introduction / Main Contention / Message of Author

The historical novel After Darkness, by author Christine Piper, explores how the limits of loyalty and discretion are tested by a protagonist who is motivated by a sense of duty, subsequently, his beliefs and misconceptions about what this entails provides the moral tension at the heart of the novel and proves that loyalty is not always a virtue. As a result of his misguided loyalty Ibaraki chose to be guided by spurious notions of traditional duty instead of loyalty to his own conscience and as a result love, connections with people, empathy and his personal relationships suffered. Piper highlights that Ibaraki failed to see or realise the greatest importance of his betrayal of self and that his true loyalty was not to maintain silence but to speak out against evil, which in turn informs his decision 50 years later to write to the press publicly revealing what he knows of Unit 731. Ultimately, by expressing the truth of the heinous crimes performed in Unit 731, Ibaraki redeems himself and acknowledges the past sins of Japan as well as his own darkness that he carried within him.

Moral Integrity Essay of the Natives in ‘The Lieutenant’ by Kate Grenville

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Margaret

For Mainstream English Year 12 students studying the novel The Lieutenant written by Kate Grenville, AOS1: Unit 3, Reading and Creating Texts, Analytical Response Outcome. See below an Introduction with clear Main Contention and Message of Author colour coded and a brief Plan of Body Paragraphs with Conclusion.

Prompt: “Grenville’s characterisation of the natives in The Lieutenant suggests that they have greater moral integrity than the British”. Do you agree?

Define moral integrity = following your moral or ethical convictions & doing the right thing in all circumstances

Introduction / Main Contention / Message of Author

The moral decay at the heart of the British settlement of NSW in 1788 was destructive, immoral and self-perpetrating [committing]. In Kate Grenville’s novel The Lieutenant she ensures that the arrival of the British on Australian shores is to be interpreted not as one of history’s memorable moments but also as a scene of farce [mockery] and arrogant assumptions imbued [infused] with an implication of violence towards the local native men, who are assumed to have the mentality of children. An inauspicious [unfavourable] first contact, throughout which it is the natives who maintain dignity. In fact, the novel pivots [hinges] on the notion of moral integrity. How the young Daniel Rooke comes to harbour a mature and moral outlook that defines him as an adult is the central driving force of the narrative. Yet for all his dominance, Rooke is not the only character to display worthy values. Grenville surrounds her protagonist’s tale with other ethical characters, in particular the natives, who serve to throw Rooke into relief [respite]. This not only illuminates Rooke’s progress as a character but gives the natives a moral autonomy and certitude [assurance] of their own. Above all Grenville highlights how the relationship between Rooke and the natives Tagaran and Warungin shows a more hopeful perspective of possible harmony between two different cultures when patience, tolerance, understanding and moral integrity are valued instead of conflict.

Brief Plan of Body Paragraphs and Conclusion

Body Paragraph 1 Rooke’s journey towards moral integrity is born out of understanding the might of the British Empire

Body Paragraph 2 Warungin – proud leader and protector of his people – intelligent and intuitive – shows dignity & simple friendliness – feeds the troop fish echoing the biblical miracle of Jesus – he is compassionate even though the British intended harm – symbolism of the hatchet & bags nearby and the possibility of violence

Tagaran – has unique qualities – is intelligent and fearless – her connection to Rooke reminds us of the central theme of language as a mode of communication which is essential in all human relationships

Body Paragraph 3 Rooke’s crisis of morals in the punitive expedition – his ethics are compromised – he considers his participation in the mission to mark him with the same moral stain he believed the Governor had shown in ordering the be-headings of the natives

Conclusion / Message of Author

Unfortunately, the first settlement of the British on native land in NSW in 1788 contrasts sharply with any attempt at harmony when a British Officer shatters a native shield with gunshot. Yet as the narrative unfolds Grenville paints a picture of the British as terrifying, unthinking and powerful against the natives who are rendered powerless but showing more moral integrity. Certainly, the character of Rooke is represented as admirable and moral, who saw the natives as not so different from himself, which underlies the adage of treating others as you would like to be treated yourself. By demonstrating Rooke as an admiral character the text argues that human commonality should be respected. More importantly, the novel suggests that friendships with people who have strong morals, goals and interests can make for bonds which reward both parties. It is through the native characters of Warungin and Taragan that Grenville highlights the importance of searching for common ground and understanding rather than submission to a greater force and conflict.

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Analytical Essay on Belonging in Peter Skrzynecki’s Poetry

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Margaret

This resource is for Mainstream English students studying the poetry collection ‘Old/New World’ by Peter Skrzynecki.

This task requires the students to synthesise poems in the ‘Old/New World’ collection by Peter Skrzynecki of ‘Black Cockatoos’ / ‘Immigrants at Central Station’ / ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ / ‘Seeing my Parents’ and put together an analytical response essay on the prompt.

The Analytical Prompt Topic is ‘Belonging is not about geography, but about family’. Discuss.

Belonging is tied to a sense of identity and the groups we choose to belong to and the ways we connect with others to help form our own identity. Together these issues go to the heart of who we are and how we present ourselves to the world. We share a human quality in the need to belong yet sometimes we question both ‘who am I?’ and ‘where do I belong?’. In ‘Old/New World’ poetry collection by poet Peter Skrzynecki, he shares with his readers a sense of ambivalence in his relationship with his parents, but at the same time, he acknowledges and honours their sacrifices they made for him. Therefore, in analysing Skrzynecki’s poems it is important to see not only his connection to family but also to place, practices, language, heritage and geography that are all interconnected and tied to his sense of belonging and sense of identity.

In the poems under review “Black Cockatoos”, “Immigrants at Central Station”, “Feliks Skrzynecki” and “Seeing my Parents”, Peter Skrzynecki writes about connecting the old and new worlds of his poetry together in his search for belonging. Through his poems Peter discovers the ways in which he can come to terms with the multi-faceted nature of his identity and the interaction between belonging to his family’s old cultural Polish heritage and the new world as an Australian with all its promising future.

Synthesising the relationship of the birds in “Black Cockatoos” who represent freedom in the new world, they express themselves clearly against the old domesticated species of pigeons in “Immigrants at Central Station” who represent the old world from Europe. The cockatoos easily belong and make themselves heard with brash and screeching voices so that they can be heard “above the boom and crash of the waves” yet the pigeons just “watch” and are voiceless. The pigeons, representing the immigrants, have sad and negative thoughts about belonging to the new world and because they cannot speak English and there seems to be no way for them to counteract the noisy cockatoos (Australians) who literally take over the place.

As the old-world birds, from devastated post-war Europe, have difficulty in belonging to the place they are in, such as the train station, it represents a transit place and part of their dislocation from their country of origin. In terms of freedom to belong, they are limited by language differences, experience, loss of culture and an expectation of what their futures will be in the new country. This is shown as the immigrant journeys are controlled by time “while time ran ahead” but their sense of belonging is impacted by an unknown future “along glistening tracks of steel” to a place they do not know. In contrast, the cockatoos in “Black Cockatoos” are totally in control of their lives as they “swept down the cliff” and “whistled, broke formation, chattered” taking over the whole beach.

In some of Peter Skrzynecki’s poems related to family and belonging there is also a sense of paradox where Peter’s optimism for the future in the new world clashes with his sense of sadness about his past and even regret that at the end of his poems he has not received closure about who he is or where his identity comes from. In the poem “Seeing my Parents” there is a sense of regret that the poet wanted to thank his parents for all the sacrifices they made as immigrants to help his education and way of life in the new country but he is unable to tell them how he feels in the present day because they are dead. The poet wants to catch up with them and “touch them – thank them for everything they did for me” yet he cannot reach for them “out of yesterday and into tomorrow”.

Similarly, Peter wants the readers to appreciate his sense of pride and belonging to his father Felix in the poem “Felix Skrzynecki” when he begins the poem “my gentle father” is Peter’s tribute to Felix’s dignity. However, the young Peter also feels a disconnect with his family and does not belong to his heritage in his inability to accept his Polish past he is in fact alienated from Felix and his friends and does not understand why “His Polish friends always shook hands so violently”. Peter does not want to learn the Polish language and even puts up “Hadrian’s Wall” to disconnect himself from belonging to his Polish heritage.

Peter Skrzynecki’s poetry is deeply rooted in family and cultural awareness and he writes about the importance of belonging to not only family but also to place, language, heritage and geography. However, his poems clearly show a divide between the interaction of belonging to the past and the new world that represents the poet’s future as an Australian. There are however, paradoxes in his relationships with his family that, as an adult poet, Peter has tried to honour his parents by paying tribute to his heritage and staying connected to them in his poems. Yet, many poems end without closure and as readers, we have to respect his feelings and the notion of something that is not finished. May be Peter is asking us readers to question whether he did finally belong to one world – the old world or the new world?

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Construction of Meaning in Invictus the Film

Posted on September 15, 2018 by Margaret

Invictus (2009) Movie Poster Drama Film 36x24" Art Silk Print - Picture 1 of 6

This Resource is for students studying the film ‘Invictus’ in the Victorian Mainstream English Curriculum.

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 analysing texts

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

Type of Text = Movie / historical / drama / biographical / political / sports. Released in 2009. Director Clint Eastwood. Writer Anthony Peckham.
Setting = South Africa between 1994-1995. 1^st year of Nelson Mandela’s Presidency. Post apartheid South Africa, start of Rainbow Nation.
Title of movie = Symbol for ‘unconquered’ taken from Henley poem that inspired Mandela.
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.
Historical Context = Mandela is released after 27 years in prison and his 1^st year of Presidency is the narrative as he uses the rugby World Cup in 1995 to unify South Africans.
Themes = leadership / sacrifice / reconciliation / forgiveness / identity / family / politics / challenges / responsibility / racial tension / apartheid / inspiration / change / sport / revenge / documentary story / destiny
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
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
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.
Music & Soundtracks = 9000 Days of Destiny / Nkosi Sikelel i Africa adds to position the viewers and the dramatic plot.
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.
Film Techniques (CAMELS) =
- 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

This Resources is created by englishtutorlessons with Online Tutoring of English Using Zoom

Fear and Mass Hysteria in ‘The Crucible’ and Arthur Miller’s Views on the Play

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Margaret

Image result for Images of The Crucible

This resource is for Mainstream English students studying the play ‘The Crucible’ in the Victorian Curriculum.

Theme of Fear & Mass Hysteria

An important theme is that of fear and mass hysteria which leads to extreme acts in the play as the human inclination to ascribe blame for pain and suffering to others and then destroy the supposedly guilty party surfaces. In Salem the witch trials are a clear example of mass hysteria, with residents engulfed in a frenzy of accusations.

Context of Fear & Mass Hysteria in Salem

In ‘The Crucible’ Salem is a strict religious community where superstition is rife and scientific explanations minimal. In the puritanical colony of Massachusetts, reading books other than the Bible was forbidden, hence any scientific thinking was unlikely.

Mass hysteria and mob violence can infect the collective consciousness when fear, ignorance and isolation are not countered with universal education. In Salem, personal vengeance, paranoia and fear, rather than grief and illness, is what escalates the social panic.

Miller writes that because ‘it is impossible for most men to conceive of a morality without sin’ Salem, and analogously his own 1950’s zeitgeist, was ‘gripped between two diametrically opposed absolutes.’ Such binary thinking and absolutism is another catalyst for mass panic or mob violence.

The society in Salem is spurred on to collective hysteria by a dualistic belief that things they don’t understand or can’t explain must be ‘evil’. Satan, when referred to in the Bible, is thought of as the evil one, the tempter, the wicked one. To the people of Salem, the Devil is the adversary of God and an invisible threat. But Miller’s audience sees that it is the villagers’ own inner demons that bubble to the surface and wreak havoc on the town, combined with their irrationality.

Martha Corey has done nothing particularly adversarial, she merely reads books that are not approved of by her neighbours, but she finds herself charged as a witch.

The end of Act One and Act Three of the play show just how infectious a group mentality can be. Close study of Miller’s acting directions in these two sections of the play reveals the range of causes for such a frenzy; whether that be characters offloading their own shame and resentment, or being so fearful of punishment that they will say anything to avoid it.

Briefly What is Causing Fear in The Crucible?

In ‘The Crucible’ Abigail and the group of girls spark fear in the town after being accused of engaging in sacrilegious activities while playing in the forest
The people in Salem are convinced that the Devil has arrived and must be driven from his conspirators
What begins with a handful of girls dancing in the forest manifests within eight days into a society whose feverish desire to rid itself of an unseen evil allows the suspending of human decency
Unfortunately fear leads to a rapidly growing series of accusations against various members of the community
Innocent people are labelled witches and forced to confess or suffer death

What does Miller Believe about the Spread of Fear?

Miller presents the witch hunt then as a consequence of the hysterical fear that grips citizens when faced with social and religious upheaval
Miller seeks not only to explore the evolution of mass hysteria but additionally to delve into what causes individuals to abandon personal loyalties in such times
Even justice and reason are sacrificed and religion, which should provide a moral and ethical blueprint, is used to fuel the emerging fear and hysteria
The theocratic society in Salem and the power of the state is under threat as individuals begin to question entrenched conservative, Puritan religious values
Miller explains this as a paradox as individuals seek greater freedom they become a threat to the religious and political status quo

Arthur Miller was interviewed about why he wrote ‘The Crucible’and his thoughts about fear, hysteria and the threat of the Devil in Salem. See Arthur Miller’s views:

Fear Motivates People to Behave Unscrupulously in The Crucible

As Miller comments (on page 17 of the play in his notes before Act One), that “Old scores could be settled on a plane of heavenly combat between Lucifer and the Lord”.

Personal fears instigate some characters to cry witch
Reverend Parris fears losing his job provokes him to cry witch and if Abigail is exposed as the fraud she is he will be punished for supporting an illegitimate court procedure
Parris also fears that the rebellion in Andover about the hangings will occur similarly in Salem
Abigail uses fear of consorting with the Devil in her motives of vengeance against Elizabeth Proctor to accuse her of witchcraft
The group of girls do what Abigail says for fear of getting caught so deflecting blame away from themselves is their only option
The Putnams use fear and the hysteria of the accusations for self interest in acquiring land from those about to hang
Deputy Governor Danforth uses the fear as a reason for his agenda to protect his reputation, the court and the theocracy it serves

Mob Mentality, Punitive Justice & Binary Thinking

‘The Crucible’ is a legal drama. An entire scene takes place in the Salem meeting house which is now Judge Danforth’s court, but every scene in the play is concerned with the process of arriving at a legal judgement. Because the play is an analogy for Senator McCarthy’s HUAC hearings, the audience is positioned to regard the justice system of Salem as being similarly flawed and equally ideologically motivated. Justice is not delivered by this legal system.

Indeed, the audience is led to the conclusion that the most dangerous person in the play is Judge Danforth. His lack of mercy, his willingness to believe evidence that has no proof, and his preoccupation with his own reputation, all serve to remind Miller’s audience that justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.

In ‘The Crucible’, Elizabeth humbly tells her husband that she cannot judge him; ‘The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John’ (p. 55). Elizabeth believes in the supremacy of the individual’s conscience, of his own accountability for decisions and actions. Miller shows that only when John Proctor explores the depths of his own guilt can he begin the redemptive process.

At the end of the play he dies on his own terms and sees ‘some shred of goodness’ in his decision. Proctor does not fear death because he has made his peace with himself and is free from self-admonition. His death is a great injustice, but the courage and moral conviction he shows is his legacy and his epitaph.

This Resources is created by englishtutorlessons with Online Tutoring of English using Zoom

Creative Story on ‘The Boat’ short story in ‘Island’ by Alistair MacLeod

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Margaret

Image result for picture of the boat in alistair macleods short story

Creative Story on ‘The Boat’ from Island by Alistair MacLeod for students studying English in the Victorian Curriculum.

Note that this creative story was developed with inspiration from ‘The Boat’ short story and all ideas are original to englishtutorlessons.

Do not plagiarise this story.

Plagiarism is a copyright infringement.

Creative Prompt:

Years later, one of the daughters has to tell her daughter about her childhood, the role of the island and why she eventually left Cape Breton. Refer back to the story in Island ‘The Boat’.

Research:

Scottish Gaelic names for father = dadaidh formal, dadai = dad or daddy
Scottish Gaelic names for mother = mathair
Scottish Gaelic girls names = Ainslie, Fiona, Alana, Annis, Morag, Catriona
Scottish Gaelic name for island = Innis

Creative Story Based Around ‘The Boat’ Short Story

Looking through my kitchen window over the Cape Cod seashore I heard the sharp laughter of a gull. The moment was broken as my 15 year old daughter Alana called out “Hey ma, I have to do a literature assignment on our family’s ancestry which is due Friday can you help me with it?” This middle daughter was just like me and her grandfather. We all loved literature and reading. Yet she was tall, willowy with fine facial features set off by long dark hair tinged a reddish copper colour, energetic and beautiful like her grandmother. “Sure” I called back to Alana as she lopped into the kitchen with her notebook and pen; “What do you want to know?” “I need information about where you came from, you know ma, the traditional stuff you never talk about”. I looked at her striking face and my mind wandered back to an old-fashioned kitchen with a wood and coal burning stove next to a heavy table, around it stood five wooden homemade chairs. Alana said “For instance ma why did you give the three of us girls a weird middle name like ‘Innis’, what does it mean?”

“Innis is Scottish Gaelic for island” I told Alana. “I wanted to link you and your sisters like a chain of tradition back to my home land of Cape Breton. It was my way of retaining the custom of someone of the sea like my mother’s people”. Was that my real reason for calling the girls ‘Innis’ I wondered? My five sisters and brother Callum were all born at Cape Breton but my three girls Fiona, Alana and Catriona were born at Harwich Port Massachusetts. Looking over the Cape Cod seashore and the Atlantic Coast, Harwich Port is 848 miles from the bitter windswept island of Cape Breton. No one at Harwich Port had to carve out an existence as a fisherman or give up their dreams to sustain a family of seven children. Not like my old father who yearned for a life taken from the imaginative stories in his books away from the sea.

As children we called our father by the Gaelic ‘dadai’ an informal way of speaking to him while he was in his room lying on his bed smoking his handmade cigarettes. His ashtray overflowed with tobacco shreds and ash as my sisters, one by one, sat on his bed or in a single chair reading his stack of paperbacks. No one called our mother anything but the more formal ‘mathair’ because we were all scared of her as she would look at us with her dark and fearless eyes. ‘Mathair’ never thought reading trashy books would help anyone in life. I remember clearly she slapped my sister so hard she left the print of her hand upon my sister’s cheek just because Fiona was reading one of ‘dadai’s’ paperbacks. We all knew it was difficult to defy our ‘mathair’ but the call of reading books outweighed our restlessness and we lost interest in darning socks and baking bread.

“So who are your mother’s people of the sea then?” Alana asked me. I explained the ancestry story as clearly as I could; “The Cape Breton Islanders were mostly families from the Highlands in Scotland who were forced to leave their homes in the 1800’s. ‘Mathair’s’ family were all inshore fisherman sailing Cape Island boats in search of lobsters, mackerel, cod, haddock and hake. Her brothers all had large families to sustain. In fact my uncle Bryce had thirteen children to support while he worked with my ‘dadai’ on our boat the Jenny Lynn”.

Alana was intrigued and followed up with a question about what the people of the sea were like and the importance of the ‘boat’. As I told her about the boats racing out to sea with their traps I could see in my mind uncle Bryce tall and dark like ‘mathair’, standing at the tiller guiding the boat between the floating pans of ice and my ‘dadai’ in the stern with his hands upon the ropes that lashed the cargo to the deck. I remember watching from the kitchen window of our old house that faced the sea, while my ‘dadai’ was away fishing in the boat. We were always working on repairing clothes, preparing food or just looking for the return of the boat. When ‘dadai’ returned home the first question my ‘mathair’ would ask was “Well, how did things go in the boat today?”

Alana stretched out her long legs and stood up with a yawn and said “OK I know about dad’s family history settling in Boston from 1630, but why did you choose to leave Cape Breton for Harwich Port?” How do you explain to your own daughter that restlessness that you get at 15 looking for a life elsewhere and the imaginative world that books inspire? Each of my five sisters felt the need for change from raising hens to growing vegetables. When the Sea Food Restaurant opened it catered to tourists that flooded the island during July and August. I got a job as a waitress and met people who were not classified as “our people” according to ‘mathair’, but they were fun, carefree and well educated. Sometimes my sisters and I would stay out late on hot summer nights and try to dodge ‘mathair’s’ questions about who we were associating with. ‘Dadai’ understood as we talked softly to him late at night about our ambitions beyond the island while the music of his radio floated up the stairs.

I cleared my throat and said to Alana “Then one day your father and his family came to Cape Breton for a summer holiday. I was swept off my feet by your father’s brilliant smile and his welcoming family. I didn’t care that ‘mathair’ believed he was not one of ‘her people’ or that she couldn’t understand I wanted a life outside of ‘the sea’ at Cape Breton”. “Wow ma that’s why we never see our grandmother but what happened to your ‘dadai’? Alana asked me.

It was long after I left Cape Breton and settled in Harwich Port with my husband and three young daughters when I received a call from Callum to say that ‘dadai’ had drowned at sea. It seemed nonsensical that my father and my uncles who were all experienced fisherman sailing the Atlantic waters could not swim a stroke. The news of my father’s drowning devastated all of us. It left Callum with a terrible choice whether to continue the seafaring tradition of ‘mathair’s’ family or leave Cape Breton for his own dream of becoming a university professor. In the end the Jenny Lynn left my mother with bitterness that neither her husband nor her son was able to sustain the fisherman’s life.

Answering Alana as best I could I just said “My father drowned at sea during a violent storm when he was fishing with Uncle Callum. The towering waves hit him as he stood in the stern of the Jenny Lynn and he went overboard”. As Alana hugged me I did not tell her the details of how my father’s body was found at the base of rock-strewn cliffs where he had been hurled and slammed many times so there was not much left of him physically but for the brass chains on his wrists and the seaweed in his hair.

All Resources are created by englishtutorlessons with Online Tutoring of English for Years 11 & 12 using Zoom