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5Week 3

This Boy’s Life 2

How do I use examples from a novel or memoir to write my text response?

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This week you will

examine the literary structure of This Boy’s Life

identify examples from the story that demonstrate the author’s ideas

learn to describe ideas and supporting examples in complete sentences

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Reading and responding

This week you will be exploring This Boy's Life through an examination of some of the formal elements of texts.

Read slowly and carefully through the notes below before you complete the tasks.

These notes are also intended for you to return to when you write your first essay, when you write your SAC in Week 7 and when you revise for the exam in October.

You will be completing tasks that increase your understanding of how the memoir is constructed and how it works to engage the reader. Next week you will be writing your first extended text response and all of this preparation should be helpful. In particular Task 3 sets up a structure where you will practise looking for evidence and examples from the memoir to support your arguments.

This Boy's Life

Understanding the elements in a text and how they work can help you in understanding the text and in supporting your views about it. In learning about these elements you will also be learning or becoming more familiar with terms that can help you in thinking about and discussing your own writing and that of other people, ranging from the writers of letters to the editor to the other texts on this course. For this reason, I will be discussing these terms in general as well as relating them to This Boy’s Life.

At this point I would like you to jot down the terms you have found most useful in discussing different kinds of writing so far and write a brief definition of each term.

When you have finished reading these notes, have a second look at these terms and consider in what ways the discussion has added to your understanding of them and whether you would like further guidance with any terms you have come across but do not fully understand.

As you will see, all the elements in any piece of writing work together in contributing to its overall impact. The total structure is rather like the web of a spider, but, if looked at carefully, every element in it can be seen as serving the

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author’s purposes and can help us in understanding his or her intentions and sense of the world – just as every woven thread in a web leads closer to the spider, always discreetly visible in the centre.

TASK 1 YOUR NOTES

In these notes, I will be indicating my thoughts on a number of elements in this text but, of course, it is up to you to form your own opinions on the basis of your own study of it – and, of course, there is not enough room to discuss everything. At times, then, I will sometimes simply raise a question for your consideration. When you see such questions, you should answer them, including at least one detail or quotation in the memoir to support your view. When you have answered all six questions you should send in your answers as part of this week's work.

Structure refers to the way something is put together. It is a term that is useful in thinking about any kind of construction – from housing to writing. It is the scaffolding on which other elements hang – and we should not think of one element as being more or less important than another, any more than we would think of a wall as less important than a door. So let’s have a look at what is in this construction.

A memoir involves some form of narrative. Exploring a period of time in one's own life inevitably involves viewing events in terms of sequence even though this may be done in a number of ways. A memoir has to be self-contained and carefully constructed and complete in itself. No matter how chaotic a person's life may be, exploring a part of it involves creating a structure that will enable the writer to present it to the reader in a way that fulfils his intentions in writing it. Thus, whether a narrative is true or not, similar considerations relating to its structure will apply.

One decision a writer must make relates to chronology. A simple narrative will involve a beginning at one point in time and then follow through till the last point at the end. In this memoir, by contrast, while the author devotes a lot of the narrative to what happened in a particular period of his life – from the time he and his mother headed off for Utah to when he and Chuck head back from Seattle after selling Dwight's guns – his reflections on various aspects of his life and the lives of others break into the sequential narrative and take us back to critical details in the life of his mother and forward to such details in his own life. Thus, when he has the bedroom to himself during Skipper’s trip to Mexico and finds himself missing his brother and father, his reflections expose what he learns of his father over the course of his life, and even foreshadow his own tour of duty with the army in Vietnam. Sometimes Wolff’s foreshadowing will not encompass particular events at a later point in the narrative but will give a general sense of what is to come. We see this, for example, when Dwight's comments about the salmon seen from the bridge at Chinook evoke the wasted life Jack and his mother will spend there.

'They came all the way from the ocean to spawn there, Dwight said, and then they would die. They were already dying. The change from salt to fresh water had turned their flesh rotten. Long strips of it hung off their bodies, waving in the current.' (Page 62)

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As you study this memoir further you might like to consider how this way of moving across time as well as sequentially through it affects our response to the text and our understanding of it. For me, these references to the future and hints as to how things will develop highlight the fact that the memoir is chiefly focussing on a part of Wolff's life – a significant part. The 'Amen' (which literally means 'so be it') in the last section seems to be saying that this is what Jack has become at this point of his life and to be suggesting that that is all one can say of a life at any point in time. The last phrase 'as if we'd been saved' is, of course, ironic as the various references to future calamities highlight the fact that this is not a ‘happy ending’ but simply the conclusion of a period of Wolff’s life.

In thinking about the structure in this memoir, you might like to reflect on the how the titles of the different sections are meant to guide our understanding of what takes place in them. Are the two sections with 'citizenship' in them partly ironic, for example, as they seem more about Jack learning to subvert the rules for citizens than being guided by them?

The plot is what happened in a story and explains why the story developed as it did. It is the sequence of events in a story. In thinking about this and other terms relating to narrative, it is important to bear in mind that while they can be useful with the kind of narrative in a memoir, they are usually meant to be applied to a fictional narrative and hence at times require some modification when used to analyse a narrative that is not fictional.

The plot in a work of fiction is usually a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and end. The plot is how the author arranges events to develop his or her basic idea or theme. An example of how the most basic plot can be used to comment on a theme is Ruskin’s story of a man who, in jumping off a sinking ship, grabs his gold and sinks to the bottom. The sting in this brief story comes in a rhetorical question. As he sank to the bottom, did he have the gold or did the gold have him?

That point about ‘how the author arranges the events’ is important with regard to This Boy's Life in that, while not inventing the events in his life, Wolff has made decisions about how he will present them. Thus, in taking us through periods of his life, mainly from when he was eleven to just before he goes to Hill School, the different chapters and sections of the memoir work more like reflections and examinations of different aspects of his life at a particular period of time. Individual events do not seem to signify so much as patterns of behaviour or patterns in relationships. Thus, in the first 'citizenship' section we see Jack and his mother almost trapped in Dwight's 'home', where Rosemary seems valued by him chiefly as a feature of the kind of American family idealised in TV shows. In the second 'citizenship' section, we are shown that Concrete High offers Jack little more than the tedious, conformist life to which Arthur ultimately tries to adapt.

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When Wolff portrays a particular event in detail, it is often because it is pivotal in some way, as, for example, the fight with Arthur is in showing the two boys trying to find their way through the options available to them at their particular time and place and in showing the only way in which Dwight can feel any interest in Jack. Thus, the fight itself is less critical than Wolff's reflections preceding it about why his friendship with Arthur had ended and where they stood in terms of their development as people at this point in time: 'But I knew he was no citizen and he knew I was no outlaw – that I was not hard, or uncaring of the future, or contemptuous of opinion'. (Page 184) In general, then, this writer seems to be examining events in this period of his life in order to make sense of what happened to him at the time, how he feels about this now and the kind of person the experiences of that time have helped to make him.

Introduction – The beginning of the story where the characters and setting are revealed

1. How are we are drawn into Jack's story at the start of the memoir? Is the introduction gradual or shocking in some way?

Rising Action – This is where the events (between the introduction and climax) become complicated and the conflict in the story is revealed. Conflict is essential to plot.

Many writers resolve conflict through the events in a story. These build up to a crisis or climax which marks a turning point where there is resolution of the crisis. On the other hand, some writers may deliberately leave matters unresolved or leave us to surmise how the story is likely to be resolved without directly stating this.

In this narrative, the conflict with Dwight is the major one that runs though Wolff's memories. In this we see Jack struggling to maintain, as much as anything, an approach to life that will enable him to lead a satisfying life. He also faces different forms of inner conflict as he sometimes feels he is in a society that has no place for a person like him. This conflict is partly played out in the tensions in his relationship with Arthur and, in reflecting on this, he seems to be coming to an understanding of who he is.

Early in the time when Jack is living in Chinook we see Dwight trying to break his spirit and his mother's, partly through denigrating them. Both internalise this conflict and we see both struggling to keep their spirits up – and are made aware of times when they weaken and others when some instinct for survival enables them to bounce back one way or another. Thus, when his car is stuck in a ditch and he feels absurd trudging off after this, Jack finds himself singing and begins to feel better. While making us aware of his and his mother's capacity to bounce back and look for a new life that will satisfy them and in which they can be the kind of people they want to be, we are made aware of the danger everyone faces of being trapped in a bleak, hopeless life.

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Jack's most dramatic emblem or 'vision' of this is of the boys on the Welch farm putting in postholes for a fence that can serve no purpose. Watching them, Jack senses 'some idea of failure that had found its perfect enactment here'. (Page 206)

Climax – This is usually the highest point of interest and the turning point of the story. The reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or not? In this memoir there are perhaps a few points where the lives of Jack and his mother seem to move in a more positive direction but they are not particularly strong points of interest in themselves and, consistent with the role of chance or 'fortune' in Wolff’s portrayal of human affairs, it is largely through hindsight that their importance emerges. Also, as with the other terms related to narrative, readers may disagree on this matter. In my opinion, a key turning point in the fortunes of Jack and his mother is when, in one of his mildest physical acts of aggression, Dwight pushes Jack and he lands on his damaged finger, going into a fit of agony which leads his mother to decide, as she puts it, 'we're getting out of here'. (Page 195) Another turning point comes with the success of Jack's fraudulent applications to get a scholarship to Hill School.

Falling action – The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. The reader knows what has happened and the consequences for the characters involved and if the conflict was resolved or not. This kind of resolution does not always happen in fiction and, in this memoir, rather than leaving us with everything neatly resolved, Wolff chooses to let us part company with your Jack – presumably soon to become Tobias again with his entry into a prestigious private school – at a point in which this young scoundrel is full of high spirits on the drive back to the Welches' farm after selling some of Dwight's things: 'It was a good night to sing and we sang for all we were worth, as if we'd been saved'. (Page 243) We are made to feel the irony of this sentence as it concludes the last chapter which foreshadows crises in Wolff's future no less serious than those he faced in Chinook and Concrete.

You might like to consider why Wolff ends the memoir in this way. One reason, I believe, can be found in the portrayal of time in this memoir. While Wolff is focussed on his 'life' at a particular period of time – including his influences, experiences and innate qualities and where they were all leading him – I believe his sense of what life is about centres very much around the present moment and how different people experience it as much as where all the moments combine to lead people. The extent to which Wolff focuses on hope and the excitement of the moment – as he and his mother share the excitement of their various escapes or as he and Chuck sing and drink their way back home – suggests both the younger and older Wolff are as keen on the idea of living each moment to the full as of using one's time to reach some goal in the future. Thus, while perhaps the life of both Jack and his mother moves into a far more hopeful, far less oppressed period of their lives after she leaves Dwight and they leave Chinook, Wolff leaves us with the sense that there is no 'happy ending' at a particular point in one's life, but that, in a world which will always be challenging us, we will always be taking our chances with 'fortune' and our own natures and those of others.

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Of course, as we see with Jack and Rosemary at this point in their lives, we can sometimes strike out and find a way of life that is more satisfying and meaningful than one in which chance, personal weakness or poor decisions have placed us.

Denouement This is the final outcome or untangling of events in a story.

As this work is a memoir and as the writer is committed to the truth, he does not have some of the options available to a writer of fiction, but as you may have already concluded, he does have a choice as to the point at which he will end and has considerable choice as to how we will portray this. In this case the reader is guided very much by what he reveals about his future. Given that so much of the memoir is about Jack's struggle to survive the oppressive situations in which he finds himself and his attempts to find his own way of life, the nearest we can have to an ending is provided by the clues Wolff provides us regarding his later path in life. The references to his unsettled life at Hill School and afterwards and the satisfaction he gained from joining the army suggest that, in some ways, his character had been influenced by some of the negative elements in his life so far, the company of men besotted with guns and Dwight's obsession with degrading forms of control and regulation.

'Then I went into the army. I did so with a sense of relief and homecoming. It was good to find myself back in the clear life of uniforms and ranks and weapons. It seemed to me when I got there that this was where I had been going all along, and where I might still redeem myself. All I needed was a war.

Careful what you pray for.' (Page 241)

In reflecting on Arthur's attempts to appear a 'citizen' Jack had observed that he himself 'was no outlaw' and not 'uncaring of opinion'. Perhaps in some ways this is his attempt to become a 'citizen', to find a way of fitting into the society of that time. In this decision, he may also have been driven by feelings of guilt, sometimes irrational, that he describes over the course of the memoir. However, his time in the army is only one part of his later life. In the sentence in which he reflects on paradoxes in the 'poses' he and Arthur have adopted Wolff remarks, 'I was not hard' (Page 184) and, in the references to his life with his own children in the future, we see indications of a person who has found a fulfilling place in his society, formed satisfying and lasting relationships and accepted the sensitive side of his nature. In such references to the future there are also indications of the harm done to him by some of the adults in his formative years. Thus, in reflecting on his feelings in holding his child for the first time he observes.

'When I finally got my hands on him I felt as if I had snatched him from a pack of wolves, and as I held him something hard broke in me, and I knew that I was more alive than I had been before. But at the same time I felt a shadow, a coolness at the edges. It made me uneasy, so I ignored it. I didn't understand what it was till it came upon me again that night, so sharply that I wanted to cry out. It was about my father, ten years dead by then. It was grief and rage, mostly rage, and for days I shook with it when I wasn't shaking with joy for my son, and for the new life I had been given.' (Page 102)

We also see how Dwight's influence and Wolff's hatred of Dwight have harmed him, perhaps instilling in him the potential to become like Dwight in some ways, but all this seems to be under control at the time the memoir was written, outweighed by other qualities in the person into which he had developed.

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'We hated each other. We hated each other so much that other feelings didn't get enough light. It disfigured me. When I think of Chinook I have to search for the faces of my friends, their voices, the rooms where I was made welcome. But I can always see Dwight's face and hear his voice. I hear his voice when I speak to my children in anger. They hear it too, and look at me in surprise. My youngest once said, 'Don't you love me anymore?' (Page 196)

Finally, the memoir itself and the quality of the writing in it suggest that Jack’s skills as a narrator, always evident in his imagination and ability to tell convincing lies, combined with good fortune – as seen in his brother's encouragement of his writing and the help of a teacher at Hill School – have allowed him to follow a career path centred around writing which we assume he would find deeply satisfying.

ThemesThe theme is the author’s underlying meaning or the main idea that he or she is trying to convey: often there are a number of ideas or themes. As we saw in thinking about plot, even the briefest story may be primarily focused on dealing with a theme and, as was discussed in last week's notes, Wolff's memoir is very much concerned with exploring a number of themes. In these notes, we will sometimes be looking at how he uses various elements in his memoir to develop his themes.

StrategiesNow, let’s have a closer look at some examples of how elements in writing can work in practice. In doing this, we need to keep in mind that authors are faced by a range of decisions related to how they structure a narrative. Being aware of these decisions will help us understand this work and develop our interpretation of it. Some important decisions relate to who will tell the story, the order of key events and how they will be presented. One strategy that has been noted in our examination of the memoir's structure is the writer's decision to give titles to sections in it. I believe he does this to draw our attention to certain features of Jack's life at various stages. It is worthwhile, therefore, pausing for a moment and thinking about what is suggested by the various titles. I have already commented on the titles with 'citizenship' in them. In thinking about what is suggested by the other titles, it is helpful sometimes to look for a quotation that will help us understand their meaning – though there may not always be such a quotation. In 'Uncool', for example, Wolff observes:

'We should have looked cool, but we didn't ... But it wasn't really our looks that made us uncool. Coolness did not demand anything as obvious as that. Like chess or music, coolness claimed its own out of some mysterious impulse of recognition. Uncoolness did likewise. We had been claimed by uncoolness'. (Page 36)

As with much of this text, Wolff's strategy in inviting us to view a section of the memoir in relation to this term is open to interpretation. I would like to suggest that he does so to suggest the almost desperate attempts of Jack and his friends 'to find a place in the world' and an image of themselves that would satisfy them. In this section we see Jack becoming wild and doing things he does not really approve of for the sake of his image and of excitement – all of which leads his mother to feel some compulsion, even duty, to marry Dwight in the hope that a stable family life might make a 'citizen' of Jack. Thus, the title of the next section, 'A Whole New Deal', introduces a single chapter describing

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how, on the drive to Chinook, Dwight manages to unsettle and demoralize Jack and change the direction of his and his mother's life, the last sentence – 'I braced myself for

the next curve' (Page 76) – foreshadowing the period of abuse and ill-treatment that is to follow.

2. Take a pause now and think about how we are guided by the titles in each section of the memoir. Then, jot down your thoughts as to how the titles 'Fortune' and 'The Amen Corner' guide our understanding of those sections.

The BeginningThe opening of a story is very important. It sets the scene, introduces the characters, and establishes a mood or atmosphere. It also captures the reader’s attention. On the first page of this memoir, then, we almost immediately encounter the brave, even reckless, image of Jack and his mother heading for Utah in search of 'fortune' and hoping to 'change their luck', the risky nature of the world into which they have ventured being dramatically suggested by the truck which is out of control and becomes a burning wreck.

3. How would you describe the author's tone at the start of this memoir?

Point of viewIn general, this refers to the position from which something is seen. In terms of writing, it comes down to from whose point of view something is seen or experienced. In making decisions about this a writer is also inevitably making a decision about who will tell the story or, in other words, who will be the narrator.

The NarratorStories written from a first person perspective involve you as a reader through the narrator’s own experience. When we tell a story about something that happened to us, we speak about it in the first person, namely ‘I’, as in, ‘I had just missed the bus so I…’ In thinking about the decisions writers make in this area, you need to know that the two main kinds of narrator are the ‘first person narrator’ and the ‘third person narrator’. The third person narrator is not one of the characters in the text and refers to all of them with such pronouns as ‘he’ or ‘they’ (third person pronouns). This narrator is also known as the ‘impersonal narrator’ or the ‘eye-of-God narrator’ because the perspective of such a narration seems detached and objective and to come from outside the narrative.

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By contrast, the first person narrator is one of the characters, the relevant pronoun here being ‘I’, as when Wolff confesses on the first page that, after the truck accident, he sensed in his mother's concern for him the opportunity to get her to buy him something: 'I saw the time was right to make a play for souvenirs. I knew she had no money for them, and I had tried not to ask, but now that her guard was down I couldn't help myself. When we pulled out of Grand Junction I owned a braded Indian belt, beaded moccasins, and a bronze horse with a removable, tooled-leather saddle'. (Page 3)

The first person is clearly an obvious choice for the writer of a memoir and here – in the last unflattering admission – we can see how it can take us into Wolff's world in a very intimate way, enabling us to see and experience the situation from a young person's point of view.

Wolff's use of the first-person narrator involves the strategy of continually blending both the perspective of the child or teenager with that of the adult – whose reflections range over events and relationships that precede and come after the period of his life examined in the memoir. Over the course of the narrative, the adult narrator keeps breaking into Jack's world of puzzlement and uncertainty to fill in the background information – for example, how his mother has been made susceptible to 'men of the tyrant breed' through being mistreated by her father – and to give us an adult’s perspective on events. Part of his skill as a narrator is that even though we understand that Jack's experiences are being mediated for us through an adult consciousness, he is also able to communicate the immediacy of these experiences from a young person's perspective, as we can see in this description of his reaction to the news that Chuck will not be tried for rape because Huff has agreed to marry Tina: 'I heard myself cawing harshly. Something was breaking loose in me, some hysterical tide of joy. I could hardly breathe. I was shaking with relief and joy and cruel pleasure, for the truth was I didn't like Huff and felt no pity for Tina'. (Page 223)

SettingSimply, the setting is the where – where the events of the story take place. It evokes mood and atmosphere; it helps us to place events in a specific time and place.

Place - geographical location. Where does the story take place? Are there a number of significant settings and how are they described? Time - When does the story happen? (Can you identify a particular historical period, time of day, year?) Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy...? Social conditions - What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story contain local colour (focus on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, and so on of a particular place)? Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at different points in the story? Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?

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I have included these questions as you may find some of them useful when dealing with other texts. For our purposes the first one is perhaps the most useful as it highlights the different locations in different periods of Jack's life. In portraying the different places to which he and his mother move, Wolff builds up a picture of the United States at that time – a picture with a limited scope, but vivid nonetheless. In his brief account of the mining towns in Utah at the start, we have a taste of life for battlers, desperately running after the next slim chance. In the time in Salt Lake City (still in the State of Utah), we see something of city life for struggling people – Jack playing dangerous games with bows and arrows with his friends or wandering around the streets by himself or, alone in the flat by himself, taking aim at pedestrians with the gun Roy gave him. In West Seattle, in the State of Washington, we see Jack and his mother in similarly basic accommodation, first a boarding house and then a 'scabrous' house that had only just been saved from a demolition order.

Here again we see Jack running wild with a similar group of friends to the last, coming closer in his escapades – breaking windows and streetlights and damaging cars – to getting into serious trouble.

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It is no wonder then that, influenced by the American ideal of the nuclear family and admitting that 'I despised the life I led in Seattle' (Page 74), Jack was prepared to accept what he saw as his mother's inevitable decision to marry Dwight and their move to a 'company village' (usually referred to as 'the camp') provided for the workers of Seattle City Light, most of whom worked at the powerhouse. Here – still in the State of Washington – among forested mountains, in a semi-rural setting, we see Jack and his mother experiencing a rather mean, 'company' version of the suburban life of the Fifties.

'A couple of hundred lived there in neat rows of houses and converted barracks, all white with green trim. The lanes between the houses had been hedged with rhododendron, and Dwight said the flowers bloomed all summer long. The village had the gracious, well-tended look of an old military camp, and that was what everyone called it – the camp.' (Page 56)

Here we see Jack and his mother being part of a form of middle-class life with some of its trappings – Rosemary and Dwight's membership of a rifle club, Christmas around the TV, and Skipper working on his beloved 1949 Ford. In his times away from there, Jack gets a dramatic taste of what hopeless poverty is like in the incident with the Welches during his stay with the Bolgers, in their farming property in Van Horn and – at the opposite end of the social scale – he gets a similarly sharp taste of what life is like for the wealthy in his meeting with Mr Howard, the Hill School alumnus or 'old boy', at Ivan's Acres of Clams in Seattle, particularly when he and his wife take Jack to his tailor and dress him in clothes that will help him find acceptance in the exclusive school.

In all these locations, Wolff enables us to feel the diversity of the nation in which Jack grows up and which, combined with the attitudes and values of the time, make an important contribution to the kind of person he ultimately becomes.

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Characters/PeopleSome writers tell you a lot; some say little. There are several ways of revealing characters in a work of fiction – or the people in a memoir. A physical description is a good place to start and Jack's, sharp youthful eyes enable the author to succinctly introduce us to both major and minor people in the memoir and enable us to understand what they are experiencing. In this description of Mr Welch when Chuck and Jack visit him after being 'sprung' stealing his petrol we see a person who isn't 'making it' , whose poverty makes him peculiarly vulnerable to the 'injury' they have done him.

'When Chuck was through, Mr Welch turned and looked at us, and I could see from the slow and effortful way he moved that the idea of looking at us was misery to him. His cheeks were stubbled and sunken in. He had spots of mud on his face. His brown eyes were blurred, as if he'd been crying or was about to cry.' (Page 206)

In the section of these notes on textual detail, we will examine how characters may be gradually and unobtrusively revealed through details connected with their appearance, thoughts and behaviour over the course of a narrative. Details in a narrative can reveal a lot about a character, particularly when they highlight a crucial action, or pattern of behaviour. Thus, through describing the routine through by which Rusty and Smoke manage to talk Jack into losing all his money in a game of chance, Wolff is showing us two con-artists at work without making any comment on their behaviour.

A great deal about a character can be revealed through what he or she says – through dialogue. If you skim through the memoir you will see that Wolff does not tend to have long sections of dialogue but rather uses a key remark or a brief but revealing interchange to give us a strong sense of particular characters.

In the following piece of dialogue, for example, we see in the pleas of Jack and his mother and Dwight's mimicry of them, the success of his efforts to use reckless driving to frighten them and his satisfaction in this.

'Please, Dwight,' she said.

'Please, Dwight,' he mimicked.

As he went into the first curve I felt Pearl's fingers sinking into my forearm.

'Please, Dwight,' I said.

'Please, Dwight,' he said. (Page 113)

Wolff also uses a variety of other elements that can be used in any kind of writing – irony, imagery, choice of words – to enable us to see and understand the diverse range of people in this memoir.

4. Make a list of the most important people in this memoir and include a note: (a) indicating why each is important and (b) describing the key features of these people.

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VoiceThe features of Wolff's voice can be felt in the first page of the memoir. Perhaps this is most noticeable in the fifth paragraph.

'It was 1955 and we were driving from Florida to Utah, to get away from a man my mother was afraid of and to get rich on uranium. We were going to change our luck.' (Page 3)

Here we see Wolff's way of indicating a lot about what is happening in simple words. He has a blunt, detached way of noting two quite different reasons for their journey 'to get

away from a man my mother was afraid of' and 'to get rich on uranium'. There is an irony here, too, especially in 'We were going to change our luck', considering that it comes after the appearance of an out-of-control truck and the inevitable disaster.

At time Wolff's simple statement of the facts is startling for its honesty and pathos, as when he reflects on why he could never have done well at Hill School with his background and attitude: 'I did not do well at Hill. How could I? I knew nothing. My ignorance was so profound that entire class periods would pass without my understanding anything that was said.' (Page 240)

In addition to his own voice, Wolff enables us to hear the voices of the other people in his memoir.

5. Jot down your thoughts on the qualities that stand out in the following voices and what their voices reveal about these people.

Dwight: 'Do me. I hear you're good at doing me. Do me with the lighter. Here. Do me with the lighter.' (Page 76)

Rosemary: 'There isn't anything we can do about it. It's gone. You just have to forget about it.' (Page 220)

Geoffrey: 'That's good,' he said. 'That gives us something to go on. You're obviously doing as well as you can, and that's what they'll be looking for.' (Page 172)

LanguageDirty realism is the term coined by Bill Buford of Granta magazine to define a North American literary movement. It refers to writers who to depict the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life in spare, unadorned language. Buford explains it like this...

"Dirty realism is the fiction of a new generation of American authors. They write about the belly-side of contemporary life – a deserted husband, an unwed mother, a car thief, a pickpocket, a drug addict – but they write about it with a disturbing detachment, at times verging on comedy. Understated, ironic, sometimes savage, but insistently compassionate, these stories constitute a new voice in fiction."

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If you would like to know more here is a link to a Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_realism

After you have given some thought to this I would just like to draw your attention to the diversity of Wolff's vocabulary. It is certainly true that he can sometimes grab our attention and draw us into his state of mind with very simple words and sentences, as in this account of his confusion when Mr Welch expects him to apologize: ‘A kind of panic came over me. I couldn’t take a breath. All I wanted was to get away’. (Page 207)

He can also draw us into some of the energy and vitality in the lives of lower-class, uneducated Americans through the use of the vernacular, as, for example, when in describing the last ride home with Chuck, he observes: ‘We were rubes (hicks or rednecks), after all, and for a rube the whole point of a trip to the city is the moment of leaving it, the moment it closes behind his back like a trap sprung too late.’ (Page 242) Sometimes, however, he uses sophisticated words in carefully phrased formal – sometimes complex – sentences to convey rather complex thoughts, such as his fear of being trapped in a life without purpose or hope of achievement, the ‘damnation-dream’ he describes in relation to the sight of the Welch boys digging postholes for a fence that will be of no use to anyone: ‘They were part of the dream from which I recognized the Welches, my defeat-dream, my damnation-dream, with its solemn choreography of earnest useless acts’. (Page 206)

ConnotationsThis word refers to the suggestions or associations contained in a word over and above its literal meaning. We have already noted how Wolff uses a common American slang word ‘cool’ to create in ‘uncool’ a term that has a special meaning in the memoir in that being the opposite of ‘cool’ suggests the element of desperation in young Jack's desire to be part of a ‘greater world’ he imagines when watching The Mickey Mouse Club.

We have already noted the element of irony in the way 'citizenship' is used in the memoir yet the use of irony does not negate normal concepts of ‘citizenship’ but, rather, suggests a particular problem for Jack, namely that, on the one hand, a life of

respectable conformity, whether in the

house or the school, could represent a form of his ‘damnation-dream’ while, on the other hand, he clearly has some respect for the feelings and interests of others and cares about what other people think of him. This tension in his aspirations and values is revealed

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when he reflects on the depth of understanding between him and Arthur: ‘But I knew he was no citizen and he knew I was no outlaw’. (Page 184)

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Textual detailOne vital way in which writers develop a story is through textual detail and the major events in the plot comprise only a part of this. When they first come to discussing texts, most people are inclined to rely on key narrative details in supporting their views and some tend to drift into simply telling the story. As you get more practice in discussing texts you will find that there are a range of details in a text that can be used to support your views as to what a writer is saying, or, in other words, what meanings are being created. With this in mind, I would like to examine with you some of the details Wolff uses in portraying Dwight in the course of the memoir.

At the mention of his name, we might be inclined to think of narrative details connected with his abuse of Jack, whether it be physical abuse, as when he strikes him or forces him to shuck chestnuts on cold nights without gloves, or mental abuse in the form of frequent verbal attacks aimed at destroying his sense of his own worth.

This is certainly a part of it but to get the full picture we need to consider other narrative details. Some details connected with his meanness and pride relate to such patterns of behaviour as regularly leaving family members in the car while he goes and drinks at a tavern, his bad sportsmanship at the rifle club or his use of reckless driving to cower Jack and his mother. Other details relate to his social style – for example, his 'puppyish, fawning' manner when he is first courting Rosemary.

In general, Wolff uses a variety of details – not just those directly connected with narrative – to create a much broader picture of Dwight than a rather cruel father-substitute. In the context of the America of that time, we are made aware of pressures that have partly contributed to his make-up.

This is the America of Life with Lucy and happy families on TV, pictured in suburban kitchen and lounges with the latest gadgets. Just as we see Jack develop a taste for the ‘greater world’ through watching The Mickey Mouse Club we are persuaded that Dwight – whose notion of Christmas is a family is around the TV – is driven by common aspirations of that time for family and prosperity.

His almost obsessive desire for this 'package' is sometimes suggested through dialogue, as when Rosemary observes that she doesn’t understand why he wants her to stay when ‘he doesn’t even like me’ or in Jack’s insight as to why he does not want him to go and live with the Bolgers: ‘He already had a bad reputation in the camp, and to have one of his family leave his house like this would disgrace him’. (Page 195)

Some details relating to Dwight tend to soften slightly Jack's perspective on him. Thus, we see him engaging with Jack through his enthusiasm for boxing, so that at the end of the fight with Arthur, Jack 'could feel his exultation at the blow I'd struck, feel his own pride in it, see him smiling down at me with recognition, and pleasure, and something like love.' (Page 187) Again, details revealing how his children relate to him, such as 'the shy, affectionate way' Skipper teases him after Rosemary wins the Turkey shoot, suggest he is not an ogre in their minds.

In general, try to be open to the variety of ways in which Wolff adds to our understanding of the people in this memoir and guides our response to them.

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Sometimes an image or a metaphor can be used to guide us, as, for example, when the ridiculous side of Dwight is highlighted in his enthusiasm for Christmas decorations: we see him painting everything in the house white, 'stark, industrial strength, eye-frying white' – walls, ceilings, beds, chairs, coffee-table, even the piano, including the keys.

Symbols and suggestionsOne of the ways writers help us understand their themes, characters and other aspects of a story is through symbols. A symbol is something that represents something else, and it is not always a physical thing. Earlier in these notes I mentioned the way Dwight's remarks about the salmon foreshadows the wasted time Rosemary and Jack are to spend at Dwight's place. Another way of making this point might be to say the salmon is a symbol of this waste.

Sometimes a symbol can be loosely suggestive rather than making a very specific point. Thus we might see Dwight's urge to paint everything while in preparation for Rosemary's arrival in March as reflecting his general attempt to conceal the kind of person he is and his real treatment of Jack. Some symbols may have different meanings for different readers and discussing them can help us sharpen our ideas about a text.

6. Is the beaver Dwight leaves in the attic a symbol? If so, what do you think it represents?

Humour We all enjoy something funny and tend to see humour as entertainment, a kind of distraction from the serious things in life.

In thinking about writing, however, it can be difficult to make a distinction between what is serious and what is humorous because humour can be a writer’s or a character's way of making sense of and responding to some of the most important things in life. In general, I feel Wolff is a very democratic writer in the sense that, whatever his attitude to the various people in his memoir, he views them in terms of a common humanity and often focuses on the curious aspects of their efforts to make sense of their world and find their way to a satisfying life.

Thus, part of the humour in witnessing Dwight's efforts in decorating a Christmas tree whose painted needles keep falling off and whose lights flash on and off all at once 'like a neon sign outside a roadhouse' involves a recognition of the extent to which so many of our own projects end in disaster. Wolff, moreover, is equally inclined to highlight the humour in his own doomed projects and at times seems to relish the absurd in his own actions – such as signing his admission form to Hill School, 'Tobias Jonathan von Ansell-Wolff III’ – even more than in those of the man he hates.

IronyIrony is often a feature in many Australian jokes and observations. Ironic language sets up contrasts and, in its most popular form, can involve emphasizing a point by saying precisely the opposite of what is meant as, for example, when a footy fan expresses his anger at a player who fumbles a catch by crying out, ‘Beauty mate!’

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Irony can be more subtle than this and can be seen not just in language but in contrasts of various kinds, most of which have a wry appeal. Like humour, irony often draws our

attention to frailties in human nature, to differences between what we think and how we behave, between what we expect and what happens to us or between our attitudes at different points in time.

Indeed, irony is as much a way of viewing the world as it is of expressing such a view. Irony seems natural to Wolff because his sense of life often involves a wry amusement at the gap between what he thinks he is doing and what is really happening or the gap between what he persuades himself is the truth and the fantastic lies he is telling. Thus irony runs through that chapter in which Jack puts together the most outrageous claims about himself in his applications to exclusive colleges and gets so caught up in the creative process that, in some sense, he really believes his own lies.

In general, Wolff seems to take a great deal of pleasure in the humour that can be involved in irony, such as that involved in the contrast between his father's fanciful lies and the realities they are meant to conceal – for example, those that emerge in connection with 'Toby', the name Jack discards.

'It was, he said, an old family name. This turned out to be untrue. It just sounded like an old family name, as the furniture he bought at antique stores looked like old family furniture, and as the coat of arms he'd designed for himself looked like the shield of some fierce baron who'd spent his life wallowing in Saracen gore, charging from battle to battle down muddy roads lined with grovelling peasants and churls.' (Page 7)

ImageryNo doubt you will remember hearing a definition of an image as a picture created by words – but how often have you tried to achieve some effect in your own writing through the use of imagery. I hope that reflecting on images in some of our texts will encourage you to attempt this more often. You may have noticed that imagery, particularly when part of shock tactics, can be as effective in persuasive writing as in imaginative writing.

Imagery can be used for various purposes. Some images have a wide resonance, such as that of the 'keen, unremembering' eyes of Arthur's dog – an image which links in with Wolff's concern about the importance for all living things of being able to see and make sense of the world about them.

Sometimes Wolff uses imagery to enable us to imagine characters, not just their physical features, but something about their natures too.

Thus, he refers to his father's 'bearish bulk' (Page 177) and describes a principal as 'a furtive, whey-faced man'. (Page 66) Throughout the memoir, too, we find images connected with Wolff's themes, images of masks, for example, which link with his exploration of the 'poses' Jack and other people assume and ways in which a person's identity may change or be revealed to others.

Thus, when he and his mother are preparing for flight from Dwight, he observes, 'When she worried, she wore a pale, tight-lipped mask. Lately it had started to become her own face. Now the mask was gone'. (Page 221)

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‘Constructing meaning’

In concluding these notes on elements in texts and terms related to how writers – including the writers of memoirs – use language to achieve various effects, I would like to remind you that all the grade descriptors related to Outcome 1 expect you to show an understanding of how an author ‘constructs meaning’.

If you tend to rely mainly on narrative details for discussing this, these notes will help you to consider some other aspects of writing you might refer to in supporting your views.

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Your work this week: Task 2Match the terms and definitions

This activity should be done in your workbook. You do not have to send it this week. Check your answers in the response sheet.

The table below contains the important terms that you must be familiar with when you discuss short stories. But the terms and their definitions have been mixed up.

Match the key terms in column A with their correct definition from column B.

Write out the terms with their correct definitions.

A: key terms B: definitions

character introducing the story and setting the scene

plot the main idea or message that the writer is trying to communicate

climax what happens in the story

setting the people and behaviours are revealed through actions and dialogue

themewhere the action or conflict is resolved and comes to a conclusion, sometimes in an unexpected way

beginning the angle from which the story is told

resolution the place and time where the story takes place

point of viewthe most exciting part of the story

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Having given some thought to elements in This Boy's Life you are now ready for some practice in how you might draw on them to support your views in an essay question. After considering the following essay topic and the position which an imagined student wishes to support, your task is to answer the questions related to elements in the memoir that could be used to support this position. Please number your answers as they are marked.

Here is the topic:

‘Through relationships and experiences, Jack learns to stand on his own feet.’

Discuss.

Point Of ViewIn the course of the memoir we see a range of relationships and experiences enabling Jack to become independent and take care of himself. Strengthened by his mother's spirit, we see him becoming an independent person through opposition to Dwight. In various crises, often as a result of breaking the rules, he learns to keep his cool and live by his wits. Ultimately, the conflict with Dwight leads him to take his fortunes into his own hands and attempt to secure his future through his own efforts.

Relationships1. 'We were barely making it, and making it in spite of him. My shedding the name he'd

given me would put him in mind of that fact.' (Page 8) What does this quotation suggest about whether Jack and his mother expected any help from Jack's father? Does Jack show any anxiety about his mother's efforts to make her own fortune?

2. 'She faced him across the desk. She was erect, pale, and unfriendly.' (Page 65) In what ways does Rosemary, in this confrontation with the vice-principal, provide a role model for standing your ground in a crisis or conflict?

3. 'My idea was to steal enough money to run away. I was ready to do anything to get clear of Dwight.' (Page 110) Use this quotation in a sentence making the point that the conflict with Dwight has made Jack desperate to do something to get away from him.

4. 'All of Dwight's complaints against me had the aim of giving me a definition of myself. They succeeded but not in the way he wished. I defined myself in opposition to him.' (Page 111) Use this quotation to support the point that Dwight's abuse makes Jack an independent person, determined to make his own way in life. What is suggested by the word 'opposition'?

SEND Task 3 Supporting your ideas

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Experiences5. 'She tried to sound serious but she was close to laughing and so was I.' (Page 25)

Use this quotation to support the point that sharing his mother's excitement in her risky escapes may have contributed to him becoming a risk-taker himself?

6. 'We didn't trust each other, and any suspicion that one of us was weakening would have created a stampede of betrayal.' (Page 50) How does this quotation imply that Jack realizes he is on his own in avoiding punishment for the word scratched in paint?

7. 'I felt no fear, nor any surprise after the first shock had passed. I knew she hadn't followed me here. Of course she would have a boy in the Scouts, and of course he would belong to OA. She read my nameplate up and looked me up and down, and I could see her face grown smooth and serene as she decided she had been mistaken, that it couldn't possibly be me.' (Page 168)

Use details in this account of Jack's confrontation with the woman who caught him trying to pass a counterfeit cheque to comment on how he handles the crisis.

8. 'I shouted his name, but he kept hitting me in a fast convulsive rhythm and I knew he was beyond all hearing. Somehow, with no conscious intention, I pulled my other arm free and hit him in the throat.' (Page 148) Use part of this quotation to make the point that abuse by Dwight has led Jack to strike back for the first time. Does Jack's action suggest he is becoming more independent?

Taking care of himself9. 'It seemed true enough as I wrote it, but I got carried away. At the end of the letter I

pleaded with my uncle to bring my mother and me to Paris.' (Page 114) What is Jack's plan here for getting away from Dwight? Does he seem worried or excited about what he is doing? What skills are suggested in the letter?

10. 'Geoffrey kept asking me what was wrong, and when I found my voice I told him the first thing that came into my mind – that Dwight had hit me.' (Page 171) What does Jack hope to achieve by ringing his brother? How does this fit in with his efforts to get away from Dwight and find a new life? Does what he says suggest someone who plans his moves carefully or relies on his instincts?

11. 'They wrote, plainly about a gifted, upright boy who had already in his own quiet way exhausted the resources of his school and community'. (Page 180) In these fake references, how does Jack display an awareness of the kind of 'pose' that might put him in the running for a scholarship at an expensive school? How does this fit in with his efforts to get away from Dwight and create a future for himself?

12. 'I did not do well at Hill. How could I? I knew nothing.' (Page 240) Comment on how Jack's blunt way making this point suggests someone who can face up to mistakes and weaknesses and move on.

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This week in the Language Lab we’re going to start looking at just how you go about analysing visual language.

On the starting blocks!

Analysing visual TextsWhat are the first questions you should ask yourself when you begin analysing a visual text?

Why has this visual text been added to the piece?

Who created this visual text?

How does the visual text enhance the contention or message of the whole piece?

Everything that you read or view has been produced for a purpose. Authors of written and visual texts set out with a specific aim in mind. They want to have a particular effect on their audience and this determines the kind of language or images that they choose. What difference will it make to the world if their audience can be persuaded via images and text to adopt the author’s position on the issue? Will they change their life-style, the way they vote, or the way they shop as a consequence of reading/viewing this text?

Think about who has written or created the text. Does s/he have a vested interest of any kind? If the writer/cartoonist/graphic designer does have vested interests, how does this affect the way the view is presented?

Does the writer or creator have a hidden agenda? What is it?

LANGUAGE LAB

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SEND Task 4: Visual Language: cartoons

Look at the cartoon by Scott and Borgman above, which appeared in the Age. Use each of the five headings below to answer the questions. (Make sure you cover all of the questions under each heading.)

The context – What is the ‘issue’ or situation (or even universal theme) the cartoon is aiming to expose or explore?

The content – What is being depicted here? What is happening? Who is saying/doing what? What social condition/relationship is being commented upon?

The target – Who does this cartoon seem to be aimed at? Who would best appreciate the joke? Who would understand and enjoy the depiction of this situation?

The purpose – What is the message of the cartoon?

The style – What use of visual language, colour, shape, line, emphasis, exaggeration, light, shade etc. can you see? How do these uses of visual language contribute to the message of the cartoon?

Notes on the cartoon . . . .

Verbal LanguageSpeech bubble: Has anybody seen my shoes?

Makes the ‘issue’ (generational discord) point of view (teenagers are wrapped up in their own worlds and often unaware of their impact on others) and target (teenagers and parents of teenagers) clear.

Visual LanguageThe sneaker is comically ‘larger than life’, exaggerated and dominant in the scene and appears to be almost strangling parents symbolising the overwhelming and overpowering teenage presence in the family.

By contrast parents are passive, appear powerless, suggesting that Jeremy (the teenager) is effortlessly ‘winning’ the ‘battle’ between the generations.

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Teenager is depicted as looking down at mobile phone oblivious to all else representing the social preoccupation and self-absorption typical of teenage children.

Task 5: Online Quiz

In order to complete activity 4 you will need to listen to an interview with a VCE English teacher about Area of Study 3 – Using language to Persuade. While you are listening you should taking notes in preparation for completing a quiz about what you hear. Before you listen to the interview, however, I want to explain an activity which you will be working on throughout the course of the year.

Persuasive language glossaryOne of the key skills involved in analysing language is being able to use metalanguage. You may well ask; What on earth is metalanguage?

Put simply metalanguage is words and phrases that can be used to describe language. Words about words. For example do you remember learning about metaphors earlier in your schooling? Here’s one – The barmaid has a heart of gold. A comparison has been made by stating that one thing is another. We call this type of language a metaphor. Describing it as such is using metalanguage. Developing your understanding of metalanguage will help you to describe how persuasive language works.

Each week in the Language Lab you will see words printed in bold. When you see one of these words or phrases it’s time for you to find out what it means and write your own definition. These words will form the basis of your Language Lab glossary which you will submit in Week 16. Your glossary should be made up of all of the words printed in bold that you find in the Language Lab and also any other words or phrases that you find useful when you are analysing language. A Language Analysis Appendix has been included at the end of the course and you will find many of these words and phrases explained there. It is recommended in your text list that you have a dictionary and you may find it comes in handy when you are working on your glossary. You are encouraged to use these resources but try to write the definition down in your own words. Developing your own definition helps you to remember the information more effectively than just copying it down. You will find the complete list of words in Week 16. You can use this space to write down your definitions as you work through the course.

Listen Up!

We’ll move on to the interview now. This activity has two purposes. Firstly, it will provide you with information about what is expected of you in this area of study. In particular, what you have to do in the Week 13/14 SAC will be outlined. Secondly, it will give you the information you need to complete a quiz after listening to the interview. You will notice that the interview is conducted in a formal style such as you would hear on the radio.

A written transcript of the interview has been provided on your course disk and in the online course so that you can read the interview and make notes on it as you listen.

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Login to the online course to listen to the interview and download the transcript for this task. If you do not have access the internet, you can also access the audio and transcript files on your course disk.

Once you finish listening to the interview, you can complete the quiz in the online environment. Look for the link called ‘Week 3 Quiz’ in the left hand side of the navigation bar. If you do not have access to the internet, there is a printed copy of the quiz included in the back of this course guide.

SEND Task 5: Online Quiz

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ChecklistThis week you should have sent this work to me.

Please tick the items you have sent, and keep this as your record:

Task 1: Your notes on 6 questions p.3.3

Task 3: Supporting your Ideas p.3.21 - 22

Task 4: Visual Language – cartoons p 3.24

Task 5: Online quiz p 3.26

http://whatpowersyou.org/training/race-day-checklist/

END OF WEEK 3

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60103

[60103]SUBJECT ENGLISH UNIT 3

[ZX]YEAR/LEVEL 12 WEEK 3

TEACHER

PLEASE ATTACH WORK TO BE SENT

NOTE: Please write your student number on each page of your work which is attached to this page.

SEND Please make sure you send:

Task 1: Your notes on 6 questions p.3.3

Task 3: Supporting your Ideas p.3.21 - 22

Task 4: Visual Language – cartoons p 3.24

Task 5: Online quiz p 3.26

If you have not included any of these items, please explain why not.

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Use the back of this sheet to reflect on what you have learnt this week, as well as any questions you may have for your teacher.

SCHOOL NO.

STUDENT NUMBER __________________

SCHOOL NAME ______________________

STUDENT NAME ______________________

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REVIEW, REFLECT AND ASKI found this week’s course work:

( ) Very interesting

( ) Interesting

( ) Sort of interesting

( ) Unsure

Comments:

I think the work was:

( ) Too easy

( ) Easy

( ) OK

( ) Challenging (it got me thinking)

( ) Hard

( ) Too hard

Comments:

Questions I have about this week’s work: (Why? What? When? Who? How?)

Why…

When…

How….

I would like further explanation on:

Other comments:

TEACHER’S FEEDBACK

Some good things about your work were:

Please consider doing the following in your next piece(s) of work:

DISTANCE EDUCATION CENTRE TEACHER