ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: JackSonSmith on January 11, 2015, 01:34:24 pm

Title: Ambiguous prompt (this boy's life)
Post by: JackSonSmith on January 11, 2015, 01:34:24 pm
“I had my own dreams of transformation …”
‘The reader feels that Toby and his mother are never going to be able to improve their lives.’
Do you agree?

Does this prompt refer to the years that the main character is referred to as "Toby" or just the main character throughout the novel? The multiple names that Tobias/Jack/Toby has is really confusing.
Title: Re: Ambiguous prompt (this boy's life)
Post by: brenden on January 11, 2015, 02:10:46 pm
“I had my own dreams of transformation …”
‘The reader feels that Toby and his mother are never going to be able to improve their lives.’
Do you agree?

Does this prompt refer to the years that the main character is referred to as "Toby" or just the main character throughout the novel? The multiple names that Tobias/Jack/Toby has is really confusing.
You could address this prompt with multiple timelines. You could say that, initially we feel as if they'll never be able to improve their lives, but when he begins to pull a dodgy and get himself into the nice school we think that it's true he could be able to improve his life. So long as you make clear what time you're talking about, you can pick and choose different times the reader does/doesn't feel they'll be able to change their lives (although, err mostly to one side - i.e; mostly that they won't be able to improve their lives etc.