2011 Paper 2 Module A – Elective 1: Distinctive Voices
In what ways are people and experiences brought to life through distinctive voices?
In your response, make detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of
your own choosing.
Sample response: Prose fiction
Prescribed text:
Related text:
The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender, Marele Day, 1988
‘Katrina’, Bruce Dawe, 1967 (poetry)
The introduction names
the texts and outlines how
they both use particular
techniques to convey a
distinctive voice
In The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender, Marele Day takes the reader into
the world of the novel through narrative perspective, tone, detailed
description and personifying the setting. Bruce Dawe’s poem, ‘Katrina’, also
uses a strong first person perspective and tone, but uses metaphor and simile
to convey feelings, whereas Day uses description to convey character and
action. In both texts we have a very strong sense of the person behind the
distinctive narrative voice.
Narrative perspective in
Harry Lavender
The narrative perspective in The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender
establishes the voice of the hard-boiled detective. We read the clichés of the
genre – the blond in the bed, the heavy drinking and the hangover, the
chaotic apartment – but Day undercuts and rearranges our perceptions by
making us realise after a few paragraphs that the narrator is female, not male.
This has the effect of establishing the narrative voice as belonging to a multidimensional and interesting character, someone who is unconventional and
on first meeting certainly seems larger than life.
Use of description to
convey action
Events and people in the novel are described in considerable detail, to allow
us to be closely involved in the action. Day uses short sentences for fastpaced action to give us a moment-by-moment understanding of events. When
Claudia is breaking into the gaming arcade through the roof, the short nonsentences tell us her thoughts and anxieties as they are happening. She makes
some progress with the crowbar – “But not enough”. Then she has success –
“Enough to crawl through”. This is a life-and-death situation, so she is not
wasting words or doing any unnecessary thinking. A little further on, she tells
us everything she can hear, see and feel in each moment, because danger has
dragged time out and every second lasts “an eternity”.
Using pace to create sense
of being there
The same moment-by-moment descriptions are applied to the action scenes
in the novel. When Claudia is trying to escape from the container terminal,
the sentences are long, with many separate actions crowded in, to show how
much is happening all at once. In the one sentence, we read these actions:
“poised”, “kick”, “rolled”, “swung” and “swept”. These five separate actions
in one moment tell us how quickly events are occurring.
Tone indicates what the
narrator is thinking and
feeling
Day brings her detective, Claudia Valentine, to life through the tone with
which Claudia relates the events of the novel. We already know that Claudia is
no-nonsense and unconventional. We share her insights into others through
the way she sees the world. She has a dry sense of humour – when she says
she doesn’t have a car for the day because “the Daimler was being tuned”,
this doesn’t easily fit with what we know of her so far, so we don’t know if
she is joking or not. She relates events in her life with clarity and economy.
We find out in a couple of sentences about her marriage, divorce, children
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and other important personal details – these are dispensed with quickly
because they are not relevant and not as important as her job.
Characters are
differentiated to make them
seem real
We learn about other people in the novel through Claudia’s meticulous
description and attention to detail – essential characteristics for a private
detective. Sally’s neurotic behaviour is described in minute detail, to build up
a picture of her instability. The small enclosed lives of the Levacks are
economically described through the spy-hole in the door, Mrs Levack’s hair in
rollers, the flickering TV set and the covers on the armchairs. In contrast, the
love interest, Steve, is described in expansive terms that show how elevated
and noble he seems from Claudia’s perspective: his height is exaggerated, he
has eyes like deep “pools”, his teeth are “perfect”, and he is “tantalising” and
“exciting”.
Setting – the city is
depicted as a character
To further establish the sense of real-life events and bring characters to life,
Day has turned the setting, the city of Sydney, into a character. We read of the
city as a body, with a network of organs, veins, blood vessels and so on. It is a
living entity that is as much a part of the action as the characters in the novel.
This is reinforced by the way Day uses real places in the city to create a sense
of verisimilitude. If we are familiar with certain suburbs, roads, buildings and
places, we gain a clear picture of the events that are happening in these
settings.
Verisimilitude: a technique to
make something seem real
or true
Outline of the poem and
Dawe’s voice
In ‘Katrina’, a poem about his newborn child, Bruce Dawe creates vivid
images of a life-and-death experience and the intense emotions this arouses in
his wife and him. The poem is a sonnet addressed to Katrina, who is
struggling to survive at two months old, although her twin brother is healthy
and thriving. Dawe uses the distinctive voice of parental anguish to make us
feel his despair and the awfulness of Katrina’s plight.
Use of imagery to express
feelings and describe the
situation
He establishes the experience by describing the situation and the helplessness
of everyone involved. Katrina is “suspended between earth and sky”. This is a
metaphor for the uncertainty and precariousness of her condition – will she
live or die? – as well as a reference to limbo, the place where unbaptised
babies went for eternity, according to Catholic beliefs. These references to
death in the first line make us aware of the grim reality of the situation. The
baby’s vulnerability is emphasised by her being “naked” in her “special room”
in the hospital. These ideas of the closeness of death and her naked
helplessness are repeated at the end of the poem, to suggest that there is no
change in her condition. She is still caught between life and death and is still
very vulnerable.
How the structure of the
poem tells us that the
situation has not changed
The tone of the poem and
how this adds to the
distinctive voice
The tone of the poem is despairing and negative, telling us that Dawe does
not hold out hope that Katrina will recover. The words he chooses remind us
of pain, physical and emotional, and of the misery of grief. He and his wife
“fear” the phone call from the nurse, are “hurt” by the healthy vigour of the
twin brother and are trying to prepare themselves for the “karate-blow” of
Katrina’s death. His description of Katrina reinforces the pain and agony of
the experience: the life-saving transfusion “wounds” her heels and the
dummy taped in her mouth vividly creates the image of a prisoner or hostage.
The image of the date-pad, with the date of her death “crumpled, thrown
away”, tells us how devastated he feels about the senseless waste of her small
life.
Use of contrast in the
poem to reinforce the
Contrast is used to show the poet’s depth of feeling and tell us of his despair.
He describes the difference between Katrina and her brother. While he has
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life/death struggle
“vigour”, she is “wasting”, and even the sunlight that falls on her is “thin”
and sickly. Despite this, she is like a jewel to her parents, her ability to hang
onto life a shining point of hope against the “black velvet” backdrop of death
that threatens to envelop her at any moment. Her struggle to survive makes
them love her more, not less.
The first person narrative
perspective intensifies the
personal voice
Dawe also shows the depth of his despair through his use of the first person,
“I”, throughout, to bring to life the intensity of his grief and despair. He
personalises his wife’s and his anguish by telling us bluntly and explicitly how
they feel. “We do not know, but fear” tells us the rawness of their emotions,
as do the bald statements, “Your mother grieves already, and so do I” and the
unanswerable question he asks about her life “opening” or “closing”.
Both texts bring people and experiences to life through distinctively
conveying thoughts, feelings and actions: Day tells us about characters and
what they think and do in fast-paced crime fiction, while Dawe tells us about
the anguish of parents who are waiting to find out if their child will live or
die. Both have used very similar techniques in developing their distinctive
voices, although the effects are so very different.
The conclusion links both
texts by similarities and
differences
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