LOOK BOTH WAYS

1. LOOK BOTH WAYS REVISION SESSION Tuesday, October 26, 2010

2. Exam Requiremnts • Respond to this section second, after Section C • Read and digest the topics VERY carefully, be aware of the FOCUS of the questions and what TYPE of questions they are • Your response should NOT be under 2 pages. Aim for 3-4 pages

3. How to score a 9 or 10 • Demonstrates a close and perceptive reading of the text, exploring complexities of its concepts and construction. • Demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text. • Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated discussion using precise and expressive language.

4. Focus of the topic • CHARACTER • THEMES/IDEAS • VALUES • SETTING • STRUCTURE

5. Types of topics • QUOTE – you do not have to repeat the quote in your response, but you MUST acknowledge its meaning and context • TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE? – Do not be tempted to include yourself or become argumentative. Don’t sit on the fence but also allow yourself to discuss multiple interpretations

6. Types of topics (cont’d) • HOW DOES THE AUTHOR – Asking you to reference the construction of the text, to use the novel’s conventions and author’s style as the basis of your discussion. • DISCUSS – Present the most sophisticated ideas in a discursive fashion

7. What not to do • Be argumentative • Be judgmental • Be complimentary to the author • Ignore parts of the topic • Retell the plot • Try and use everything you know

8. Example Topic 1 • ‘Look Both Ways’ suggests that facing up to responsibilities is a fundamental tenet of human experience. Do you agree? • Focus = Values • Type = Take a stance but acknowledge other opinions

9. Example Topic 2 • How does the director, Sarah Watt, convey the importance of looking both ways in her film Look Both Ways? • Focus = Values • Topic = How - construction

10. Planning • Identify FOCUS and TYPE of topic • Identify key terms in topic • Brainstorm the MOST sophisticated ideas, not necessarily the most rehearsed or easiest • Determine paragraph ideas • Link Quotes, Values and Structural Features to your ideas

11. Construction • CINEMATOGRAPHY - Julia and train driver often shot from another room/outside • EDITING – Scene 5 – Young attractive woman preening in mirror – cut to Meryl watching her, possibly depressed those days are gone – cut to 2 older fatter woman changing. We should look both ways for perspective • SETTING – Adelaide not Melb or Sydney – smaller town feel. Real, normal life. Claustrophobic, ugly industrial estates, clutter. Relentless heat.

12. Construction cont’d • DIALOGUE – Meryl talks too much – babbles. Train driver + family & Julia don’t talk but still communicate • PHOTO MONTAGES/ANIMATIONS – Be specific. Meryl’s imaginings can be broken into 3 distinct groups – Accidents/unexpected death, water-based ideas of drowning in her own life, the Indigenous boys. Similar story w Nick • SYMBOLISM – water as cleansing, refreshing, renewing • birds – punctuate diff stories, represent freedom compared to people • - moon – we’re all under the same moon. We all look up at it

13. Construction cont’d • MUSIC – lyrics often mirror plot eg. ‘Crashing’ by Gersey “If I slipped into the quiet” – shows Julia grieving • TONE – At times bleak, at times optimistic • STRUCTURE – Series of vignettes, self contained but woven together • GENRE – Watt describes LBW as a seriocomic narrative

14. Ideas/Issues/Themes • HONESTY – People lie and skirt round the truth for a variety of reasons. • ‘But dishonesty, like excessive and corrosive grief can be a cancer that eats away at the soul’ (Sarah Watt) • COINCIDENCE, FATE, DESTINY – Meryl wonders if she has control over her own existence. • ADJACENT/PARALLEL WORLDS – Nick’s personal world of cancer is now connected to an adjacent world – death in windows, people at weddings. • Anna – depressed – walks through park – refreshed by children at play/sprinkler • GRIEF – seven stages

15. Ideas/Issues/Themes cont’d • FEAR IN MEDIA – Media bombards us w bad news. Marketing grief, and the reactions when it becomes more personal. • TITLE – see both sides, anticipate what’s coming, look at past and future, look at surface and underneath • COMMUNICATION – People don’t always communicate effectively • DESENSITISATION – witnessing grief and not feeling it. Being saturated by death or letting it roll off your back – neither are ideal.

16. Characters • Be careful not to simplify characters • MERYL – Not merely scared of death, scared of not achieving anything, not being happy. Making the wrong decisions • ANDY – Not just angry man. Afraid of not being a good dad. Frustrated that men are not understood in the world. • Etc.

17. Values • Honesty • Resist getting ahead of yourself or becoming overwhelmed by the big picture • We need to control our fears/anxieties in order to live • Suffering is inevitable but we can’t let it disable us • Death can perhaps never be fully understood • It is best to accept change and unpredictability • People are linked together through common experience

18. Time to practise… • ‘Julia and the train driver only have small speaking parts; however, their roles are crucial to our understanding of the other characters.’ Discuss. • ‘The animation and photomontages mean that we learn about Nick and Meryl more than other characters in the film.’ Do you agree?

19. Bibliography • VCE OXFORD ENGLISH 3 & 4 • VATE INSIDE STORIES • VATE NOTES • http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/look-both-ways/notes/ • http://bhs-lookbothways.blogspot.com