2012 Paper 1 Section III Question 3: Sample responses
Question 3
An individual’s perceptions of belonging evolve in response to the passage of time and interaction with their world.
In what ways is this view of belonging represented in your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing?
Sample response: Poetry
Prescribed text:The Simple Gift, Stephen Herrick, 2000
Related text: Past the Shallows, Favel Parrett, 2012 (Novel)
Thesis responding directly to the question is developed with reference to both texts / The passage of time is an essential element in the growth of individuals, often changing their perception of belonging as they interact with their world. Sometimes insurmountable difficulties are overcome and, other times, it is with growth that understanding of the extremeness of an event is understood and acceptance achieved. Two Australian texts, Stephen Herrick’s poetic The Simple Gift (2000), and Favel Parrett’s novel Past the Shallows (2012), focus on similar individuals – adolescent men – placed in similar dysfunctional male-dominated family situations and demonstrate how individuals can find a way to belong in a world that has not treated them well. Ultimately it is the people they connect with over time who help them to make choices to create a world where they feel comfortable.Topic sentence to focus on characters
Overview of the prescribed text with supporting evidence to illustrate the themes / Both novels offer an essentially masculine perspective with boys being brought up by their fathers who also brutalise them. Billy in The Simple Gift decides to run away from home. In his journey he meets many people, and realises that the world is made up of better people than he knows. Every good action from others creates a positive effect on Billy. The librarian Irene at Bendarat shows him generosity, his past neighbours, Ernie and Irene, gave him food when he was hiding in their chookshed. The peace implied by the name Irene is transferred to Billy who starts to understand the nature of giving and learns to give. He then in turn gives to Old Bill the hobo he finds in the railway yards, who is touched. Good actions lead to more good actions. He knows that there are “men who don’t boss you around… who share a drink … and know if it’s right and wrong” in comparison to “other men,/like my dad.” Billy starts to see that life is not filled with beatings and aggression but with giving. This is at the core of the text The Simple Gift which is exploring the power of giving to transform lives. His encounters with people allow him to develop a more positive attitude. The hobo Old Bill becomes the most influential in unexpectedly finding the power to give Billy the stability of having a home, but the emotional contract is initiated by Billy who demonstrates the power of giving in his charitable actions to the old man.
Comment on the structure (flashback)
Evidence in parentheses / We become conscious in The Simple Gift that we belong to a whole world where one action in one time has a reciprocal action in a later time. Rather than remembering his father’s aggression which emerges in the flashback chapters, Billy is starting to remember goodness in his life and this replaces his previous worldview. Part of his transformation is due to the impact of love with Caitlin. Caitlin’s confidence is the result of a happy and loving family (“Mum’s perfect cooking and Dad’s favourite wine”) who talk to her and “ask questions about school.” Her outer appearance (“Bouncing, shiny, clean hair”, “tartan skirt… clean white blouse… School Blazer”) and schooling (Bendarat Grammar School) suggest that she belongs to another world, but through their love Billy and Caitlin create a new world as they connect to each other.
Contrast to introduce the next text
Connecting to the prescribed text / Past the Shallows is a much denser text with a stronger emotional impact. Where The Simple Gift has simple language and direct statements, occasionally interrupted by brief lyrical scenes when Billy is in a natural surroundings or experiencing love (“beautiful phosphorescent bubbles of light/ and trying to catch those bubbles in the new world of quiet and calm”), Past the Shallows is rich in descriptions of the landscape (“where the water rose like it was climbing a hill, places where the water was angry”) which act as a pathetic fallacy to reflect an intensity of feeling in the characters. The boys, Miles and Harry live in a fishing community with their violent alcoholic father while their brother Joe lives in the inherited grandfather’s house. The mother is dead (Billy’s mother is also absent from The Simple Gift) so the world is bleak and unrelievedly masculine except for the presence of Aunt Jean. Like Billy, Harry encounters an outsider, an older man, George whose outer appearance frightens people, but whose gentle character offers Harry a respite from his home. The story’s climax occurs on the fishing boat when the boys start to remember what happened to their mother and their father’s part in her death. Knowledge brings with it more death but there is a sense that with the passing of time comes healing as Miles looks “out past the shallows… Rolling out an invisible path, a new line for them to follow. To somewhere warm. To somewhere new.” He realizes that he doesn’t need to belong to the past or to the destructive bonds of family. The final lines of The Simple Gift offer the same sense of hope for the future but it is linked to the connection made with Old Bill, as Billy “looked up into the sky, the deep blue sky that Bill and I shared.”
Summing up both texts and relating this to the thesis / Both texts show us that time and the right interactions with others will heal the wounds of belonging to a violent family. We also see that it is often outsiders who have the insight to help those in need. In the end it is by connecting to the right people that we can develop a sense of self worth that transcends the ugliness of the past.