WW1 and its aftermath: specimen question commentary
This resource explains how a question taken from the specimen assessment material addresses the assessment objectives, with some suggestions of how the task might be approached. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every point that could be made but it gives teachers and students some guidance that will support their work on this paper.
Paper 2A, Section B
Sample question, unseen text, Fly Away Peter
Question 5: Unseen extract
Read the insert carefully. It is taken from the novel Fly Away Peter by David Malouf, published in 1982. In this scene Jim, the protagonist, visits his comrade Eric who has been badly wounded in a recent battle. In the battle their mutual friend, Clancy, was killed. Eric wants to know who will care for him after the war now that he is severely disabled.
[Specimen insert, beginning 'What scared him now . .']
Explore the significance of suffering in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Malouf shapes meanings.
How the question meets the assessment objectives
In this question, as throughout the paper, the assessment objectives are all assessed. As a result, all the key words in the question should be addressed, indicating either focus (significance of suffering, ways that Malouf shapes meanings) or direction (explore, relevant detailed analysis).
AO1 is tested through the way students organise their writing and express their ideas as they are analysing the extract and exploring the significance of suffering. Value is placed on technical accuracy, appropriate terminology and quality of discussion.
AO2 is set up in the requirement to provide detailed analysis of the ways that Malouf shapes meanings. Students are expected to illustrate their answers with as much textual detail as possible – with quotations and other close reference – to support the points in their analysis.
'Significance' in AO3 is addressed when candidates demonstrate an understanding of the various contexts of suffering, including the moral and the psychological. In exploring the nature of suffering as presented in this passage, students will engage not only with the specific context of WW1 and its aftermath, but also with the contexts of when texts were written and of reader response to the representation of suffering.
To address AO4 students will connect with the representation of one of the central issues of the literature of WW1 and its aftermath, i.e. physical, mental and emotional suffering as it affects combatants and those who minister to them, other service personnel, family and friends. Their answers should be implicitly informed by a wider awareness of the concept and the many forms its representation can take, as seen in other reading around this period.
AO5 tests students' skill in engaging with different ways in which significance can be found in this extract and showing an understanding that meanings are not fixed.
Possible content
Students might choose to write about any of the following and thereby address AO2: aspects of narrative form and/or genre, such as point-of-view which shifts between Eric and Jim; the overall shape and direction of their conversation; the hospital setting and its impact on Eric and Jim respectively; the use of direct speech in a conversation between the two men, containing elliptical forms ('Y'reckon', 'Wilya?') and vulgar slang ('take a piss'); colloquialisms ('knocked about', 'knew the ropes'); elements of back-story (the orphanage, the NCOs, Clancy); unspoken thoughts ('The problem in Eric's mind . . helped into a chair'; 'It was Eric's questions he would be unable to face.'); Jim's non-committal words and actions ('vague') in response to Eric's need for reassurance, including repetitions ('they'll look after you alright', 'Wilya Jim?') and what they indicate; figurative language ('his own hot panic had invaded the room', 'phantom moustache', 'force weeping through him'); sparing use of descriptive adjectives ('dry', 'hot', 'fine', 'thin and far away', 'aggrieved', 'insistent', 'querulous', 'impersonal') which is characteristic of a generally economical style throughout. Students should make it clear they are conscious that the text under analysis is fictional, the work of a creative imagination.
To address AO3 students will need to explore ideas about: comradeship, friendship and loyalty among male combatants (Jim visiting the disabled Eric in hospital; the 'attraction' of their mutual army friend Clancy); the suffering of those seriously injured in the war and their difficulty in coming to terms with a bleak and uncertain future; the incongruous evidence of premature ageing in young men who have been through hell in the trenches; the support provided by the army, hospital staff ('the charity of their people') and visitors like Jim.
AO4 will be addressed if and when candidates explore the nature of suffering, so connecting with the representation of one of the central issues of WW1 and its aftermath. They may cite examples of changing ideas about the nature of conflict and of the suffering experienced by those involved, whether directly or indirectly. They should also be ready to make comparisons between the attitudes of those who were alive at the time of The Great War and those in more recent times.
Exploring different interpretations, the criteria of AO5 are met if students are able to show that they have fully 'explored the significance of suffering' in the extract. They should be ready to write about: Eric's physical condition ('I can't even stand up to take a piss', 'All those mornings when he would have to be helped into a chair') and his emotional state, above all his neediness and fearful anxiety about the future (betrayed by his 'dry lips' and 'sweat drops', and by the change in his voice which Jim perceives as he walks away); Jim's response to Eric's predicament and questioning, which is presented at first as vagueness, then 'hot panic', later in making promises which 'he knew guiltily' he would not keep, and finally bursting into tears, 'trying to control his breath', being 'startled' by the 'harshness of his own words'. They could also give some account of the characters Malouf has placed in the background of the narrative, all of whom in their different ways were or are there to look after him: the matron at the orphanage where presumably Eric grew up; the NCOs he will have fought alongside; the ward sisters; Clancy whose worldliness and readiness to assert 'his rights' would have given Eric (and Jim) much-needed moral strength and courage.