Paper 2

Paper-specific notes

How to approach Paper 2:

• The work is a synonym for any genre.

• Pick the question that makes or will make sense in a minute

• Pick 3 or 2 books, if you know for sure that it will be enough

• Right down as bullet points how the question's topic is portrayed in the books

• Link the point between 2 books and sort them into paragraphs. Put the paragraphs in the logical order of the book events or from general to more specific.

• Write a body paragraph.

• Intro sentence

  • Observation, observation, evaluation (highlighting comparison or stating similarity)

  • Observation, evaluation, observation, evaluation

• Write conclusion

• Write introduction

• The list of words to abuse

  • Therefore, hence, thus

  • Portray, convey, depict, demonstrate, illustrate, show, is perceived, is constructed to show.

  • Conversely, hence, therefore, moreover, nevertheless

• Common mistakes

  • Use present tense, not past tense (NO Satrapi wrote, YES Satrapi depicts it)

  • Oppression vs suppression

  • Oppression of people (that

  • Suppression of the information (preventing information from getting out)

  • NO main character, but YES protagonist

  • NO book

• Persepolis has a physical limitation in how long the dialogues and speeches can be. It thus shows the accent of the impact using the pictures and visualising it, unlike in Fahrenheit 451, where the novel form allows an employee of more literary devices at greater length.

Briefly about each book

• To prepare for paper 2, for the 2 or 3 books that I have decided on, I need to memorise the basic information (author, genre, main features…)

Fahrenheit 451

• Ray Bradbury

• Famous American science fiction novel

• Written when he was a young author

• He more or less combined all his ideas from the short stories

• He wrote it in the basement of a library

• A dystopian science fiction novel

• Core themes

  • Impact of totalitarianism on an individual and the society, as well as how this impact is different on them.

  • Free thought vs censorship

  • Consumerism

  • Digitalisation and technological sensory overload

    • See shells vs the green bullet. The green bullet works like a headphone, communicating knowledge as well, as Motags receive the information he wants. See, shells communicate what the government wants society to hear. In this sense, it works similarly to the TV.

  • Curiosity vs control and how it corresponds with enslavement

• Symbolism style

  • The nurturing and destructive fire

  • Animal and nature similes. Nature stands against society and highlights what is missing from this world. The final chapter opposes the forest with the city.

  • Phoenix and the salamander. Phoenix is one of the emblems of the fire department. Using symbols in this way is relatively ironic because it represents the destruction of old things. However, the city gets destroyed, and dust jackets come to build the new city from the ashes. It portrays how shallow society is because they don’t solve their problems but toss them in the fire. They don’t face their problems.

  • Frequent use of metaphor

  • Limit 3rd person narration

  • Constant allusion to literature

Persepolis

• Memoir in graphic novel form by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian who lives in France, initially written in French, published in 2000/2001 (at the beginning of the 21st century)

• The character is Marji. The author is Marjane Satrapi

• Themes

  • Iranian revolution (religious fanaticism)

  • Cultural identity

  • Satrapi says the book aims to “dispel stereotypes.”

• Illustration style:

  • Heavily simplified or iconic

  • It means that they are more universal and less specific. Easier to identify with

  • There are two perspectives: the author’s narration commenting on the past events and little Marji telling current events.

Andorra

• Andorra is a play written by Swiss author Max Frisch originally in German and published in the early 60s.

  • Comment on CH during the ww2

  • Andorra is a model, not a real country.

• Andri has lived his entire life believing that he is a Jew. Hence, everyone treats him in a certain way. Andri is the Teacher’s biological son.

• Themes

  • Identity

  • Building a life on a lie

  • Racism and anti-semitism