Author: Matthew McDonald

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Below you can find a collection of the blog posts relevant to Life of Pi. You may wish to use these materials, in conjunction with your class notes, to assist you in your revision. Remember that you will only be required to write an essay in relation to one of either Interpreter of Maladies or Life of Pi. There will be two topics to choose from for each text. Do not write on both texts – just select one (although you may wish to revise both in order to increase your options).

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Life of Pi Resources:

Life of Pi Resources

‘Life of Pi’ Chapters 1 to 10 Questions

Pi and Religion

Faith and Imagination

Part 2: After the Sinking

Just how big is a lifeboat?

Life of Pi Chapters 56 to 66

‘Life of Pi’ Chapters 67 to 89

Life of Pi Answers (Chapter 58 to 89)

Life of Pi Chapter 99

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Essay Writing Resources:

Life of Pi Sample Essays

Essays, Paragraphs and Quotations

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Other STL Link Resources:

‘Life of Pi’ Site

‘Life of Pi’ Handout

Planning a Text Response Essay

 

 

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Below you can find a collection of the blog posts relevant to Interpreter of Maladies. You may wish to use these materials, in conjunction with your class notes, to assist you in your revision. Remember that you will only be required to write an essay in relation to one of either Interpreter of Maladies or Life of Pi. There will be two topics to choose from for each text. Do not write on both texts – just select one (although you may wish to revise both in order to increase your options). Given that this text was studied back in term 1, you will need to undertake substantial independent revision of the stories if you wish to write on this text.

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Interpreter of Maladies Materials:

‘A Temporary Matter’ responses from transition

Culture and Identity; ‘A Temporary Matter’

‘Interpreter of Maladies’

The Danger of a Single Story

Notes from Group Oral Presentations

• ‘A Real Durwan’
• ‘Mrs Sen’s’
• ‘This Blessed House’
• ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’

Comprehension and Discussion Questions

Food in Interpreter of Maladies (Padlet); ‘The Third and Final Continent’; Essay Materials

 

Essay Writing Materials:

Essay Writing Practice

Sample Essays and Incorporating Quotes

Essay Writing: Preparing for Assessment Task 1

 

Other STL Link Materials:

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Page

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Booklet Part 1

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Booklet Part 2

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Questions

Interpreter of Maladies The Third and Final Continent Podcast Analysis

Interpreter of Maladies Mrs Sen’s podcast analysis

Interpreter of Maladies podcast on Mr Pirzada Came To Dine September 2012

Interpreter of Maladies Podcast on Sexy September 2012

Planning a Text Response Essay Page

 

 

 

 

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The blog can get a bit difficult to navigate, so in order to assist you with your revision I have made an index in this post of all posts related to the Future Worlds context study. Most material covered in class can be found here, but you will need to consult your notes, classwork and homework in order to gain the required level of detail, and will need to be completing practice responses in order to develop your ideas further and ensure that you can write in the required structure.

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Children of Men

Children of Men: Scenes

Children of Men: Resources

Children of Men: Themes

Children of Men: Headlines

Children of Men: Ark of the Arts

Children of Men: Faith and Chance

Children of Men: The World of Today and Tomorrow

Children of Men: Context Essay Assessment Task

Context Revision

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Overview of Future Worlds and Fahrenheit 451

Future Worlds Questions: What does the future reveal about the present?

Fahrenheit 451: Resources

Fahrenheit 451: War!

Folio Task 1: Are we ‘amusing ourselves to death’?

Folio Task 2: ‘Vision of the Future’ Imaginative Writing Task

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Other Texts

Other Visions of Future Worlds: Short Stories and Novel Extracts

Future Worlds: Eugenics and the Culture of Surveillance

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Other STL Link Resources

Future Worlds Booklet

‘Farenheit 451′

Planning a Context Essay

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Context Assessment Revision Questions

The following questions are designed to get you thinking about the core ideas of the Future World context and how they can fit within our student of the film text Children of Men. Answer the following questions using examples from this film to illustrate your ideas, along with any other examples which you feel are relevant.

 

1. Define the following key words. What do they mean?

A. ‘visions’
B. ‘future’
C. technology
D. progress
E. utopia
F. dystopia

 

2. Write down the names of three films and/or books that you have seen or read that are set in the future and present a positive view of the future.

 

3. Write down the names of three films and/or books that you have seen or read that are set in the future and present a negative view of the future.

 

4. Think about Children of Men and consider the following:

A. How does it portray human values?
B. How does it portray human achievements?
C. How does it portray human relationships?
D. How does it portray the environment?

 

5. How important to the future is a knowledge of the past?

 

6. What can be learned from history? Does history repeat itself? Is it possible to break away from historical patterns?

 

7. How important to a study of the future is a knowledge of the present?

A. What can be learned from current events and ideas?
B. What preconditions would be necessary in order to radically alter the patterns of the present?

 

8. Will the future be managed by people or will people be managed by the future?

 

9. To what extent will technology be a benign or malignant force to be reckoned with? Why?

 

10. Future scenarios arise from current world-views. Using your knowledge of texts including Children of Men, consider the possible, probable and preferred future scenarios in relation to:

A. Human progress
B. Family structures
C. Security issues
D. Global environment
E. Politics
F. Technology
G. Social values
H. Law and order

 

 

Context Revision PowerPoint

The following PowerPoint goes through some of the key ideas and examples from Fahrenheit 451, along with two of the additional texts that you had the opportunity to explore: the first chapter of George Orwell’s 1984 and the Ray Bradbury short story August 2026: There will come soft rains. These slides are designed to jolt your memory of some of the key ideas of these texts, and remind you of the wide variety of examples that you can draw upon to illustrate your ideas in a context response: note that these slides alone will not be sufficient revision.

 

 

 

Context Essay Structure Revision

The following PowerPoint will take you through the basics and give you some hints for structuring a context style response. Remember that your focus is on exploring a breadth of ideas by drawing upon examples from multiple texts and other sources.

You can use the prompts in the below post, or come up with some of your own, in order to practice writing a context response.

 

 

 

Assessment Task

Your assessment task for our Future Worlds Context study of Children of Men will take place on Friday 24 October periods 4 and 5. If you will not be in class during this time please contact me BEFORE this date.

You will be given a choice of  three prompts. You must write on Children of Men. You are allowed to include references to other texts studied, but the film should be the main focus of your response.

Instructions are as follows:

• You are to write a piece in response to one of the following prompts linked to the
  context, Future Worlds’
• Your writing must have implicit or explicit reference to the film text studied in
  class.
• You may also draw on other material in addition to the film text
• Your response may be expository, persuasive or imaginative, or a hybrid of
  these genres.
• Your have 90 minutes to complete your piece of writing.
• You may use a dictionary but not a thesaurus.
• You may not bring in any notes.

 

 

Practice and Revision

Copies of the slides from yesterday’s class can be found here:

 

Use the above prompt (“The stories that we tell about the future are seldom about the future.“) to plan a context response. When planning a response, you should:

• Write out your introduction in full.
• Write out your topic sentences in full.
• Dot point your evidence in full sentences.
• Include one or two dot points of analysis after each piece of evidence/example.
• Write out your conclusion in full.

 

Alternatively you could use one of  the following prompts:

• A future without purpose has no meaning.
• If the human race wants to go to hell, technology can help get it there.
• Our representations of the future reveal our dreams for humanity.
• The future will not belong to humanity.
• The future worlds we create are always taken to extremes.

 

Remember to revise the work we have been completing over the past four weeks of class. If you have not done so already, make sure you use some of the resources posted at the start of the unit to further expand your understanding of the key ideas of the film text:

• Children of Men Resources

 

You should also revise how to write a context response:

• Planning a Context Essay

 

 

 

 

 

Visions of the future often serve as reflections and explorations of the present day. This is seen particularly strongly in Children of Men, where much of the background context and imagery is based upon contemporary issues from the early 21st century.

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, researcher, psychoanalyst and social critic. He offers the following interpretation of Children of Men and the importance of the information that is portrayed in the background, the imagery and the themes explored:

 

The film was released in 2006, and it is from this time that most of the images are draw. However, many of these issues are still highly relevant in the world of today.

In groups, you have been provided with a series of images from the film. Using the list below and your own research, you will need to:

(1) Group together the images under the relevant issue that they are linked to;

(2) Research what this issue is, and provide an explanation of it;

(3) Explain its significance in the film and what the author is trying to convey through including it in this manner. Different ideas and issues will be used for different purposes: some will be more literal and obvious, while others may be more subtle warnings about the parallels that can be drawn between the issues face in the film and the world of today.

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Key Issues:

1. Fear or Terrorism and Islamic Extremism
2. The 2003 Iraq War
3. State sanctioned torture and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal
4. Racism, including Islamophobia
5. Immigration, refugees and border control
6. Mad cow disease
7. Environmental degradation (including global warming)

 

You can access copies of the images in this document: Children of Men Themes Images

 

 

The Possibility of Hope:

The ‘Possibility of Hope’ is a documentary produced by Alfonso Cuaron (the director of Children of Men) that is included with the DVD as a means of exploring some of the key ideas and themes that he feels the film explores. It draws many parallels with issues facing the world today. If you were unable to watch it in class, or if you would like to revise some of the ideas, you can watch ‘The Possibility of Hope’ below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After discovering Luke’s duplicity and escaping from the Fishes, Theo, Kee and Miriam seek out help from Theo’s friend Jasper. That night, Theo returns from a walk and listens into a conversation that Jasper and Miriam are having about the roles of Faith and Chance in life. This conversation sets out one of the key ideas of the film: the tension that exists between “faith” and “chance”, and how these concepts can define how we live our lives.

Jasper: Everything is a mythical, cosmic battle between faith and chance. …

Jasper: So. You’ve got faith over here, right? And chance over there.

Miriam: Like yin and yang.

Jasper: Sort of.

Miriam: Or Shiva and Shakti.

Jasper: Lennon and McCartney!

Kee: [looking at pictures] Look, Julian and Theo.

Jasper: Yeah, there you go! Julian and Theo met among a million protestors in a rally by chance. But they were there because of what they believed in in the first place, their faith. They wanted to change the world. And their faith kept them together. But by chance, Dylan was born.

Kee: [picks up another photo] This is him?

Jasper: Yeah, that’s him. He’d have been about your age. Magical child. Beautiful. Their faith put in praxis.

Miriam: “Praxis”? What happened?

Jasper: Chance. He was their sweet little dream. He had little hands, little legs, little feet. Little lungs. And in 2008, along came the flu pandemic. And then, by chance, he was gone. You see, Theo’s faith lost out to chance. So, why bother if life’s going to make its own choices? …

Miriam: Oh, boy. That’s terrible. But, you know, everything happens for a reason.

 

QUESTION 1: What is meant by “FAITH”?

QUESTION 2: What is meant by “CHANCE”?

QUESTION 3: What is the relationship between the two?

QUESTION 4: How do we see these ideas played out through the character of Theo? What ideas are governing his life at the beginning of the film, and how does this change as the film progresses?

QUESTION 5: How do these ideas relate to the notion of “HOPE” and “HOPELESSNESS”, which are so prevalent in the film?

EXTENSION: Can you think of any other aspects of the film where the ideas of ‘chance’ and ‘faith’ are explored or contrasted?

 

 

 

Question 1: How do you interpret the imagery of the Statue of David?

• Created by Michelangelo, the Statue of David is widely considered to be one of the pinnacles of artistic achievement.
• It is seen by many as a representation of the perfect human form.
• Here, the body has been made ‘lame’ – the left leg is missing. Humanity is crumbling.
• Note the setting – it is isolated, with no context, no people around it – guarded by two dogs. Separated from human society, it has now lost its significance.
• Human achievement only has significance if there is a context for it to be placed within, and if it can be seen as a part of a continued march towards progress.
• It now has little more value, importance or significance than the “plastic…lamp” version that Theo’s mother had in her bathroom.

Question 2: How do you interpret the imagery of Picasso’s Guernica? Consider what it represents, its current setting, and the nature of the scene.

Question 3: How do you interpret the imagery of the flying pig balloon?

Question 4: What importance do all these famous artworks now have? Are they still as significant as they once were?

Question 5: ‘I just don’t think about it.’ What is the importance of this quote?

Question 6: What judgement is passed against Nigel and the ‘elites’ of this society?

 

Below is an edited version of the ‘Ark of the Arts’ sequence. Be aware that the person has messed around with the audio of the sequence, removing most of the dialogue and much of the conversation between Theo and Nigel. However, it still provides a good reference for the imagery of the sequence, and Nigel’s final line:

 

 

 

 

What story is being told in the background of Children of Men? A lot of information can be found in the headlines of the newspapers scattered throughout the film. Here is what some of them say:

• Raid nabs refugees’ weapons cache
• AFRICA DEVASTATED BY NUCLEAR FALL OUT
• U.S. TROOPS FULL ATTACK
• EXTREMIST EXPLOSION A RIGHT ROYAL RIP OFF: CHARLES SHOULD BE THRONE OUT
• MILITIAS OCCUPY CINCINNATI
• CHAOS IN REFUGEE CAMPS
• FERTILITY DRUG KILLS! SURGEON ARRESTED
• HORMONE ATTACKS: VIOLENT REACTION
• 100 Suicides: Nation in Denial
• RUSSIA IN CRISIS: Massive migration
• Police put mosques under surveillance
• Gatherings are forbidden
• BOMBING OF SAUDI PIPELINE DISRUPTS WORLD’S OIL SUPPLY (Photo by Janice Palmer)
• REFUGEES BLAMED FOR INCREASE IN TERROR ATTACKS (Thursday April 6th, 2018)
• SOUTH COAST TOWNS TURNED INTO REFUGEE CAMPS (Tuesday February 11, 2020)
• PM DENIES “TORTURE” OF BRITISH CITIZENS, ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE DISMISSED AS A SHAM
• DIRTY BOMB DETONATED IN MUNICH (Report by Photojournalist Janice Palmer)
• England bans ALL immigration completely
• 25% INFERTILITY RATE (21.12.2008)
• Two years since last baby born
• NO BABY HOPE ADMIT SCIENTISTS
• WAR AND FAMINE LEAD TO MASS MIGRATION
• JANICE PALMER questions Britain’s ethical response to the refugee situation
• MASSIVE MIGRATION
• CHANNEL TUNNEL CLOSED
• All foreigners now ILLEGAL
• Refugees mass on Europe
• MI5 DENY INVOLVEMENT IN TORTURE OF PHOTOJOURNALIST (photo of Janice Palmer. Monday 16.7.2018).

 

Your task is to explain what information is conveyed and what story of the world is being established. To do this you will need to complete two steps:

1. Create a table in which you group together the above headlines around common themes (e.g. internal conflict/civil war; nuclear war; growing xenophobia; infertility; etc.)
2. Write a half-page paragraph response that explains what has happened to this world, based upon the snippets of information contained in these headlines.

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1: Rewrite the following list of themes in your exercise book, rearranging them in order from what you believe to be the LEAST important to the MOST important themes in the film:

 

1. There is a risk, because of how we are living now, that the human race will become infertile.
2. This film isn’t about the future. It’s about right now.
3. This film is about how our civilisation has become desperate and dangerous.
4. We should place our hope in the next generation.
5. We are on our own to fix the world we have broken.
6. Hope shines brighter in a disintegrating world.
7. This is a film about politics, not faith.
8. This is a film about the battle between faith and chance.
9. The theme is hope: how we thrive in its presence and wither in its absence.
10. Human society in crisis will lose its principles and shared humanity.

 

Part 2: For your THREE highest ranked/most important themes, provide a 4 to 6 sentence explanation of how they are explored in the film and why they are important to the overall story, world and the director’s message. Make reference to specific scenes, characters and/or events in each response.