VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Born a crime suggests that in order to…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: In the episodic memoir Born a Crime, the author Trevor Noah explores his experience of growing up in a racist and…
In the episodic memoir Born a Crime, the author Trevor Noah explores his experience of growing up in a racist and segregated society, where race remained a factor in law enforcement even after the apartheid system had been officially dismantled. To a moderate extent, Noah argues that in order to survive, the oppressed must first struggle while also unitizing the facts the oppressors were only thriving because the oppressed were struggling, everyone would be able to survive if some did not have to struggle first. Through the importance language had on South Africa, how the apartheid system created the divide of struggle, and how poverty instilled the struggle even after finding ways to fight it.
Noah argues that the separation of language imposed onto black south Africans led to a heighten reason for their struggle, while the unity later allowed for more to survive against their same oppressors. Noah grew up with the understanding that “the ghetto was not the world” as many found the inability to find an escape outside their community. Which caused a massive reason why many black South Africans could not see a world outside where they were living. The division of language taught Noah growing up that “a knowledgeable man was a freeman” due to the fact being able to communicate with more people, the more they are able to find a way out of the struggle, which allows them to be able to survive. This is because within the division of black South Africa they were taught that language “even more than colour, defines who you are to people”, being able to speak the same language gives the power to survive in a place that does not want you. Noah grew up with the understanding from his education that “a shared language” tells the people around him that is in the same as them. While they were being oppressed and forced to have different languages, that same division allowed for them to be able to thrive, even if that division did not need to happen it gave them the power needed. The law within Born a Crime represented more than just the police but rather a fear, this was due because everyone thought “everyone else is the police”, a fear that the oppressors were hiding away, ready to catch. Noah was taught to be ready; that language was not always going to be able to save him as others with always have their beliefs over his due to the colour of his skin.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: argument analysis on "Preserving the…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 77.5%: In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school…
In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school student Taylor Swann has written an opinion piece titled "Preserving the Essence: The Perils of Inappropriate Suburban Housing Development", published on website Act Now as of the 27/09/2024. Swann contends that the manner in which suburban housing developments are occurring is unsustainable for the future of Australia, with particular focus on extending this message urgently to an audience primarily of Australian high school students, but also expanding reach to architects, policy makers, and urban planners. Swann uses a stark black and white visual in this piece to aid in emphasis of the contention through creation of deep contrasts between concepts and ideas.
Swann opens by matter of factly addressing her audience of “Australian senior high school students”, this direct address aids in creating a sense of obligation to continue reading Swann's piece for Australian Highschool students due to being directly informed as stakeholders of this issue. Swann opens with the argument of direct concern towards the impacts that unsustainable urban infrastructure can have on students’ senior education, suggesting that the harms this has on students' own development can be a hindrance to successful learning. Swann proceeds to pull focus to a key aspect of high school students' lives (being education) by stating that “overcrowded schools, bad public transportation, and congested roads” are key negative determinants of unsustainable housing development. By directly referencing harmful impacts to education, Swann is attempting to create a sense of unity through the universal experience of school students having education whilst also trying to increase urgency and concern for the harmful effects of suburban housing developments on a student's personal life. After these initial statements Swann proceeds to alter perspective to a connecting argument in which she contends that the environmental ramifications of unsustainable development is accelerating the young generation of Australia towards a future of decreased biodiversity and environmental health, further appealing to a sense of moral obligation to care for the environment as a young audience who are commonly concerned with the concept of climate change. Swann states that numerous species have been “displaced” and that there has been “disruption of delicate ecosystems”, by characterising ecosystems as“delicate” Swann is exemplifying the power in which humans possess over flora and fauna, and appeals to the guilt of architects and policy makers who are supporting these housing developments. The suggestion of these “delicate ecosystems” also presents the biodiversity of Australia as a fragile environment requiring protection, which furthermore appeals to the empathy of high school students towards the defenseless nature of the environment in the face of human control. Swann uses this to furthermore encourage a moral responsibility from the audience to act in a sustainable manner to help conserve and protect the ecosystems of Australia. Swann also proceeds to refer to environmental areas as “green spaces” which are being destroyed. A black and white visual is utilised by Swann with an aim to present a contrast between the current development of urban housing as a dark, and industrialized industry, compared to the connotations of the phrase “green space”, suggesting colour and external environments to reside in, which are not evident in the darkened image filled with houses and a lack of environmental areas. This contrast is used by Swann to appeal to the concern of high school students about how their future may become if change does not occur, encouraging action and further engagement with the opinion piece, promoting a sense of grief and disappointment for the loss of a potential future.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Jackson's novel is critical of a society…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle examines how a society's attitudes are shaped by its…
Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle examines how a society's attitudes are shaped by its experiences. Consequently, she explores how bias and prejudice can corrupt a society's morals and beliefs by promoting hatred and distrust and disrupting community solidarity. However, Jackson also examines prejudice as an act of self-preservation for oppressed members of society, particularly within a 1950s patriarchal-dominated society. Therefore, Jackson promotes the belief that while a prejudiced society ails the community and leads to damaging discontent and fracturing across the Blackwood village, prejudice can also offer protection to those who are oppressed. Jackson therefore not only critiques prejudice but considers the circumstances in which it can become necessary.
Jackson suggests that prejudice bolsters violent action and contributes to a community's descent into immorality. The "rot in the hearts of the villagers" that Merricat describes presents a negatively biased image of the villagers as inherently evil from within, demonstrating how Merricat's prejudice causes her belief in their harrowing intentions to override their capacity to act as positive forces within the novel. Furthermore, prejudice is seen to completely obstruct one's sense of justice. The villagers witnessing the physical destruction of the Blackwood house and calling to "let it burn" demonstrates how their hatred toward the Blackwoods and their property, representative of wealth and status, manifests through destructive actions and motives. The fire chief Jim Donell removing his hat at the sight of the fire symbolises his rejection of his professional duty and role within society, as his prejudice overrides his responsibility to protect members of his community. Additionally, Merricat's refusal to offer grace to Helen Clarke, a village member who demonstrates sympathy towards her and Constance, indicates how prejudice can blind individuals to sincerity and goodwill. Her suggestion that Constance should "sit back into the moth" and her subsequent violent action of "smashing the milk pitcher" illustrate how Merricat's prejudice against the broader society promotes violence and eliminates the possibility of accepting well-meaning warnings. Through both the villagers and Merricat, Jackson demonstrates that prejudice can become so deeply entrenched that it obstructs an individual's capacity to recognise morality in others.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: argument analysis on "Preserving the…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 80%: In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school…
In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school student Taylor Swann has written an opinion piece titled "Preserving the Essence: The Perils of Inappropriate Suburban Housing Development", published on website Act Now as of the 27/09/2024. Swann contends that the manner in which suburban housing developments are occurring is unsustainable for the future of Australia, with particular focus on extending this message urgently to an audience primarily of Australian high school students, but also expanding reach to architects, policy makers, and urban planners. Swann uses a stark black and white visual in this piece to aid in emphasis of the contention through creation of deep contrasts between concepts and ideas.
Swann opens by matter of factly addressing her audience of “Australian senior high school students”, this direct address aids in creating a sense of obligation to continue reading Swann's piece for Australian Highschool students due to being directly informed as stakeholders of this issue. Swann opens with the argument of direct concern towards the impacts that unsustainable urban infrastructure can have on students’ senior education, suggesting that the harms this has on students' own development can be a hindrance to successful education. Swann proceeds to pull focus to a key aspect of high school students' lives (being education) by stating that “overcrowded schools, bad public transportation, and congested roads” are key negative determinants of unsustainable housing development. By directly referencing harmful impacts to education, Swann is attempting to create a sense of unity through the universal experience of school students having education whilst also trying to increase urgency and concern for the harmful effects of suburban housing developments on a student's personal life. After these initial statements Swann proceeds to alter perspective to a connecting argument in which she contends that the environmental ramifications of unsustainable development is accelerating the young generation of Australia towards a future of decreased biodiversity and environmental health, further appealing to a sense of moral obligation to care for the environment as a young audience who are commonly concerned with the concept of climate change. Swann states that numerous species have been “displaced” and that there has been “disruption of delicate ecosystems”, by characterising ecosystems as“delicate” Swann is exemplifying the power in which humans possess over flora and fauna, and appeals to the guilt of architects and policy makers who are supporting these housing developments. The suggestion of these “delicate ecosystems” also presents the biodiversity of Australia as a fragile environment requiring protection, which furthermore appeals to the empathy of high school students towards the defenseless nature of the environment in the face of human control. Swann uses this to furthermore encourage a moral responsibility from the audience to act in a sustainable manner to help conserve and protect the ecosystems of Australia. Swann also proceeds to refer to environmental areas as “green spaces” which are being destroyed. The use of a black and white visual is utilised by Swann with an aim to present a contrast between the current development of urban housing as a dark, and industrialized industry, compared to the connotations of the phrase “green space”, suggesting colour and external environments to reside in, which are not evident in the darkened image filled with houses and a lack of environmental areas. This contrast is used by Swann to appeal to the concern of high school students about how their future may become if change does not occur, encouraging action and further engagement with the opinion piece, promoting a sense of grief and disappointment for the loss of a potential future.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: argument analysis on "Preserving the…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 77.5%: In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school…
In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school student Taylor Swann has written an opinion piece titled "Preserving the Essence: The Perils of Inappropriate Suburban Housing Development", published on website Act Now as of the 27/09/2024. Swann contends that the manner in which suburban housing developments are occurring is unsustainable for the future of Australia, with particular focus on extending this message urgently to an audience primarily of Australian high school students, but also expanding reach to architects, policy makers, and urban planners. The accompaniment of a black and white visual is also present in this piece to aid in emphasis of Swann’s contention through creation of stark contrasts.
Swann opens by matter of factly addressing her audience of “Australian senior high school students”, this direct address aids in creating a sense of obligation to continue reading Swann's piece for Australian Highschool students due to being directly informed as stakeholders of this issue. Swann opens with the argument of direct concern towards the impacts that unsustainable urban infrastructure can have on students’ senior education, suggesting that the harms this has on students' own development can be a hindrance to successful education. Swann proceeds to pull focus to a key aspect of high school students' lives (being education) by stating that “overcrowded schools, bad public transportation, and congested roads” are key negative determinants of unsustainable housing development. By directly referencing harmful impacts to education, Swann is attempting to create a sense of unity through the universal experience of school students having education whilst also trying to increase urgency and concern for the harmful effects of suburban housing developments on a student's personal life. After these initial statements Swann proceeds to alter perspective to a connecting argument in which she contends that the environmental ramifications of unsustainable development is accelerating the young generation of Australia towards a future of decreased biodiversity and environmental health, further appealing to a sense of moral obligation to care for the environment as a young audience who are commonly concerned with the concept of climate change. Swann states that numerous species have been “displaced” and that there has been “disruption of delicate ecosystems”, by characterising ecosystems as“delicate” Swann is exemplifying the power in which humans possess over flora and fauna, and appeals to the guilt of architects and policy makers who are supporting these housing developments. The suggestion of these “delicate ecosystems” also presents the biodiversity of Australia as a fragile environment requiring protection, which furthermore appeals to the empathy of high school students towards the defenseless nature of the environment in the face of human control. Swann uses this to furthermore encourage a moral responsibility from the audience to act in a sustainable manner to help conserve and protect the ecosystems of Australia. Swann also proceeds to refer to environmental areas as “green spaces” in which are being destroyed. The use of a black and white visual is utilised by Swann with an aim to present a contrast between the current development of urban housing as a dark, and industrialized industry, compared to the connotations of the phrase “green space”, suggesting colour and external environments to reside in, which are not evident in the darkened image filled with houses and a lack of environmental areas. This contrast is used by Swann to appeal to the concern of high school students about how their future may become if change does not occur, encouraging action and further engagement with the opinion piece, promoting a sense of grief and disappointment for the loss of a potential future.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: argument analysis on "Preserving the…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 72.5%: In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school…
In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school student Taylor Swann has written an opinion piece titled "Preserving the Essence: The Perils of Inappropriate Suburban Housing Development", published on website Act Now as of the 27/09/2024. Swann contends that the manner in which suburban housing developments are occurring is unsustainable for the future of Australia, with particular focus on extending this message urgently to an audience primarily of Australian high school students, but also expanding reach to architects, policy makers, and urban planners. The accompaniment of a black and white visual is also present in this piece to aid in emphasis of Swann’s contention through creation of stark contrasts.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: argument analysis on "Preserving the…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 70%: In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school…
In light of the recent events regarding the sustainability of suburban housing developments, high school student Taylor Swann has written an opinion piece titled "Preserving the Essence: The Perils of Inappropriate Suburban Housing Development", published on website Act Now as of (insert date that I couldn't find). Swann contends that the manner in which suburban housing developments are occurring is unsustainable for the future of Australia, with particular focus on extending this message urgently to an audience primarily of Australian high school students, but also expanding reach to architects, policy makers, and urban planners. The accompaniment of a black and white visual is also present in this piece to aid in emphasis of Swann’s contention.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The framework is about play
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 92.5%: Sirens blast overhead. I feel our small shack tremble around us. Sounds of whispered prayers suffocate the…
Sirens blast overhead. I feel our small shack tremble around us. Sounds of whispered prayers suffocate the room. No one says it, but we all know. Sweat gathers at my hairline and drips down my jaw. The tin fan cooling my face brings as much relief as I can hope for.
Fadi got out last night, but there wasn’t enough room for us. I hated him anyway. I didn’t want to go with him — or at least, that’s what I tell myself.
Silence is rare these days. I sometimes wonder if I remember what it sounds like. Crying pierces the air, but no one else moves. I sit up to see what has happened. Omar is slumped over, covering his eyes.
“What’s happened?”
“Abdul kicked the ball at me,” he whimpers.
“Abdul, apologise to your brother.”
They aren’t really brothers, of course. Neighbours. But in these walls, we have become one family.
I turn back inside. There were bigger things to worry about.
Another distant boom shakes the corrugated iron.
“Thunder,” I hear one of the adults whisper.
The children don't seem to notice.
The radio crackles to life.
“Stay indoors. Further attacks are expected. Remain with your families and stay away from windows. If you are able, help those around you. God save us all.”
Now the adults have begun to weep. There is no point in crying now. If they are going to act like children, they should go outside and play football rather than sit here with those of us trying to keep ourselves together. I look around. Everyone else is shaking uncontrollably, eyes bloodshot. I wipe my forehead and turn back.
“What are we going to do?” someone asks.
“Look at us. Where are we supposed to run? There’s nowhere left to go.”
I want to find a snappy retort, but theyre right. What can be done?
The leather ball comes rolling back into our hut. I nudge it back out with the toe of my shoe.
“They deserve to know,” a voice interrupts from the corner.
“You don’t have the right to steal their joy,” I hiss. “What good would it do? They’re children. Do you want them to spend whatever time they have left terrified?”
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “In High Ground, connection to Country is…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 100%: Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s revisionist Western High Ground dismantles the colonial assumption that strength arises…
Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s revisionist Western High Ground dismantles the colonial assumption that strength arises from possessing land, commanding weapons and occupying positions of authority. Instead, the film distinguishes the settlers’ control over the land from the Yolngu people’s reciprocal relationship with Country. While Johnson affirms that connection to Country is the most enduring source of cultural identity, spiritual knowledge and collective strength, he simultaneously demonstrates that it cannot defeat colonial violence without resistance, moral courage and decisive action. Thus, Country provides the foundation of genuine strength, but the film’s tragic structure reveals that strength must also be actively exercised to confront injustice.
Johnson initially establishes connection to Country as the Yolngu people’s most profound source of knowledge, identity and moral authority. During Därrpa and Gutjuk’s interaction at the sacred rock, Därrpa instructs Gutjuk to “listen to Father Sky,” “listen to Mother Earth” and “walk softly.” Through the personification of the natural world, Johnson presents Country as a living spiritual presence that teaches and protects its people. Därrpa’s repeated imperatives do not assert dominance over Gutjuk; instead, they guide him towards humility, patience and attentiveness. This contrasts with Travis’s earlier military lesson that “when you got the high ground, you control everything.” Whereas Travis initially understands the landscape strategically—as something to occupy and use against others—Därrpa understands it relationally, as a source of inherited knowledge and responsibility. The film’s recurring wide shots of the Arnhem Land landscape reinforce its permanence, visually diminishing those who attempt to possess it. Gutjuk’s reconnection with Country consequently restores the identity that the mission sought to suppress by renaming him “Tommy.” This strength extends beyond the individual during the attempted reconciliation between Moran, Därrpa and Baywara. Därrpa draws upon cultural law and negotiation in an effort to interrupt the cycle of retaliatory violence, embodying an authority that does not depend upon weapons. By structurally positioning this possibility of reconciliation against the film’s final return to violence, however, Johnson exposes the limitations of spiritual strength within an unequal colonial system. Därrpa’s authority is morally superior to Moran’s coercion, yet it cannot compel men who refuse to relinquish physical control. Therefore, Country constitutes the film’s most legitimate source of strength, but its power is constrained when colonial authorities refuse to recognise Indigenous law and humanity.
Furthermore, Johnson demonstrates that separation from Country fractures identity and belonging, although suffering can also generate a resistant form of strength. Walter’s description as a “floater” reduces his identity to an insulting colonial category, suggesting that he belongs neither fully within Indigenous culture nor the white institutions he serves. Despite working alongside the police, Walter remains subjected to their racism, revealing that participation in colonial structures cannot protect him from the hierarchies upon which those structures depend. His divided position operates as a warning about assimilation: physical survival within the colonial world may require the suppression of cultural identity, yet acceptance is never guaranteed. Through Walter, Johnson demonstrates that disconnection from Country involves more than geographical displacement; it deprives individuals of the cultural certainty through which they understand themselves. Gulwirri, however, complicates the proposition by demonstrating that strength can survive even after connection to home, family and community has been violently disrupted. Her assertion that the “boss man thought he owned me” parallels the colonisers’ belief that they can own Country itself. The phrase “thought he owned me” rejects this assumed authority, revealing that although Gulwirri has been controlled physically, her identity has not been conquered. Her pent-up anger therefore becomes both a psychological burden and a means of survival. Därrpa’s suggestion that anger is all she has acknowledges that dispossession can force resistance to replace the security once provided by belonging. Johnson does not romanticise this anger, as Baywara’s trajectory demonstrates its capacity to perpetuate violence; nevertheless, Gulwirri’s continued defiance proves that colonial oppression cannot entirely extinguish Indigenous agency. Through the contrast between Walter’s uncertain belonging and Gulwirri’s resistance, Johnson suggests that Country normally anchors identity, but those denied this connection may forge strength through endurance and refusal.
Ultimately, the film’s narrative movement from guilt and passivity towards intervention reveals that moral courage is necessary to translate knowledge into meaningful strength. Travis spends much of the film burdened by his failure to prevent the initial massacre and by his subsequent silence. Johnson’s alignment of Travis’s perspective with the rifle scope initially characterises him as a detached observer: he possesses the elevated position from which he can see injustice, yet fails to act decisively against it. This distinction between sight and responsibility is central to the film’s interrogation of the “high ground.” Travis may occupy the literal high ground, but his complicity denies him the moral high ground. His eventual rejection of the colonial belief that “we’re the good guys” demonstrates his growing recognition that authority does not equal righteousness. By returning to Arnhem Land, protecting Gutjuk and confronting the violence he once enabled, Travis begins to exercise moral agency. Nevertheless, his attempts at redemption cannot reverse the deaths caused by his earlier passivity, revealing that conscience becomes valuable only when accompanied by timely action. Claire similarly develops strength by rejecting the restrictive role imposed upon her within the male-dominated colonial community. Although her renaming of Gutjuk as “Tommy” implicates her in the paternalism of assimilation, her decision to shoot Eddy marks her refusal to remain a passive witness to male violence. Johnson overturns the Western genre’s conventional association between firearms and masculine authority: Claire’s use of physical force is protective rather than possessive, directed against the brutality upheld by Eddy and Moran. Yet the need for her to employ violence also exposes the failure of the colonial system to resolve conflict through justice. Through Travis and Claire, Johnson does not suggest that moral action surpasses Country; rather, he demonstrates that the values represented by Country—responsibility, protection and collective survival—must be enacted through individual choices.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: We can choose our departure point but…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: They’d trusted Virginia to get the flowers, but that was all. She’d searched up ‘condolences flowers’. He was…
They’d trusted Virginia to get the flowers, but that was all. She’d searched up ‘condolences flowers’. He was only a hamster, after all – he was never going to last for long. Truthfully, she hadn’t been to a funeral since before she could read – and she’d been up last night, hunched over the chessboard. There was a tournament next week, and she was good, but no good enough (she always got stuck in endgames) so back and forth the pieces went – every spare bit of time, back and forth.
She overheard her sister, Lena, practicing a speech for Rooks funeral that morning. She’d felt bitter about this. Lena had this piercing sensibility that made Virginia feel so ashamed – ashamed about anything at all: mistakes and cruelties, rudeness, benign things like bad breath and procrastination, or forgetting to buy flowers.
Since Rooks death, her father had mandated weekly sessions with the school counsellor (meaning she often missed chess club). He – neurotic, short and prone to overreaction – would make a fuss if she didn’t go. Her conversations with the shrink were boring and inane. But she always went, and turning the corner, here she was pain. She didn’t feel like thinking today. Especially not for the goddamn hamster.
“So, the funerals today.” He probed. “Are you feeling regulated?” What a hack.
“I’m fine. Its not a real funeral, we’re just going to put some flowers by his favourite spot. No burial.” The walls were pale like intestines. Or like the pimples on the councillor’s face.
“I see. Does It remind you of your mother at all? Your father spoke to me about her over email.”
“What? No, why?”
“Do you remember much about her?” A long pause. “Your mother?”
“Yes, obviously, my mother.” Virginia replied tensely. His only response was his placid expression. And wasn’t that just abject condescension – yes, that, and his way of speaking. She was sure he had something dark to hide behind his impassive jargon. “It was all such a long time ago. I remember the funeral, I guess.”
“What do you remember?”
(Tragic Theatre; an animal wailing.)
Virginia was distracted, her mind on gambits and openings. “Uh, it was raining. Everybody was in black. That’s generic. I don’t know. Like, honestly, I’m probably just remembering some funeral from TV right now. Like a pop culture funeral. I was four so.”
“Try harder. Do you remember anything at all?”
“Fucking—” she exhaled sharply. “Flowers. Red flowers. I remember them being wrong.” Too intrusive. Romantic where they shouldn’t be. Ominous, bloody. They were telenovela flowers – so melo dramatic.
“That’s good.” She was going to slit his cartoonishly long neck. She wanted to run – not to home, but to that flicking memory. (What a strange thought. Run to a memory? (She was tired, she decided.)). He looked up from his notepad. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. That’s Lao Tzu, you know.” Prick.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journies
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: The funny thing about distance is that it just sort of happens. No one tells you it's happening, no one says…
The funny thing about distance is that it just sort of happens. No one tells you it's happening, no one says “this is where we stop being close now”, there's no big moment where it all changes.
But it will change.
My brother and I used to be inseparable, we would share everything from desserts at dinner and drawing on a Sunday morning, to arguments for who got the front seat of the car and screaming at each other to “stop breathing my air!”. Our childhood was filled with noise, colour, inside jokes and friendship, and lots of lego.
Building things together was how we used to spend our time. We would open up the big lego bags and watch the floorboards disappear as we poured the bricks all over the ground. Hours would pass as we would find a 4 stud, the special diamonds to put in our bases, the white door that would always end up being confiscated because we would fight over it. We would build houses that didn't make sense, cities with robots to come destroy them, cars that couldn't move, and weapons for our characters. We never followed the instructions when we were building, the same way we had no instructions to follow about growing up.
But once we stopped going to school together, when I went to high school and he stayed at our old primary school, things began to stop. Not suddenly or bluntly, but in a way you never really noticed until you realised the lego bag you once opened everyday, was gathering dust in the cupboard.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: VCAA 2025 EXAM
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 70%: Life is a game. 48 hours without optimising yourself A review of WATTLE Point, two hours away from Melbourne.…
Life is a game.
48 hours without optimising yourself
A review of WATTLE Point, two hours away from Melbourne.
Productivity: 0/5
Value for money: 5/5 (85 a night for cabins)
Colour: 5/5
Wifi: None. (See productivity)
Best Time to go:
On the weekend you are most certain you cannot spare. You know the exact weekend I am talking about. The weekend filled with gym classes, brunch booking, side hustles, ‘Life admin,’ and a podcast about becoming a better person. Cancel all of it! Go and see Wattle point. If you have entered a point in your life where the ball and chain of the ridged 9-5 has drained colour from you life. Your work week is mundane, bland, typical and draining. This is when you must go to wattle point. If you've lost yourself within the work schedule, you must remind yourself of who you truely are as you can only find yourself through play.
What to Pack:
A jumper, a towel, $50 in cash and one paperback book that you can abandon on page forty. Leave your laptop, your step counter and the phrase “make the most of it” at home. Wattle point is not the place where you catch up on emails, admin or sort out your life, this trip is to foster your true self from playing again, doing what you truely want.
My review:
Only consider reading this review if you are someone who has scheduled ‘relaxing’ between your gym session and meal prep. Your have graduated a few years ago, and now you have your own lanyard, cubicle and calendar filled with nothing but colourless and lack of play never ending to-do lists. We were all fooled by the work week with the promise of having our two full day weekends, that would satisfy our naturalistic instinct to play. Our weekends have quickly and quietly turned into our second job. The 6am run club. The meal prep. The ‘self-care’ squeezed between two other commitments. Somewhere we forgot that true meaning of play, the game of life has turned into a ridged controlled schedule rather than a gamble within playing and taking risks to be out truest selfs. Rest and finding our own play has been turned into something that is captured, preformed, photographed and improved. So, I went to wattle point to find my truest self through playing again, playing the authentic game of life through having no schedule.
I wasn’t good at playing at first. Not at all. I arrived on Friday night with a mental Itinerary, as list of ‘hidden gems’ saved on my phone, and a low hum of guilt that I was not being productive enough at being unproductive. The anxiety crippled into me as I worried weather or not I was doing enough with my spare time. The cabin was small and slightly crooked, and out the front stood a lopsided old pear tree, entirely uninterested within my career or my life trajectory. I stood their admiring the pear tree, reminiscing on my childhood where i would climb my pear tree at my Childhood home. I remember looking at the pear tree as a little girl, with my eyes admiring its beauty wondering how high I could climb, but now I just stood their waiting for the tree to reveal its fundamental purpose, waiting for its use to become clear to me. It never did. It stood their in the dusk, offering me everything by asking nothing of me.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: THE HALLWAY LIGHT I've always been alone. At least, that's what I told my friends when Mum started working late…
THE HALLWAY LIGHT
I've always been alone.
At least, that's what I told my friends when Mum started working late shifts at the hospital. She wouldn't be home until nearly midnight, which meant I had the house to myself every evening.
At first, I loved it.
I could play games without being told to finish my homework. I could eat dinner in front of the television and go to bed whenever I wanted. When Mum left for work, she'd switch on the hallway light and remind me to lock the door.
I'd wait until her car disappeared, then turn the light off.
Every night at nine, she'd call.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes, Mum.”
“What did you have?”
“Food.”
She'd laugh, then ask about school and remind me to put the bins out. I usually answered while playing games, waiting for her to say goodnight so I could take my headphones off mute.
A few weeks later, I came home from basketball and called out, “Mum, I'm home.”
No answer.
Her slippers were beside the sofa. Her half-finished cup of tea was still on the kitchen bench. I stood there for a moment before remembering she was at work.
I made noodles and ate them at the kitchen table. The house was so quiet I could hear the refrigerator humming.
At nine, my phone rang.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you have?”
“Noodles.”
“You should have some vegetables tomorrow.”
Usually, I'd have rolled my eyes. Instead, I asked what she'd eaten.
There was a pause.
“Something from the staff kitchen.”
“What something?”
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Jane Eyre, Brontes deepest quest is for…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In Jane Eyre, Brontë's deepest quest is for spiritual nourishment to what extent do you agree? Set in the…
In Jane Eyre, Brontë's deepest quest is for spiritual nourishment to what extent do you agree?
Set in the nineteenth century, during a time with harsh religious institutions and when women were marginalised, Charlotte Brontë's protofeminist novel Jane Eyre explores the journey towards spiritual fulfilment. Brontë contends that although the pursuit of religious enlightenment is profound, the journey towards female liberty and true love is often more complex. Ultimately, Brontë reveals to her Victorian audience that the deepest quest is for spiritual nourishment, female liberty and true devotion, in a world that sought to keep females submission and upheld a conventional marriage system.
Through revealing harsh, institutionalised religious dogmas, Brontë highlights the intense quest for spiritual nourishment. Brontë uses the visual contrast between the "top knots" to be "cut off" and the "elaborately curled" hair of Mr Brocklehurst's daughters to critique class based power. By demanding uniformity and removal of "vanity" from the poor girls while allowing his daughters to display wealth and status through their curls, he reveals that his "Master" is actually a tool for class oppression. Thus, Brontë exposes the hypocrisy of evangelical religion, uncovering the complex journey towards authentic spiritual fulfilment. Additionally, through Helen's didactic tone, Brontë establishes a rigid stoic framework that prioritises institutional duty over individual agency. Helen's insistence that one must "endure patiently" reflects a form of Christian stoicism that demands the total stifling of emotional expression to avoid "evil consequence." However, Brontë critisises this philosophy, by showing how it strips Helen of the capacity to defend her own identity, when she is condemned by the alliterative insult of being a "dirty, disagreeable girl." Brontë underscores how Helen's refusal to resist leads to a passive acceptance of injustice, ultimately resulting in the annihilation of selfhood, therefore displaying the deep journey towards spiritual self determination. To contrast, Jane's declaration that she "prayed in [her] own way" signifies the climax of her spiritual maturation. By bypassing the institutionalised, restrictive religiosity of both St. John and Brocklehurst, Jane instead communes with the sublime forces of nature. Through this spiritual self determination, Brontë reveals how this moment serves as a rejection of external conformity, suggesting that true growth is not found in the blind following of societal expectation, but an authentic morality that empowers the individual to act with agency. overall, by displaying the difficulty of escaping institutionalised religiosity and finding an authentic morality, Brontë uncovers the deep quest for spiritual nourishment.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “I am not bird, and no net ensnares me …”…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Emerging from the rigid class structure of mid-nineteenth-century England, Charlotte Brontë's 1847 Bildungsroman…
Emerging from the rigid class structure of mid-nineteenth-century England, Charlotte Brontë's 1847 Bildungsroman Jane Eyre critiques a society shaped by patriarchal control, religious rigidity, and strict social convention. Brontë historic novel is centered around the pursuit of personal freedom, however Brontë challenges that personal freedom does not equivocate into isolation and loneliness but is forged upon enduring hardships and adversing societal conventions that grant personal freedom. Utilising a three-part volume structure within ‘Jane Eyre,’ Brontë uses a female retrospective narration along with a Fichtean curve, to explore the limited capabilities and divine intervention that it takes within the Victorian era to formulate growth and change within the rigid social settings.
Brontë uses Volume one to establishes that personal freedom and ones individual control over their own autonomy, is the most important possession a women can attain in Victorian England. Brontë utilises the pathetic fallacy of Gateshead to mirror Jane Eyre’s internal and external feelings of control and neglect. The gothic tableau of Gateshead holding “cold winter winds” with “cloud so somber” being surrounded by “leafless shrubbery.” Brontë adopts this gothic first-person retrospective narration to portray Jane’s own internal emotions of neglect and resentment within Gateshead. Brontë uses the pathetic fallacy to isolate Janes external environment to her internal emotions, showcasing Jane’s internal desires for personal freedom and autonomy away from the neglect and tourment of the Reeds. Furthermore, Brontë characterises John Reed as an abusive and torturous young man who is granted primogeniture power through the rigid class structure and evangelicalism of the mid-nine-tenth Victorian England. John Reed continuously diminishes and removes Janes personal freedom and autonomy in attempt to maintain his primogeniture labelling her a “dependent” with “no money” who often “ought to beg.” Through John Reed Brontë showcases how primogeniture power thrives upon stripping women of personal freedom as John Reed continuously locks and entraps Jane into the “Red Room.” Brontë symbolically uses the Red room to showcases how male authority thrives upon the abuse upon women’s attempts to hold personal freedom and autonomy. Brontë connotes through the use of “red” to connote blood, passion and sin, showcasing the abuse and tourment of the evangelicalism social structures that accept old testament retribution. Brontë uses the Red room to serve as a domestic space that holds “massive pillars” of “splendid solemn” to represent how Victorian Englands has granted the entrapment and abuse of women forcing them to surrender personal freedom. Showcasing how women of the time are abused within domestic spaces in order to maintain the social class that stripps them of their freedom and personal autonomy. Thus, Brontë structurally implores through volume one how women within Victorian England were stripped continuously of their own autonomy and personal freedom in order to adhere and maintain the societal conventions that granted and justified men’s misuse of power.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: VCE ENGLISH UNIT 2 Task 10: Exploring…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 97.5%: "Daylight Robbery" (Draft 5) FIVE DOLLARS... for a basic loaf of white bread. [Pause] ANOTHER five dollars...…
"Daylight Robbery" (Draft 5)
FIVE DOLLARS... for a basic loaf of white bread. [Pause] ANOTHER five dollars... for a standard two-litre carton of milk. SEVEN... whole dollars if you also want free-range eggs. It's just your regular weekly trolley. Lately... standing at the checkout makes me feel like I'm watching a slow-motion car crash. MOST of us have stopped looking at the digital screen... because we already KNOW the total is going to empty our wallets.
But don't let ANYONE convince you this is just normal inflation. Yes, inflation explains SOME price increases. But when the price of a basic loaf of bread has climbed more than TWENTY-TWO PERCENT, and eggs by over FORTY-ONE PERCENT, in just a few years... we have to ask whether MARKET POWER is playing a role. Because market power doesn't automatically mean price gouging. But it CAN create the conditions where anticompetitive conduct becomes harder to challenge. And that's the problem. There's ONE tool that would genuinely tip that balance back: the Federal Government should give the ACCC conditional, last-resort divestiture powers... allowing it to require major supermarkets to sell stores when an investigation PROVES sustained anticompetitive conduct and existing remedies have failed.
[Long pause]
Because behind all these percentages and corporate reports... are REAL people. The ACCC found that Coles and Woolworths account for roughly SIXTY-SEVEN PERCENT of Australia's supermarket retail sales, while Australians faced significant cost-of-living pressure. And groceries are just ONE part of the problem. Housing. Electricity. Transport. Food. Every essential expense takes another bite.
But behind those statistics is the HUMAN cost, and it's worth being specific about what that actually looks like. It's the single mother of three recalculating her trolley over an extra dollar. It's the pensioner who wants to get sweets for their grandchildren, then quietly puts them back. It's the uni student choosing between rent... [Pause] ...and dinner. When market power is concentrated, the people with the least room to move can have the most to lose. And THAT is why competition matters.
[Long pause - shift tone]
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "I'm beginning to feel used up" How does…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: In Regeneration, Pat Barker suggests that the impact of war on the individual is a culmination of multiple factors…
In Regeneration, Pat Barker suggests that the impact of war on the individual is a culmination of multiple factors that finally results in suffering. Barker explores the process of breakdown resulting from trauma, alluding to the idea that the toll on an individual is amplified through various means. The institutional repression of individuality through constructs of duty and honour, along with strict authoritative military leadership provided soldiers with no formal means to express their thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, societal ideals of masculinity and illusioned views about the war that were ingrained internally within soldiers lead to an internal resistance against expressing built up trauma. Barker delves into the combination of these two factors, which give no path to deal with the toll of war, ultimately leading to physiological and psychological breakdown.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framework - Protest Title: Move…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: Move Forward Good evening everyone, I hope you’re all well. I wanted to host this on a weeknight as I know…
Move Forward
Good evening everyone, I hope you’re all well. I wanted to host this on a weeknight as I know most of you will be playing at concert halls, clubs, bars, rooftops, warehouses and other obscure locations over the weekend. All of this could be lost however, or to better put it, replaced, by AI.
If any of you have been listening to any ambient playlists or 70s rock compilations online in the past year, you may have come across The Velvet Sundown. This soft rock band has no real presence. No live gigs performed. No studio recordings. Just a photo of their ‘band members’ and a soulless streaming page that replicates the raw and authentic sounds of real artists, creating hollow echoes in the music industry. This band went on to rack up millions of streams, even appearing on UK Spotify charts. Many of their listeners thought they were discovering a new band inspired by 1970s soft rock. It wasn’t just inspired, but purely modelled and stolen. These generative AI work and learn from existing human discographies, creating huge copyright and plagiarism problems for artists worldwide. This disgusting loophole leaves performers like you and me potentially uncompensated for having our work illegally borrowed. There could be an indie pop record out there modelled from your guitar melody, or an old-school house track trying to copy your unique analog synth sound.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Ogawa explore the gradual erosion…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Dreamlike and lyrical, Yoko Ogawa’s dystopian narrative The Memory Police (1994) dissects the desecration of the…
Dreamlike and lyrical, Yoko Ogawa’s dystopian narrative The Memory Police (1994) dissects the desecration of the human spirit at the hands of oppressive bureaucracies and societal conditioning. Indeed, Ogawa presents the human spirit as dependent upon emotional attachment, individuality and meaningful human connection, all of which are progressively weakened by the enforced dissipation of memories. Ultimately, Ogawa expresses these ideas through literary devices, presenting a gradual, yet sombre erosion of humanity which exposes readership to the insidious implications of acquiescence and totalitarianism.
In The Memory police the gradual deterioration of the islander’s emotional capacity is signified through the motif of the heart. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator’s mother recounts a time where “people gathered in little groups to talk about their memories,” demonstrating a capacity to mourn and process loss. Yet, as the disappearances permeate the novel, Ogawa examines the gradual deterioration of this mourning, as the residents become “reliev[ed]” after their loss, elucidating how the islanders are not just tethered from their objects, but unmoored from the realisation that something meaningful has been taken from them. The habitual, almost mundane nature of the residents’ loss leaves them emotionally numb, underscored through the Old Man’s assertion that the island used to be “a lot fuller,” symbolic of the emotional resonance that has been eroded from the residents' livelihoods. Moreover, the notion that “[the islanders]” hearts got thinner, too, diluted” signifies how the constant disappearances did not just diminish their ability to process their emotions, but rather curb the extent to which they can engage and sustain emotional connection. More profoundly, through the description of the heart becoming “thin,” Ogawa suggests the islanders lose their humanity by having their ability to sustain emotional attachment weakened. Indeed, this is foregrounded in the narrator’s lament that “[her and R’s] hearts are being pulled apart to such distant, different places,” divulging how her emotional numbness and unprocessed trauma leaves the narrator unable to sustain her relationship with R. Moreover, through the present- progressive lexical choice “being” Ogawa implies that their relationship is continuing to weaken, exploring the gradual erosion of R and the narrator’s relationship through the mechanism of their distant hearts. Thus, Ogawa suggests that when an individual's capacity for emotional connection is weakened, compassion and empathy becomes exhaustive, preventing the consolidation of relationships that are integral to their humanity.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal journey
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 97.5%: We always sat on the same bench. It was outside the library, underneath a jacaranda tree that dropped purple…
We always sat on the same bench.
It was outside the library, underneath a jacaranda tree that dropped purple flowers all over the concrete. By the end of lunch, they would be crushed under our shoes.
We had made a game out of collecting the best ones.
“Five points for a whole flower,” she would say.
“That’s not even a real rule.”
“It is now.”
We kept score in the Notes app on my phone, adding ridiculous things like half a point for finding one that hadn’t been stepped on.
It was stupid.
I still remember it.
Back then, I thought that was what friendship was. Knowing someone well enough to turn something completely ordinary into something that belonged to the two of you.
Then, slowly, things changed.
At first, we stopped sitting together every lunch. She started sitting with another group. I started sitting somewhere else. Neither of us mentioned it.
One day, I walked past the library and saw her on the bench.
There was an empty space beside her.
For a second, I thought she would look up.
She didn’t.
I kept walking.
That night, she sent me a TikTok.
I stared at her name on my screen.
For months, we had sent each other videos almost every night. Some were actually funny. Most weren’t. We would send them at 1 a.m. with no explanation, already knowing the other person would understand.
I watched the video.
I didn’t reply.
Neither did she.
That became normal.
The messages got shorter.
What are you doing?
Nothing.
Oh okay.
Then nothing.
The strange thing was that my phone still remembered us.
Her name was still near the top of my messages. Our old photos were still there. Memories appeared without asking, showing me things I hadn’t thought about in months.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journeys - write a memoir…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 82.5%: WHERE WORLDS COLLIDE Between Different Selves The first thing you learn about belonging is that it is rarely…
WHERE WORLDS COLLIDE
Between Different Selves
The first thing you learn about belonging is that it is rarely a place. More often, it is a performance, to whom the audience remains unknown.
You sit down beside the girl in the crowded prayer room, with no where else to sit. The carpet beneath you smells faintly of dust and rosewater, the scent of hundreds of foreheads pressed into surrender. Around you, girls both younger and older move like softened pages of a book; linen hijabs draped carefully around their shoulders, sleeved pulled to wrists, whispered Arabic curling through the room like smoke. It is as if this attire is stitched onto their bodies, and not something temporary, something that feels obligatory. Someone recites Surah Maryam under her breathe. Someone else adjusts the gold pin grasping the fabric at her throat.
The girl besides you smiles politely, then lets her eyes flicker downwards.
Your acrylic nails. Your “not loose enough” jeans. The small ring on your finger your mother told you not to wear because it looked too grown.
You know that look. It is not cruel enough to be called cruelty. It is softer than that. Sharper, like an assessment. And suddenly, it makes you feel too loud in your own skin.
There is a verse your grandmother used to repeat while folding warm laundry at sunset: “And “Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales. Do not look for the other’s faults, and do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another”. The words once sounded expansive to you, like open doors. But now you wonder if people spend more time judging then knowing. About how fair this world is to you.
The girl returns to reading Quran. You sit there, pretending to not notice how your body feels like such a mistranslation. Too secular for the sacred girls, too sacred for the secular ones. You exist in the thin corridor between to doors that never fully open.
World Apart
At lunch, the other girls sit cross legged on the concrete stairs outside the library. Perfume and tropical lip gloss hang thick in the air. Someone laughs so hard that her soda bursts through her nose. Someone else is talking about boys again – who kissed who at a party, whose mother found cigarettes hidden inside a pencil case, who’s social media stories were “actually insane”.
You laugh when they do. You know exactly when. Exactly how much “involvement” to pour in. A pure performance, once again. Because as much as you try, something within you forbids you from being able to genuinely relate to these girls.
Someone next to you nudges your shoulder. “Come this weekend, you never do”, she says. “just don’t go all moral and halal on us”. The other laugh. You chuckle too, though the sound comes out delayed, like an echo arriving too late to matter.
The words land strangely on your chest. Once, it tasted warm. Like your mother frying sujuk at night during Ramadan. Like dates split open with thumbs. Like your father reciting du’a before flights.
Now it sounds like accusation.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Section A - Text response of sunset…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Billy Wilder's 1950s film Sunset Boulevard explores the mystifying allure of Hollywood's golden era. Yet Wilder…
Billy Wilder's 1950s film Sunset Boulevard explores the mystifying allure of Hollywood's golden era. Yet Wilder enhances his warning against falling into the illusory lure of film through innovative directional and writing choices that are essential to the message of the movie. Wilder presents the allure of fame within Sunset Boulevard as fatal, but he also depicts the fantasy that exists before one is consumed by it. Wilder's mystery-oriented film noir imparts continuous contention into the narrative, emphasizing each moment that allure drags characters closer to their fate. He uses metacasting to present the fickleity to fame, the reality past the allure, as consistent with real life, and ultimately depicts the eponymous Hollywood machine that is both unbothered and thriving off of the tragic conclusion of the film.
Wilder's use of dark lighting and ominous score accentuates the fatality created by a circular narrative, signposting each moment that allure brings the story closer to tragedy. The opening of the film features a low angle from within the silent film star Norma Desmond's pool. The camera focuses on film writer Joe Gillis's limp floating body, overshadowed by clamoring police officers with indiscernible expressions. This powerful shot establishes the unsympathetic image of the media, and by extension Hollywood, enjoying the benefits of Joe's death. Aside from that, by showing Joe's death first, the circular narrative allows the sordid humor of the film to be perceived for the danger that it entails. As Joe wakes from his dream, he describes an image of a "chimp dancing for pennies". This ridiculous scene illustrates Joe's desire for wealth, the allure of it, placing him under Norma's control. Yet the recent burial of Norma's monkey, as well as the knowledge of Joe's eventual death in Norma's pool, send a different message: the allure of wealth has brought Joe to his death. The typical film noir genre emphasizes the mystery of Joe's death, imploring the audience to decipher these moments themselves to find clues to Joe's death, thus allowing Wilder to emphasize the danger of allure. Furthermore, the organ playing of Bach's Toccata underpins the morbidity of Joe's situation in Norma's house, as it is known to be used in haunted houses. Yet in contrast, Wilder depicts the reader Betty Schaefer in a completely different light, her character at the creatives' New Year's party portrayed in warm, bright lighting and jazzy music accompanying. These lighting and sound choices highlight a safer atmosphere to Betty, her brightness conveying a literal lack of the underlying darkness of the film's promised tragedy. Furthermore, Betty is characterized with artistic integrity, unlike Joe, who wants to "make a living". Betty thinks pictures "should say little something". Wilder presents her as unencumbered by the allure of wealth and Hollywood, and also distances her from morbidity. Thereby Wilder suggests to his audience that without moderation, the allure of Hollywood and wealth is fatal.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "When I saw him safe and sound, I thought…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a non-linear narrative that follows the impact of…
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a non-linear narrative that follows the impact of rigid social codes, Marquez explores how despite major external influences, the events of the novel proceed due to individual choices. Marquez provides insight into the true pressures of society, however, highlights how decisions made to act or not act are responsible for how fate unfolds.
In his novel, Marquez the author outlines the pressure implemented in society’s expectations, demonstrating how external influences can dictate someone’s choices. The events of the novel are majorly initiated by the dishonouring of Angela Vicario in her "lost possessions." Marquez repeatedly uses specific language to refer to her deflowered of something of great concern, calling it "the stain of honour." In doing this Marquez suggests just how important a woman's virginity is to her reputation and image. Angela was then labelled by the towns people as "the returned bride" which indicates how her loss of identity in marriage ended in condemnation. This allows Marquez to contrast the expectations of a different gender in a society where girls are reared to get married "and boys are 'brought up to be men," reinforcing the toxic culture of machismo and Marianismo. The murder itself presents the Vicario brothers as subjects of rigid social codes, placing them with a 'duty'. The wording of the murder makes it an obligation by society for the Vicario's to claim their status as men and restore their family's honour. Marquez strongly criticises the extent of pressure held upon individuals of society, infiltrating their actions. When Angela Vicario prays to God to give her the 'courage to kill [herself]," Marquez is adding weight to the extent to which strict social expectations overpower the will of life, whether by murder or by suicide. Throughout his novel, Marquez demonstrates how strong social codes can be coercive and destructive, initiating the storyline.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Playtime is Over
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: Playtime is Over Like most babies, baby Charlotte entered the world almost entirely bald. Yet before long, her…
Playtime is Over
Like most babies, baby Charlotte entered the world almost entirely bald.
Yet before long, her hair became her first plaything, growing rapidly and wild. Mum tucked it into crooked ponytails or uneven pigtails, only for it to tumble loose as Charlotte raced off, even Dad's proud attempts rarely survived the morning. Tiny hands tugged at the soft curls, twisting them around curious fingers. Hair clips became scattered treasures across the carpet, and the ribbons were dragged with chubby fists, abandoned in favour of crawling.
Family photo albums had captured this stage vividly: Charlotte grinning widely beside her brothers. Her hair, like theirs, either tangled with food, stiff with dried paint, or knotted from games that wandered beyond dusk. The curls and cowlicks clung to the children’s sweaty foreheads, but they remained blissfully unbothered, toothy smiles stretching ear to ear.
Waking up on the first morning of Grade 1, Charlotte stood on her tippy-toes to reach the view of her mother's bathroom mirror. Ribbons and hair ties were scattered across the sink-side counter, clumps of casualties knotted into the bands. She tried to stand still as her mother battled the thick curls, each stroke met with a reflexive jolt of resistance.
Before rushing out the door, Charlotte found the largest bow in her drawer and clipped it into her hairband. "Adorable," she thought.
During assembly, Charlotte had sat cross-legged on the floor, studying the row of girls in front of her. She began to notice their uniformity. Their sleek, identical ponytails, each polished and high. In contrast, her own natural curls felt unruly, out of place, and increasingly undesirable.
That night, Charlotte begged her mum to recreate the same tightly pulled ponytail, pulling it back until her scalp stung and temples ached. She tightened it again. Then again. And for a moment, it held. She ran outside, cartwheeling. The tug-of-war between order and gravity left her ponytail sagging at the nape of her neck. By dinner, the game had one. Her hair unravelled entirely and order had loosened its grip.