ESSAY OUTLINE
-Topic 1. Ellie’s character development
INTRODUCTION: Provide an attention grabber, outline your three main points/ideas,
and then include your thesis statement.
ATTENTION GRABBER: When individuals are faced with challenges, they will grow
and change as a result. In the novel Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden,
Ellie goes through many changes and learns a lot about herself when she is faced with life
or death situations.
MAIN IDEA 1: In the beginning of the novel, Ellie is a confident, happy teenager who
does not have a care in the world. She feels safe in her small community of Wirrawee.
MAIN IDEA 2: In the middle of the novel, once the war has started, Ellie begins to no
longer feel safe and secure. She also begins to feel like a different person as she does
things that she normally wouldn’t.
MAIN IDEA 3: By the end of the novel, Ellie has gained some of her confidence back,
and is willing to fight for her family and her home.
THESIS STATEMENT: When faced with overwhelming challenges, individuals will
persevere to overcome those challenges, while learning about themselves and their
strengths.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1:
TOPIC: In the beginning of the novel, Ellie is like most teenagers; she does well in
school, helps out around the house, and spends a lot of her time with friends. Ellie feels
safe and is leading a care-free life.
RELATED IDEA 1: Ellie feels safe in Wirrawee, and doesn’t ever think that anything
bad could happen to her or her friends.
SD 1: “After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Hunters in four-wheel drives?
They’d have to come through our place, and Dad’d stop them” (11).
OR
“I also knew where I most liked to be, and that was out here, even if I did spend half my
life head first in a tractor engine, or pulling a lamb out of a barbed wire fence, or getting
kicked black and blue by a heifer when I got between her and her calf” (77).
RELATED IDEA 2: One of Ellie’s main concerns is spending time with her friends, and
organizing a camping trip.
SD1: “Well, there we were, only weeks ago, though I can hardly believe it, lying in front
of the television watching some junk and talking about the holidays” (3).
RELATED IDEA 3: Ellie has a close relationship with her family, and enjoys helping on
the farm, but she is ready for some independence. Ellie makes the choice to skip the
traditions of Commemoration Day.
SD1: “There’s a limit to the number of balls you can roll down the clown’s throat, and
there’s a limit to the number of times you can get excited over your mother winning Best
Decorated Cake. A year’s break from the show wouldn’t do us any harm” (18).
Transition Statement: Ellie’s carefree life soon is put in jeopardy with the start of an
attack on her hometown. Ellie must decide if she is up to the challenge of protecting
everything she holds dear.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2:
TOPIC: In the middle of the novel, Ellie begins to doubt herself, her actions, and
whether or not she will ever feel safe in her community again.
RELATED IDEA 1: Ellie doubts herself, and no longer feels like the same person she
was before these major events happened. She is at first in denial of the whole situation.
SD1: “This is ridiculous. I know what you’re thinking and it is completely, absolutely
impossible. Absolutely not possible. These things just don’t happen, not here, not in this
country” (60).
RELATED IDEA 2: Ellie begins to feel guilty about the way she is treating her friends,
and for how she reacts to different situations. She tries to bottle up her emotions.
SD1: “It was getting hard to tell when one shiver ended and the next began. Cold, fear,
excitement. They were all contributing generously. But the greatest of these was fear”
(137).
OR
“Ellie might walk and talk and eat and drink but the inside Ellie, her feelings, was
condemned to wither and die” (93).
RELATED IDEA 3: Ellie feels like a different person after committing murder while
protecting her friends. She does not think the ‘old’ Ellie would have done something like
this.
SD1: “It was hard for me to believe that I, plain old Ellie, nothing special about me,
middle of the road in every way, had probably just killed three people. It was too big a
thing for me to get my head around. When I thought of it baldly like that: killed three
people, I was so filled with horror. I felt that my life was permanently damaged, that I
could never be normal again, that the rest of my life would be a shell” (93).
Transition Statement: Although Ellie goes through a period of self-doubt and deals with
feelings over guilt, she overcomes these obstacles and proves that she is the same strong,
confident person she was before all of these events took place.
BODY PARAGRAPH 3:
TOPIC: At the end of the novel, Ellie has regained her determination and confidence,
and is ready to continue fighting to protect those she loves.
RELATED IDEA 1: Ellie regains some of her confidence when the group nominates her
to record their experiences in her journal. She accepts that they have all had to change
who they are.
SD1: “We’ve all had to rewrite the scripts of our lives the last few weeks. We’ve learnt a
lot and we’ve had to figure out what’s important, what matters – what really matters”
(16).
RELATED IDEA 2: Ellie helps make a plan to protect her community and family
moving forward.
SD1: “Once I had made my decision to go with the tanker I’d been ready to live with the
consequences, whatever they were” (270).
OR
“But my heart was making its own rules and refusing to be controlled by my conscience.
I let it run wild, thinking of all the fascinating possibilities” (173).
RELATED IDEA 3:Ellie overcomes the guilt she feels about harming other people, and
knows that she has showed true courage.
SD1: “That was the first moment at which I started to realize what true courage was. Up
until then, everything had been unreal, like a night-stalking game at a school camp. To
come out of the darkness now would be to show courage of a type that I’d never had to
show before, never even known about. I had to search my own mind and body to find if
there was a new part of me somewhere” (79-80).
CONCLUSION: Using two or three sentences, remind your readers of the 3 main ideas
related to your topic. Conclude with a strong last statement that really makes the reader
believe in your point of view and ideas.
Throughout the novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, Ellie goes through many changes
and she grows as a person. Ellie begins the novel as a confident, carefree teenager, and
she struggles when all that she knows and loves is taken from her. Ellie proves that she is
a strong individual when she overcomes feelings of guilt and fear to protect her home,
family, and friends.