English Literature NEA Task 2 OCR

We are starting to pick our texts for our NEA task 2 (comparison of a theme in a prose and a play) and I am leaning towards the theme young women struggling with the pressures of other people’s expectations of them. I plan to start reading A thousand Splendid suns due to my teacher saying it was good for writing about women and gender roles. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a play that would give me a lot to say on this topic, compare well and get my high marks or if any past students have any recommendations on a prose and play?

Hi! It depends on what direction you’d like to take your essay in, I did ATSS for mine and I also did Ruined by Lynn Nottage to compare how war effects women, I know a popular comparison is one with A streetcar but I’d avoid trying to do too popular combination choices because you’re more likely to say something analytical and different if you don’t. Another suggestion could be A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry or perhaps Fleabag. As I said it really just depends what aspect of women’s struggles you want to look at.

(Original post by 177445)Hi thanks for the response,

I've only read the first few chapters of ATSS and was thinking of maybe looking into how women are doomed from the start due to the controlling and deceitful nature of men in a patriarchal society (using Jalil as an example due to the contrasting stories he has to Nana- I'm only on chapter 3 so things might change.. I will look into a raisin in the sun as it may be an interesting comparison. Tbh I'm struggling to thing of topics to do and I thought that women are something I'm quite interested and passionate about but I don't know what texts or angle to take on it. How did you find the coursework? Any advice? I hope you don't mind me asking what sort of grade did you get?

Hey not at all, we didn’t get our marks back but I’ve been predicted an A pretty consistently through so I’m going to assume around there. I would pick a broad question to matter what you do, if it’s too narrow you may struggle to stay on topic and your AO1 may fall apart. What I got generally is to make sure, especially if you’re doing plays with war and the patriarchy, is to include your context from the introduction to introduce the play. Also, when writing it I would colour code all of your AO’s since it’s important to note they’re all equally weighted. I would read a lot into the play and novel you choose and what other people have said about them because that will help shape your argument but make sure to keep all the links so you can reference them.