VCE · Text Response
Text Response: rainbwos end suggests charcaters have…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Rainbow’s End suggests characters have little control over their lives. Discuss. Set amidst the oppressive…
Rainbow’s End suggests characters have little control over their lives. Discuss.
Set amidst the oppressive environment of a 1950’s Shepparton, Jane Harrison’s 2005 play ‘Rainbows End’ exposes through realist theatre that Aboriginal individuals autonomy is overridden by the values of a prejudiced society. Following the lives of 3 generations of Aboriginal women, the Dear family, Harrison maintains that this pursuit for justice is forcefully shot down by white male control, furthered by the introductions of the motif of weather as a representation of this barrier of racism. Conversely, Harrison suggests that forceful control can be triumphed by marginalised individuals with a strong sense of identity and belonging. Moreover, Rainbow’s end is a significant testament to the resilience of oppressed communities, revealing the strength of these ‘unsung heroes’.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 92.5%: I am the land. I am the mother of the fish that swim in the Black Sea. I was here before the first stone was…
I am the land. I am the mother of the fish that swim in the Black Sea. I was here before the first stone was raised, before the first sword struck, and I will remain long after empires are dust. I have borne the press of countless footsteps, and I have swallowed the blood of wars. I have seen kindness flicker like fragile dawn, and I have endured the plunge of man into raw, untampered cruelty. Always it is the same: two journeys unfolding upon my skin—one striving toward light, the other sliding into shadow. Each step leaves its mark. Each choice roots itself in me, impossible to erase.
Smoke drags itself across my plains, choking wheat and blackening stone. Armies thunder over me, children scatter across me, mothers bend low to shield the helpless. Feet carve their stories into my soil: mercy etching silver into my veins, betrayal gouging iron scars that no rain can wash away. Some wounds open rivers, others bend trees, some press so deep that entire fields grow crooked, bearing harvests twisted by shame.
When Napoleon’s soldiers marched, frost cracked beneath their boots until the thaw turned it to mud. A farmer, gaunt with hunger, whispered his neighbour’s name for a sack of grain. His children cheered as warm bread filled their hands, but I felt the field sour where betrayal spilled blood. Roots knotted strangely there, and the air thickened with a silence that clung like frost long after the soldiers left. Yet in the same night, another woman dragged her lover into a cellar, risking her life to keep him hidden. Her whispers seeped into the walls, her courage pressed into the very stones beneath her knees. I felt her strength flow into me, silver veins pulsing faintly under a sky heavy with smoke.
Decades later, war returned like a tide I could not hold back. In the Second World War, fire consumed entire villages, burning wood to ash and turning rooftops into embers that fell like dying stars. Yet even here, where silence weighed heavier than smoke, a mother gathered a starving orphan to her chest. Soldiers shoved her hard against a stone wall, her back scraping raw, the child crushed between her ribs and the rock. I felt her pain ripple into me, her bones striking stone as her lullaby trembled into the air. Her song was cracked, broken, but every note sank into my soil, weaving light through smoke. She carried bread crusts, jars of water, arms outstretched to children who were not her own. The heat of the fire, the cold of the nights,
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Emotion, not reason, drives the decision…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, characters who are driven by emotion make misguided decisions which…
In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, characters who are driven by emotion
make misguided decisions which ultimately lead to their downfall, while characters who
make reasoned choices uphold order. The play’s protagonist, Oedipus, embodies the
ideal of a tragic hero, as he has a lack of self-control over his own emotions which leads
to his personal and political demise. Jocasta too is motivated by emotions, yet unlike
Oedipus, she has the capacity to act in the interests of others, rather than just in her own
self interest. Sophocles balances the emotions of Oedipus and Jocasta with Creon, who
represents the voice of reason, and must ultimately reinstate order in Thebes.
Throughout Oedipus the King, Oedipus fails to control his feelings of violent anger, which
causes him to make impulsive decisions with disastrous repercussions. When
unknowingly encountering Laius in the “triple crossroad”, Oedipus’ first reaction to his
irritation with the situation is to resort to unnecessary violence. Rather than peaceably
resolving the road issue, Oedipus allows his rage to guide his actions, and begins to
“strike” the old king “in anger”. This brutal, unchecked fury leads Oedipus to killing Laius
and his companions, thus unwittingly entering into the prophesied cycle of pain and
agony. Sophocles demonstrates that this unthinking submission to emotions continues to
govern the life of Oedipus when he becomes king of Thebes. Oedipus calls upon Tiresias
to reveal the identity of Laius’ murderer, forcing the seer to admit the truth. Yet when
Tiresias finally confesses that Oedipus is the old king’s murderer, the protagonist’s
arrogant rage leads him to dismiss the truth. Proud, vain and wrathful, Oedipus insults the
seer, calling him an “old man”, “senile” and a mere “fraud” who is “blind as a stone” and
cannot be trusted. In his fury, Oedipus effectively shuts out Tiresias and the truth. His
insensible rage culminates in the tragic ending of the play, where Oedipus becomes like a
“maddened beast” upon seeing Jocasta’s body. By using this animalistic metaphor,
Sophocles shows how unthinking Oedipus’ anger has made him. Instead of grieving and
remaining in control of his emotions, Oedipus “rage[s]”, leading him to impulsively blind
himself. Here, the act of extreme violence shows how disastrous it is for characters to
have a poor control over their emotions, as it leads them to making irreversible decisions.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does sunset boulevard encourage the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard encourages viewers to feel empathy for those who commit crimes and break…
Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard encourages viewers to feel empathy for those who commit crimes and break taboos by presenting morally complex characters through a privileged, almost omniscient lens, a birds eye camera angle and a larger piece of information flow then any individual character had access to within the noir. From the very beginning, the audience is invited to understand, rather than to simply judge figures such as Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond, whose actions;though unethical- stem from desperation, disillusionment, and emotional decay, which ultimately help the viewer to empathize with the characters through thematic vulnerability. Wilder’s own experience as an émigré who fled Nazi-occupied Austria deepens this perspective, informing a narrative that explores how isolation and systemic exploitation can distort a person’s morality. However, it does not suggest that the person is fundamentally ‘unethical’ or a ‘criminal,’ instead showing that two things can be true at once. By blurring the line between protagonist and antagonist, the film compels us to question the nature of guilt and sympathy, encouraging empathy not through approval, but through understanding of the cast- moreover; it would be accurate to say that the audience is ‘there’ with the characters rather than ‘being’ a part of the story. They are not ‘woven’ into the story; they are ‘captured’ which is in line with the film making methods of Billy Wilder.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Task Write an analysis of the ways in…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 80%: Following the 2024 #GoldenSlice award presented to River Bakery, owner Carter Chan delivers a carefully crafted…
Following the 2024 #GoldenSlice award presented to River Bakery, owner Carter Chan delivers a carefully crafted open letter addressing the bakery’s customers and the broader public. The letter primarily seeks to explain the implementation of increased surveillance measures, following a surge in customer numbers and a rise in aggressive behaviour. Throughout the letter, Chan presents himself as a calm, responsible, and ethical business owner, blending appeals to logic, emotion, and authority. By openly acknowledging recent service issues and the mistreatment of staff, Chan creates a sense of urgency and moral necessity for change. His approach is aimed at justifying new surveillance policies while also reinforcing community values and protecting his staff.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Task Write an analysis of the ways in…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 70%: Following the 2024 awards to the river bakery in Lamb Ville, store owner Carter Chan gives a powerful open…
Following the 2024 awards to the river bakery in Lamb Ville, store owner Carter Chan gives a powerful open letter designed to address the public- particularly customers of the store. Informing about changes in surveillance to the river bakery. Speaking to customer concerns about stock shortages and about safety concerns sparking surveillance responses- Chan presents himself as a responsible, ethical, and understanding owner of the store, by incorporating different elements of logic, emotion, and ethical behaviours- while also appreciating late delays in their services, Chan creates an environment of a need for change in the river bakery following incidents of employees being insulted on-the-job. By incorporating elements of authority such as police reports and ethical statements- Chan attempts to create a drive for action and support in the cause for a “safer” and “more supported” river bakery.
As the open letter progresses, chan introduces elements of the polices advise, stating how “ CCTV assists in crime prevention, criminal detection and can act as a deterrent against anti-social behaviour.",a matter-of-fact tone linking surveillance with positive features such as crime prevention, leading to safety, and deterrent against antisocial behavior, this technique seems to aim to be a mix of an appeal to authority as well as alliance to authority and logic, with elements of seeking validation for potential changes. This is especially important as chan states that he is strongly against insults with his staff- which links back to the point he mentions about preventing anti-social behavior. By incorporating evidence of police advice, and using a tone of neutral language during statement incorporation- chan creates an effective element of cohesion between himself, the authority figure, and facts; presenting his solution as a logical next step towards the addition of surveillance towards his establishment. Through the use of this technique- chan aims to establish a contention
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title was Honour your voice, it was a…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 95%: Title: Honour Your Voice Your voice is what recognises the structures and the harm they inflict on our country.…
Title: Honour Your Voice
Your voice is what recognises the structures and the harm they inflict on our country. Speaking up and bringing awareness to these systems even when they are built to silence you is honouring that voice. Protest is not sustained by outrage alone, but by acknowledging injustice and hoping for a better world. And in a world where patriarchy reshapes itself to survive, true resistance means not only confronting those in power, but the systems that normalise it and enable misogyny to prosper.
For generations men have held power- in religion, in government, in families- while women have been told to obey, remaining oppressed by the systems that flourish off of their persecution. While we can acknowledge the progress our society has made, it has only been progress within the boundaries that the patriarchal system itself permits- a system watched over by all of you.
Good morning members of parliament. I stand here today not as an expert in policy. But as a young Australian man living inside the systems you preside over. Misogyny has been embedded within my generation, it is normalised and even made profitable to hate, exploit, and silence women. This hateful rhetoric against women- against our mothers, our sisters, and our future daughters- isn’t kept silent. It isn’t whispered behind closed doors, but broadcasted, monetised, and celebrated. And you, members of parliament, have watched it happen. So I ask you, not just to observe, but to act- to use your position, your privilege, and your power to reshape the culture that perpetuates this behaviour- the culture you govern. Change will not come from committees alone, but from conviction.
I know silence feels safer at times, I know it’s easier to ignore these problems. But I also know that we all have that voice in us- that voice that helps us distinguish between right and wrong, between virtue or vice. So members of parliament- honour that voice. Speak when it's safer to remain silent. Speak when no one is listening. Speak now, lest you be remembered for your silence.
We know history. We know that women have been silenced by men for centuries. Denied education, denied the right to vote, denied a voice. And even when their words had such little weight to them- they spoke. They honoured that voice in their head that knew change was inevitable and brought forth the progress we can acknowledge in our society today. But the truth is: the systems that were holding women back then have not been dismantled, only updated.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sunset Boulevard encourage the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Initially, Wilder highlights to the audience to empathize with individuals who breach moral codes, by revealing…
Initially, Wilder highlights to the audience to empathize with individuals who breach moral codes, by revealing past trauma and mistreatment. Norma Desmond, a retired silent films star, in search of regaining her once “stardom.” Joe Gillis, an aspiring director, finds himself in a transactional relationship with Desmond. Joe’s belief he has secured a “pretty good package” establishes his role as a symbol of Hollywood’s transactional nature. Wilder utilizes Joe as a symbol of Hollywood, catalyzing Norma’s mental deterioration, shown through her erratic, and even criminal actions. Wilder encourages the audience to view Norma’s actions through a lens of empathy, stemming from Hollywood’s psychological damage. Wilder employs Joe’s cynical narration as a perspective of Hollywood, observant of the “crumbling” mansion. Joe’s lack of genuine respect, explored through his willingness to compromise his integrity, symbolizes Hollywood’s indifference to individuals who have benefited them. Wilder presents Joe’s self-willed pursuit of financial gain, which leaves
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: You can only be free if I am…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: My name is Ly Long, in Vietnamese my name means phoenix. The Phoenix is a symbol of hope, of rebirth, and of…
My name is Ly Long, in Vietnamese my name means phoenix.
The Phoenix is a symbol of hope, of rebirth, and of freedom. You can not stop a phoenix. When a phoenix is attacked, subjugated, and oppressed, it emerges from the ashes reborn. Tribulations are a part of the cycle, the phoenix needs them in order to emerge from the ashes as a more powerful being. As I reflect on my 88 years in the world, I see how my ancestors gave me the name Long. I have lived according to the ways of the Phoenix.
The frying pan
For my first life, I was always running. When I was only a child I ran from the wars between the colonial french and vietnamese by moving to the highlands with my family, when I was in my thirties I left the city of Hue 10 days before the city was sieged as part of the Tet Offensive. Then on the 29th of April 1975, I had to stop running. With the Vietcong closing in, my brother offered me a way out. The night before the city was engulfed by flames I was offered a way out. Due to my service as an officer in the South Vietnamese military, I was given an opportunity to leave Vietnam, however I would have to also leave my family.
I could not abandon my wife Huong, and three children, my wings may have become free to fly, but alone, I could not fly. I made the decision to stay in apocalyptic post war Vietnam.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Topic: "We Should have faced the world and…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In Shirley Jackson's gothic text, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson explores the idea that one can only…
In Shirley Jackson's gothic text, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson explores the idea that one can only live beyond the oppressive and rigid established order by way of extreme hardship, and even then, it only acts as a fleeting repose. Jackson illustrates how social norms restrict and impose upon individuals that are different utilising the gothic elements of her text, condemns the difficulty associated with breaking free and questions the freedom that comes as a consequence. Through this, Jackson invites her readers to make their own conclusions regarding being ostracised within a small town society, not without subtly coaxing them towards her contention of permanent isolation being impossible and potentially futile.
From the outset of her novel, Jackson showcases the sense of prejudice within small town societies against the prosperous and elucidates to readers the presence of mob-hostility and how this leads to the men having dominion over women according to the social conventions of the time. Ever since Merricat began embarking on her biweekly trips to the town on "Tuesdays" and "Fridays", the oppression of the villagers toward the Blackwoods is blatantly obvious. Jim Donell, a well respected man in the village, the fire chief and a symbol of masculine authority viciously implies to Merricat that the villagers do not want the Blackwoods in the town. Through his repeated phrase claiming "the Blackwoods were "moving away". Further, Jackson utilises his eagerness to "help [them] pack" as long as they "say the word" to drive the message to her readers of the hatred that exists from the villagers towards the Blackwoods, especially coming from the men in their small town society. Jackson continues exploring this hostility through the children and their twisted songs regarding the Blackwood sisters. The repetition of "would you like a cup of tea" from the villager's children exposes the deep rooted hatred that runs deeply within the village. Jackson implies through this gothic trope of male violence that the Blackwoods are a common enemy for the people despite the fact the sisters never outwardly did anything to upset them. As such, Jackson invites her readers to ponder her world from a class division perspective by communicating that Merricat's parents were stereotypical rich oppressive members of society. Jackson explores this idea through the comment said by the sisters' mother "The highway is for common people... and my front door is private" as well as the way John Blackwood "wrote down" the names of people who "owed him money". Through this, Jackson establishes from the very beginning the difficulty for the sisters to break free from society's expectations for them when they are such an integral part of the village's social life. Despite limiting their visits as much as possible, Jackson conveys the notion that the Blackwoods are essential for their villagers - their common enemy.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Shirley Jackson explore the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: In her 1962 gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson explores the ways in which isolation…
In her 1962 gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson explores the ways in which isolation is both a cause and coping mechanism for trauma. Isolation may be utilized to prevent traumatic experiences, or used as a reactionary coping mechanism. Extreme isolation may become a source of trauma due to subsequent unfamiliarity with social conventions. Jackson illuminates the correlative and causative connection between trauma and isolation.
Jackson elucidates how isolation may be utilized as a means to prevent trauma. Merricat drastically isolates herself throughout the text – both physically and mentally – and employs these forms of isolation to minimise her exposure to potentially traumatic experiences. Merricat tells the story from her first-person perspective and thus enables the assertion that she resents the villagers; evident as she wishes them an alliterative “burning, black painful rot that [eats] away from the inside”, as we as that she dreads the village itself. Her lament that “Fridays and Tuesdays were terrible days because [she] had to go into the village” establishes motivation for her physical isolation at the fortified Blackwood house, and further exemplifies Merricat’s employment of isolation as a means to avoid incurring trauma. The torment she faces from the townspeople, particularly the belligerent Jim Donnell and the chanting children, perpetuate her intentional avoidance of the village and paralleled Shirley Jackson’s own experiences with agoraphobia. Merricat’s perspective offers insight into Jackson’s potential agoraphobic experiences, through underpinning their paranoia and feelings of impending doom. Moreover, the personification of the Blackwood house as “built up with layers of Blackwood property [weighted] and stead against the world”, the comfort and sanctity which Merricat derives from her physical isolation is evident. Her mental isolation for which she employs the symbolic moon, explicates the great extent to which Merricat isolates as a means to avoid trauma. Reassuring herself during conversation with Jim that “everything is safe on the moon” and that she is “living on the moon” establishes the moon as a symbol for safety and an idealistic reality, which Merricat intends to utilise as a sanctuary to avoid experiences that may be traumatic. Jackson posits that physical and mental isolation may be means to avoid exposure to traumatic situations.
Jackson exemplifies how self-imposed isolation may be reactionary to trauma. Constance’s wrongful persecution for murder on the villagers behalf serves as traumatic, and motivates her self-imposed physical isolation at the Blackwood home. The physical isolation which Constance inflicts upon herself offers her respite from the torment of the villagers, and is a coping mechanism for the excessive attention she received prior to her seclusion. Whilst secluded, Constance fulfils mid-century American norms, such as cooking, cleaning and housekeeping, despite not being obliged to for a male-figurehead. This implies Constance fulfils these expectations despite her relative isolation to compensate for her ostracization and misguided perception as an “undutiful daughter”. Constance’s experiences parallels the post-war McCarthyism phenomenon, wherein individuals were wrongfully persecuted and prosecuted for communism.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: the price of fame and ambition in hollywood
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Billy Wilder's 1950s film noir, “Sunset Boulevard”, is a scathing denunciation of the Hollywood machine. Set…
Billy Wilder's 1950s film noir, “Sunset Boulevard”, is a scathing denunciation of the Hollywood machine. Set during post-war America, a period which saw a rise in consumerism and the growing threat of television, the identity of cinema was challenged, leading to the unfortunate fates of those who failed to adapt. Additionally, the corrupt and superficial Hollywood scene forces a resort to moral and ethical compromise, for individuals who are fuelled by celebrity stardom and notoriety, and ambition rather than actual career interest. Despite this, the film also suggests that for some lucky people who prioritise fulfilment over fame, success is possible in Hollywood. Overall, Wilder reveals that it is possible to survive in Hollywood, but criticizes the culture of integral sacrifice in the pursuit of fame and fortune for all.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘Creon is not your downfall, no you are…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Sophocles didactic tragedy ‘Oedipus The King’ (429 BCE) delves into the inexorable nature of destiny, emphasising…
Sophocles didactic tragedy ‘Oedipus The King’ (429 BCE) delves into the inexorable nature of destiny, emphasising the limits of human agency against divine powers.
Sophocles displays how a hubristic nature and the inability to reserve reverence for the gods serves as hamartia, leading one to stumble upon their inevitable fate.
The play elucidates the omniscience of the god’s, portrayed through the varying temperaments of those driven by faith versus free will, highlighting the ramifications of attempting to act outside the constraints of divine predestination.
Indeed, Oedipus The King underscores the dichotomy of nobility and destruction within the pursuit of knowledge yet suggests that the only true free will humans possess is the pursuit of the truth.
Sophocles explores the relationship between hubris and fate, alluding that the inability to act with reverence for the divine acts as hamartia and will lead one down the path of tragedy.
Oedipus’ hubristic nature and his inability to abide by and accept the god’s prophecies bestowed upon him were the characteristics that saw him stumble into his predetermined and tragic fate.
Evinced through his attempts to escape his foretold prophecies, by “running, always running” from Corinth, where he believed, his dread-stricken destiny lay, Oedipus’ attempt to “flee” from these prophecies led him to Thebes, which unbeknownst to Oedipus, ironically was him “running” himself into the very destiny he was attempting to avoid. After defeating the Sphinx, a riddle telling creature in control of Thebes, Oedipus assumes the throne as King of Thebe. Upon this the play commences, where from the onset Oedipus’ vain and sanctimonious nature is unveiled.
In the plays beginning, Oedipus, Sophocles tragic hero, carries himself as a superior being, seemingly transcendent of his fellow citizens as he states, “you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus.” Indeed, Oedipus possesses admirable qualities; intelligence, determination and moral conviction, but ultimately it is his hubris that blinds him as Oedipus preserves no humility, respect or reverence for the higher powers and his inferior position amongst the gods.
Firming this belief that he is the bridge between the divine and mortal, Oedipus describes himself as “the lands avenger” and “Apollo’s champion”. These statements illuminate Oedipus’ noble yet vainglorious nature and underlines both his morality through his desire to provide for those around him, but also his inability to be led by and act with reverence to the gods, causing his blindness to his identity. This dramatic irony in which Oedipus is blind to the reality that he himself is “the plague”, the murderer he seeks to strike revenge upon. This paints Oedipus as a paradigm of human greatness and limitation, highlighting how Oedipus’ hubris acts as his hamartia, which led him to ignorantly and unknowingly fulfill the fate he tries to avoid, whilst also driving his ambition and desire to discover the truth.
Sophocles attests to his classic Greek audience the danger hubris provides as a façade of free will and the necessity to accept and follow the prophecies and advice endowed by divine authority.
Sophocles establishes a tension between divine will and human agency and that at it’s core, human fate is predetermined by the gods.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "Least here we do things our way- no one…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Rainbow's End written by Jane Harrison is a play that explores the oppression experienced by an Aboriginal family…
Rainbow's End written by Jane Harrison is a play that explores the oppression experienced by an Aboriginal family and their struggle for proper housing. The play depicts how home is a central element to identity. The play makes clear that physical and spiritual home is very significant to Aboriginal people and does affect and influence their identity.
Through the portrayal of home it represents a sense of purpose and hope for the future. Harrison illustrates this when Papa Dear still has a place at the dinner table, despite not being home in three months is a testament to how committed the Dear family is to family and home. This symbolises Harrisons approval of the comradery formed between the members of the family in shaping identity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does billy wilder interrogate and…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Introduction Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a haunting critique of Hollywood’s treatment of women and…
Introduction
Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a haunting critique of Hollywood’s treatment of women and the restrictive gender expectations of post-war America. The film suggests that women are valued only for their youth, beauty, and subservience, while men retain authority and mobility well into middle age. Through Norma Desmond’s tragic isolation, Joe Gillis’s manipulative opportunism, and Betty Schaefer’s uncertain ambition, Wilder demonstrates how gender roles are not natural but constructed illusions, upheld by both the film industry and society. By using film noir techniques such as chiaroscuro lighting, claustrophobic mise-en-scène, and Joe’s cynical voiceover narration, Wilder reinforces his critique of gender and power. Sunset Boulevard ultimately reveals that these expectations are corrosive, leaving individuals trapped between fantasy and reality.
Paragraph 1 – Norma Desmond and the Burden of Femininity
Norma Desmond embodies the destructive pressures of gender expectations. Once worshipped as a silent film star, she is now dismissed as “washed up” because Hollywood has little use for older women. Norma refuses to accept this rejection, declaring, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small,” but Wilder’s cinematic techniques undermine her insistence. His use of extreme close-ups exaggerates her theatrical expressions, while low-key lighting and heavy shadows create an unsettling atmosphere that frames her as both fragile and grotesque. The mise-en-scène of Norma’s decaying mansion — filled with relics of her past career, dimmed curtains, and even a private screening room — visually represents her imprisonment within outdated ideals of beauty and stardom. Norma’s constant use of makeup, veils, and costume-like gowns highlights how femininity becomes a performance required by society, and the melancholic score that swells in her most delusional moments reinforces her tragic inability to escape this role. Wilder portrays Norma not simply as vain but as a victim of an industry that equates a woman’s worth with eternal youth.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: According to ‘High Ground’ reconciliation…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Stephen Johson’s 2020 revisionist historical drama High Ground reflects on the challenge of reconciling a past…
Stephen Johson’s 2020 revisionist historical drama High Ground reflects on the challenge of reconciling a past where the massacre of a mob of Yolngu tribespeople establishes the deep divisions between white interlopers and traditional land owners. Rupturing the continuity of Yolngu life, the 1919 massacre elicits a violent response from the survivor Baywarra whose retaliatory campaign against the perpetrators twelve years after the atrocity is motivated by vengeance. The paradoxical response counters Grandfather Darrpa’s adherence to the system of Makarrata and its enshrined practices of consistency and balance. Appropriating a form of justice more in keeping with the values of his adversaries, Baywarra’s quest for justice suggests that vindication is the means through which reconciliation can be achieved. The violence that follows exemplifies the transformative impact of colonisation on Yolngu culture. Symbolising the broader narrative of colonial conquest, the frontier setting of East Arnhem Land becomes the site where seemingly incompatible cultures clash. Observing the conflict play out as the quest to silence Baywarra intensifies, Gutjuk’s allegiances are torn. Subscribing in the end, to the philosophy of a grandfather whose wisdom is reflected in his deference to the natural world, Gutjuk’s decision to reject the violence associated with British justice and in turn his uncle, and to adopt the practice of Makarrata offers a way forward where healing perhaps, suggests Samuel Johnson, can lead to understanding and in turn, reconciliation.
The inconsistency of laws that purport to enforce order and protect both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples is evident in the brutal massacre scene that interrupts the daily rituals and practices of the Yolngu clan. Stephen Maxwell Johnson exposes the fraught nature of justice as the pursuit of two First Nations men wanted for killing a station owner’s cattle results in the brutal massacre of a tribe of seventeen men, women, and children. The indiscriminate murder of the clanspeople is initiated by Eddy’s first shot. Believing that Baywarra is about to attack, his undisciplined actions result in the impulsive shooting of Baywarra. The contrasting midshot of Baywarra, spear in hand, and the cross-shot of Eddy, rifle cocked, highlight the power imbalance that exists as the young hunter attempts to protect his nephew Gutjuk. The barrage of shots that follow generates mayhem and disorder, and the carefully planned mission to bring in the two assailants is exposed as a failure. Not only does Johnson expose the arbitrary application of justice at the hands of those who do not value the lives of the Yolngu people, but he also examines how those who initiate violence can exist with impunity, protected by the laws that they have violated. Confronting viewers with a revisionist interpretation of Australia’s colonial history Johnson challenges the myth of settlement, and in telling this truth, initiates the reconciliation process. Recasting the narrative, scenes of brutality invoke discomfort. Close-up shots of carnage reveal the damage done by indiscriminate and erratic gunfire. Johnson presents the white settlers as debased and uncivilized and in turn, represents the humanity of the Yolngu clan. The familial and cultural dynamic that is shown at the billabong depicts the kinship practices that unite the Yolngu as a community. Shattering the continuity of a way of life that is ritualistic and highly organised, the crime results in the manufacturing of an alibi. The pact between Moran, Eddy, and a reluctant Travis, exemplifies a resistance to speaking the truth, articulating, all the more urgently the importance of reconciliation for an audience of contemporary viewers unfamiliar with a narrative that counters the story of peaceful settlement.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Sunset Boulevard, characters are mainly…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: Billy Wilders film noir Sunset Boulevard, unmaskes the juxtaposition between characters and their motivations to…
Billy Wilders film noir Sunset Boulevard, unmaskes the juxtaposition between characters and their motivations to not just set foot, but also remain within the Hollywod scene. However, Wilder further decrypts this idea by presenting characters such as Betty, whose motivations lie with personal fullfilment rather than fame or money.
The pursuit of money in Sunset Boulevard drives individuals to trade off their dignity for financial gain, encompassing their relationships. At the beginning of the film, financial stability seems to be unheard of for anyone who isn’t feauturing on the front page of the news, which then encourages the behaviour of leeching off someone else and relying on their generosity and hospitality to give hand out’s. Joe Gillis, once a “well known screenwriter”, has since turned into an overlooked and inferior past prodigy who is clowned and undervalued within the Hollywood film industry “Perhaps the reason I hated Bases Loaded is that I knew your name. I'd always heard that you had some talent” , exposes the amount his career within Hollywood has degraded overtime. Furthermore after trying to scab the money needed to pay off his car and failing, he then goes on to develop his loss of individuality by relying on Norma to parent him and buy all his necessities which exaggerates his loss of personal dignity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: how does Wilder portray the world as an…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard reveals the tragic reality that the world is mostly imperfect and…
Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard reveals the tragic reality that the world is mostly imperfect and flawed. Set during the rise of the American Dream and consumerism, in a film industry succeeding the silent film era, Sunset Boulevard is a monochromatic gothic film noir film that exposes the duplicity of Hollywood and the dangers of unbridled star adulation. Wilder portrays the world people live in as mostly flawed through the lens of the mendacious film industry of the 1950s. Moreover, he explores the manipulation of other characters in his film who consist of his flawed world. However, Wilder propounds that a more perfect world may exist, and a generation of young Hollywood hopefuls can lead it out of darkness.
Wilder presents the world of the 1950s as mostly flawed through the corrupt, mendacious film industry. The imperious Norma Desmond a victim of the Star System, is a resounding, yet tragic example of the horrific effects of imperfection and flaw in a profit-driven industry. The artificial characterisation of a Hollywood star is grotesquely exemplified through the terrifying visual of masks, straps and bandages. The Frankenstein's-monster-esque imagery of the bygone star who is a ''smashed idol'' held together and refixed in order to perform for ''cameras'' that will ''never turn'', is a sobering representation of the devastating impacts of a mendacious film industry. In post WW2, where every industry strive to revive the American economy by increasing profit margins, the last semblances of humanity in every indutry was ravaged, and Hollywood was no exception. A film industry where "looks" mattered, actors were fetishished for their external beauty and glamour. This tragic truth is poetically reflected in Norma's final descent down the staircase of her hermetic mansion. In her descent, where the dramatic chromaticism of the dissonant tango leitmotif increases the sense of psychological decay and fateful tragedy features a slow-motion shot where Norma drifts past a crowd of enraptured but horrified onlookers. Seemingly unperturbed by the eyes trained on her, Norma is almost comfortable in the surveillance, illustrating the desensitisation of Hollywood stars to the constant critical gaze of the audience. In fact, Desmond wholeheartedly embraces the pervasive attention of the public- breaking the fourth wall, she directly addresses the audience, the "wonderful people out there in the dark". In this uncomfortable moment, Wilder's intentions are twofold: he forces the audience to consider their own accountability in an industry whose survival relies on the voyeuristic devotion of an audience, and simultaneously propels the audience to feel the same sense of invasion as Hollywood stars do, as Norma Desmond, who the viewers have watched with morbid interest throughout the film, suddenly appears to have been watching them too. Thus, Wilder exposes the flawed system of the film industry where actors are dehumanised and commodified to mere pawn in Hollywood's profit-driven agendas, a salient truth resemblant in numerous industries of the 1950s.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard shows the pursuit of fame…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Personifying ambition as a corrosive Architect of identity Wilder he contextualizes the hidden realities of moral…
Personifying ambition as a corrosive Architect of identity Wilder he contextualizes the hidden realities of moral integrity in the construction of destructive behaviors. Immediately framing a film noir a disturbing amalgamation of fantasy in sobering realism as the opening with Joe's robes and a messy kitchen exposing the cynical archetype of inevitable tragedy in being “three payments behind.” Foregrounding the metaphor of his car as “losing it”is thus similar to "losing his leg” length water up on ease for struggling screenwriters commodified by the antithesis of studio systems with his car illustrating loss of autonomy and the loss of Joe’s car is a ‘matter of life and death’ that resolutely deforms him into an item of Norma’s affluence possession, as fame is too often synonymous with prostitution. Similarly swimming pools representing glamour as employment of a high angle of a floating corpse exposed to
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Born a Crime is about taking advantage of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah explores the reality of growing up in a system that branded him and his family as…
In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah explores the reality of growing up in a system that branded him and his family as victims before they even had a choice. Apartheid laws, poverty, and domestic abuse all worked against them, and on paper, they were clearly oppressed. Yet Noah resists framing his life as one defined only by victimhood. Through Patricia’s defiance, his own adaptability, and the way he tells his story with humour, the memoir argues that while they were victims of circumstance, they refused to see themselves that way. Instead, Noah portrays survival, resilience, and creativity as more important than victimhood.
At a structural level, apartheid itself victimised Noah’s family. Trevor describes how the regime “made the crime of my existence” by outlawing mixed-race relationships. His very birth positioned him as evidence of his mother’s defiance and his father’s risk. The family lived under constant threat of police intervention: Patricia would walk across the street if she saw police approaching, sometimes even pretending she didn’t know her own son. This captures the absurdity of their victimhood: they were criminalised for simply existing together. Yet Noah’s choice to recount these moments with irony rather than self-pity—“my mom always said I was her shadow”—shifts the tone. He acknowledges the injustice, but frames it as part of a larger story of survival, not as the end of their identity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent do the characters find…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ (1962) explores a haunting and psychologically intricate…
Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ (1962) explores a haunting and psychologically intricate gothic narrative that interrogates the mechanisms of power and marginalisation within a deeply conformist society. Situated within the socio-historical context of postwar America – a period marked by the reassertion of traditional gender roles – Jackson critiques how societal structures systematically disempower those who deviate from normative expectations, particularly women. Through the figures of Merricat and Constance, Jackson examines the paradox of isolation as both a symptom of social exclusion and a site of autonomy. The novella further examines traditional power structures through the figure of Charles, whose attempt to reassert patriarchal authority is swiftly rejected. In the aftermath of social destruction, the sisters’ self-imposed seclusion becomes a form of resistance, illustrating Jackson’s unsettling proposition: that in a world determined to render them powerless, those who are most marginalised may ultimately reclaim agency by rejecting it all together.
Through the characters of Merricat and Constance, Jackson explores how isolation functions paradoxically as both a consequence of social rejection and a means of asserting personal agency, revealing that even in a world determined to render them powerless, the sisters reclaim a limited but meaningful form of control. The Blackwood sisters are socially exiled due the villager’s suspicion following the poisoning of their family. The exclusion is represented in the Harris boy’s mocking chant – “Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?” – a line that haunts the novel as a grotesque echo of domestic normalcy repurposed to ridicule and marginalize. Jackson’s first-person narration, filtered entirely through Merricat’s perspective, reinforces the insularity of the sisters’ space; the outside is perceived as threatening and malicious while the home becomes a domain of ritual and imagined control. Personified as having a “gaunt high look” and a place that “still held anger”, the Blackwood estate itself is a gothic domain – both a sanctuary and a prison – closed off from “the path and the fence…to the highway and the creek”. This imagery reflects the duality of isolation as although it protects the Blackwoods, it simultaneously confines them. Following the townspeople’s violent attack on the house in the aftermath of the fire, a gothic symbol of cleansing, which leaves it “a nightmare of black and twisted wood”, the sisters do not flee or surrender. Instead, they inhabit the ruins, transforming their isolation into a self-contained universe that no longer depends on external validation. Merricat suggests that the decaying Blackwood home is “a castle, turreted and open to the sky”, highlighting how a space once defined by decay and vulnerability becomes a site of sovereignty and self-made power “on the moon”, detached from societal control. Though socially erased and demonised, the Merricat and Constance reclaim power through emotional dependence and self-contained reality, as Jackson critiques the oppressive societal norms of her time and reveals resistance in unorthodox forms.
Jackson critiques traditional power structures through Charles Blackwood, entering the
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "In Twelfth Night, love is closely linked…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Shakespeare utilises the quality of self indulgence in order to illustrate the cynacism of romantic love. Thus…
Shakespeare utilises the quality of self indulgence in order to illustrate the cynacism of romantic love. Thus exhibiting, that self centred desire may lack constancy in comparison to selfless love. Duke Orsino portrays himself as a noble Duke from the onset of the play, and instantly takes on the demeanour of a self indulgent and rather absurd lover. Orsino lounges in his palace. He states that if "Music be the food of love, play on". Shakespeare's use of a metaphor, allows for a rhetorical effect. The use of this allows the confronting introduction of Orsino's obsessive and self indulgent love, while also He later states fantasies and intense nature of love.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Prompt: “Discuss how Sunset Boulevard…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Context Set in the fading glamour of 1950s Hollywood, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard critiques a film industry…
Context
Set in the fading glamour of 1950s Hollywood, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard critiques a film industry consumed by ego, desperation, and illusion. As the golden age of cinema transitions into something colder and more commercialised, Wilder reveals the film industry’s ruthless treatment of aging performers and the rapid erasure of past icons. As silent cinema gave way to talkies, many once-beloved stars found themselves obsolete, discarded by a system obsessed with novelty and youth.
Contention:
Wilder presents fame as deeply unstable, showing how quickly it evaporates and how destructive the loss of recognition can be. Through characters who desperately cling to past success, he critiques a culture that grants celebrity temporarily but offers no lasting loyalty. However, Wilder also reveals that fame itself is not inherently corrupting—what proves dangerous is the inability to let go of it.
Signposting Arguments:
Firstly, Wilder illustrates how Hollywood quickly forgets those who are no longer useful, especially aging performers. Secondly, he explores how the obsession with past fame leads to self-delusion and moral decline. However, he also suggests that the desire for fame becomes most toxic when individuals define their worth solely through it.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘Sunset Boulevard is more concerned with…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, a self-reflexive hyperreal representation of the Hollywood star system, fusing the…
Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, a self-reflexive hyperreal representation of the Hollywood star system, fusing the fatalism of film noir with the haunting grandeur of the gothic to explore the conflict of truth and fiction in Hollywood. Whilst Wilder scrutinises and exposes the corruption of truth within Hollywood, he ultimately highlights a potential to see beyond the fictional realm of Hollywood, providing a beacon of hope for truth. Firstly, Wilder reframes the fictional glamour of Hollywood to expose the corrupted, rotten realties that lie within it, Moreover, he also illuminates the manipulative control of truth held by corrupted individuals in positions of power for their self-serving desires. Nonetheless, despite the overarching fiction and façade present in Hollywood, Wilder challenges its perceived omnipotence by highlighting the potential for authenticity and truth to flicker through fiction
The settings of Sunset Boulevard transform Hollywood itself into a subject of scrutiny, where fictional spaces of glamour are reframed to expose their hidden realities. Through the brutal depiction of Sunset Boulevard in the gutter and Joe’s body in the pool, Wilder documents the artifice, revealing truth in the very spaces designed to conceal it. In Joe’s Cynical posthumous narration, reflective of film noir, he says “but before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion… maybe you’d like to hear the facts, the whole truth.” This suggests a world where truth and fiction are indistinguishable, as he implies the story will be “distorted” and “blown out of proportion” showcasing the notion of Hollywood as a world where reality is often circumvented. Moreover, Wilder exposes the rotten realities resting beneath Hollywood through the opening shot of the film. He frames ‘Sunset Boulevard’ pained on the gutter in a close up shot, and the camera moving swiftly through the slick, dirty streets of the crumbling remains of old Hollywood. By using the real street, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, Wilder reveals it to be a dilapidated, deadly place, with the very notions of shattered dreams and fame that it conjures. It is showcased as a cautionary tale from the start, given the ominous, film noir laced opening of an urban murder, a staple of film noir, with a dead Joe Gillis narrating a macabre flashback of his Hollywood failure from beyond the grave. Hollywood is villainously framed as a place where millions of dreams (and dreamers) die to please a few in the exploitative industry. By reframing the glittering surface of Hollywood as a site of distortion and death, Wilder makes clear that his artistic intention is not to indulge in the fiction, but rather to expose and dismantle it, exposing the raw, disheartening truth that lies within the façade.