VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Protest title: "Its time"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: Title: “Its time” Good morning everyone, My name is Amanda Smith and I am one of the student representatives…
Title: “Its time”
Good morning everyone,
My name is Amanda Smith and I am one of the student representatives for my school, Heartleigh High. Today I stand in front of you all in this debate to discuss the daily struggles of sexism against women in our society. While society prides itself on progressive values, sexism remains an insidious presence, deeply embedded within our institutional structures and social hierarchies. Women are continuously being discounted, underappreciated and criticised on the basis of gender rather than ability and knowledge. The effects are ongoing till this day, and it is incredibly tragic to first hand witness the impact of this issue. Such outdated ideology is sometimes hidden behind tradition,culture and professionalism, but it has one purpose, to keep women fro achieving the same power and respect as men. History plays a significant role such as the women’s suffrage movement. Power is at the bottom of this. When men occupy positions such as business men or political leaders, they make the rules whereas women don’t receive the same respect, constantly belittles and unseen like the black sheep form all the white. Such power imbalance structures are unethical, they keep the effects of sexism invisible, making it harder to destroy. I stand before you to step up for women and demand change, it’s time to put a stop to this issue now.
Perhaps the finest illustrations of sexism can be seen in the double standards that continue to exist in everyday life. We see a persistent gender dichotomy in how leadership is perceived. A man’s assertiveness is celebrated as initiative, yet when a woman mirrors that same confidence, she is marginalised with labels such as “bossy” or “hysterical”. These double standards reflect in schools too, girls are repeatedly told to cover up because their clothing is distracting. Distracting to who? Rather than teaching boys to value girls, we are consistently shamed for being in our own bodies. These rules are not to ensure learning, they teach girls to be silent, obedient and to take up less space whilst apologise for simply being. In this day and age, its ridiculous how past historical rules are still alive today.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “In Twelfth Night, love is both delightful…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night presents the idea of love as an unstable force that both enables…
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night presents the idea of love as an unstable force that both enables personal fulfilment as well as cause detrimental consequences within the play. While the delightfulness of love is shown towards the end of the play through Viola, Shakespeare demonstrates that love can also be destructive through the characters such as Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio, and Antonio. In the denouement of the play, Shakespeare’s restoration of social equilibrium, contrasted with Feste’s final commentary, reinforces the notion that love is powerful yet frequently irrational and capable of producing destructive consequences.
Shakespeare initially presents love as a destructive force that overpowers reason through Orsino and Antonio. Orsino’s metaphorical declaration at the beginning of the play “If music be the food of love, play on!” demonstrate how he is infatuated with the idea of being in love rather than loving Olivia herself. Additionally, the imagery of consumption presents love as something that must be continuously satisfied, foreshadowing the excess and social instability that characterise the chaotic and unstable world of Illyria. Orsino’s continues by further confessing his excessive approach to love through his demand for the “excess of it”, revealing his desire to indulge in love until he reaches emotional saturation. Shakespeare also reveals complexities of love through Antonio’s unwavering adoration of Sebastian. He demonstrates his love for Sebastian as he pleads “If you will not murder me of my love, let me be your servant”, revealing to the extent to which he is willing to sacrifice his identity for an opportunity to serve Sebastian. The extreme language of “murder” and willingness to be Sebastian’s “servant” illustrate how his excessive love erodes his perception of self-worth and equality. Furthermore, Antonio’s attachment to Sebastian is highlighted when Antonio reflects that his desire is “more sharp that a filed steel” presenting his love as forceful, painful, and difficult to restrain. Antonio’s devotion becomes increasingly excessive as he insists that “danger shall seem sport” reinforcing how his courtly love causes him to overlook danger and act irrationally. Through both Antonio and Orsino, Shakespeare demonstrates that excessive love can overpower reason, whether through self-indulgence or self-sacrifice, ultimately presenting love as a destructive force.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: The Choice
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: A thick layer of grey dust stuck to my skin. The tarpaulin covers, makeshift tin stores, and endless crowds…
A thick layer of grey dust stuck to my skin.
The tarpaulin covers, makeshift tin stores, and endless crowds of sweat and grime. My mother reminded me to cover my mouth, the thin scarf doing little to block the air. Below us were rows and rows of every type of vegetable I’d never seen. Buckets of small jumping frogs, crabs and an odd collection of bugs. My brows furrowed, not in judgement but in contemplation. Their shouts echoed, every seller insisting we buy their fresh tomatoes or bright green okras. My mother’s familiar voice mingled with theirs — bidding, scoffing, giving in, or winning.
“This is how I always used to do it” she was proudly holding the bag of 30-rupee beans. We only saved 20 rupees. It was equivalent to saving 4c per litre at our local petrol station, that;s how I made sense of it. To her, this was simply coming back. To me, this was treading around a world that I’d never lived in before.
The night before, she’d told me we’d all have to wake up early for the morning market. She said all the cheapest and freshest foods would be gone by 9 am. Dragging myself into my uncle’s car, we drove to the main ‘city’. I groaned as usual. I didn’t choose to move around crowds of many, squeezing my way through tight alleys and walkways. Avoiding puddles with strange smells, asking a store owner where the vegetable section was. I complained on the car ride back. I hadn't come all the way back home just to spend my days buying all the different, exotic foods my mum had been craving for 13 years. I didn’t understand that to her, to my parents, it was like being starved of the beach for that many years — an impossible feat for most Aussies. A choice they had made for me.
All I wanted, all I’d thought this would be, was going around to all the aunties, uncles and cousins. Given meals, gifts and chatting by the fire till the crickets awoke. Shopping for clothes in all the different stores, trying the street food and visiting the beautiful mountain-sides. My expectations hadn’t been met yet, and I felt like my parents were being selfish.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: art can tell truths that words cannot' in…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Art and imagery holds many truths which expose what words cannot. Matt Ottley's multimodal work of literature…
Art and imagery holds many truths which expose what words cannot. Matt Ottley's multimodal work of literature "Requiem for a Beast" suggests that spoken and real words of guilt show less exposure to mass impact on Australia's past in its darkest of histories, but evokes that art and imagery represent more defying answers to painful truths which lie on Australian soil. Matt Ottley presents the father's story, a common contender fueling the scars already formed on the Australian outback, therefore phases to the depiction of the "beast" as an opponent against what textual art defines the boy's internal and external fear, plus the dark recurring and obscured imagery paired with the Elder Lady serves a discussion of guilt and pain in which truths are unravelled.
In Ottley's early chapters, it is seen that some individualistic natures, an viewed a scared personality to the outback that faced harsh of fields of oppression by the events the Stolen Generations of First Nation's peoples. The father's story of the Aboriginal boy on the bridge asks the do-or-die situation the father had on hand, where the head stockman Mick, a "friend to the boy's father, threw an aboriginal kid off the bridge while all others and his father were "silent" and did "nothing". This event parts the father to the days before his son grows up to become a ringer like him. The boy overhears the father's story when he speaks out the truth in the subliminal entrapment and pain of darkness infused with guilt took on his father, speaking the words spill out "I wish I could go back and make it all turn out different" This encapsulates the painful regret the father's action for which fuels the intergenerational scars of the Aboriginal boy's family and the Stolen Generations itself. Ottley presents a supplementary view that words and images, aid to create drastic truths about Australian history and impact on future generations.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: title: What matters most Stimulus: “Be…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 82.5%: You're not supposed to matter that much. Chipped mirrors, fluorescent lights and cubicle doors that don’t…
You're not supposed to matter that much. Chipped mirrors, fluorescent lights and cubicle doors that don’t quite lock properly, yet you carry the girls who can no longer carry the weight of the world in their chests.
You remember this one girl. You first met her in year 10. She was one of the ‘bus girls,’ the early arrivals with no place else to go. She would come too early and plop down on your cold tiles, while music that held too much emotion filled her ears. Sometimes she would cry, and sometimes she would sing along to whatever she was listening to, and you would hold her all the same.
The ‘loud’ ones would come in around 15 minutes later, spraying too much perfume, gossiping as if your cold tiles aren't listening, and fixing their hair and makeup before the bell demanded their presence somewhere else in the school.
But you noticed the ‘bus girl’ more. She would wait for them to leave, feet up on your closed toilet lid so as to not be seen, and breath held so as to not make a single sound.
You wondered why she waited. She was different from the rest. Those who waited for the bell to go or who waited for their friends to arrive.
She waited for the hallway to become quiet enough for her to walk through it alone. Because that's what always mattered to her. Hiding behind the curtains, utterly unaware of her value.
She seemed to believe that if nobody saw her, nobody could misunderstand her; if nobody heard her, nobody could laugh. As though being unseen was the same as being safe.
Eventually you realised it was because classrooms demanded performance, hallways demanded confidence, and everywhere else in school felt like a stage, but you, you let her be human. You let her be the one to matter most for once. In your silence, she could finally exist without having to prove she deserved to.
You would see her tear-streaked face and shaking hands when she came in sometimes. But you never asked her to hide them or demand happiness from her as the rest of the school did.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Sunset Boulevard, Wilder suggests that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: In his biting 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, director Billy Wilder provides a cynical critique of the booming…
In his biting 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, director Billy Wilder provides a cynical critique of the booming film industry. While Hollywood fosters a predatory environment that incites its creatives to worship its corrupt ideologies of wealth and glory, individuals concurrently exploit each other in pursuit of prospering in the industry. Wilder ultimately reveals that creatives who pursue the glamorised facade face tragic downfalls, while a minority of insiders remain grounded and moral within the toxic world.
Wilder establishes Hollywood’s exploitative milieu that indoctrinates its creatives to aspire towards its alluring facade of fame and glory. The opening scene depicts a slow, and extended camera pan as the credits roll along the pavement. By prolonging the credits and forcing the audience to sit with each name stamped into the street, Wilder evokes a colossal graveyard of names. This magnifies the extensive exploitation Hollywood cultivates, revealing its systematic corruption that has impacted everyone within the industry. Compounding this, at the site of the homicide, newspapermen tightly crowd around Joe’s body blocking the police from restoring order. Here, Wilder frames the journalists as overpowering the law, which crystallises an industry dominated by fabricated stories over truth. This underscores that Hollywood manufactures its own reality, and those within it are fed a distorted perception of success. Furthermore, Wilder utillises an underwater shot of Joe’s face, sharp and clear, while the crowd above ripples and distorts through the water. This juxtaposes Joe’s clear vision of the “American Dream”, which he only comprehends after death, with the clouded vision of industry members peering over him. Thus Wilder reveals that the mirage Hollywood sustains is only seen through once it is too late. As Joe enters Paramount studios, the towering gates frame the studio as a gated community that only admits those that present subjective value to the industry. Here, Wilder accentuates the restrictive attitude of the entertainment industry that only accepts creatives who they can profit off. Layering this, the interior of Sheldrake’s office is lined with tokens of triumph with an absence of familial souvenirs. This reflects Hollywood’s toxic expectation that industry members must prioritise their career over any other aspects of life, exposing how all consuming Hollywood is. At its core, Wilder crystallises the unethical nature of the entertainment industry that skews the perceptions of its members, compelling them to pursue the unattainable notions of glory Hollywood promotes.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Orbital, the act of witnessing the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Samantha Harvey’s novella ‘Orbital’ presents witnessing Earth from space as a transformative experience that…
Samantha Harvey’s novella ‘Orbital’ presents witnessing Earth from space as a transformative experience that extends beyond passive observation. Through the astronauts’ alien vantage point, Harvey reveals how viewing the planet disrupts familiar perceptions of time, identity and humanity’s place within the universe. Ultimately, Harvey suggests that observing Earth from afar transforms the astronauts’ understanding of existence, confronting them with both humanity’s insignificance and the profound beauty of life.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Listen and learn
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: Section B Listen and learn The acrid scent of gardening supplies and flourishing moss fill my nose as I guide…
Section B
Listen and learn
The acrid scent of gardening supplies and flourishing moss fill my nose as I guide your early hand through a crowd in which no face is recognisable. My grandchild, we both stand here now, in a shop that no longer operates under my name. I despair for your future, now seeing how I have contributed to the collapse of the lucky country, no longer so lucky. I beg you now, as young and amateurish as you are in these days, you must listen to me. Sit here and learn from me, as I failed to do so all those years ago.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framework 2: Writing about protest •…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: Standing Up to Power Transcript: The people versus Borden: October 20th media address [reporters clamoring]…
Standing Up to Power
Transcript: The people versus Borden: October 20th media address
[reporters clamoring]
(Court Officer): The defendant has time for a few questions.
(Reporter): Miss Borden! Over here! Guilty or not Guilty?
(Defendant): That’s for the court to decide. If they find me guilty of painting a wall, they’re welcome to hang me for it.
(Reporter): Why that image? Why paint that?
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Change is unwelcome in We Have Always…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: The silver dollars Merricat buries beneath the Blackwood garden, and the book she nails to a tree in its woods,…
The silver dollars Merricat buries beneath the Blackwood garden, and the book she nails to a tree in its woods, are not sentimental keepsakes but acts of magical legislation, an attempt to arrest time itself. Shirley Jackson's Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle initially appears to confirm its narrator's conviction that change is a contamination to be warded off through ritual and repetition. Yet Jackson complicates this reading: Merricat does not merely resist change, she manufactures it, poisoning her own family to engineer the transformation that permits her fantasy of permanence, so that what the novel ultimately renders unwelcome is not change itself but change authored by anyone other than Merricat. Tracing this shift from superstitious preservation, to violent authorship, and finally to the village's mythologising of catastrophe into timeless legend, Jackson interrogates the fiction that any guarded domestic world can remain genuinely unchanged.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Sophocles presents human suffering as an…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 95%: Set against the rigorous sociopolitical landscape of fifth-century BCE Athens, where the stability of the polis…
Set against the rigorous sociopolitical landscape of fifth-century BCE Athens, where the stability of the polis remained intimately connected to reverence for divine authority, Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus the King serves as a sobering indictment of human fallibility. By juxtaposing the apparent enlightenment of mortal reasoning with the inexorable machinations of divine destiny, Sophocles exposes the precariousness of human authority and the ontological limitations of mortal existence. Nevertheless, the playwright complicates absolute fatalism by presenting autonomous agency as both an unwitting instrument of moira and a means through which suffering is intensified. Ultimately, Sophocles reveals that while divine destiny establishes the immutable conditions of tragedy, humanity's inherent epistemic vulnerability and freely chosen actions shape the devastating experience of its consequences.
Sophocles situates human suffering within a predetermined cosmic framework, presenting Oedipus’ anguish as the inevitable consequence of a fate that human agency cannot ultimately evade. As the Corinthian messenger initially seeks to deliver the passing of Polybus, Sophocles constructs the Messenger as a catalyst for Oedipus’ tragic peripeteia. The Messenger destabilises Oedipus’ assumed paternal lineage by revealing that “Polybus was nothing to you […] not in blood.” Although Polybus’ death appears to confirm Oedipus’ successful circumvention of cosmic order, temporarily alleviating his suffering, the Messenger’s benevolent intervention paradoxically accelerates the revelation of an already fulfilled Moira. Within the fourth agon, Sophocles renders the Shepherd as a participant whose compassionate intervention inadvertently facilitates the fulfillment of divine prophecy. Upon being interrogated by Oedipus, the Shepherd retrospectively recounts his compassionate decision to preserve the infant’s life, revealing that “[He] pitied the little baby, master, hoped he’d take him off to his own country, far away, but he saved him for this, this fate”. The Shepherd's pity becomes the very condition through which the prophecy unfolds. Yet Sophocles does not condemn compassion itself; rather, he exposes the tragic disjunction between moral intention and catastrophic consequence. Benevolence offers no immunity from moira, revealing that suffering need not arise from deliberate wrongdoing. Additionally, Sophocles employs visual dramaturgy to foreshadow Oedipus’ impending anagnorisis, as the titular protagonist “strains to see” the approaching Shepherd “[who] enters slowly, reluctant to approach the king”. Oedipus’ determination to ‘see’ the approaching Shepherd dramatises his tragic myopia, as his voluntary pursuit of genealogical truth inadvertently precipitates the belated anagnorisis through which his predetermined suffering becomes fully apparent. The Shepherd’s gradual approach stages Oedipus’ impending recognition through dramatic pacing where the son of Laius will be confronted with his tragic fate. Ultimately, the Shepherd precipitates Oedipus’ anagnorisis by exposing the corruption of his oikos and his unwitting patricide.
Confiding in Jocasta, Oedipus retrospectively recounts his flight from Corinth, unwittingly revealing how his autonomous attempt to circumvent moira facilitates his fulfillment. Moreover, Oedipus describes his “abandonment” of Corinth as guided “by the stars”, where he was “always running toward some place where [he] would never see the shame of all those oracles come true.” Ironically, Sophocles constructs a semantic field of displacement through ‘abandoned’, ‘running’ and ‘toward’, foregrounding Oedipus’ desperate assertion of autonomous agency in his futile attempt to circumvent moira. Yet the iterative repetition of “running, always running” exposes the futility of his attempted escape, as his physical departure inadvertently directs him towards the fulfillment of moira. Furthermore, the celestial imagery of ‘by the stars’ symbolically situates Oedipus’ apparent freedom beneath an overarching cosmic order, exposing the tragic paradox whereby his efforts to circumvent prophecy become instrumental to its fulfilment. Thus, Sophocles elucidates the paradox of mortal autonomy within an inexorable cosmic framework, whereby freely chosen actions unwittingly facilitate the fulfillment of divine prophecy and its attendant suffering.
Sophocles complicates the inevitability of human suffering by revealing how mortal agency intensifies the consequences of an already fulfilled moira. Oedipus' combative self-assurance transforms his legitimate pursuit of civic salvation into an instrument of personal devastation.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: We Have Always Lived in the Castle…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Section A Written and set in 1960's North America, Shirley Jackson channels her own social isolation into We Have…
Section A
Written and set in 1960's North America, Shirley Jackson channels her own social isolation into We Have Always Lived in the Castle, suggesting that whilst detachment from a community can provide comfort to those who seek to avoid social interaction it eventually will lead to a degenerating lifestyle of unhappiness. Furthermore, Jackson critiques those who settle for isolation, suggesting that a community must remain cohesive to prevent individuals from becoming unhappy.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: 2024 VCE EXAM SECTION B
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 72.5%: SECTION B – FINDING MY WAY There are many different options in life. So many different paths to take. But how…
SECTION B – FINDING MY WAY
There are many different options in life. So many different paths to take. But how do we know which one to take? The harsh truth is that we don't. We just have to try whatever seems right and eventually find our way.
My mum was a nurse. Dad was an accountant. Both were born and brought up in India. A very hot humid place with mosquitoes landing on you every two minutes. They both had a routine. They would wake up at 6, go to church, attend school, and finally come home to a kitchen filled with a sweet, spicy aroma. Dinner was late at 10pm surrounded by a big happy family and that sweet sound of jolly laughter. As the years flew by my mum got two job offers: One at Pakistan as head nurse and another in Ireland as a normal registered nurse. Logically speaking you would expect her to pick the one in Pakistan. Similar culture. Similar hot environment and ultimately a higher position status. But no. She picked Ireland! God knows why. A freezing environment. A more foreign language. However it was probably more civilised and guaranteed higher security that ultimately led to this final decision.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: We are doing Animal Farm as our text…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 100%: The sheep's stomachs churned with acid. The land cracked under the unforgiving sky that promised no life, its…
The sheep's stomachs churned with acid. The land cracked under the unforgiving sky that promised no life, its creations longing for a belly not so empty. The sheep had long since given up on the flourishing of the present, the current age now merely a period of waiting to progress into the next stage of life, trusting that permanent unconsciousness was kinder to beast.
Today, another death had been announced. The sheep listened in undying jealousy to the snakes reporting on Daisy, whose suffering had ceased. The snakes continued on with the same rhetoric that the sheep had become quite accustomed to.
'In this period of uncertainty, it is of utmost importance to lean on your peers...'
The sheep's eyes glazed over as they silently mouthed the extraordinarily impersonal monologue, longing for the closing sentence to free them.
Today, it never came.
The snakes cleared their throats, straightening their posture in a demonstration of respect they'd never before given. One particularly thick viper slithered forward to address the assembly.
'Friends,' he began, his thin lips stretching into an impossibly charming smile, 'I have a proposal for you all.'
Curious about the unfamiliar addition to the monologue, the milky glaze lifted from the sheep's eyes.
'As we are all very well aware, this famine is soon to be the death of us.'
Cautiously, the sheep cocked their heads.
'But while others have been mourning our circumstances,' the viper continued in a soothing, honey-like tone, 'I have been hard at work devising a brilliant new order for managing the farm. If you grant me leadership, the age of starvation is a matter of the past.'
What followed was a storm of voices, hope and fear tearing at one another until neither could be distinguished from the other. Eventually, someone suggested a vote.
27 in favour, 24 against.
It was settled.
'Good.'
They slithered away.
By dusk, a pile of food had miraculously appeared in the centre of the field. It was strange, consisting of what appeared to be tree sap glowing artificially blue; the sheep had never eaten anything like it. The snakes admitted to the group it was not nutritious enough to sustain a population long-term. It would have to be replaced. However, it was enough to keep the sheep from immediate death. To the sheep, this was a reasonable deal.
Exhausted by the day's events, the sheep fell into a deep slumber.
Upon waking, the world had changed.
Gone was the grey.
The morning dew sitting atop the blades of grass sparkled in the brightened sunlight, the blue tree sap perfectly replenished in the field. The sun sat impossibly static in the sky. Not a blade of grass stood taller than the other.
Deeply embroiled in their joy, the sheep did not notice the snakes quietly observing them from the hill.
The following day was much the same.
'What commendable leaders,' the group repeated amongst themselves, 'they have fed us and provided this beautiful new world for us all. We are no longer hungry.'
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Prompt: “Ghost Wall warns of the dangers…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: The recent centre of modern Britain, Brexit, has ignited a divisive rhetoric within Britain through nationalistic…
The recent centre of modern Britain, Brexit, has ignited a divisive rhetoric within Britain through nationalistic and patriotic views among Britons, particularly in lower-class Britain. Set within the Northumberland landscape, Sarah Moss’ contemporary bildungsroman novella, Ghost Wall, explores how the romanticisation of the past serves as a destructive mechanism that alleviates the visceral and suppresses female agency.
In her novel, Moss contends that the glorification of the ancient and ‘pure’ Iron Age past acts as a bulwark against an individual’s lower socio-economic identity. Through experiencing the physical discomfort of “splintery banks”, Moss deploys sensory imagery to depict how the absence of physical pleasure and the determination to endure pain is a ploy to mask incompetence and masculine fragility within the Iron Age. Rather than affirming masculine hegemony within a setting characterised by secularism and urbanism, the Northumberland setting regresses to the patriarchal conditioning of men. The patriarchal conditioning of male suffering and sacrifice is displayed through Bill’s belief that “folks need a change”. Here, Moss illustrates that the requirement of a man to experience physical pain underlines how men seek discomfort and physical pain as a performative ritual used to validate their insecurities and give Bill a sense of comfort away from his lower-class position. The Northumberland setting, where the place in the scene of the professor and Bill’s “ceremonial drumming” is accompanied by the Northumberland setting, emphasises how men’s regression into primitive behaviour and barbaric practices indicates the removal of civilisation. Here, Bill’s transgression of class boundaries, displaying dominance over the professor and his son, is a sign of establishing dominance. However, Moss’ inclusion of the northern past is crucial in her portrayal of national pride and its relationship with class identity. For Bill’s preclairtat background, when he clings to historical nationalistic pride in the Iron Age, his antagonistic dialogue towards the professor announces “Boudicca” as “Boadicea”. This further emphasises the lack of education that accompanies his class identity and identifies how intimately connected individuals within a lower-class Britain feel a sense of purpose due to their national identity, because it grants them purpose. The idolisation of history is used as a tool to compensate for a lack of education and disparity of class; however, it only reinforces an individual’s northern identity and prevents them from overcoming that barrier.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: TITLE : The Quiet Protest Stimulus 1 :…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: They told us not to panic. That the climate has always changed. That the world has survived worse. That…
They told us not to panic. That the climate has always changed. That the world has survived worse. That innovation will save us before consequence finds us. I wanted to believe in them. Because it is easier to believe in distant solutions than immediate reality, because it is so much easier to believe that someone or something is in the background, calculating, correcting, and containing the damage.
But the sky has begun to look different. Stained orange by bushfire smoke, and hung so low and heavy in the summer heat, it no longer feels like a season, but rather a warning. My generation has grown up with evacuation alerts and air quality indexes replacing weather forecasts, and still, we are told to wait. To trust the process. To be quiet and told to let the ‘grown-ups’ handle it. But what does our silence mean when coastlines erode? What does it mean when temperatures break records before they finish being recorded? When ‘once-in-a-century’ disasters arrive every other year?
I am not here because I enjoy protest, and I am certainly not here because I find comfort in confrontation. In truth, I would prefer to believe speeches are unnecessary, and that these adults who are entrusted with power will act accordingly, without the need of being asked.
Silence is no longer wisdom. Silence is now permission. Our silence has not lowered emissions. Our silence has not prevented bushfires from burning.
We are told we are young and that we lack perspective, and in truth, yes, maybe we are. But what we do have perspective of, is the feeling of practising evacuation drills for bushfires. We understand that our future is being discussed in conference rooms we will inhabit after you all retire.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: in the memory police, the greatest threat…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: Shaped by past trauma and censorship of the Japanese war, Yoko Ogawa’s 1994 novel posits an island where systemic…
Shaped by past trauma and censorship of the Japanese war, Yoko Ogawa’s 1994 novel posits an island where systemic losses occur in a dystopic world. Following the experiences of an unnamed novelist, the novel demonstrates how oppression and loss intertwine. Ogawa contends that the Memory Police’s forceful methods to physically remove people and objects lead to passive compliance, inhibiting freedom. However, the most impactful destruction is the loss of valuable connections, as it destroys connections to self and society, limiting the ability to resist. Through contrasting characterisation, Ogawa reveals how the totalitarian regime acts as a catalyst for the loss of individualism. Furthermore, the recurring motif of the loss of memories creates the islanders’ forced compliance and passivity, showing their reduced ability to resist as a whole. Ultimately, through magical realism, Ogawa warns of the overall power imbalance between the islanders and the regime when the citizens’ liberty is stripped away from them.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: A dozen press agents working overtime can…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: In Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood is presented as a toxic industry that destroys the…
In Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood is presented as a toxic industry that destroys the very individuals it promises to celebrate. Released during a period of post-war optimism, the film challenges the American Dream by exposing the corruption beneath Hollywood's glamorous image as a 'dream factory'. Cecil B. DeMille's observation that 'a dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit' reflects an industry that manufactures unrealistic expectations of fame and success, only to abandon those who can no longer maintain them. Through Norma Desmond's dependence on admiration, Joe Gillis's moral compromise and the destructive consequences of maintaining illusion, Wilder reveals how Hollywood corrupts identity, relationships and personal values. Ultimately, he suggests that Hollywood's toxicity lies not only in its exploitation of individuals, but in encouraging them to participate in their own destruction.
Wilder initially presents Hollywood as a toxic industry through its ability to manufacture unrealistic identities, encouraging individuals to measure their worth through fame rather than personal fulfilment. Hollywood's promise of lasting success becomes particularly destructive when individuals are discarded by the very industry that once celebrated them. This is evident through Norma Desmond, a former silent film star whose identity remains entirely dependent on the admiration she once received. Her declaration, 'I am big. It's the pictures that got small,' reveals her inability to accept Hollywood's changing expectations, as she blames the industry rather than confronting her declining relevance. Wilder reinforces this illusion through the Gothic mise-en-scène of Norma's decaying mansion, where enormous portraits, photographs and reminders of her former career dominate the interior. The contrast between its past grandeur and present neglect symbolises Hollywood's tendency to celebrate its stars before abandoning them when they are no longer profitable. Furthermore, the low-key lighting and oppressive shadows create an atmosphere of isolation, exposing the emotional suffering concealed beneath material wealth. Wilder deepens this criticism through Norma's visit to Paramount Studios, where the temporary attention she receives convinces her that Hollywood still values her. However, the dramatic irony of the scene emerges when it is revealed that the studio's interest concerns her luxurious vintage car rather than her return to acting. Her public recognition briefly restores the illusion of stardom, while the industry's actual priorities reveal how completely she has been replaced. Significantly, DeMille's observation about the destructive influence of press agents suggests that Norma was not always consumed by her own importance; rather, Hollywood helped cultivate the identity that now imprisons her. Wilder's casting of real silent film star Gloria Swanson, alongside footage from her earlier film Queen Kelly, further blurs the boundary between cinematic fiction and Hollywood's history. Through these techniques, Wilder condemns an industry that encourages individuals to build their identities upon public admiration, yet offers them little dignity or security when that admiration disappears.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Fate controls every aspect of Oedipus the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In his play, Oedipus the King, Sophocles explores the influence of fate on the trajectory of characters' lives. The…
In his play, Oedipus the King, Sophocles explores the influence of fate on the trajectory of characters' lives. The playwright suggests that although fate ultimately dictates the fortune of one's life, individuals can retain limited free will on the path taken to their destiny, which is ever-subject to the will of the gods.
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles illustrates how despite the crushing power of fate, characters retain limited free will. Towards the beginning of the play, Oedipus is depicted fleeing Corinth, refusing the prophecy at the crossroads, rendering them a symbol of predestiny. Sophocles uses the crossroads to express the illusion of choice Oedipus has, where his violent act of killing Laius, represents the very mechanism that completes the oracle. Through the play, Oedipus is “running always running” from his fate, in an attempt to escape his predestined fate. Despite being unable to change the outcome of destiny and ultimately fulfilling the prophecy by killing his father (Laius) and marrying his mother (Jocasta), Oedipus retained minimal control over the journey taken, as conveyed through him running from Corinth. Furthermore, Jocasta and Laius are illustrated delaying their tragic fate, by having “a henchman fling [Oedipus] away on a barren, trackless mountain”. This displays how the actions taken by man can delay the outcome of one’s destiny, as such, changing the path taken to their preordained outcome. Sophocles emphasises the minimal agency characters possess over the way their fate unfolds.
The playwright conveys how fate ultimately controls the overall trajectory of characters’ lives. Sophocles illustrates this through Oedipus being fated to live a painful life. This is first illustrated when Oedipus first enters, “majestic, but for a telltale limp”. This motif of his swollen ankle highlights how Oedipus fails to question the meaning of his name and the significance of his swollen ankle, causing him to ignorantly dismiss the inevitability of fate.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Opinion Comment: How Victoria’s bike…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 82.5%: As cities continue to grow, the use of public spaces is under constant negotiation and change. In particular,…
As cities continue to grow, the use of public spaces is under constant negotiation and change. In particular, the friction between driving and cycling as forms of commuting. With the expansion of Victoria’s safe bike and roll network, the benefit of these lanes and in contrast the inconvenience of them to drivers, have sparked passionate debates online. Retired software engineer and Victorian citizen Jim Mayer took to ‘Times Colonist’ in December 2025, publishing an opinion article titled ‘How Victoria’s bike and roll network changed my life’. Within his article, Mayer contends that Victorias bike infrastructure is overwhelmingly beneficial to the community, providing safe, efficient routes to cyclists. Adopting a personal and appreciative tone, Mayer appeals to his audience of Victorian commuters, particularly drivers who dislike the prevalent bike lanes, to illuminate the positive impact they have on a large population of Victorians.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framework: Protest Title: "A good kind…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: A good kind of trouble November 17 2026 5:00 pm Now I see. It's been four years since I left. Four years since…
A good kind of trouble
November 17 2026 5:00 pm
Now I see. It's been four years since I left.
Four years since I took control. Four years of
stress and love and peace and fighting
and trouble.
And in the end, it truly was the good kind of trouble.
November 17 2026 4:00 pm
Where to begin? Finishing school, I wanted, I
needed something bigger, to branch out and
broaden my horizons. I decided I would move
interstate for uni and fully realise my newfound
freedom as an adult. Mum didn't think so.
'It's too great a risk' she said. 'You don't
even know how to change your sheets'. And maybe that was a risk, maybe I didn't know how to change my sheets. But I
didn't care. I had already made up my stubborn
little mind. The match had been struck.
And so we argued. We yelled. We ignored each
other. We argued some more. Every conversation became
a battlefield, in whose crossfire my poor
dad and brother were caught. She saw
a boy she had spent almost two decades raising simply walking away. I saw it as settling for nothing less than what I truly wanted.
We really suffered, like proper trouble. She almost didn't come to my valedictory dinner, and often I had to sneak out to evade the strict rules she'd imposed due to the iron curtain between us. It had never been this bad, not even when I was suspended for getting in a fight back in Year 9.
Anyway, I smashed my exams, and got accepted to university in Sydney on a full scholarship. When that acceptance letter arrived in the mail I placed it on the kitchen table between us. I was going. And so I packed my bags and headed north.
Now, four years later, I stand at the same kitchen table. I've finished my degree. I'm moving back home, back sleeping opposite my little brother, back to nothing.
And I can't help but wonder, was it all worth it? All that agony and arguing and trouble and chaos, if I'm ending up right where I started.
If the success of my protest, all the trouble I went to, is determined by what has visibly changed, then maybe I was just wrongly stubborn. Maybe mum was right.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Bad Dreams and other stories…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Furthermore, Hadley emphasises that the crossing of familial and psychological boundaries creates a rupture in…
Furthermore, Hadley emphasises that the crossing of familial and psychological boundaries creates a rupture in relationships and uncovers unseen tensions. Hadley illustrates this in ‘Bad Dreams’ through the child and the mother. Her nightmare about her favourite book ‘Swallows and Amazons’ where the deaths of her favourite characters and Susan living to a ‘ripe old age’ while being the ‘dullest’ of the Swallows enforces a sense of fear for the young protagonist as it creates a realization of the horror of a mundane future. Even while the child knew the epilogue only ‘existed in her dream’ it was ‘clinging to her thoughts.’ Hadley uses this epilogue to illustrate that sometimes it is inevitable for young children to be confronted with death and the ordinariness of life. The crossing of the child’s psychological boundaries causes the child to gain a ‘sudden passion to break something’ and to ‘disrupt the world of her home’ implying a loss in agency and morality due to her visually disturbing nightmare. Subsequently, through the limited third person narrative the mother is portrayed as an unsatisfied housewife. Her act of being ‘happy [at the new freedom of her married life]’ but later beginning to ‘resent’ the brooding neighbours unveils the ironic reality that the mother holds similar repressed dissatisfaction of a domesticated life like ‘Susan’ from the Swallows. Through her child’s act of destroying the chairs the mother is forced to assume it’s the husband. Hadley uses her assumption of the husband as ‘childish’ and her act of being ‘fed up’ by his ‘bad temper’ to signify the fracturing of relationship between the husband and the wife within the household. Even after her view of the
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Bad Dreams and other stories…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Furthermore, Hadley emphasises that the crossing of familial and psychological boundaries creates a rupture in…
Furthermore, Hadley emphasises that the crossing of familial and psychological boundaries creates a rupture in relationships and uncover unseen tensions. Hadley illustrates this in ‘Bad Dreams’ through the child and the mother. Her nightmare about her favourite book ‘Swallows and Amazons’ where the deaths of her favourite characters and Susan living to a ‘ripe old age’ while being the ‘dullest’ of the Swallows enforces a sense of fear for the young protagonist as it creates a realization of the horror of a mundane future. Even while the child knew the epilogue only ‘existed in her dream’ it was ‘clinging to her thoughts.’ Hadley uses this epilogue to illustrate that sometimes it is inevitable for young children to be confronted with death and the ordinariness of life. The crossing of the child’s psychological boundaries causes the child to gain a ‘sudden passion to break something’ and to ‘disrupt the world of her home’ implying a loss in agency and morality due to her visually disturbing nightmare. Subsequently, through the limited third person narrative the mother is portrayed as an unsatisfied housewife. Her act of being ‘happy [at the new freedom of her married life]’ but later beginning to ‘resent’ the brooding neighbours unveils the ironic reality that the mother holds similar repressed dissatisfaction of a domesticated life like ‘Susan’ from the Swallows. Through her child act of destroying the chairs the mother is forced to assume it’s the husband. Hadley uses her assumption of the husband as ‘childish’ and her act of being ‘fed up’ by his ‘bad temper’ to signify the fracturing of relationship between the husband and the wife within the household. Even after her view of the
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Stepping Up
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 97.5%: Stepping Up Thank you for waiting. I know it’s cold on these steps, and some of you have been at Fed Square…
Stepping Up
Thank you for waiting. I know it’s cold on these steps, and some of you have been at Fed Square for hours.
My name is Anna. I helped build the surveillance system you’re protesting. I was a contractor on Spring Street, and I want to admit something nobody in government will. I was half right.
It was 2026. Machete attacks at tram stations, drive-by shootings, home invasions. We wanted cameras that could see the blade before it was swung. You wanted them too. Some of you stood on Parliament’s steps demanding exactly that. The government told my company to “step it up.” We installed cameras at high-risk stations. People felt safer. We called it progress.
Then came the next step. Cameras spread into streets and shopping centres. I connected their footage to Myki records, fingerprints and purchases. We stopped looking only for weapons; we started tracking where you went, whom you met and how you spent your money. I wrote the algorithm that compared your movements with your usual routine. Any difference became a flag.
Within a year, flags became penalties. A train gate could reject you when your face didn’t match your card. Jaywalking or travelling somewhere unfamiliar lowered your citizen score. A low score could restrict transport and public services. Each rule sounded reasonable by itself. Together, they turned everyday life into a test you could fail without knowing the questions.
We weren’t afraid of too much surveillance. We were afraid of not enough. So we learned the rule the government never had to announce: don’t step out of line.
A few years later, some of you changed your minds. The same people who marched for cameras marched against them. That should have been democracy working. But attending a rally now cost you points. Nobody was arrested. Nobody needed to be. People did the maths and stopped coming.
And when the marches stopped, surveillance expanded again. With no crowds demanding limits, ministers read the quiet as approval. Silence wasn’t protecting anyone. It was being mistaken for permission. The fewer people protested, the more power the system gained; the more power it gained, the harder protesting became. We’d built something worse than a camera that saw the blade: a machine that made changing your mind too expensive.