Myhanh's English Journal

A player is a  stakeholder that has interest parties, if any developments were to happen to the area finically or emotionally; they are likely to get involved. A few of these players within the rebranding process would be include; celebrities, politicians, local residents, business owners and the naturists. These people are important within the rebranding process as they give it a more chance for it to become successful. Don’t forget the tourists

Celebrities would be a stack holder to some areas such as San Tropez in France, as it is popular within the celebrities to have holiday homes. The San Tropez council can get the celebrities to lure holiday makers to the location, as they have celebrities have holiday homes there themselves or go there frequently. Good, and good use of named example and how they would be used

Business owners will be involved in the rebranding process as if they want to diversify they will have different branches within places that need rebranding. These may be popular super markets such as Tesco’s; this will also be useful to the local residents and tourists therefore it is unlikely to become unsuccessful. I would suggest that local businesses are important too, as they need to adjust more to suit the clientele, big companies like tesco tend to be just what thy are, no matter where they are or who they serve. Maybe say that large companies, like Tesco, might put money towards redeveloping the surrounding areas, to make the overall shopping experience better for their customers

To conclude, the players in rebranding process are important as it helps the likeliness of the rebranding to be successful as the players are commonly educated and persuade to the public.

I would like to a bit about the local population and how government might involve them in the discussion process to decide how the rebrand might go ahead, or to determine the needs of the area, and also that the government might provide the funding and organise contracts for who is going to carry the work out.

Does that help to get a bit of a wider range, without adding too much more to the essay – so you should still be able to do it in the required time.

PS. TEACHERS COMMENTS IN BOLD.

Global warming is the rise of the surface’s average temperature of the planet. There are many natural and human causes to this that modern society would see as normal.

Evidence to support the natural causes of global warming would be volcanic eruptions. When a volcano erupts, a series of materials and chemicals would be realised and eventually contributes to global warming. It also blocks out the sunlight, which is Earths major source of light and warmth; this leads to the climate to change. Good, but you need to look back as well. The strongest evidence of natural climate change is that it happened before the world’s population increased. You need to mention the tree rings and ice cores that prove temperature changes happened over thousands of years.

Evidence to support the human causes of global warming would be Enhanced greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse effect is natural and is essential as it keeps the planet warm, however humans increase the warmth by using carbon dioxide for car fuel and breeding cows that realises methane. This then causes energy to build up and becomes trapped in the atmosphere, making the planet’s temperature to increase unhealthily. The evidence for this is the extreme way in which the temperatures have increased in the last hundred years or so. They have increased far more than any time in the past.

To conclude, the natural cause to global warming would be volcanic eruptions, and the human cause would be enhancing the greenhouse gas emissions. You’ve explained the causes very well, but the question asks for the evidence too. Without mentioning this you’d be limited to a low level 2. You’d still probably get about 5/10 though.

PS. TEACHERS COMMENTS IN BOLD.

Hi all,

I started this in my AS-Levels year as it was a way of communicating with my teacher at the time but seems I have been getting comments on how it has helped some students, I have decided to post a few essays I wrote within my A-Level years. Most of them will not be marked but more of an idea of how to structure your essays aswell as ideas and the way it is presented.

For my A-Levels I did English Literature, Geography and Politics. From the titles of the posts, I am sure you will get which ones are which!

From,

Myhanh – @_leemyha (twitter)

PS. They are not the best essays ever, do keep this in mind. I am just sharing purely because blogs like mine helped me when I was doing my A-Levels!

PSS. I don’t know how to change the “English Journal” bit 🙁

Write about some of Fitzgerald’s narrative methods in Chapter 2.

Throughout the novel, the story is being narrated in first person. At the very beginning it is in the present, and Nick is sharing some context before he goes on and reminisces to tell the story. When he starts to tell he story, he seems to be telling it from memory giving ideas of how significant this story is and that he looks out for series of details within situations.

Since Fitzgerald uses first person narrative, these blocks out an outside perspective as events are mainly shown through Nick’s eyes. However on the first page of Chapter 2, it can be seen as a transition into third-person; as the narrator, Nick is describing the area between West Egg and New York, the descriptions comes across as more of a free indirect style. An example of this would be the repetition of “ash” “ashes” on the page, this could also resemble to Nick as he did fought in the war; although within the whole page, there is no personal feeling or opinion to the description he gives. Within the novel, this could portray how the area lacks in being glamour and for Tom to go by there to get to New York (to be with Myrtle) could suggest how he also lacks in glamour, therefore is going to New York to seek something different (Myrtle).  As it is in first-person narrative, this comes especially odd when he starts to talk about T.J eckle burg’s eyes. Nick mentioned that the billboard was one yard high, and T.J eckle burg barely had a face; this could have connotations to humans having lost the connection they once had with God. Despite so, Nick has never mentioned what he personally thought about the billboard, whether he thought it was interesting or an odd billboard.

One other main method that Fitzgerald uses in the novel would be the structure. In Chapter 2, it begins off with constant similar paragraphs as Nick describes the ashes and T.J eckleburg.  This constant structure then starts to change, as Nick starts to feel uncomfortable due to the events that Tom takes Nick to his New York apartment which is shared with Myrtle. Most of the time Nick attempts to appears neutral and slightly like a third-person narrative, his thoughts presences could be told through the structures of the pages and dialogs. For page 34 and 35, this filled with dialog as Nick is at the party and meeting new people, who are gossiping and talking about the man who lives next door to him. As Nick himself is interested within the little details that are being told about Gatsby, it is just dialog after dialog without the he said, or I replied. Evidence to this would be “I was down there at a party a month ago. At a man named Gatsby’s. Do you know him?” Straight after this would be Nick replying, “I live next door to him”. This is then continued onto the next page, however the topic has changed and so have the people within the convocation has changed too. The structure changes again, as this time Nick is not in the convocation but is just listening.

A final method used by Fitzgerald would be symbolism. Within Chapter 2 of this novel, the party at Tom and Myrtle’s place in New York is the first party which Nick shares with the reader about what happened and also that it was the second time he has ever got drunk in his life. At this point, Gatsby is yet to make a full appearance which implies that Fitzgerald uses the party scene to continue building an aura of mystery and excitement around Gatsby. Even though he is only mentioned at one point of the party, the last say that was said about Gatsby was an immense cliff-hanger; evidence to this would be “I’m scared of him. I’d hate to have him get anything on me”. This conveys him to be a threatening man, and Nick was very intrigued by this as he called it “absorbing information” which could imply that he was more interested in why, than threatened with them words.

“In The Great Gatsby the lower social classes are presented as crude and vulgar.” How do you respond to this view?

In The Great Gatsby, the main lower social class people that are presented are Myrtle and Wilson. Although they are both in the lower social class, they are still completely different from each other; especially since Myrtle is having an affair with Tom. To an extent, Myrtle is not presented as crude and vulgar even when she is around Wilson. In the 1920s when this novel was set, it was known that there was an increase in freedom and recklessness which Myrtle follows; making her not crude and vulgar but the opposite. Evidence to this would be when Nick first saw Myrtle, and was describing her from the way “she smiled slowly” to the description of her “wet lips”. In the 1920s, it was also known that people were challenging their social status, sexuality, and spiritual boundaries; this could relate to Myrtle getting together with Tom who is from another social status to herself and Wilson. However the crude and vulgar description could fit into Wilson, evidence to this would be when Tom was telling Nick about Wilson and said “So dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive”. Reasons to this could be because he accepts that he is in the lower social class, and worries more about his career and business than to follow every step of his wife. It could also portrays his trust for Myrtle to let her go “visit” her sister often, rather than him being naive about the whole affair issue.

From the setting description of where Myrtle and Wilson live, it could be seen as they are presented to be crude and vulgar. An example of this would be “valley of ashes”; this has connotations for having no moral vision; as it is unclear and too misty for there to be source of real vision. The imagery within this would bring ideas for the people who live there, to be not as sophisticated as Tom and Daisy who lives in East Egg since the description of the place lacks in glamour, therefore the people who choose to live there must lack in glamour too. Another example of the description to where Myrtle and Wilson live would be that it was said to be surrounded by “wasteland”; this suggests that they are in the middle class. Since it is still the beginning of the novel, where the reader thinks that the narrator is reliable; this idea is left in the readers mind for future reference.

Some may believe that Myrtle, as women in the lower social class is not presented as crude and vulgar throughout the novel at all. The main evidence to this would be in Chapter 2, when they are at Myrtle and Tom’s apartment in New York. Within the party scene, Myrtle adopts a new personality where she is in an affair and she gets something that she wants, money and power. This is mentioned by Nick on page 33 when Myrtle has just changed dresses, “With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change”. As the party goes on, she starts to see herself superior to her guests and also seeing herself equal to Tom. This makes Myrtle continuously shouting out “Daisy, Daisy Daisy” eventually Tom breaks her nose, this can be seen as Tom putting Myrtle back in her own social status and back to reality. This can also show the hidden side to the Jazz age, for the lower social class like Myrtle may had experienced.

Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied create and use suspense in their narratives.

One of the main techniques used within the three writers, Fitzgerald, McCarthy and Auden would be the setting. Throughout The Road, McCarthy continuously reminds the reader of the darkness and colourless Road that is upon the Man and Boy. An example of this would be “the thin black trees burning”, this creates suspense as it could be foreshadowing a future event to the main characters; as “burning” is commonly associated with negative aspects and a possible life coming to an end as the “thin black trees” were burning, since trees are apart of nature and so are humans. Another example of this would be the abandoned houses, cities and even the world. This creates suspense as the reader is likely to know that this is a dystopian text and would be intrigued of to what is to happen next, especially to the two characters that are focalised through the novel. This is shown when the Man and Boy come to a house, and find supplies however they only decide to stay for a few nights and no longer than a week. This also creates suspense as the reader would be curious whether where the owner of the house has gone, whether they will come back or will someone else find the two main characters in the house.

Fitzgerald uses the setting to create suspense for the novel The Great Gatsby too. Unlike The Road, where the description of the setting creates a constant suspense throughout the novel; for The Great Gatsby is it just one area in particular, the “valley of ashes” that lies between West Egg and East Egg. As the novel is set in the 1920s, this “valley of ashes” could be create suspense as it may be seen as a haunting the mood of a glamorous, wild time may never come again; due to the Jazz age and  the hidden side to it. Another suspense created by the setting in this novel would be the separation of East and West Egg. Once the reader has finished the novel, they can see the stretch of water as the barrier between East and West Egg; leading to ideas that the two cannot be mixed as there were consequences that were paid off.

Auden also uses the setting in his poems to create suspense too; evidence to this would be in O What Is That Sound. The setting in this poem is suggested to be on a hillside town, as “down in the valley” and “over the distance” is mentioned; this could create suspense as hillside towns are usually rural, therefore have a sparse population. This tells the reader that the people that are coming towards the two narrators are likely to be seeking for the right people, which creates the suspense of what kind of people are the two narrators, or what have they done. One of his other poems that support this idea would be Victor. The setting throughout the poem includes the season of the year, which also relates to Victor himself. An example of this would be “frosty December”, this brings suspense as it could portray the happy Christmas time coming, or forebode a future event. In the poem, there is no mention of Victor’s mother; which could associate to having a “frosty December” without the warm love of a mother. This creates even more suspense; Victor is in a broken family and could end up on a negative path compared to someone who was bought up with both parents.

The season changing in Victor also relates to Time, which is another technique the three writers use within their narratives to create suspense too. Victor meets Anna, the love of his life in April; when it is spring and indicating that he is also starting to feel warm inside now he has her love. Victor then marries her in August, symbolising the real warmth he has felt for the first time in his life. The suspense here would be that, as the months goes on; does his feelings change? Or does their relationship change?  Time is used significantly in As I Walked Out One Evening too, and creating suspense as “Time” is personified.  Evidence to this would be in line 35, “Time breaks the threaded dances”; this portrays that time will break one of your skills; therefore use it wisely within the time you have. It can also imply that over time, your skills will turn into threads, which are thin and can eventually break.

Fitzgerald also uses Time to create suspense in The Great Gatsby. An example of this would be in Chapter 5, Gatsby and Daisy have reunited; but due to Gatsby’s nervousness and attempt to stop time to retrieve the past causes him to knock of Nick’s clock. This creates suspense as concisely Gatsby knows what he is doing, is likely to happen; due to Daisy being with Tom now despite his affair with Myrtle. The clock is trying to get him back to reality, but will he listen to his conscience? It could also convey that his and Daisy’s time together has run out, things have changed and its time to move on. It could also forebode future events, as someone’s time is about to run up.

In “As I walked out one evening” the narrator tells a story about going out one day, and then they bump into their lover singing a song; and also another voice. Within these three voices, they are three different ways of how they tell the story with their attitude towards time.

Temporal adjectives are used several times within the poem, especially by the first speaker. An example to this would be “Love has no ending”, Auden has shown that the two lovers’ are very much in love and ignoring a big factor of life, “Time”. However, after the second voice sings the love song; time starts to catch up and gives them a “chime” back to reality. It in a ballad form, with a consistent meter which could also represent that time has a consistent meter too and always will do.

The poems structure is in-control due to its stanza’s having four lines around the same lengths. The first and last stanza seem to relate, as in the beginning it mentions “harvest wheat”; this indicates that it is the end of the growing season so life with an end is at sight. In the last stanza it mentions, “Clocks had ceased their chiming” which could represent how all happiness and joy has been “ceased” along with the “chiming”.  As Time is one of the main themes within the poem, it is clear that it also makes the poem have a forced structure. The line within this poem that does not have rhyme is constantly changing and has the relaxed attitude towards time that is thrown upon by society. Whereas the lines that have lines of rhyme within them, represents the forced structure that Time creates.

The first two speakers in the poem are in first person, making them a reliable narrator as the reader would believe them when reading it. The third voice within the poem has more action than words, their presences and actions are the most important within the poem. The third voice in this poem can be seen as the bad guy, evidence to this would be “Time watches you from the shadow”. This can also be seen as a positive thing, as it may convey that “Time” looks out for people, but on the sly and not too bold and obvious about it.

The setting of the poem is stated within the first stanza, the street the first narrator is walking down is “Bristol Street”. This is located in England, and it is a main street which implies it would be common to come across the first narrator does come across as the poem goes on. It could be suggested that it would be during spring or summer, as it would be a sensible time to go for a walk and also normal. Other evidence would be how the talks about the river around him.

To conclude, one of the main narrative methods that Auden uses for this poem would be having each speaker, representing different attitudes towards time and how they represent different people within society.

From page 284 onwards, McCarthy’s ways of telling the story starts to change a little. The man is injured and things start to get real serious and intense, as the man knows that his time is running up. It takes a small turn as the man is in pain and the boy is frightened, he boy does not know what to do which then makes the man a little more impatient than he normally is with the boy. McCarthy methods start to range from using more of the man and boy’s actions to continue the story than the two speaking to each other, to having less punctuation at some parts for the reader to feel the time consuming situation and how much longer the man will actually survive.

A method which is bold within the first few pages (from page 284 onwards) would be the narrative perspective. It is common for a narrator to be omniscient, to make them a reliable narrator; however from page 284 onwards, the narrator can be seen as detached due to the small changes of telling the story McCarthy as used. Evidence to this would be page 289, the majority of the page is the man and boy speaking to each other; they are expressing their concerns to each other. The boy asks many questions about his father’s leg and to make sure that he is OK, but also to reassure himself that everything will be OK. As the majority of the page is the conversation between the man and the boy, this would make the narrator detached. Although it could just be one of McCarthy’s method of telling the story, as they believe it would be better for the conversation to continue the story instead. This makes it more reliable and legitimate as it is the characters themselves saying everything word for word, than someone re-telling the story.

Setting description from the novel would be an extra method of McCarthy’s for The Road. The weather is constantly either rain, snow or windy; this can suggest that is could be set in the near-distant future when global warming and climate change has come to a tipping point and the weather is bi-polar all around the world. An example of this from page 286 would be “It was raining and a hard wind was rattling the glass”, for glass to be rattling from nothing but the wind suggest it was a strong current and would be something you would expect in a storm or hurricane, yet not on a rain and windy day. Another quote to support this would be “Anything that could move had long been blown away”; simple statements about the weather like the previous quote is a common method of McCarthy to tell the story throughout the book, as weather and nature in general have a huge impact on how the man and boy was to survive and go on.

A different method of McCarthy’s way of telling the story would be the dystopian text; this ranges from the setting to the man and boy’s actions. An example of this would be “He sat in the road”; this would be categorized as dystopian because a typical road in modern reality would have car’s driving by frequently, even in small side roads would have some cars going by that it would not be safe to sit in the road. This can also imply that something unpleasant has happened to the majority of the people, therefore they decided to sit in an open space like that. It could also suggest that gas could have run out by then, making it hard for cars to function. One more quote that shows dystopia has taken place from page 292, “He coughed all the time and the boy watched him spitting blood”; in a typical reality like today, it would be common for someone who coughed constantly to seek medical help.

Stark language, the use of colour and sensuous adjective is methods McCarthy has used for this novel all through until the very end. An example of this on page 293 would be, “Dead trees standing out of the grey water”; the word “grey” is repeated 81 times in The Road, an average of one every two pages. For some pages such as 293, it is repeated twice within a page which foreshadows future events.  The same page 293, “dead” is also repeated a couple times; this could suggest that death is coming closer to one of them, at this point it is likely for the reader to realise that it would be the man.

To conclude, McCarthy has a variety of methods of telling the story from page 284 onwards. However the main methods would be that there are a few pages that are filled with just the conversation bouncing between the man and the boy, or having descriptive words and use of colour to describe their actions and surroundings that can be taken into account to forebode future events.

The famous poem “The Wasteland” can be linked to a novel named “The Road” in many ways, it’s main connections would be the negative descriptive words of the surroundings. The nature is one feature that stands out the most; an example of this would be “dried”, it is used in the Wasteland to describe a “dried tuber” which is apart of nature, this links well The Road atithe man and the boy uses “dried limbs” to create fires to stay warm. However, in “The Road” the dried limbs are really useful to them, it is apart of their survival since the situation for them throughout the novel was tough and fighting for survival. Another nature related description that is a connection to The Road too would be “shower of rain”, this relates signifcantly as the weather throughout The Road seems to be between rain and snow. The wasteland, the weather conditions doesn’t seem to be as bad as the novel; that to every negative word it has a positive in the next line. For “shower” of rain, the next line would be “sunshine”.

One other connection between The Wasteland and The Road, is its statements and negative words. In The Wasteland at the end of stanza 3, “One must be so careful these days” this is crucial especially in The Road as the state they are in, they cannot risk chances of trusting people or letting anyone else travel with the man and the son.  The negative word would be “cruellest”, this relates to The Road as the boy felt like his dad was being the cruellest when he left the man completely naked and with normal in the middle of the road.

There are also verbs within The Wasteland that can be related to The Road too. An example of this would be covering, this can be related to The road in two ways; one would be that the father is always covering and protecting his son through everything they went through, another would be the physical blankets that the man finds and he always hands it to his son first before covering himself with a blanket too. Second verb would be feeding, its connection to The Road would be similar to the word covering aswell. The father is constantly finding food to feed the boy and himself, but he keeps the boy as his main priority; towards the end where he knows he will not make it any longer, he makes the boy eat their last can of food all by himself.

What evidence is there that the setting of The Road might have been the result of a nuclear war/disaster?

Throughout this novel, the journey consists the man and the boy alone, they meet other people while travelling; however never allow them to continue the journey with them. There are a couple times when the man has a few flashback of a women, the reader would assume it is his wife and the mother of the child as when she was speaking to the man about travelling the road together; she spoke her mind that she believes “they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him”. As she had said “us”, it is likely they are a family; however when asking the man “we used to talk about death… we don’t anymore. Why is that?” the man simply responds that he doesn’t know. She then says “it’s because it’s here”, this leads to another assumption that she may had commit suicide.

Since the boy seems to be really young, due to events in the novel such as he always wants to help others, which means he still has an innocent mind and does not know much of the real reality of the world yet and how he didn’t know the what “coke” is which is a universal drink and much liked by many. It is therefore possible he was not born before the tragedy began. It must have occurred years ago, although there are still corpses and destruction everywhere; evidence to this would be when they came across the corpses and saw “shapes of dried blood” and “shrunken eyes”. This could suggest why the father is wary of everyone they meet, since he is aware there are “bad guys” out there who will kill them for food.

It could also imply that a nuclear holocaust may have happen and there are survivors as they meet several throughout the novel and at the end, the boy continues his journey on the road with a family that were also survivors and actually the “good guys”.

If we assume we are reading about the result of a nuclear war/disaster, what message(s) do you think might McCarthy be sending?

McCarthy could be sending several messages, within each character that comes into the novel especially; however the main characters would be main. The man could symbolise selfishness, this can be seen through society however in this situation it could be seen as in his nature to do so. Selfishness can be seen as the only way surviving for himself and the boy within this novel, the message in this would be that sometimes you got to think about yourself first; for the man he thinks about the boy first then himself, as it is his son. His son can be seen as the opposite, more of a collective personality; where he always wants to help others when he sees them, especially if they are alone, hurt or in need of supplies that himself and his father has. This can be the intentions of father and son contrasting each other, which one would actually help them survive to the end and which one will put them in danger.

The first major event of the book would be when the father and son see the man that has been struck by lightening and is severely injured, the boy pleads his father to help the injured man; even so, his father tells him there is nothing they could do. This could be a message as there are times when people witness horrific events, yet they cannot do much to prevent it or help in some way; examples of this would be natural disasters.

What might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is implied by the father’s statement that, “On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken them the world”?

The descriptions of the scorched landscape covered in ash, could be a real physical feature where a large scale volcano eruption has happened; all that is left behind would be ash. Another reason why it may have been suggested and repeated many times, when be the empties of their surrounds; which makes everything dull and grey due to many average aspects are gone. Average aspects would include colour shops, buildings, clothes, billboards etc; but as it is said there is a huge amount of ash everywhere, it could also suggest that a holocaust was attempted to happen as they tried to burn the whole land around the man and boy’s path.

The father may have stated this due to the emptiness and lack of people around, he believes that as there are only a few people left in their world; most of them cannot be “good guys” (godspokes men possibly) but instead the “good guys” have been taken away from their world, such as the mother of the boy.

McMarthy has made certain words that are repeated throughout the book; reasons could be that it was a constant reminder of the journey and atmosphere it must be for the man and his son. The idea of them travelling but the black and cold remains the same from the very beginning to the end could also bring curiosity if they travelled at all. His writing style can seem basic but affective to some people, as he repeats simple words such as “and”, “blanket” and “fire” yet they can bring a deep meaning to the readers mind.

In the first few pages, repetition of “dark” starts characters interact and known to the reader, it also sets out the imagery of the road by having “When he woke up in the woods in the dark”; commonly woods have images such as empty and negative feeling, with the repetition of “dark” made it seem even more negative making the reader curious as what kind of journey this book will have. The word dark alone is repeated 98 times throughout the whole book, this would echoes’ the ideas on being on the road as the man and boy are constantly moving however still seeing the same things and feeling the same “dark” oar around them.

Throughout the whole book “and” is repeated over 2,800 times, an average of 9 times on each page; this could imply that the journey of the man and the boy just continues, as long as the man is alive they both keep on going on the road. It is also repeated whenever they find goods that will help them to survive and continue their travels, with the repetition of “and” it could make it feel relieved and possibly happy the man and his son was to find the goods; when in such situation you tend to not speak properly and start to repeat yourself.

During the travels of the man and the boy, they often have small talk with each other; whether it is because the boy is very young and he does not know much, or is it just the horrible state of land around them that makes them not want to talk; “okay” is repeated almost 200 times. This could also show how long they have been on the road for, so long that they have ran out of things to talk about and stories to tell; which may echo in their minds about how long they have been travelling for.

“Fire” could be seen as the most important word and actions within this book, this brought warmth to the man and the boy; gave them heat to make their food and because of this, it would’ve made the man and boy feel better and cheer up from the whole disaster. “Fire” is repeated 130 times, mostly they were able to make the fire but there were times when they couldn’t or the fire had died out. Nonetheless “fire” would be something that kept them going and being on the road which repeats the thoughts of their state.

McMarthy also uses a large amount of concrete nouns, which some of them are repeated over 100 times; example of this would be “blanket”. This could been repeated constantly as there was always a need of security as they were travelling on the road, this would relate especially for to boy, the man can be seen as the boy’s “blanket” too as he is always protecting him just like a “blanket” covers you and protects you from the cold and bring heat instead. Each time they moved on further, they would need the sense of the “blanket” more; this could be symbolize each time they find more and new “blankets” there seems to be some sort of negative event that happens after it as well.