EXAMPLE THREE. Commentary. Question A2 A/B BOUNDARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Commentary 23

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1 EXAMPLE THREE Commentary 23 Question Commentary This question provides evidence of assessment objectives AO1 and AO2ii. The question is set in the context of an open book examination. Candidates response booklet This response discusses two linked and unseen passages and refers to the candidate s wider reading. This candidate shows a clear grasp of how to respond to the texts and distinguish characteristics of meaning through a careful analysis of language to highlight emphases and other key points (AO1). However there is less discussion of variation in form. The candidate makes appropriate comparisons between the set material and wider reading, such as Churchill s speeches and Sassoon s poetry, and observes different narrative perspectives (AO2ii). It is clear that this candidate has been taught from an essentially literary perspective, but the focus on language and narrative technique is well sustained throughout, for example Passage B is compared to the speeches of Winston Churchill during the Second World War, Churchill also used words such as injustice and oppression but in a different context (sic) (AO2ii). In this way, particularly in the final paragraph of the essay, the candidate demonstrates ability to identify and reflect on relevant similarities and contrasts between texts. A more clearly demonstrated grasp of genre and period would have enhanced the overall quality of the answer. Question 1. Look again at Passage A, the extract from the novel The Great Gatsby, and Passage B, the letter written by the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Both are written in monologue form. Using any of the approaches to language and literary study that you are familiar with, write about how the impression of each speaker s views and opinions is created in each of these two texts. In your answer you should refer to at least one other example of monologue drawn from your wider reading for purposes of comparison or contrast. This can include any text studies for another unit on the course, and can be taken from any type of text: prose, poetry, non-fiction, drama, or natural spoken language. 23

2 Question Example three Î Passage A The passage below comes from the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The narrator Nick Carraway described his first close meeting with his wealthy neighbour Jay Gatsby. Whilst he is known locally as an important person, opinions are divided about what Gatsby s background really is. At nine o clock, one morning late in July, Gatsby s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn. It was the first time he had called on me, though I had gone to two of his parties, mounted in his hydroplane and, at his urgent invitation, made frequent use of his beach. Good morning, old sport. You re having lunch with me to-day and I thought we d ride up together. He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work in youth and, even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness. He was never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand. He saw me looking with admiration at his car. It s pretty, isn t it, old sport? He jumped off to give me a better view. Haven t you ever seen it before? I d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town. I had talked with him perhaps half a dozen times in the past month and found, to my disappointment, that he had little to say. So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door. And then came that disconcerting ride. We hadn t reached West Egg village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-coloured suit. Look here, old sport, he broke out surprisingly, what s your opinion of me, anyhow? A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves. Well, I m going to tell you something about my life, he interrupted. I don t want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear. So he was aware of the bizarre accusations that flavoured conversation in his halls. Passage B The passage below is a letter written in 1879 by the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly to a local police official. At the time he was being pursued by the authorities for alleged crimes. Opinion was divided over him. Some people saw him as a hero and helped him survive by supplying food and shelter: others saw him as a petty criminal. Sir, I take the liberty of addressing you with respect to the matter of myself, my brother and my two friends Hart and Byrne. And I take this opportunity to declare most positively that we did not kill the policemen in cold blood, as has been stated by the rascal McIntyre. We only fired on them to save ourselves, and we are not the coldblooded murderers which people presume us to be. Circumstances have forced us to become what we are outcasts and outlaws, and, bad as we are, we are not so bad as we are supposed to be. 24

3 Example three Question But my chief reason for writing this is to tell you that you are committing a manifest injustice in imprisoning so many innocent people just because they are supposed to be friendly to us. There is not the least foundation for the charge of aiding and abetting us against any of them, and you may know this is correct, or we would not be obtaining our food as usual since they have been arrested. Your policemen are cowards, every one of them. I have been with one party two hours while riding in the ranges and they did not know me. I will show you that we are determined men, and I warn you that within a week we will leave your colony, but we will not leave it until we have made the country ring with the name of Kelly and taken terrible revenge for the injustice and oppression we have been subjected to. Beware, for we are now desperate men. Edward Kelly 25

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