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AQA A-level English Literature B new 7717/1B & 7717/2B - 15 & 22 Jun 2017

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You wrote so much!! I only managed to write two rushed paragraphs for Blake. One on the Church in Garden of Love and London+Chimney Sweeper. I wrote 2 longer paragraphs on the Commander and Aunts/Serena Joy. Worried my Blake paragraphs will pull down my grade. So annoyed cause I love Blake so much lol

I started off with the Blake, as I felt that was the one that was easiest to write about for the question and aimed to spend no longer than 35 minutes on it, allowing me to have at least 25 minutes to do Handmaid's.

Reply 181

teenhorrorstory

Original post by CatusStarbright

How many paragraphs did you write?

Reply 182

CatusStarbright

Original post by teenhorrorstory

How many paragraphs did you write?

Not sure, but across the whole paper I wrote 19 pages. I felt awkward when it came to asking for my second supplementary answer booklet!

Reply 183

teenhorrorstory

Original post by CatusStarbright

Not sure, but across the whole paper I wrote 19 pages. I felt awkward when it came to asking for my second supplementary answer booklet!

Woww that's a lot!

Reply 184

CatusStarbright

Original post by teenhorrorstory

Woww that's a lot!

It hurt my hand writing that much haha. I like to write as much as possible as it frustrates me that I always have way more ideas than I can fit into an hour-long essay. I just hope it was good quality!

Reply 185

teenhorrorstory

Original post by CatusStarbright

I spend too long thinking and less time writing lol

What do you think the boundary will be for A*?
I remember you from the Law thread. Which uni did you firm in the end?

Reply 186

teenhorrorstory

Last year an A was between 65-73%. Hope they're that low this year

Reply 187

CatusStarbright

Original post by teenhorrorstory

I spend too long thinking and less time writing lol

What do you think the boundary will be for A*?
I remember you from the Law thread. Which uni did you firm in the end?

Haha yes, that would be me. I've firmed the University of Leeds :smile:

Reply 188

nimrahsharif

Original post by mughushed

I agree, the Blake question was perfect! Me too, I was so worried for that one

Hey! I did the Blake single question too, what things did you talk about? I thought it was an easy enough question tbh. What do you think of my answer? Please share yours too, if you don't mind?

Here are my points:
1. church- being one of the social contraints that they can't esacpe- talked about Holy thursday- religious hypocrisy- context of the church helping the needy but at a cost
2. They can escape through nature - Nurse's song- talked about the innocence of the children exploring nature etc
3. They can't escape it- talked about physical confinement in the Chimney sweeper.

Concluded and introduced with points about Blake, context, marxism - saying that Blake didn't need to comment on these things as an upper class man but he did- he wanted progression showing worlds dualistic

-

Reply 189

nimrahsharif

Hey guys! What did you think of the unseen extract, I wasn't too sure about the context- I thought as a dystopian novel, it has an unsual context but I related some stuff back to the 1950s where the description of the firemen uniforms could compare to the army soldiers during the war etc, and then I talked about the govt censorship- and then related it back to McCarthyism in the 1950s- conservative beliefs- being monitored etc

1st point- describing the setting through sensory language- visuals and sounds- personification of the radio and the description of the setting in some other way I don't exactly remember.

2nd point - He has no individuality, conform like the others, then talked about they are all the same, alliteration in the description, all mirrors- something about the museum statue- he has no human qualities- has to conform etc

3rd point - I talked about the govt regulating what they do and say, 1984 george orwell reference, brought in mccarythism here, simple sentences- drawing attention to him, he was being watched carefully

Reply 190

nimrahsharif

For the 3rd section, I compared Kite Runner and Doll's House

Explore the significance of authoritive figures

For Kite Runner - I said that Assef had authority- exerted his influence - taliban context- foreshadowing of the war

then I countered that and said that Baba undermines those with authority because he stands up to authority with the russian soldier- then talked about his power as a male pashtun in society- context of afghan culture- he mixes cultures , and he has domestic authorty over kids- secrecy about main plot twist- marxism here

Doll's house - said that Torvald had authority- gender and class - obsessed with borgouise respectabilty- marxism here

then Nora contradicts his authority by leaving - finding independence etc- talked about George Brandes pre feminist ideas- feminist interpreation

What do you think?

Reply 191

mughushed

Original post by nimrahsharif

Yeah, I thought it was so good because it essentially revolved around the idea of the two Songs being contrasted with one another. I talked about how in urban settings, people can't escape (London), but that in nature, it's very carefree with no constraints (The Echoing Green) but that, also, at times, there are aspects of Experience that seep into Innocence (ie. they're not complete opposites) e.g. in Innocence's Chimney Sweeper, and because of that, there are still constraints in the world of Innocence as well as Experience :smile:

and lots of context about Industrial Revolution etc!

Reply 192

srdavison123

For Blake, just to contribute my answer included some of the following:
Organised Education (The Schoolboy)
Organised Religion (Garden of Love, "blackning Church appalls" )
Capitalism ("Chartered Thames", Earths Answer)
Societal Gender Norms (How women are empowered over men such as in Little Girl lost, The Lamb)
Nature (Nurse's Song, London)

Then for context I mentioned about:
Industrial Revolution
French & American Revolution
Gordon Riots
Blakes life of rags rather than riches, home schooling, religious view etc.
Then generic comments regarding Blake's life and the world of the late eighteenth century especially. This basically helped to show how he went against both authoritative figures, as-well as to protest against both political and social institutions.

Although I don't need to remember any of this ever again, I'm actually quite sad that it's all over...

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 193

teenhorrorstory

Original post by srdavison123

Was this for section C or B?

Reply 194

teenhorrorstory

Did anyone here study Harvest as part of their texts?? Feel like it's on my school lol

Reply 195

srdavison123

Original post by teenhorrorstory

Was this for section C or B?

I did it for section B. Although you could have quite easily done it for both.

Reply 196

leah0412

Original post by teenhorrorstory

Did anyone here study Harvest as part of their texts?? Feel like it's on my school lol

Yeah my school did harvest, it's maybe the most boring book I've ever read but I thought it was nice to write about in the authority question?? Got a good contrast between how the villagers have the biggest impact on their own lives vs how Blake presents authority figures as basically soul crushing life ruiners

Think I'm the only person who actually did the handmaid's tale for section B 😢😢 thought it was a decent enough question but forgot to add any context which im beating myself up about a bit now but oh well

Reply 197

teenhorrorstory

Original post by leah0412

Yeah agree! It's boring but has social and protest writing written all over it. I wrote about it in section B though, but I initially planned to use it in section C.
Was that the Moira question? It was a nice question but I just didn't have enough to say for it so avoided it

Reply 198

wizward

I have completed Tragedy: King Lear, Death of a salesman, richard II
Social and political protest: Harrison, Blake, Hosseini

Reply 199

leah0412

Original post by teenhorrorstory

Yeah it was the Moira question, I thought that Blake one for section B was really good but i didn't like the first section C question and thought Blake was much easier to write about in the authority figures question than the handmaid's tale as the handmaid's tale gets quite complicated eg. whether the aunts have more power than the commanders and the fact that even the commanders don't follow their own rules etc whereas Blake was much more straightforward

My points for the Moira question were basically:

1. it's 'heroic' because she offers the other handmaid's something to hold onto and to get them through, helping others and not only herself
2. it shows that people aren't just willing to accept imposing regimes like this (should've put context here 💔)
3. however offred actually becomes complicit in just reliving Moira's story and taking no action herself, suggesting that Moira hasn't actually helped the others at all
4. structurally we don't find her heroic after offred bigs her up throughout the whole novel just for her to appear caught, again, at Jezebel's
5. she's not just physically caught but she's mentally given up and says 'everything considered i like this outfit better' and 'im not a martyr' showing her earlier resistance to the regime to be ultimately futile

Didn't really know how to conclude so i said whilst I believe Moira's resistance has been futile I don't believe that Atwood intended her message to be that all resistance is futile, rather that we need to resist in numbers and not just go it alone where i should have again put in some modern day context :frown: