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English Language GCSE Paper 1 Question 4

Heyo,
I completed a question four from an AQA 2017 June Past Paper and was wondering if anyone could read it through and check it for more. That would be brilliant and thank you!

Link to past paper extract:
https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2017/june/AQA-87001-INS-JUN17.PDF

Question 4:
Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source, from line 19 to the end.
A student said, ‘This part of the story, set in the hat shop, shows that the red-haired girl has many advantages in life, and I think Rosabel is right to be angry.’
To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:
• consider your own impressions of the red-haired girl
• evaluate how the writer conveys Rosabel’s reactions to the red-haired girl
• support your response with references to the text.



From the introduction of her character, the red-haired girl is established as apart from the other customers and from Rosabel. The use of the conjunction “but” as well as a hyphen to visually separate the subordinate clause describing the girl highlights this different position. This indicates to readers that she is advantaged from the beginning. The writer might have done this to mirror the advantageous family the girl was born in to or her automatic social superiority to Rosabel. This effectively portrays her immediate and seemingly unfair advantage to Rosabel as well as readers, who are reminded of her financial advantage through the extravagant asyndetic listing to describe the “large, soft” hat with “a great curled feather” she can buy whilst Rosabel is only taunted with the prospect of trying it on.

Additionally, this separation is carried over to other physical differences. Th writer could be implying that the girl is automatically superior to Rosabel through the portrayal of her “beautiful red hair” and “white skin” in comparison with Rosabel’s “brown hair”. Although this is an obvious difference between the two, I do not think that it adds to the idea that the girl is superior to Rosabel since to readers this could be considered as completely coincidental. Alternatively, the red-haired girl’s physical appearance is used by the writer in relation with her behaviour to highlight her superficially perceived advantages. By describing the girl in comparison with materials such as “green ribbon shot with gold” it reflects her extravagance and flamboyant nature. This exterior understandably angers Rosabel and the effect of the writer doing this is that readers can empathise with Rosabel’s feeling of inferiority.

As the statement conveys, the girl has many advantages and another of these advantages is displayed by the writer through the girl’s dialogue. The imperative verbs of “I must” and “you must” and “I shall” implies that the girl also believes herself to be better than Rosabel. The egotistic tone created by the writer is successful in depicting the girl’s life long advantages which Rosabel is not only annoyed at but also jealous of, as seen in her sudden “feeling of anger”. On the other hand, the Rosabel’s flushed appearance could also connote to her embarrassment from being around the girl. Perhaps the writer did this to indicate Rosabel’s low self-confidence and feelings of subservience but I think overall that this is not effective at portraying her right to become angry at the girl.

:smile:

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