ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: DoctorTwo on March 14, 2017, 05:27:19 pm
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Hi, I've got an English SAC tomorrow and I want to do my best so I need some help with the prompts.
I did a practice SAC where I did not know any of the possible prompts in advance. The one that I chose was "‘The setting of the play enhances the tension among the men.’ Do you agree?" For my three body paragraphs, I focused on the 'drab room', the fan and the heat, and how they create negative tension, and the washroom and water cooler, and how they created positive tension or removed negative tension. In my feedback, my teacher has told me that these should just be examples of a much larger idea (e.g. 'The setting is, in many ways, uncared for, reflecting the lack of care in the justice system.') and that I shouldn't have focused on them so much. She also said that for this specific prompt, I could have talked about what ELSE creates tension. So, my first question is, would that be things like prejudice and the stage directions that also create tension? I have a list of possible prompts for tomorrow's SAC. My friend's teacher told him that out of the ten possible prompts, it will likely be the first and/or the tenth that will appear tomorrow. So, for this purpose I will focus on the first one for now.
‘Twelve Angry Men shows that prejudice is a factor in every conflict.’ Discuss.
Would my first point be to explain the reflection of American society, specifically how stigmas and prejudice negatively affect the jury room?
And the next point how prejudice works the other way - they eighth juror can be seen as prejudiced or biased towards (not against) youth or the defining characteristics of the defendant.
The final point about how other factors are involved in every conflict, e.g. the setting (heat, tension), stage directions (creating tension), and characterisation (the characters know nothing about each other except their juror numbers and how they look, and how the play paints the eighth juror as the here, even though he could be seen as stubborn and wrong.)
Can someone please take a look at this and give me some feedback on my body paragraph points and tell me if I should change anything? Thanks.
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With the prejudice essay you could talk about how the 8th juror admits that "prejudice obscures the truth". So Rose has crafted his protagonist with such a view and thus Rose also supports it.
I also think it's important to recognise that there is racial prejudice and also personal prejudice
maybe you could also talk abt the play being a social commentary on the 1950s McCarthy trials and the prejudice that was involved there and why Rose portrays prejudice the way he does in the play in relation to the trials.
For the tension essay maybe talk about how it's a young boy's life at stake and that the evidence being unreliable makes it hard to know the 'truth' but only the boy being guilty "beyond reasonable doubt"