English 2023

Draft [Reading to write

Section 1 - 15 marks
Imaginative Response (600 words)

Stimulus: Novel excerpt from the Harp in the South, Chapter 1

Compose an imaginative response to the stimulus that provokes a deeper understanding, of

how the particular grounds the general. [Add literary devices and stylistic features]

Particular (The families memories and reaction to the fire)

General ( Australian fires, library, family)

Them

A home is a library, within itself. Each layer is filled with stories and memories a person
entrapped within it. The library grew, and pages of each book increased as the family filled
them with new memories. Each moment was defined in that home. A view that stretched for
miles, every side hugged plains of green which were dotted in trees. A big young white
country home, a porch wrapped around the house embraced from every side, a bright
emerald green door and a grey tin roof that collected the pools of water that echoed
“splat-splat” on a rainy day. The boy often spent time playing in the rain, splashing in the
puddles, his boots muddied. A gravel path led to the young home. It housed a young family: a
father, mother, and child.

The son shifted to the warm sound of his mother pleading him to wake up, the warmth of her
touch as she stroked his hand. The lid of his eyes blinked open shades of emerald green
pooled in them. Filled with beauty and innocence staring back into her eyes which bore
sadness. The sky shone in colours of deep reds and oranges. The lights peeked through the
rough panes of the widow. A moment painted from a scene out of the child's storybook
cascaded down the wall of his room.

The mother rushed around the room picking up artefacts of the child’s affection, the child's life
in a bag slung over the mother’s shoulders. The child distraught at the scene in front of him
bombarded with confusion and lingering tiredness. Peeling away the warmth from the blanket
that encased him. Legs stretched to the floor. One after the other, his little legs weighed down
by the reality of gravity. A set of arms enveloped his torso. Hugged to his father’s body, by the
weight of love and concern as he ran out of the house.

Sparks of fire danced in the air, and pieces of ash floated with the smoke. The trees which
were once bright greens now stained black, burnt. Flames swallowed the plains reaching for
their home. Frantic, the father strapped the child into the car. Stunned by the scene the little
boy was entranced by the colours that bewitched the sky. Reds, oranges and yellows that
once swallowed the walls now devoured the horizon. How could something so beautiful be so
monstrous? The forest that once sheltered his home was lost in the landscape painted in front
of him. The tainted air, now rich with smoke, filled the son's lungs.

As the boy looked out the window of the car. The house receded further and further away. His
home was engulfed in flames. As the ashes flew around them, the child's emerald green eyes
pooled with tears which stained his face. As he looked at his parents riddled with helplessness
and concern, he knew that he was home. No matter where he was in the world, deep down
those memories in that house wouldn’t be as important as this moment right now. From the
stars in the sky to the field where the house layed, then love knew no bound. Paper may burn,
but stories that are told will last a lifetime.

Section 2 - 25 marks
Personal Discursive Response (600 words)

Stimulus: Draw upon the language and structure of Colum’s McCann’s essay ‘My Ugly Lovely
Town’

Personal discursive essay exploring how situations can reveal a deeper insight into our
identity. Must be both personal and discursive.

Questionability

The sun cascading along my skin, the comfort of wrapping my blanket around my body; the
relief and comfort of it all. Self-care is an exemption to unwind. Peeling out a book from within
the shelf, my hands fumbling to open the pages.

Those moments of relief written on each page are an escape. Why is it we never want to do
something asked of us? For some it comes in the form of a menial task: unpacking the
dishwasher, making our bed and putting the washing away. For myself, however, I feel a
difficult tension between literary appreciation and the approach to reading for simple school
tasks due to the lack of fascination and invitation. When does the line blur between a lack of
interest and my moral culpability in the threat to my schooling career?

As a young person, I conceptualise my responsibilities in the context of how they will affect my
future. This creates a strange disconnect between my ambitions and the demands of
everyday life: I don’t plan on going to university, for instance. This begs an interesting
question: for what purpose do I pursue the completion of the tasks laid out before me in formal
schooling? What do I truly stand to gain?

Funnily enough, even though I question the purpose of this work, I can actually answer this
question deftly. The texts I engage with serve more of a function than just to be fodder for
essay writing; they provide me with a more rounded understanding of a very complex world.
Naturally, the more literature you engage with, the more complex this world becomes. Yet,
paradoxically, I believe that by engaging with these complex problems and issues, we better
learn about our own beliefs and ideas, even as those beliefs become more and more intricate.

How do we reframe this issue then? How can we learn to view literature outside of this
schooling context? Literature has the potential to offer diverse worlds of understanding that
resonate deeply with people from all walks of life. What may seem dense or inaccessible to
one person may be a central part of another’s identity and understanding of the world.
Appreciating these works, from classic literature to scientific textbooks, provides us with an
escape from reality; a better understanding of ourselves and others, a deep and sincere
empathy for our fellow human beings. It allows us to lose ourselves in new worlds and come
home with new understandings and ways of viewing the world. And, in my situation, it can
transform the mundane act of analysing a text for the purposes of formal education into a
deeply transformative experience that may shape my identity for years to come.

Everyone reads pieces of literature differently and, at the end of the day, the deeper
understanding we draw from the texts stem from a person's personal experiences. Yet, does
the importance of the texts arise from the fact that we are forced to read them, or is it the
concepts that the texts explore? Approaching literature must come from a position of
exploration, not prescription. My exposure to texts throughout my schooling can often leave
me in a sea of confusion and obfuscation, but encountering one text that seems to understand
and resonate with my experience can unravel all of these intricacies and obscurities, revealing
the deep and impactful significance of texts in the development of a personal identity.

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Section 3 - 10 marks
Reflection on the Personal Discursive Response (300 words)

How has a prescribed text studied during this unit influenced the development of your writing
style in your discursive response?

Compare your use of language devices and stylistic features with your task to that of given
texts in class.

Reflection

My discursive was written to provide social commentary upon the Literature within our school
system. Juxtaposing literature’s reality, what's of deeper importance? The school's stimulus
pieces or the deeper context the book reveals. Therefore raising awareness of literature in
today’s generation, it evokes an alternative of how society could change for the betterment of
children’s education. Colum McCann’s ‘My Ugly Lovely Town’ influenced the context of finding
the beauty an ugly in aspects of life, positioning common ground to see the best of both
worlds. I conveyed a similar concept by contradicting the ugly yet finding the beauty, how
there are beauties to literature. Yet addressing the reality of the ugly of it in modern society
and grounds you to realise the world must evolve. These ideas connect to the younger mind
plotting an easier alternative in the betterment of education. Poem ‘Flame -tree in a Quarry’,
by Judith Wright hints to the true nature of the discursive, through the use of metonymy in the
title ‘Questionability’. The metonymy alludes to the narrative's progression: the idea of
constant questionability, inevitably answering the discursive context in one word. Thus
creating a sense of imagery bodying the questions of the young mind and its enhanced effects
upon us, therefore alluding to a formal protest. In comparison to Wright’s poem the constant
protest of growth and achievement among manufacture, construct and trade. In Conclusion
Judith Wright and Colum McCann, the comparison of the two different texts, pursues a
common view of growth of the good and bad. Mimicking the perspective of the world having
an expectation versus reality mindset while applying betterment to society's youth.