I'm wondering if any of you have read Ransom by David Malouf? We did it for one of our English texts this year and if not, then I think you'd love reading it. Anyway, this is a draft for a SAC I did for it back in March-isj? I think it is the best Essay I've possibly done this year and I want some opinions on it. Please don't judge if I'm horrible at English ahaha xD. I've only provided the skeleton/scaffold/draft for the actual essay I did. It is pretty accurate to what I did in the SAC.
What would a standard like that reach on an exam in terms of marks? What could I do better and should I work on before the exam?
Help would be much appreciated. Thank you
“Malouf’s use of language and imagery in Ransom shows the value of appreciating what is around us every day.” Discuss.Introduction:• Ransom, a reinterpretation of the Iliad, by David Malouf, is a novel written in a third person omniscient perspective, employing many different techniques of language and imagery. These techniques help to construct and support the core ideas and messages at the centre of the text. Malouf suggests, through his use of language, that appreciation for both the physical and emotional joys of being human, and taking time to sense the world around us, will in fact lead to our fulfilment and satisfaction as human beings. Selecting characters and settings, he displays this though the communication between Priam and Somax on their journey to Achilles, the natural world culminated from the elements around them, and the sensory language; which makes the reader feel as if they are experiencing the text through the eyes of the character’s psyche that the narrator has decided to enter.
Body Paragraph 1:•
Opening Sentence: The interactions between Somax and Priam allows the readers to experience the beauty of what is around them on an everyday basis through the excited and refreshed eyes of Priam. Using the psychology and thoughts happening inside Priam, who has been deprived of a simple life due to his obliged role as King of Troy, the reader sees the everyday world in a fresh new perspective, “like a child”, bringing across the value of appreciating what is continually around us on a regular basis.
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Evidence and Explainingo
Evidence (Quote) 1: “In just being itself, neither more or less, each thing appeared … too busy of its own life running from here to there like the water, or seeking out food like the fishlings and the noisy circle of swifts…” (p. 124-125)
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Explaining 1: This section shows the behaviour of everyday life, and Malouf employs previous situations in his similes to connect the ideas to the reader and give these ideas the meaning he intended to give them, which is the beauty of the natural world and the simplicity that the natural world has with everything passing by and going on with its own business.
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Evidence (Quote) 2: “And he thinks, with a burst of joy, of the little girl, his granddaughter, now fully recovered”
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Explaining 2: This expresses Somax’s relationship with his granddaughter and how he cares for her. Malouf uses this relationship to give across the message that the relationships we have between others on a day to day is important and we should appreciate and love those who we care about.
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Evidence (Quote) 3: “But the little mule was stronger and more self-possessed than she appeared. She propped, the wagon righted, and a moment later they were on firm gravel” (p. 151-152)
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Explaining 3: Beauty, a recurring motif in the text, is a symbol that something as ordinary looking as a mule can in fact have importance in situations and save the day, showing that the larger idea of beauty can be found in ordinary things.
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Link: Alongside the interactions between Priam and Somax, where chalk and cheese meet to cause a transition in the aging king, the matter which surrounds the two of them (comprised of the four elements) plays just as important a role in allowing the appreciation and realisation of the value in our everyday world.
Body Paragraph 2:•
Opening Sentence: Malouf uses the classical elements of fire, earth, wind, and water; which in the text aids in connecting our physical surroundings with the interactive and emotional qualities that each human shares. Imperative to the beliefs of Ancient Greek society, the four elements were believed to be the very components of what every object was made out of, and Malouf takes this further to give each element their own meaning, and show how they surrounds us daily.
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Evidence and Explainingo
Evidence (Quote) 1: “The goodness of the cool, clean water extend its reviving benefit from his feet to his whole being” (p. 117)
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Explaining 1: Water in the text is often associated (is a symbol) with the renewal of the characters, and when Priam is dipping his feet in the water, it symbolises his renewal and the beginning of his new outlook on life as he absorbs all the beauty of his natural surroundings.
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Evidence (Quote) 2: “Water as it went hopping over the stones and turned back on itself and hopped again.” (p. 126)
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Explaining 2: Just another quote like the first one on the change and it symbolises the turns people go through etc.
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Evidence (Quote) 3: “We’re children of nature, my lord. Of the earth” (p. 121)
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Explaining 3: This allows the reader an access, so to say, towards nature. Being created of the earth, it makes one feel intimate but also tied and obliged to what they are, which brings the message to the reader that the nature around us is important.
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Evidence (Quote) 4: “My son, the gods rest him, set the stones up in a new way, out of affection … for my daughter-in-law, to make things easier for her, and so the cakes would cook faster and be the sweeter for it.” (p. 119)
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Explaining 4: The element of fire in the text is associated with rituals, sharing, the interaction of others and food. In this situation, the affection from Somax’s son allowed the heat of the stove to cook the griddlecakes better. What Malouf is trying to send across to the reader is that even the core necessities for human survival, the most basic things, such as food, can allow people to express their care and affection and appreciate the basic, everyday things of human life.
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Link: The elements, which are around and inside each character, also allows these characters to experience the sensory properties of their basic surroundings in an appreciatory manner.
Body Paragraph 3:•
Opening Sentence: Malouf also explores the human senses to give the reader a closer experience to the happenings of the text, and thus the messages that he is attempting to project. In certain instances within Ransom, his use of this technique on everyday scenes places the reader through the eyes of the character’s psyche and makes the reader feel as if they are experiencing the very same sensory properties. The significance of this is that Malouf reminds us that these senses are around us every day, and sensing those everyday experiences is what makes us human and alive and able to appreciate what’s around us.
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Evidence and Explainingo
Evidence (Quote) 1: “These little cakes, now, since they’ve caught your eye, sir – pikelets they are, or griddlecakes as some people call them …It’s a pleasure to watch the batter bubbling … The lightness comes from the way the cook flips them over.” (p. 118-119)
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Explaining 1: Ordinary objects, such as griddlecakes, can show the love and compassion placed into them, making the reader appreciate something like the care which is taken into food, and allowing them to broaden their scope to other objects.
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Evidence (Quote) 2: “Out here, if you stopped to listen everything prattled. It was a prattling world. Leaves as they tumbled in the breeze. Water as it went hopping over the stones … Cicadas that created such a long racketing shrillness.” (p. 126)
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Explaining 2: This is a pure quote of the natural world surrounding Priam, and to an extent, everyone. Malouf uses onomatopoeia in this section to allow the reader to experience the sound as if they were there.
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Evidence (Quote) 3: “Potted shrubs spread their heavy night odours ... Tucked in between rocky outcrops there are kitchen gardens, with a figtree … Snails the size of a baby’s fingernail are reborn in their dozens after a storm and hang like raindrops from every stalk.”
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Explaining 3: This is at the start of Part II, describing the day to day life of Troy and how the ordinary things that happen on a day to day basis are imperative to the productivity and functioning of everyday society. Also use a simile with the snails.
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Conclusion:•
Summary of Everything: The novel Ransom, by David Malouf, examines the value of appreciating what is around us on an everyday basis, making use of many writing techniques, such as imagery, sensory description and the viewpoints of each character.
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Finishing ‘Punch’: This allows each reader to take an individual perspective and ‘smell the roses’, taking a journey similar to that taken by Priam on his way to go to Achilles.
Notes:- Malouf could’ve chosen such a stiff society such as Ancient Greece where people are born into roles and not very familiar to the concept of change due to the actions of the gods to emphasise the change Priam goes through and to emphasise the importance of everyday surroundings even more.
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