A.S. 90378 Exemplar 1 Achieved with Excellence
(Short Text)
For EACH of your studied texts, analyse how symbolism was used to develop a main
theme.
The Bath and Gathering of the Whakapapa
Janet Frame and Witi Ihimaera
In the short stories The Bath, by Janet Frame and Gathering of the Whakapapa, by
Witi Ihimaera both deal with old age and the importance of relationships in this stage
of life. In both short stories the use of symbolism helped develop this main idea.
In The Bath, by Janet Frame the most important symbol is the bath. Due to the ladies
age and lack of any close relationships “the yellow-stained rim now seemed more like
the edge of a cliff”. Simple day to day tasks are a more daunting and scary prospect,
so therefore activities such as taking a bath are only attempted on special occasions.
The threatening and isolating nature of the bath is emphasized by subtle language
use, connecting it with the image of the ocean. With similies such as “The soap too,
and the flannel were like trail flotsam to cling too,” and phrases like, “She pulled out
the plug, sat feeling the hide swirl.” The image of the bath also symbolises graves
and hence death, “all else was silent … then she had the strange feeling of being
under the earth.”
The symbols in The Bath, representing the ocean and death are effective due to the
ladies lack of relationships. This creates an extra sense of vulnerability and
humiliation. When stuck in the bath, struggling to get out the old lady comments, “if
John were here … if we were sharing our old age, helping each other this would
never have happened.” Instead, “in future a district nurse will have to come to attend
to me. That will be the first humiliation. There will be others and others.“ It is a
killing of the old ladies spiritual self. Without close relationships life, both physically
and emotionally is fast becoming untenable. The bath is only one example of the
way life is taken for granted until age catches up on us.
In Gathering of the Whakapapa, the most important symbol is the Whakapapa
(ancestory or genealogy). It is not only “the links with our past, but with our land and
with each other in the present.” It is particularly important to the community
portrayed in the shortstory due to their feeling that “I am the people that come before
me and I am the people that come after me.” The Whakapapa is a symbol of life and
hope. It gives Nanny Tama a purpose.
The short story Gathering of the Whakapapa, is the complete opposite to The Bath,
but it too helps portray the importance of relationships in the latter stages of life.
However in this short story the importance of relationships is shown by the presence
of them. Nanny Tama is loved, respected and supported by his community.
Although it is sometimes grudgingly, they are always there for him. As Auntie
Hiraina says, “I’m wild with you boy, your Nanny’s too sick to travel.” Yet when
push came to shove ‘She stepped into the car … “Well someone has to give him his
injections!”’ The close relationships that Nanny Tama has minimises his humiliation
and vulnerability. It is due to them that he went on the journey to return the damaged
whakapapa to his community. “His strength went into the whakapapa. His aroha for
us.” He uses his old age to give life and hope back to the community that have
supported him.
Although the short stories The Bath, and Gathering of the Whakapapa, both deal with
old age in different ways the same message can be taken from them. That in old age
the presence of close relationships is one of the most vital tools for survival. This
idea was developed by the use of symbolism.
A.S. 90378 Exemplar 4 Achieved with Merit
For EACH of your studied texts, analyse how symbolism was used to develop a main
theme
Listen to the End and The Crisis of Technology
Tony Hunter and Gary Langford
“Listen to the End” and “The Crisis of Technology” by Tony Hunter and Gary
Langford respectively, use the symbolism of one main character to help convey the
main idea of helplessness at the hands of fear.
In “Listen to the End”, the main character, a woman, makes her way home to her flat
where she will spend the night alone. Hearing noises, sensing someone or something
else is in the house pushes her over the edge as fear takes over. She becomes wild
with panic, running around the house blindly before being saved by the phone call of
her boyfriend.
In “The Crisis of Technology”, Gary Langford also uses a woman as his central
character. She feels “trapped in her apartment” in a time when men have gotten fed
up with feminists and taken control back for themselves. Having previously recieved
threatening phone calls from one man, she recieves another during the story. His
threat that he will come over pushes her too far and as fear takes control of her she
ends up killing an innocent security guard believing him to be the threat maker.
For millennia, man has protected woman. Man has earnt the money, man has
defended the nation, man has been there. Whilst we as a modern society believe in
more equality, there is still a natural feeling that man protects woman. Thus it is my
opinion that the choice of a female main character is a symbolic one. The choice
plays on the belief that man should protect woman as these women are overcome
with fear to the point of helplessness and madness. “The Crisis of Technology”
amplifies this feeling by showing that the threat to the woman is a man – exactly the
thing that should be protecting her, not threatening to kill her. “Listen to the End”
shows a phonecall from the boyfriend is of great help to the panic stricken woman, as
she is slightly calmed by his voice, by his control and by his plan.
The main theme of fear and the helplessness that results from it was developed by the
symbolic choice of victim. Had the victims been men, the readers would have
thought that “He should be able to cope, able to help himself.” But by placing
women, who are, for all intents and purposes, alone in the role of victim the sense of
helplessness is increased as there is the feeling that they need aid, that they need
someone else. The reader therefore is more inclined to get sucked into the story and
begin to feel the fear and helplessness themselves, as it is more obvious that the
victim is almost destroyed by fear and thus is the idea developed.
A.S. 90378 Exemplar 7 Achieved
For EACH of your studied texts, analyse how TWO methods used by the author affected
your opinion of an important issue or idea.
Censorship and The Other Side of the Story
Bill Sewell
In the poetry anthology “the Ballad of 51” written by Bill Sewell about the 1951
waterfront dispute between waterfront workers and their employers over pay rises, Bill Sewell
used a combination of both emotive language and imagery to affect the opition of the
audience about this dark period of New Zealand history where human rights seemed nonexistant.
These methods used by Sewell can best be seen in the two poems entitled
“Censorship” and “the Other Side of the Story”.
In the poem Censorship which talks about the Sydney Holland led National government of the
time surpressing the waterfront workers union voice when they asked for a pay increase so it’s
members were not living in poverty, an example of emotive language is: “for had they not
forbidden the abuse of paper”. This use of the word “abuse” in this line shows that the
government considered the workers demands so outragious that to write about it would have
been wasting and abusing paper. This was consider acceptable in the post World War two era
as reasources were precious and could not be waste on ridiculus (in the eyes of the
government) pleas for a pay increase. I felt Bill Sewell used this emotive word to emphasis
the lack of understanding that the government was showing to this dispute and reinforce the
idea that the workers where the people who where really suffering in this situation.
Also in the poem Censorship, an example of imagery that Sewell used to affect my
opinions was: “we could have marched in silence which would have shamed them
into prohibiting silence.”This quote creates a very strong image in my mind of row
upon row of dusty, dirty waterfront workers walking silently down the main streets of
New Zealand’s port cities. And it affected my opinion of the whole dispute because it
shows the lengths that the workers would have gone to (had they been allowed) to get
across their message that they wanted a small pay increase. But of course the
government created regulations against gatherings of more than three people on the
street to stop anything such as the silence march talked about ever taking place.
*
In the poem “The Other Side of the Story” which again talks about the oppressive nature of
the government. An example of emotive language that Bill Sewell used to affect my opinions
of the 1951 waterfront dispute was: “Beyond the crown of thorns” This quote was emotive
and affected my opinion on the whole dispute as it has a litergual reference. When I think of
the crown of thorns I think of the pain Jesus Christ went through before and while he was
nailed to the cross, being cruzified. Sewell used this quote to show the pain that the workers
were going through because they had been locked out of the warves for not working they had
no income and the government made rules and laws that said no one could help feed or
employ waterside workers or their families so they were starving to death which is very
painful like what happened to Jesus Christ.
Also in the poem “The Other Side of the Story” an example of imagery that Sewell used to
affect my opinions of the 1951 waterfront dispute was: “Beyond the locked gates, the empty
pockets and the blank eyes.” This quote creates a very strong image for me of the waterfront
workers having no job, no money and no hope for the future. This made me simpathize with
them as they wanted this pay rise but it was destorying their lives at the same time.
Thus the two poems “Censorship” and “The Other Side of the Story”, both written by Bill
Sewell about the affects of the 1951 waterfront dispute on the waterfront workers, had an
effect on my opinion of the whole incident and this was reinforced by Sewells use of imagery
and emotive language in both the poems.
A.S. 90378 Exemplar 8 Achieved
For EACH of your studied texts, analyse how contrast helped the author develop an important idea.
Note: “contrast” could include contrast between characters or settings; or contrast between different
sections/parts in terms of style, mood, tone, pace, etc.
The House with Sugarbag Windows and The Lottery
Witi Ihimaera and Shirley Jackson
In the short story The House with Sugarbag Windows, written by New Zealand
author, Witi Ihimaera, there is a clear contrast between the two settings in the story.
The first setting being a fancy party at a rich suburbian house. The second being a
small hut in the middle of nowhere.
The main character, Watene, was brought up in a small hut somewhere in the North
Island, in the middle of nowhere. Watene’s family was a very poor family, and his
father only got work when he could. Other times they lived off the land as much as
possible. As a result of this, they didn’t have much luxuries, and had to make do with
what they had. For windows, they had holes in the wall, and had sugarbags to cover
the holes when it rained, so the rain wouldn’t come in and make the dirt floor all
muddy. The only furniture they had on the dirt floor was a trestle table, and a couple
of apple boxes to sit on. Over in the corner they had an open fire place, with a large
pot over top for cooking – where yummy smells would come from. The sounds that
were hears would be the music of the father playing his fiddle every night after
dinner, and Watene and his four sisters would sing and dance. Their hut was
surrounded by beautiful dense bush, and a river where they would wash their clothes.
The party at the rich suburbian house was completely different. The party was in
Kelburne, a middle-class resedential area. The owner of the house had a pretty well
paid job, and was able to afford a lot of luxuries. Over the windows there were big,
expensive, velvet curtains. They had a nice polished wooden floor, and a big dining
table, covered in all sorts of wonderful food, and big comfortable chairs. There was a
large, expensive looking fireplace on one of the walls, not hidden away in the corner.
One that you could switch on and off and change the temperature. The sounds that
could be heard was the quiet mumble of chatter, the clnking of crystal wine glass
against crystal wine glass, and the contemporary music of Mozart and Vivaldi. The
red brick house, with two cars in the garage, was surrounded by more red brick
houses, just the same as the next.
The contrast between the House with Sugarbag Windows and the party at the rich red
brick house symbolizes Watene’s loss of his identity, of who he truly is. One of Witi
Ihimaera’s important ideas in this short story is that you shouldn’t lose your own
identity, because he was so ashamed, for the “perfect life”.
In the short story The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, there is an obvious contrast
between Tessie Hutchinson’s attitude before and after the drawing of the black dot
for the lottery. At first she was indifferent about the happenings of the day, but as
soon as her husband Bill drew her name out, she became absolutely terrified.
Tessie Turned up to the town square late on the day of the lottery. “Would you rather
I left the dishes in the sink, Bill?” she said to her husband. It was obvious that she
didn’t care much about who was going to get the dreaded black dot, she just wanted
to get it over and done with so she could get back to her housework. She even
managed to humour the situation when her husband went up to pull out his family’s
piece of paper; “Go on Bill, get up there.” she said laughingly. But as soon as they
were told to unfold their pieces of paper, and Tessie saw that her husband had got the
black dot for their family, she was terrified, and started getting arguementative “Its
not fair. You saw that he wasn’t given enough time to choose the one he wanted, I
demand a redraw” she said pleadingly to anyone who would listen, but all that could
be said to her was “We all took the same chance as you Tessie”. Her eratic behaviour
turned to helplessness when she drew the black dot out of her family, and realised
that her township was going to stone her to death. She pleaded with everyone that
“Its not fair!” as her town mates followed her with stones – even her own two-yearold
son.
The contrast between Tessie’s before and after attitudes helped Shirley Jackson
develop an important idea that people don’t seem to care when others are mistreated,
but when they are the one being mistreated, then they make a big fuss. Before Bill
Hutchinson drew out the black dot, Tessie didn’t even care that yet another innocent
member of her town was going to die – she just wanted to get it over and done with,
and she didn’t think for one second that there is a chance that it could be her. But
when Bill picked out the black dot, and then Tessie, her attitude and behaviour
changed to someone who is being mistreated, and she argued and argued about it,
because she had finally realized that it isn’t actually fair, what they have been doing
to one innocent person every year.
A.S. 90378 Exemplar 9 Achieved
For EACH of your studied texts, analyse how actions or dialogue helped you to
understand ONE main character/individual.
The Drover’s Wife and I Stand Here Ironing
Henry Lawson and Tillie Olsen
The dialogue in The Drovers Wife and I stand here Ironing helped my understanding of the
main characters.
In I stand here Ironing by Tillie Olsen the dialogue is used to make us feel emotion, sympathy
towards Emily’s mother. Emily’s mother (who is never named) asks rhetorical questions,
they are never answered. “What did I do wrong?” “What was in my face when I looked at
Emily?” we can’t help but feel pity for Emily’s mother, she is easy to relate to because she is
in a common situation. Rhetorical questions helped my understanding of Emily’s mother as
her character is universal and she thinks how she would change the past when reality is we
can’t she has to face the decisions she made for Emily.
Omniscent narration helped my understanding also in I stand here Ironing. We got to know
the characters thoughts, actions and dialogue. Emily’s mother is on the phone but there is
never anyone answering questions. Through the conversation our sympathy grows as so does
our understanding for Emily’s mother. Due to unavoidable circumstances things don’t go as
planned. Before Emily was sent to live with her father “she loved motion, loved light, loved
colour, music and texture.” Somehow Emily’s mother feels she is at fault for how she
returned “… thin like her father”. My understanding was deepened by learning of her guilt of
the past from unavoidable situations she had to put Emily in. This is important in
understanding Emily’s mother as we feel sympathy for her.
Whereas in The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson dialogue is very rare we gain most of our
understanding from the third person narrator. “The drover is away with sheep. His wife and
children are left here alone.” The drovers wife is much stronger than the mother in I stand
here Ironing very little dialogue is important in our understanding of her character, she is a
strong women protecting her children from a snake. Past and present tense shares her struggle
“Its near sunset and a thunder storm is coming. She thinks back to when she fought a flood
during her husbands absence.“ In The Drovers wife we are observers and through the third
person narration we gain an unbiased opinion. We feel sympathy for the Ironing mother in I
stand here Ironing yet The Drovers wife is less personal so lack sympathy for her. The lack
of dialogue in The Drovers wife is important in my understanding of the drovers wife and
how her life is significantly different compared to the ironing mother.
However the drovers wife’s children’s dialogue is the most important in my understanding.
“I’ll never go droving … blast me if I do.” This comment indicates how the husbands absense
has strongly effected the children. The realise the work their mother does and promise they
won’t leave. This was very important as it helped my understanding of how hard the drovers
wife’s life was and the significant impact it had on her children.
The dialogue in I stand here Ironing helped my understanding by giving detail and how
Emily’s mother felt. In the Drovers wife the lack of dialogue helped my understanding
because it showed the type of woman she was.