2011 Paper 1 Section III Question 3: Sample Responses
(15 marks)
Explore how perceptions of belonging and not belonging can be influenced by
connections to places.
In your response refer to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of
your own choosing.
Sample Response: Novel
Prescribed text: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Novel)
Related texts: “Yia sas Earlwood” by Andy Kissane (Poem)
“The Dacca Gauzes” by Agha Shahid Ali (Poem)
All the texts and
authors are named, the
question is directly
answered and the thesis
is extended to include
memory and identity.
Both sides of belonging
and not belonging are
considered with the
words part of, connected to,
and excluded from
Contexts are compared
Starts with the
prescribed text giving
an overview of the
places in the novel and
suggesting the way Pip
connects to place
The discussion of
identity and place offers
supporting evidence
which extends the
thesis
Topic sentence that
responds directly to the
set question with the
Different places can evoke different emotions because of the strong
memories that become part of the place. These memories drive
individuals to feel in a particular way, as part of, or as excluded from,
place. In the novel Great Expectations, places become very powerful
catalysts for strong emotions that influence the way Pip sees himself in
the world. Pip’s identity is also connected to places through his
experiences with people in that place. Similarly in the poems “Yia sas
Earlwood” by Andy Kissane, and “The Dacca Gauzes” by Agha Shahid
Ali, each persona feels the strength of connection to place and sees their
identity as inextricably connected to the places they have belonged to.
Even though the three texts are about very different places and people
and come from different times, they share the same sense of the search
to connect with place
In Great Expectations the protagonist, Philip Pirrip, finds his life
changed by unexpected wealth which takes him from the familiarity of
the home next to the forge and near the marshes to the cold and
calculating atmosphere of Satis House and then to a wealthier lifestyle in
London in his own lodgings. All of this movement has been precipitated
by a moment on the uninviting marshes which removed him from the
place to which he thought he would belong forever and therefore leads
to a reconsideration of his identity and of the relationships he forms.
The marshes are near to the churchyard where Pip gained his “first most
vivid and broad impression of the identity of things”. With this phrase,
Dickens foreshadows the events to follow as Pip moves through
different places but always returns to the “long black horizontal line” of
the marsh from which he can see the “beacon” and the “gibbet”, one
symbolising light and guidance and the other showing the consequences
of a bad life. That moment in the marshes when he meets his future
benefactor is connected to violence, which makes Pip fearful and makes
it difficult for him later to accept that Magwitch has been the source of
his good fortune.
Despite being brought up in the home next to the forge with his sister –
who brings him up “by hand” – and her husband Joe Gargery, Pip feels
no allegiance to the place of his childhood which he identifies with his
sister’s anger and resentment. The person who makes this bearable is Joe
word allegiance acting as
a synonym for the word
connection
and it is connection to people rather than place which is important in
the novel. This is in contrast to Satis House where he feels an outsider,
intimidated by the grand exterior and similarly excluded by those people
within and yet he persists in visiting this place as he feels the strength of
attraction to Estella. His family, especially his sister and Mr
Pumblechook, are excited by the contact with the grand house which
they identify with wealth and power but it is in fact a crumbling edifice
with a bleakness inside that fails to engage any visitors and declares
instead the impenetrability of the occupant who remains aloof and
Description of the place arrogant behind windows with “iron bars” or “walled up”. Satis House
is linked to Miss
reflects the degeneration of Miss Havisham into an old and bitter
Havisham’s lack of
woman who cannot be reached emotionally, locked behind physical and
connection to people
metaphorical gates. She fails to connect to people and her place where
implicitly demonstrating “the cold wind seemed to blow colder there, than outside the gate” is a
not belonging
clear representation of her emotional isolation. Her resentment of others
is shown in the way she clings to her past, and maintains the room with
the wedding feast. Place becomes linked for her with a failed past and
her hatred and disengagement with the world are echoed in the
deteriorating trappings of the once fine room.
The book’s title and the
question are connected
in this topic sentence
‘The Castle’ is discussed
because it illustrates a
different type of
relationship with place
and allows for a new
exploration of the topic
Techniques must be not
just named but
explained and
connected to the effect
and to the question
Poem used as related
text. This poem is not
as much about place
but if the question asks
you to look at
something you need to
consider your text in
that light or you are not
answering the question
The poem is briefly
synthesised with the
prescribed text
Metaphors are
explained but the
techniques are not
always named as that
can lead to clumsy
stilted writing
Each place in the novel is inhabited by different people with different
expectations. Of all the paces in the book the one that stands out
offering a sense of belonging is The Castle, owned by Wemmick. “The
office is one thing, and private life is another” says Wemmick, making
clear the influence of place on identity. “When I go into the office I
leave the Castle behind me and when I go into the Castle,” he says, “ I
leave the office behind me.” In the Castle, Wemmick surround himself
with those he loves, his father “the Aged” and later Miss Skiffins who
becomes his wife. The impact of the office is seen in the description of
Wemmick’s mouth as “post-office” as he approached the office in stark
comparison to way his “hard face really softened” when he talks
playfully to his father in his Castle. The very use of such a title as
“Castle” which Dickens capitalises implies the depth of pride Wemmick
feels for his humble home. It’s in these scenes that Dickens shows the
power of place to restore the soul and create a bond with individuals.
But place also evokes nostalgia and can be linked to the past. Shahid
Ali’s poem “The Dacca Gauzes" about his grandmother’s memories is
linked implicitly to the place of her childhood. The place Bengal is
mentioned as a place of violence where “the hands/ of weavers were
amputated, / the looms of Bengal silenced”. Place can be connected, like
Pip’s marshes, to a past of violence which is alienating rather than
embracing. This violence is in sharp contrast to the opening of the poem
where the “transparent Dacca gauzes” are described as “known as
woven air, running/ water, evening dew”, connecting the fabrics with
natural beauty as if they were part of nature. His grandmother’s
memories ignore the violent facts that were learnt in history by her
grandson and she remembers the heirloom sari that connects her to her
own mother. This sari becomes “many handkerchiefs embroidered/
with gold thread paisleys… distributed among/ the nieces and daughters
in law.” This object, the sari, is a physical manifestation of a connection
between family over generations. Shahid shows the passage of memory
in his prose poem breaking up the lines to emphasise important
elements and suggest the connections between every event. Some
statements such as “Those too now lost” stand out, isolated like the
grandmother who feels an emotional response to the place she lived in
in the past.
The topic sentence
immediately contrasts
with the previous
paragraph
Examples are given in
brackets in sentences
that focus on analysis
Discussion is connected
directly to the set
question
Place is the focus
Explaining the
technique simile and the
way it connects place
and people, referring
back to question
Three texts were used
because the poems
were short but it is not
necessary to do this
A more direct response to belonging to place can be seen in the poem
“Yia sas” in which Andy Kissane, conjures images of Earlwood in
Sydney. The migrant population of the suburb is immediately referenced
in the foreign words of the title, the Greek greeting “Yia sas”. Greek
words are interspersed throughout the poem (“kiria”, “bakaliko”,
“horta”, “kala”) alienating those who are not part of Greek culture and
showing the transplantation of another culture into a new place. This is a
pace where the home is important, as foregrounded in the poem’s
opening description of the “trowel across the bricks” creating a home
renovation but also where community is important, with the greetings
that are passed between people. Places of origin are directly named –
“Santorini” or “the wharf in Thira” which is contrasted with “Coles
New World in Earlwood” to show how the culture has moved from one
place to another but also how connected people are to their place of
origin. Paul looks up and nods “as if … waiting for the water boat to
arrive…. White houses /protruding like chipped teeth from an old
man’s mouth.” Even this visual simile of the chipped teeth draws the
reader back to a village past. The longing for the past is suggested as a
reason for the neighbours “third generation Australians”, painting “their
letterbox and gate an Aegean blue”. In the final words of the poem we
see that the “third generation Australian” is in fact part of his present
place as his cigarette smoke goes up “towards the banksias and
jacarandas, / their red and purple flowers flaming.”
All three texts show the way emotions are strongly connected to the
experiences of place. This in turn feeds into each individual’s sense of
identity and sense of belonging.
General Note on Section III 2011
The belonging rubric lists the many ways that belonging can be found and one of these is place.
For many texts place is not a strong theme so the question required some reconsideration of the
way to discuss the topic. In Great Expectations place is significant but relationships are more
significant; they are, however, connected to place. If your understanding is focused on
relationships then you needed to make sure that your thesis allows you to extend the idea to
incorporate place. For a writer such as Emily Dickinson whose poems focus on the interior
world, place could be reinterpreted as being in the mind. She feels comfortable within herself.
That is her place. Occasionally it is also being in the garden or looking on the garden from
within. She challenges the notion of women’s place in the world but the question uses the word
“places” which, strictly speaking, means physical locations.