What is ‘This Boys Life?’ Here are some student examples. Can you add your own?

A chronological evaluation of the author’s life.

A warts and all story of growing up.

A sophisticated story of boyhood and adolescence.

A refreshingly honest portrayal of the author’s life.

A coming of age story detailing the significant moments of the author’s life.

A bildungsroman focusing on the social and moral growth of the author.

A therapeutic and cathartic episodic revelation and an amalgamation of the author’s experiences.

A journey from innocence to experience.

We can lose our identity and belonging when our environment changes.

CAN WE?

Highlight words which will help generate ideas

eg we can lose, identity and belonging, environment changes

Think of a timeline- primary years, secondary years, adult

Think of perspective- self, family, community, society, national, global

Generate ideas from key words:

lose= giving up, being taken away- at what cost or benefit?

keep- struggle/persist to maintain the status quo- at what cost or benefit?

What are the consequences of losing our identity and belonging? Are there positives?

Environment-place and people. When in the timeline do they impact upon our sense of identity and belonging?

Examples from ‘Skin?’

Examples from outside the text?

In preparation for the exam you should view the film again and take additional notes, adding to the information you have already gathered.

You will be amazed at how much more you will add to your resources having now a clearer view of the Context and key elements within it.

So consider this scenario:

The setting is Miss Ludik’s history of South Africa class. Imagine an exchange teacher from another country observing the lesson in which Sandra is mocked and responding in a way that opposes the social and cultural mainstream view. What would  this response look like?

Patti Miller expresses her awareness that even though she and her family were not wealthy as she was growing up, she felt that she belonged to mainstream society.

So the question is- what would it feel like not to belong in the main story? From an individual and from a collective point of view what might be the reasons for individuals and groups to be alienated and what might be the consequences of this alienation?

Write a paragraph using material from ‘The Mind of a Thief’ and then write a paragraph using your knowledge of the world you live in now.

Write paragraphs on the following tools used by Rose to refresh your memory of the play. Use all the resources you have gathered over the year to write substantially with support from the text. Add any other tools to the list.

Real time puts pressure on the characters, like the audience, to take this seriously. A boy’s life is in their hands- the audience has a vested interest in seeing justice being done as the jury process is part of our democratic freedom, which ties into our views and values as a society.

The nameless characters are representatives of society. The audience bases its view of them through their views and their behaviour.

The jury room is locked to indicate the value society places on deliberating life and death issues.

The jurors do not have individual control over the heat and lighting as they symbolically reflect the collective tension, indifference, agitation, despair, conflict and hope in the deliberations.

The clock measures time where every minute counts towards a universal outcome.

The washroom and basin are symbolic of the cleansing that takes place reinstating a sense of humanity even in the most disagreeable characters.

The glasses symbolise clarity and deliberating with a clear vision.

The period of 1950s America is a time of social and racial division, economic and political upheaval. McCarthyism is at its height.

How does Rose use dramatic techniques to suggest universality?

Here is one student’s response. Is there any other information you can derive by re -reading the play and following the characters before they enter the washroom and after they exit?

Rose employs a series of dramatic techniques to increase the play’s relevance and appeal to a broad audience.  One such technique is having another setting for discussions to take place: the washroom. A seemingly insignificant area in the jury room becomes an important place for the jurors to have discussions away from the chaos and conflict of the case and socialise with each other in a somewhat friendly way. Through the washroom scenes, Rose displays two sides to all of the jurors: the angry, verbally violent, jury room side, and the relaxed, sometimes friendly, washroom side. In the jury room, during a heated discussion, Juror 3 is furious after one of the men changes his vote to ‘not guilty’; immediately he accuses Juror 5 of changing, and begins to attack him, “Brother you’re really something! …If that isn’t the most sickening…” In the washroom Juror 3 appears a different man, “Look, I was a little excited. Well, you know how it is – I didn’t mean to get nasty or anything,” admitting to Juror 5 that he made a mistake. In the jury room,  Juror 8 and Juror 7 don’t particularly get along, but once they both freshen up in the washroom, they begin a casual conversation, getting to know one another a bit more. There is still a sense of uncertainty or disapproval towards one another, but they do not have any motive to fight: “Say are you a salesman? …You know what soft sell is? You’re pretty good at it.’ In the washroom,  the men get along and show a more humane side to their fellow jurors. Arguments do not arise as it is a retreat for the men to escape the injustice, the prejudice and the conflict that occurs in the jury room. Rose juxtaposes the washroom  as a place of contrast to the jury room to show the audience that although anger is clearly evident in the main setting , these jurors are only human and have the capacity to put their biases, irrationalities and fears aside for moments of clarity.

Text Response- Breaking down the criteria for the exam

• detailed knowledge and understanding of the selected text, demonstrated appropriately in response

to the topic

Your detailed knowledge would be shown by determining your contention, discussing the character development, the ideas, the themes that are referenced in the text question.

In addition your understanding will be supported by the use of specific incidents and short, sharp quotations from the text.

• development in the writing of a coherent and effective discussion in response to the task

A coherent piece would sequence and build ideas logically and would include the structures, features and conventions to construct meaning and the views and values of the author appropriate to the discussion.

 • controlled use of expressive and effective language appropriate to the task

Sophisticated language to explore points, strong spelling, grammar and punctuation and the use of metalanguage to reflect critical thinking about the ideas, characters, themes in a text.

To address some of the criteria in a paragraph, have a look at the following question:

 How does Wolff shape his memoir in order to make an engaging narrative of his adolescence?

As an audience we are compelled to be engaged in Wolff’s re-telling of his childhood, as he interjects with his adult voice highlighting his mistakes and discoveries and exposing his vulnerability through the journey from a troublesome adolescent to a reflective father. Wolff entertains the readers with his delinquency and misconceptions of manhood, ‘finger resting lightly on the trigger’ and by bringing in his later experiences with unarmed Vietnamese civilians who show ‘fearlessness’ in the face of power, Wolff highlights an understanding of life that comes with age.  With clarity he informs us that this understanding cannot be taught to his younger self, ‘The boy always moves out of reach.’ Remembering the imprints from the past and their effect on his future draws upon the reader’s empathy and a universal truth that children are impressionable and in Wolff’s view, their childhood trauma can be carried like a scout badge wherever they go. “ I hear his voice in my own when I speak to my children in anger. They hear it too, and look at me in surprise’.  We believe the gruesomeness of Wolff’s antagonist and the effects Wolff’s hatred of Dwight has on Wolff’s psyche ‘It disfigured me,’ and it these raw emotions that connect the memoir to the audience’s sense of humanity.

The biggest battle in ‘This Boy’s Life’ is not between two characters; it is within the characters themselves. Discuss.

One must acknowledge the conflict between Dwight and Jack- the verbal threats, the physical punishments, the posturing and pretence, the fear and the physical abuse. This is a major plotline which needs exploration.

Equally one must show the internal conflict within characters as Jack tells it and relate it to their identity in 1950s America.

Look at Rosemary who wants to be a good mother to Jack, who is pioneering independence for women, who is troubled by her impending marriage to Dwight but marries him because of the conventions of the time. Equally the stereotypical divide between ‘good girls’ and other girls was so great that Norma succumbed to marry Kenneth and becomes a shadow of her former self.

Examine Arthur who wants to fit in and not stand out and reacts disproportionately to being called names. His involvement in fights endorses his masculinity at a time where the idea of manliness is fixed. Roy is described as being what a man should be, and yet he has his own demons which he doesn’t discuss and which contribute to the strangeness of the life he leads with Rosemary and Jack.

Explore Jack’s battle between the hope he has for himself to become the good student and successful citizen to the reality- a liar, thief, an opportunist manifesting itself in an identity crisis. The perceived idea of a smooth transition from childhood to teenage hood in a booming post war society is turned on its head with Jack’s account of the economic, scholastic, ethical and familial difficulties he encounters without much support and which debilitate him as he constantly refers to feelings of  unworthiness. As an adult narrator we learn that Wolff has overcome these difficulties but they have left him with scars.

1. Understand the link between the writer’s arguments, the language technique and the writer’s intention to use his/her arguments and techniques for an effect on the audience

2. The writer’s intention factors how the audience feels or responds on an emotional level, encompassing a broader trigger eg human compassion, equality, morality, the natural laws of justice, economic stability,  freedom etc.

3. What is the likely outcome of the audience’s response- this must be personalised to the issue, to the audience, the writer him/herself ( background information is usually provided to assist in this area) and can’t be generalised. Is it a call to arms, is it action to take place, is it for the government to listen or for parents to consider alternatives?

For example ‘ by using strong adjectives...( insert language techniques)… the writer positions the audience to believe his contention…’ is not making the most of the analysis, while ‘using …(insert language techniques) … the writer draws the readers away from the mainstream view, tapping primarily into the teenage audience’s sense of anger in an effort to give them permission to voice their grievances about equity issues surrounding this piece of legislation ‘  is appropriate to the task.

We have read the article ‘They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments.’ It is easy to sense the sarcasm in the tone of the writer, it is equally easy to fall into the trap of summarising instead of analysing.

Here is a paragraph which predominantly summarises:

Sharwood’s bitter tone is dominant and obvious through his employment of descriptive scenarios of the girl, who must have been failed by her school because they didn’t ‘provide an immaculate gravel pathway… with lovingly-tended hedges’ from her school to University. This intends to again expose the incredible ludicrous of this issue and position people who believe in monocracy to back his argument.

Here is a paragraph which analyses the writer’s position:

Using a  sarcastic tone to attack the absurdity of the student’s  position as he sees it, Sharwood employs adjectives which carry a negative connotation to create a gulf between ‘this pouting , willowy petal’ and typical students. By exaggerating the student’s expectations of her school, ‘Ms Ashton-Weir was never once given a silver spoon with which to imbibe her daily Bircher muesli,’ Sharwood invites the readers to take an egalitarian view of the case.  His use of short sharp phrases at key points in his response -‘and so they should,’ ‘quite rightly,’ entertains the audience of secondary school students who would side with him given his playful mocking of a broader issue in education- whether students should be rewarded on wealth or merit. The photo of an imposing grammar school with its play on the word ‘grammar’ in the caption leaves the audience with a collective interest in preserving the status quo and not accepting the premise of the student in question.