IOC Prep

Couldn't figure out how to attach so I emailed it to you.

Passage

“Hold on, Tommy.” Did she actually say your art was ‘rubbish?’”

“If it wasn’t ‘rubbish’ it was something like it. Negligible. That

might have been it. Or incompetent. She might as well have said

rubbish. She said she was sorry she’d told me what she had the last

time because if she hadn’t, I might have sorted it all out by now.”                                     

        “What were you saying through all of this?”

        “I didn’t know what to say. In the end, she actually asked. She

said: ‘Tommy, what are you thinking?’ So I said I wasn’t sure but that

she shouldn’t worry either way because I was all right now. And she

said, no, I wasn’t all right. My art was rubbish, and that was partly                                    

her fault for telling me what she had. And I said to her, but what

does it matter? I’m all right now, no one laughs at me

about that any more. But she keeps shaking her head and saying: ‘It

does matter. I shouldn’t have said what I did.’ So it occurs to me

she’s talking about later, you know, after we leave here. So I                                             

say, ‘But I’ll be all right, Miss. I’m really fit, I know how to look

after myself. When it’s time for donations, I’ll be able to do it really

well.’ When I said this, she starts shaking her head, shaking it

really hard so I’m worried she’ll get dizzy. Then she says:

‘Listen, Tommy, your art, it is important. And not just because it’s                                    evidence. But for your own sake. You’ll get a lot from it, just for yourself.’”“Hold on. What did she mean, ‘evidence’?”

        “I don’t know. But she definitely said that. She said our art was important, and ‘not just because it’s evidence.’ God knows what she meant. I did actually ask her, when she said that. I said I    didn’t understand what she was telling me, and was it something to do with Madame and her gallery? And she did a big sigh and said: ‘Madame’s gallery, yes, that’s important. Much more important than I once thought. I see that now.’ Then she said: ‘Look, there are all kinds of things you don’t understand, Tommy, and I can’t tell you all about them. Things about Hailsham, about your place in the wider world, all kinds of things. But perhaps one day,you’ll try and find out. They won’t make it easy for you, but if you want to, really want to, you might find out.’ She started shaking her head again after that, though not as bad as before, and she says:‘But why should you be any different? The students who leave here, they never find out much. Why should you be any different?’ I didn’t know what she was talking about, so I just said again: ‘I’ll be all right, Miss.’”

What is the tone of this passage, and how is it established through the characters’ words and, when applicable, body language?

What greater themes does this excerpt speak to (and how)?

Grade:
A: Knowledge and Understanding of the Text--9
        References to the origin of the book, such as dates, author, and the style of the book. Also, many references to the text are cited to further support the argument. The references to the text are not only in the passage but also in other parts of the book so it shows deep connection throughout the novel.

B: Understanding of the Use and Effectiveness of Literary Elements--7
        There is good awareness to literary elements. Both dialogue and tone are explained but not extremely in depth. Also, the effect on the reader were not extensive, they were mere statements and not deeply explained.

C: Organization--3
        The commentary started out organized and then as time passed the commentary began to head in many different directions and became less structured.

D: Language--5
       Did not find any problems with language being inappropriate. Also, the language was precise and accurate for the commentary.

I've Got You Covered

The similarity between the covers is their vagueness. In 3 out of the 4 covers the images are very vague and could be connected to a lot of different things. This is so by the blurriness, the conventional scenery, or even the organs. The difference between the covers is that the top two depict people, while the bottom two depict places or things. This could be a difference to show the effect of the mystery of the place and people at Hailsham. The people are unidentifiable, they could be clones; but also the scenery and objects could show the mystery in the place and nobody really knows where it is. So the reason behind the different covers could be to show the magnitude of the lack of knowledge known about the place and people at Hailsham.

The two covers I will look deeper into are the blurred and the landscape covers.

1.     The first words that come to mind when I see these two images are: vague, mysterious, tranquil, appealing, and interesting. This makes me think of how little we really know about the location and people in Hailsham. We’ve been told that Kath doesn’t know where it is, but we also don’t know where the kids are from. They are clones but how did they get there and why were they there instead of somewhere else.

2.     If I had not read part of the novel already, then I would have thought the book was about a girl who was in the wilderness, secluded from the rest of society and she has a problem with her organs and needs to seek help. Now that I have read the novel, these images have a lot of relationships with the text, the top left image represents how Kath is not happy about her life and Hailsham. The second image shows how the kids are clones by not showing any unique features. The bottom left image could show the mystery of the location of Hailsham or even an important scene like when Kath and Tommy are at the pond. The final image relates the purpose of the kids, and how they are bread to donate their organs.

3.     Kath seems to be the one who is portrayed in all of the covers. The viewpoint is also seen from Kath. This is because the girls on the covers could show Kath’s displeasure or her being a clone with no unique features, or even by showing the pond and organs, because she is a donor.

4.     I don’t feel that these images show the cultural construction of the book because they do not show any part of the culture. They are all vague images and do not reveal very much.

5.     The type of person that would write this book is someone who is not happy with how society seems to have set out plans for people. They would write this book to try and show that people are not happy when they are forced into a direction for their whole life, this could be having to go to college to get a job that has to pay well. Additionally, a person who would read this would be someone who feels like they are being used. They feel like their only purpose is to be at the whelm of others.

The only thing that I don’t understand from these images is that two of them depict forests, and in the novel they said if you go into the woods then you will die and be found with removed limbs. So why would the cover depict this if it isn’t investigated in the book.