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English Lit B-17th May exam

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I made a really stupid mistake when answering the section B conflict question on The Kite Runner....

My main point was about how Amir's internal conflict at the point where he had to make the decision to stay/leave Hassan when the rape happened shapes the rest of the novel etc etc. But then I said that Amir's witnessing of the conflict leads to his unreliable, irregular narrative... i.e that the conflict was the rape itself! That makes no sense whatsoever. A rape isn't a conflict! I'm gutted now, the examiner will think I'm a complete dimwit :frown:

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For Gatsby Section B, I talked about the conflict between Tom and Gatsby, and used the argument between them to exemplify that, then I used the critical interpretation that they both represent different American dreams - I hope that's good enough. :smile:
I also talked about the internal conflict of the reader over deciding whether or not Nick is a reliable narrator, pretty weak point in my opinion.

RoTAM - Not so good, I talked about the conflict between the natural and the supernatural, and how out of that, the Mariner is able to deliver the Christian moral of the story - then I went off on a tangent about the Christian interpretation ( the Albatross representing Christ etc )

The thing was, with section B, I feel like I struggled to include AO3 ( critical interpretations of the text ) and because it was conflict, I found it hard to include lots of specific language points ( AO2 ) - I just made very general thematic points, followed up with quotes. Hopefully my Section A will balance it out. :smile:
Original post by ArsenalObsessed
I made a really stupid mistake when answering the section B conflict question on The Kite Runner....

My main point was about how Amir's internal conflict at the point where he had to make the decision to stay/leave Hassan when the rape happened shapes the rest of the novel etc etc. But then I said that Amir's witnessing of the conflict leads to his unreliable, irregular narrative... i.e that the conflict was the rape itself! That makes no sense whatsoever. A rape isn't a conflict! I'm gutted now, the examiner will think I'm a complete dimwit :frown:

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I said that Amir "witnessing" the rape and his ability to do nothing, which haunts him until now is the conflict. :/
for conflict section B can someone tell me if these points are on the right track??
i think i may have misunderstood the meaning of conflict?!

KITE RUNNER=
Amir, Hassan and Assefs fight which portrays the brave nature of Hassan juxtaposed against the cowardly, undesirable character of Amir.
The conflict between Amir and Hassan after the rape at the Pomegranate tree shows Amirs search for redemption again highlighting the bad points in his character. Pomegranate tree symbolises the falling of their relationship which mirrors the falling of Afganistan. end of the bildings roman novel sees that the adult amir has learnt from his mistakes and adopts hassan phrase of "for you a thousand times over" this shows that his search for redemption is complete

GATSBY=
when tom breaks myrtles nose- shows dominance of upper classes- failing of american dream as myrtle has ambition whcih draws her to tom but her social class means that it will never happen
wilson shoots Gatsby- shows that his dream is over- anti climax of novel- Nicks lack of poetic prose shows his detachment from this event and that it does not need tainting with romanticised imagery

TENNYSON=
Lotos eaters
sailors conflict between duty and pleasure. 1st half postive, 2nd half negative. rhetorical debate

Ulysses
conflict between duty and pleasure again in the sense of adventure and self fulfilment vs being an 'idol king'


What did everyone write for AUDEN Ab) ?
I did Tennyson for Section A, and then the time settings question for Section B (my texts were Gatsby, The God of Small Things and Browning poems- I wrote about Browning's 'The Patriot')
I was a bit thrown at first as I didn't expect The Lotos-Eaters to come up, but writing about it was OK... I'm a bit worried about Section B, as I think I wrote some vague stuff about The Jazz Age that probably wasn't relevant.... ah, well :blushing:
Original post by 42wallabyway
I did Tennyson for Section A, and then the time settings question for Section B (my texts were Gatsby, The God of Small Things and Browning poems- I wrote about Browning's 'The Patriot')
I was a bit thrown at first as I didn't expect The Lotos-Eaters to come up, but writing about it was OK... I'm a bit worried about Section B, as I think I wrote some vague stuff about The Jazz Age that probably wasn't relevant.... ah, well :blushing:


Yay ! Someone else who did Tennyson for Section A. I didn't expect Lotos-Eaters either, thought Mariana would come up. Still, thought my Section A, part A went alright.

What did you think of Section A Part B, and what points did you put down ? I didn't like the question that much to be honest.
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dooobie_
Original post by dsfdsfdsf
Yay ! Someone else who did Tennyson for Section A. I didn't expect Lotos-Eaters either, thought Mariana would come up. Still, thought my Section A, part A went alright.

What did you think of Section A Part B, and what points did you put down ? I didn't like the question that much to be honest.


My class predicted Lotus Eaters so we were elated! I done Section B conflict for Browning, The Kite Runner and The Road.. anybody else?

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I did gatsby for section A , they were really nice questions I was so happy :smile: then for section B I did about conflicts in the time of the ancient mariner, frost poetry, and kite runner. I wrote about the rape in KR, the shooting of the albatross and his conflict with religion for TRoTAM, an then the conflict of decisions in the road not taken. I took a pretty wide approach on the meaning of 'conflict' so not sure what I've got at all tbh :smile:



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Original post by ChloeBazingaa
I did gatsby for section A , they were really nice questions I was so happy :smile: then for section B I did about conflicts in the time of the ancient mariner, frost poetry, and kite runner. I wrote about the rape in KR, the shooting of the albatross and his conflict with religion for TRoTAM, an then the conflict of decisions in the road not taken. I took a pretty wide approach on the meaning of 'conflict' so not sure what I've got at all tbh :smile:



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I'm fairly sure the examiners expect a really broad approach, after all they are setting out a massive theme that has to be applied to like 30 different texts. As long as you in some way made sure you were talking about conflict, it'll be fine. :smile:
Original post by dsfdsfdsf


The thing was, with section B, I feel like I struggled to include AO3 ( critical interpretations of the text ) and because it was conflict, I found it hard to include lots of specific language points ( AO2 ) - I just made very general thematic points, followed up with quotes. Hopefully my Section A will balance it out. :smile:


Snap. I found it much more difficult to keep track of the AOs in the exam. For AO3 I found myself using 'Author X may have done this because...' And then 'the more fitting view to others could be that...' to make sure the examiner knew I was thinking about different interpretations. I also felt as though I had to pay close attention to the work 'significance'. In all honesty, neither Section B question was kind this year.
Original post by MomtaajRahman
Snap. I found it much more difficult to keep track of the AOs in the exam. For AO3 I found myself using 'Author X may have done this because...' And then 'the more fitting view to others could be that...' to make sure the examiner knew I was thinking about different interpretations. I also felt as though I had to pay close attention to the work 'significance'. In all honesty, neither Section B question was kind this year.


Yeah, I feel like when compared to my Section A anwers, my Section B had a complete lack of precision - I can totally relate to the whole 'significance' thing. I overused that word for sure.

Yeah, the Section B questions were just really awkward, found it hard to fit my prior knowledge of the texts into the themes, so had to talk really vaguely about my texts - my answers felt like they weren't rooted in the novels I was talking about.

However, they're usually pretty nice with the grade boundaries - will have to hope it's another low one this year !
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Agdsten
6
Out of interest, how do you guys structure your Section B questions?

We've been taught not to have intros - just 2 points per text and no conclusion either. Do your teachers advise intros/conclusions?
Original post by dsfdsfdsf
Yay ! Someone else who did Tennyson for Section A. I didn't expect Lotos-Eaters either, thought Mariana would come up. Still, thought my Section A, part A went alright.

What did you think of Section A Part B, and what points did you put down ? I didn't like the question that much to be honest.


I think I talked about how in Lotos-Eaters and Mariana, places are mainly used to develop characters (e.g. in Mariana, pathetic fallacy is used to reflect her mental state), but then put a counter point of how the setting of The Lady of Shalott can be interpreted as showing female entrapment in society (such as the 'four gray towers' line) :smile:
Original post by Agdsten
Out of interest, how do you guys structure your Section B questions?

We've been taught not to have intros - just 2 points per text and no conclusion either. Do your teachers advise intros/conclusions?


Nope, ours also say it's a waste of time:tongue:. If you look at high-scoring essays that include them, there's never a tick next to any of the points so we just get stuck in:biggrin: I made 2 points per book, and 3 points for poems.
Original post by Agdsten
Out of interest, how do you guys structure your Section B questions?

We've been taught not to have intros - just 2 points per text and no conclusion either. Do your teachers advise intros/conclusions?


Our teachers advised us to put intros and conclusions, but make them as concise as possible, and only put them in if we have time
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Agdsten
6
Original post by cheetahs56
Nope, ours also say it's a waste of time:tongue:. If you look at high-scoring essays that include them, there's never a tick next to any of the points so we just get stuck in:biggrin: I made 2 points per book, and 3 points for poems.


Ah nice :smile: I write 3 for poems in practice sometimes but in this exam went back and improved my earlier answers instead of rushing a point.
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Agdsten
6
Original post by 42wallabyway
Our teachers advised us to put intros and conclusions, but make them as concise as possible, and only put them in if we have time


I used to try and do them but I found it super hard to conclude so many different points. Always a bit scared to leave them out though cause it doesn't feel like a real essay anymore.
Original post by dsfdsfdsf
Yeah, I feel like when compared to my Section A anwers, my Section B had a complete lack of precision - I can totally relate to the whole 'significance' thing. I overused that word for sure.

Yeah, the Section B questions were just really awkward, found it hard to fit my prior knowledge of the texts into the themes, so had to talk really vaguely about my texts - my answers felt like they weren't rooted in the novels I was talking about.

However, they're usually pretty nice with the grade boundaries - will have to hope it's another low one this year !


I'm sure we won't be penalised for slipping in significance all the time - my class were given an exemplar paper which received 84 raw marks (i.e. full) and the word significance was used once every few lines. Hmm..

I know, I bet The examiner will be reading my paper and thinking 'dork'. I had to answer a Pride and Prejudice question for Section A too :|. And they are! The last two series have had a grade boundary of 46 to obtain an A; the highest mark I've seen for an exam series was 55 for the same effect.
Original post by 42wallabyway
I think I talked about how in Lotos-Eaters and Mariana, places are mainly used to develop characters (e.g. in Mariana, pathetic fallacy is used to reflect her mental state), but then put a counter point of how the setting of The Lady of Shalott can be interpreted as showing female entrapment in society (such as the 'four gray towers' line) :smile:


That's basically what I did !

I used Ulysses and Mariana to support the point.

Then I used Godiva to say that the setting was more important in delivering the social message of the poem, rather than developing the character. :smile:
Original post by Agdsten
Out of interest, how do you guys structure your Section B questions?

We've been taught not to have intros - just 2 points per text and no conclusion either. Do your teachers advise intros/conclusions?


I was told you didn't need to include an introduction but I did one anyway - for the significance of conflict question in Section B, I quickly wrote that the meaning of conflict can be fluid, that is, it can range from wars to bitter disputes between two lovers. I had to do this because some of my texts were very different from each other. I didn't do a conclusion though. :smile:

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