Language A: literature Internal Assessment

Student outline form

Global issue:

How abuse of power affects an individual's identity

Works chosen
Work in translation: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
Work in language A: The Resisters by Gish Jen

Notes for the oral (maximum of 10 bullet points) :

• Aunt Nettie, the AI that runs the dystopian world of AutoAmerica, abuses its power to suppress
people’s identities so that they are subservient to the system, however, resisting this abuse
allows people to maintain their identities
• Surplus, discriminated, constant surveillance, “Well, I wonder if I will always have an Aunt Nettie-
shaped hole in my head.” (174) - word choice - manipulate thoughts due to adapt, can't fully
separate yourself from Aunt Nettie
• Ondi punished - characterization shift shows identity suppression, resist through Underground
Baseball League, connect to American ideals of expression and resistance, resisting Aunt Nettie
and expressing themselves without identities suppressed
• Line 1-2 - “same Eleanor” - names associated with identity, worried her identity has been
changed by the manipulation - Line 13-16 - Eleanor’s characterization changes - Aunt Nettie has
taken over Eleanor in order to stop her resistance and corrupt her identity and beliefs
• symbolism of how Aunt Nettie manipulates others, tie back to Ondi - Line 36 -vs- Line 39 -
contrast of emotions shows human identity, still expressing herself
• items, and the memories attached with them, disappear, in a society where people are losing
their identity, anyone resisting this loss is punished by the memory police
• Memory police raid homes, connect to Nazis, atmosphere of fear - Mother resisted, killed -
parents help develop kids identities, first disappearance that affects the narrator's identity
• Objects that disappear associated with people expressing themselves (birds, roses, novels) -
narrator lost novels and a part of her died with it - by end of book enough had disappeared from
the people that they disappeared - identity lost
• line 7 - music box, for pleasure, associated with nostalgia, symbolizes the importance of
memory in emotion, emphasizes the loss of identity - Line 10 - through resisting the abusive
power he is able to maintain the identity the memory police want to take away from him
• Line 1 - name=identity, Line 20 - decay implies slowly disappearing over time - heart=identity,
accepted loss of identity so resistance doesn't maintain it - loss X caused by abuse, enforced

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