Year 11 Extension English Practise Task:

Dystopian Writing

Extract:

Jimmy and Crake graduated from HelthWyzer High on a warm humid day in early February. The
ceremony used to take place in June; the weather then used to be sunny and moderate. But June was
now the wet season all the way up the east coast, and you couldn’t have held an outdoor event then,
what with the thunderstorms. Even early February was pushing it: they’d ducked a twister by only one
day.

HelthWyzer High liked to do things in the old style, with marquees and awnings and the mothers in
flowered hats and the fathers in panamas, and fruit-flavoured punch, with or without alcohol, and
Happicuppa coffee, and little plastic tubs of SoYummie Ice Cream, a HelthWyzer Own Brand, in
chocolate soy, mango soy, and roasted-dandelion green-tea soy. It was a festive scene.

Crake was top of the class. The bidding for him by the rival EdiCompounds at the Student Auction was
brisk, and he was snatched up at a high price by the Watson-Crick Institute. Once a student there and
your future was assured. It was like going to Harvard had been, back before it got drowned.

p204 Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)

1) Identify two elements that distinguish this extract as being dystopian. 2 marks

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2) Select one of the elements you wrote in (1). In a few lines, describe both how and why this element is
used in dystopian literature. 3 marks

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Using the above extract as a guide, describe an education environment set in a dystopian future. It does
not need to be a narrative, but rather outline the concerns of the changed society you are describing.
Remember to employ dystopian elements in your writing. 10 marks

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________