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URGENT - HELP ME!!! A2 English Lit Coursework AQA

So I need to start my coursework but my teacher has said no to all my suggestions so far. I need to compare two texts with similar literary themes I think? Although I don't really understand what that means. I was going to do Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby but its not ambitious enough or compare different telling's of fairy tales but my teacher didn't get what I meant. I then wanted to do 1984 but my teacher said no, yet again. I'm stuck and don't have much time. Help?

PS. I really don't like fantasy novels :')

Reply 1

AimeeGleek123

can you ask your teacher why shes saying no to all of your suggestions. And what would she recommend.

Reply 2

shawtyb

what about good night mr tom? and something else?

Reply 3

StressfulStudies

Original post by AimeeGleek123

can you ask your teacher why shes saying no to all of your suggestions. And what would she recommend.

They have read too many essays on 1984 so have said no to all the students (that seems really stupid to be honest). When I spoke about the fairytale idea they thought I nwanted to do books like Animal Farm? I don't even know what they were talking about. And for the Gatsby and OMAM they said because they are classed under GCSE and AS level texts I cant write about them.

I asked them for suggestions and they haven't replied to my email

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 4

StressfulStudies

Original post by shawtyb

what about good night mr tom? and something else?

I haven't read that but will definitely look into it :smile:

Reply 5

shawtyb

Original post by StressfulStudies

I haven't read that but will definitely look into it :smile:

omg its so sad!!! :'(

Reply 6

aryafan117

Gatsby and OMAM arent considered challenging enough, if you like sci-fi you have War of the Worlds by HG Wells, Brave New World by Huxley and John Wydham books like Day of the Triffids or the Chrysalids which are meant to be quite good. I like Brave New World but not read the others :frown:

don't go along the fairytale route, probably not enough to discuss there. Hope this helps! :smile:

Reply 7

AMMitchell

Maybe one of the classics - Dickens, Bronte or Shelley

Reply 8

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by StressfulStudies

First thing's first: I don't understand what you mean by fairy tales either. OMAM and GG do not have anything to do with fairy tales. However, if you mean "dream big" or the "American Dream" and how that is just a disillusionment of society, then fair enough. That's the only way I can see what you mean by fairy tale and the connection to that would be dreams.
If you still want to try and go onto the theme of fairy tales, perhaps you can look at that with the Grimm Tales and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber? You can look at something like "explore the representation of fairy tales" or something like that? There's a dozen critics on those texts! You can use interpretations from Disney's films (backed up by critics). This will give you some marks for alternative opinion and context!

You could do something based on the American Dream and how dead it actually is? I guess you don't have much time to read a big novel. However, how about comparing a novel and a play to save time on reading? You could compare The Winter of Our Discontent with Death of a Salesman. It both explores the themes of the evil side of business and how it can corrupt a person - in terms of business will flourish no matter how many people it will destroy (a metaphor for America trying to pick itself back up from the Great Depression.
Discontent is a novel by Steinbeck. It's a bit slow but I really enjoyed it. It's relatively short. You could try The Grape's Wrath or East of Eden. Those novels however, are very long - over 400/500 pages.
Again, Fitzgerald's Beautiful and Damned and Tender is the Night is also considered to be more complicated as it deals with more mature themes. However, they are also long novels.

I don't know if "don't really like sci-fi :wink:

" was sarcasm or not... If you do like sci-fi then you could perhaps do something like War of the Worlds and Frankenstein perhaps? Also The Beetle which is a late Victorian text (published around about the same time as Dracula) explores the sci-fi. It's about an alien poses as different humans or something. It's on my shelf but haven't got round to reading it aha.
Perhaps dystopian fiction such as The Handmaid's Tale, Clockwork Orange both could work well alongside 1984. If you're teacher isn't allowing you to do 1984 all together, try other dystopian novels.