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.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framework: Personal Journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 95%: April 25 - Age 9 Mum let me lick the bowl today. She made my birthday cake, the same one I’ve been having ever…
April 25 - Age 9
Mum let me lick the bowl today. She made my birthday cake, the same one I’ve been having ever since I was allowed to eat cake. It’s a cheesecake, with strawberries on top like a crown. She says it was her mother’s recipe, and it will be mine too, which is a weird thing to own, but I like it. Dad says the crust is the best part simply because he likes the texture of Arnott's Maries. I ate my slice so fast my stomach hurt. Nine is going to be the best year. I wonder if I’ll get an iPad, or a bike, or that giant LEGO set I’ve been eyeing since January. I think about when I’ll lose all my baby teeth, or whether Dad will finally let me stay up past 9 pm. I want a strawberry cheesecake for every single birthday forever. Mum chuckled a bit and said, “We’ll see.”
April 25 - Age 12
I told Mum I didn’t want the strawberry cheesecake this year. I said I wanted a store cake, a normal one, a Woolies mud cake with those plastic race car toppers and fancy-looking cursive messages written with melted chocolate. She got quiet and said okay in that distinctive voice that means it’s not okay.
I think at some point this year I realised other people existed, and I felt as if they were constantly watching me, judging me, grading me on whether I’m cool enough. Maybe it was the uncomfortable silence between blowing out the candles and making a wish, or the jarring dissonance in Happy Birthday being belted in twelve different keys at once. I don’t know why I suddenly believed that being loved by strangers was more important than being loved by my family, the people who already loved me. Maybe I realised that growing up doesn't start with independence. It starts with a kind of shame about the people who made you, before you're old enough to know that shame is just fear wearing a disguise.
The store cake was bland. The melted chocolate cursive writing was underwhelming. It tasted like nothing.
I didn’t tell her that.
April 25 - Age 15
Mum and Dad split up in November. We had to move to a different suburb so I could attend my new school. This is my first birthday in our new apartment, the one with the kitchen too small for two people to stand in at once. It doesn’t matter. Mum made the cheesecake anyway.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Prompt: “I learned that even though I…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Noah explores what it was like to grow up as a “mixed-race” child during the final…
In Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Noah explores what it was like to grow up as a “mixed-race” child during the final years of apartheid. Noah argues that although the government’s systemic objective was to strip away individuals' privileges and rights by enforcing racial categories, individuals would utilise "humour" as a tool of resistance to find a sense of belonging in South Africa.
Through his humorous stories of his childhood, Noah demonstrates his desperate need for belonging in a brutal environment in the eyes of the law that refuses to accept him because he was “born a crime”. Ultimately, Noah reveals that humour and communication are effective to rebel against an "illogical racist system” that prevents individuals of any race from coming together in unity.
Throughout the text, Noah’s “tools for survival” were his sense of humour, even though the law refused to let him feel that he belonged anywhere. Because he was born to a Black mother and a White-Swiss father, he was “proof of their criminality", as it is illegal to have interracial marriages and have mixed-race children in South Africa. Through this law, he didn’t have a specific group to call his own. Throughout his schooling, he sought a way to navigate through distinct groups. Noah explains that he “didn’t belong to one group”; however, he realised he could be “a part of any group that was laughing”. Noah demonstrates that laughter is a “language” that allows you to connect to people from any kind of community. For instance, when navigating the schoolyard, he would often mimic the mannerisms of different groups or make light of his own ambiguous appearance, turning his 'otherness' into a source of shared amusement. Through his self-deprecating and observational tone, Noah applies humour to “humanise” himself, strategically disarming social tensions and making other kids from different racial groups see him as a friend rather than a threat. Therefore, Noah proves that his character was his best “tool” to navigate apartheid, allowing him to find a home in any group despite the racist laws of the time.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Refusal to relinquish dreams is at the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir, 'Sunset Boulevard; uproots the toxic disempowerment of the working machine of…
Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir, 'Sunset Boulevard; uproots the toxic disempowerment of the working machine of Hollywood. Throughout the film, Wilder condemns the selfish manipulation of oneself and others in order to achieve hollow satisfaction and inevitable suffering. Contrasting such self-absorbed decline, Wilder celebrates the affinity for beacons of hope and optimism within Hollywood. However, Wilder ultimately posits that the brutal corporate machine of Hollywood stardom entraps the idealists, capturing its subjects in a society of hardship without means for escape. Ultimately, Wilder criticses the exploitative and disillusioning system of Hollywood, juxtaposing the dreamscape with the truly oppressive machine.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: TITLE: Into the Unknown Stimulus:…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: Into the Unknown Stimulus: 'play is your ticket to places, real or imagined' [Press Play to Start] [Play] The…
Into the Unknown
Stimulus: 'play is your ticket to places, real or imagined'
[Press Play to Start]
[Play]
The vivid pixels on our screen illuminate as we press play on our gaming computer. We enter the game of Minecraft, a peaceful world where we can do whatever we please. This world exists with certainty. We become the truest version of ourselves . There is no façade we put on for the audience that scrutinizes our every action. Just the soft percussion of placing blocks and the wandering hum of NPC villagers who roam this imaginative world. We build kingdoms unconstrained by regulations. We battle deadly monsters unthreatened by consequence. Forests wait to be explored. Plains encourage us to frolic. Caves remain unlooted until we build up the courage to venture. Our actions in this game are free. We discover authenticity. When we press play on the game, we pause the real world around us.
[Pause]
The game pauses as we switch tabs on out computer. In doing so, we unpause a place we never wished to return to. Our university application portal is open on our browser, but we can still see Minecraft, highlighted in the task bar at the bottom of our screen, signalling our incomplete gaming session. We have received four different offers for four different courses. Four different Doors. Four different futures. There is a dropdown menu for a preferred campus. A thirty-minute timer until we are timed out. A big, green [SUBMIT] button waiting to be pressed. This form consists of the rest of our lives, reduced to a series of selections from a pre-approved list. This is the moment our childhood ends. The game we have been playing up until this point was linear. It had a tutorial. But now, without a respawn point if we decide wrong; if we fail, we have levelled up into a choose-your-own-adventure game titled adulthood. There is no genre label on the CD cover. We are tasked with a difficult decision. Which door should we open? Which version of the unknown future should we pursue? We don’t know what's behind this door, how are we meant to throw ourselves into the deep-end? You see, in video games, decision making is freeing because failure is survivable. When we play, we open a door without second guessing the risk. After all, we are sitting behind a screen playing in a virtual reality. If the door is wrong, no problem. We can try another. Minimal consequences to our tangible self. Nevertheless, the adult world has real doors that disappear if missed. The stakes are high. We can fail. There is no respawn point. So we sit here, cursor blinking, our eyes alternating between the [SUBMIT] button and the glowing Minecraft icon at the bottom of the screen, realising that the tutorial has ended and we must colour in the uncoloured parts of our drawing by choosing a door, despite the lack of knowledge we have about the other side.
[Play]
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Yoko Ogawa's dystopian novel The Memory…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Yoko Ogawa's dystopian novel The Memory Police explores the consequences of living within a society where memory,…
Yoko Ogawa's dystopian novel The Memory Police explores the consequences of living within a society where memory, identity and individual expression are progressively erased by an authoritarian regime. Through the unnamed narrator's experiences on the isolated island, Ogawa demonstrates that oppression does not merely operate through physical force, but through the gradual destruction of the memories and connections that allow individuals to understand themselves and their world. However, although the Memory Police repeatedly succeed in suppressing physical forms of resistance, Ogawa suggests that resistance remains possible through the preservation of objects and memories, the development of human connection, and ultimately the creation of stories and art. In doing so, Ogawa reveals that attempts to control human memory may destroy what people possess, but cannot completely eliminate the human desire to preserve meaning.
Ogawa initially presents resistance through the preservation of physical objects, demonstrating that individuals can challenge authoritarian control by refusing to completely surrender their memories. From the beginning of the novel, the narrator's mother secretly preserves objects that have been “disappeared” from the island, transforming her basement into an alternative archive of the past. The narrator recalls how the objects in her mother's collection seem to her “like the names of little girls from distant countries or new species of plants,” employing simile to emphasise her fascination with a world that official society has attempted to erase. The comparison to unfamiliar living things suggests that these objects retain a sense of vitality despite the island's attempts to remove their meaning. More importantly, the mother's secret collection demonstrates that remembering itself can constitute resistance. Although the islanders collectively accept each disappearance, her preservation of the objects refuses this imposed forgetting. This resistance is later developed through the narrator's hidden room, where R and the disappeared objects are protected from the Memory Police. The room consequently becomes a symbol of resistance, physically separating memory from the authority that seeks to destroy it. R reinforces the importance of preservation when he observes that “no matter how wonderful the memory, it vanishes if you leave it alone, if no one pays attention to it.” The conditional statement emphasises that memory requires active human participation to survive. Through these hidden spaces and preserved objects, Ogawa therefore suggests that resistance begins when individuals refuse to allow authorities to determine what deserves to be remembered.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Write a story about a person who…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: The first thing I packed was the photograph. I found it beneath a stack of old birthday cards in the bottom…
The first thing I packed was the photograph. I found it beneath a stack of old birthday cards in the bottom drawer of my bedroom, its edges softened from years of being handled. Four people stood in front of the ocean: Mum with her sunglasses crooked on her face, Dad pretending to look annoyed, my sister pulling a ridiculous expression, and me, small enough to still believe that summer would last forever. I stared at it for a long time before placing it face-down in the suitcase. Tomorrow, the house would belong to someone else. The room, the street, the crooked fence Dad had promised to fix, the jacaranda that dropped purple flowers across the driveway every spring — all of it would become part of a life I no longer lived. I had spent months imagining this moment as an escape, believing that leaving meant becoming someone new. So I was surprised by the heaviness in my chest when Mum called that dinner was ready. For the last time, I walked downstairs.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: Soft beginnings In the beginning Pinky was whole, square, certain but still unique. Her corners were firm, like…
Soft beginnings
In the beginning Pinky was whole, square, certain but still unique. Her corners were firm, like the unquestioned truths of childhood, when everything had a place and every fear could be folded neatly away beneath the weight of routine. I would press her into my neck, breathing her in like oxygen, convinced she held something essential to survive, maybe she did.
Back then, I believed comfort was something you could hold.
Her threads were tight, unbroken, like the certainty of being loved without condition. Nights were simple: tucked in, lights off, Pinky held between my fingers, her softness a quiet promise that nothing could reach me. Outside, the world stretched vast and unknowable, but within the small architecture of my bed, I was safe.
I did not yet know that safety could unravel.
First unravelling
The first loose thread appeared without ceremony. A small pull at the edge, barely noticeable, like the first doubt that enters your mind and refuses to leave. I remember tugging at it absentmindedly, watching as it lengthened, curious about how something so small could alter the shape of something so whole.
That was the year I learnt that things break slowly.
Arguments seeped through the walls at night, low and unfamiliar. The voice I once trusted became sharp, edged with something I couldn't name. I held Pinky tighter then, wrapping her around my fingers until they tingled, as if they could anchor everything back into place.
But the more I pulled, the more she changed. Still the same, but different. And maybe that was the first lesson, that love when grasped too tightly, does not stay intact. It stretches. It distorts. It becomes something else entirely.
Learning the language of loss
There is a particular silence that follows loss. It is not empty, but heavy, pressing itself into the spaces where something once existed. I learned that silence young.
Pinky absorbed it all.
Her wool. Once soft and full, it began to thin under the weight of nights spent awake, listening to the absence of what used to be. I would trace her edges, now uneven, as though I could smooth them back to their original shape. But grief does not work like that. It leaves marks. It reshapes.
I stopped asking questions for a while. Children learn quickly when answers do not come.
Instead I learned to listen to the quiet, to the in between, to things people do not say. Pinky became my translator, her worn threads speaking the language of everything I could not articulate.
She taught me that not all loss is loud.
Some of it settles gently like dust.
The illusion of holding on
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: Great Southern Land Stimulus 1:…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: Great Southern Land The bird squawked furiously. Yet again, the nest it had worked so hard to build had been…
Great Southern Land
The bird squawked furiously. Yet again, the nest it had worked so hard to build had been destroyed. This time the great oak had been replaced with an apartment building. The last patch of wildlife in this concrete jungle had been filled. Now the bird of the sky had its omnipotent view drowned out. The bird had had enough. Flapping its great black wings, it climbed higher and higher. The towering buildings stretched upwards, enclosing around the bird, suffocating its escape. Yet the bird emerged, soaring through the gap, and piercing above the ceiling of the city.
The bird continued to climb. The urban sprawl filled its vision in all directions, so the only escape was up. The air thinned, wings beginning to labour, so the bird relaxed, just floating amongst the clouds. Looking down, it observed the land. The once wild and harsh bush of Australia had given way to the plague of cities, spreading across the land like a virus. In spite of the suffocating size of the city, the vast bushland, hilly plains, red-hot deserts, and warm oceans stretched farther than even the bird could see.
It decided to travel north, further into the heart of the great Southern Land. It glided over the city, far from the oppressive bustle of cars and noisy humans, high in the serenity of the wind. The plague of buildings continued beneath the bird, but concrete castles turned to humble houses as the land was spread thin. The white blood cells of Australia were fighting back, in green dots of parkland resisting the great decay all around it..
As the bird continued to soar, tangles of roads thinned, giving way to dirt tracks as nature took over. The bird began to glide lower, brushing across the leaves of trees and listening to the light conversation of the land. As dusk began to fall, the bird was now circling over broad farmland, finally landing on an alone hilltop.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Trevor’s outsider status both limits and…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, explores the draconian, oppressive rules present in South Africa and how…
Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, explores the draconian, oppressive rules present in South Africa and how these segregated and influenced the identities of marginalised individuals, like himself, during and post-apartheid. Through his anecdotal childhood experiences, Noah suggests that although being classified as “coloured” caused him to feel excluded, attributing to limiting opportunities and creating worry, his outsider status ultimately played a significant role in momentously/deeply enabling his success throughout the memoir. Noah evidences this through his mother, Patricia's, resilience positively influencing him to condemn reinforcing stereotypical values of minorities, as well as Noah’s ability to utilise languages as a way to adapt to different racial and social groups as a survival mechanism.
Through Noah’s portrayal of the violence and systemic racism embedded in South Africa, Noah presents restricted opportunities and fear experienced by coloured people like himself. Noah recounts his childhood under the apartheid rationale by likening himself to an illicit substance, being ‘dropped like a bag of weed’ when him and his black mother, Patricia were seen by white people during their walks at the park. This metaphorically underscores the limitations that being ‘born a crime’ in South Africa had on ‘mixed’ race Trevor Noah, and how this negatively impacts family dynamics that traditional single race families possess. In addition, this comparison depicts the dehumanising impact that the ‘atrocities’ of apartheid instilled on citizens and why being an ‘anomaly’ disables his succession. Furthermore, Noah portrays his life in Soweto, a ‘99.9%’ black populated township that was ‘designed to be bombed’ as highly segregated, with himself being ‘refused’ to ‘leave the house’ by his own family due to the illegality of his mixed race. This in turn isolated Noah, yearning to be outside ‘where the rest of the boys and girls were playing’, nonetheless he was forced to remain inside. Noah connotes in seriousness that him being ‘coloured’ increased the risk of him being taken from his family unbeknownst to them, as ‘children were taken’ during this time. Noahs shift from his frequent humorous tone throughout the memoir to urgency in this moment emphasises the importance in Noah remaining hidden from South Africa’s ‘militarized’ police. Thus, whilst necessary to be secluded, this emphasises how being different for Noah led to a lack of freedom and evidently disables the fulfillment of opportunities in ‘Born a Crime’. Ultimately, Noah exemplifies that his outsider status limited himself from opportunities, as well as engrained fear in minority groups in South Africa.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sunset Boulevard explore the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Billy Wilder’s 1950’s film noir ‘Sunset Boulevard’ presents Hollywood as…
Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Billy Wilder’s 1950’s film noir ‘Sunset Boulevard’ presents Hollywood as alluring yet unforgiving, where the pursuit of recognition and success often comes at a profound personal cost. Through his cynical deception of the industry, Wilder examines the detriments that can arise through individuals’ narcissistic self-interests. Wilder demonstrates this through individuals’ pursuit of fame tainting their wellbeing, amplified by the fickle nature of Hollywood. Moreover, Wilder alludes to the idea that striving for material success and stability often leads oneself to bend their morals, and in turn, generate their ultimate downfall. However, Wilder combats this by highlighting that achievements towards genuine creative ambitions are deserving of success by juxtaposing this with others selfish desires and their tendency to harm others in the process.
Wilder exposes the psychological consequences of an obsessive quest for stardom, suggesting that dependence on the industries recognition can skew one’s perception of reality and entrap them in delusion. From the exposition of the tragic narrative, Wilder accentuates Normas insanity, characterising her as delusional given her belief that her fame in Hollywood still prevails, despite ‘all [her] fans leaving twenty years ago.’ Wilder attributes Normas deluded state to the brutal film industry, and its tendency to dispose of people as though they are single-use commodities after they no longer fit the harsh reality of western beauty standards that infiltrate the system. Through this, Wilder immediately presents Norma as a victim of Hollywood, and condemns the system for leaving her with a corrupted state of mind. To exemplify this idea further, Wilder reveals Joe’s beliefs of her mansion and its macabre essence. When arriving at Normas mansion at the onset of the destructive tale, Joe compares its dilapidated appearance to that of ‘Miss Havisham’ in her ‘torn veil and wedding dress’ from ‘Great Expectations’. Through employing allusion, Wilder draws a parallel between Norma’s gothic horror-esque mansion and her compounding insanity throughout ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ Thus, Wilder further criticises the ability of Hollywood to make aging ‘stars’ fall into deep states of delusion and emphasises the difficulty of breaking this cycle. Moreover, Wilder reveals how those surrounding Norma reinforce the delusions upon which her psychological stability depends. Despite recognising Salome as a “hodgepodge of melodramatic plots”, Joe refuses to challenge her delusions, while former director Cecil B. DeMille similarly admits that he “didn’t have the heart” to reveal Paramount’s disinterest in her screenplay. Wilder suggests that Norma’s destruction is not solely self-inflicted; rather, Hollywood and those within it sustain the illusions that ultimately consume her. Yet, Wilder emphasises that condoning such delusion only fosters a greater deal of insanity through the ending of the tale. Following Joe’s rejection of her manufactured stardom, Wilder transforms the mansion’s spiral staircase into a visual metaphor for Norma’s final descent into madness. Ironically, while Norma perceives herself to be making a triumphant ‘return’ to the screen, her downward movement physically embodies her psychological deterioration, as the attention she has pursued is finally granted only once she is consumed by delusion. Thus, her declaration that she is “ready for [her] close-up”, accompanied by Wilder’s close-up, ultimately exposes her toxic dependence on fame. Thus, Wilder presents the pursuit of fame as a debilitating cycle resulting in total delusion and condemns the system for facilitating this.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘The new American society was molded by…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: The newly formed society of America was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to…
The newly formed society of America was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to which said ideals actually materialized equitably for all, remained questionable. Whilst the radical pursuit of liberty was integral in overthrowing monarchial tyranny, collective inability to function as a nation due to self-destructive freedom, prompted the creation of a compromised constitution that prioritized security and the interests of the propertied elite, in lieu of a liberal utopia.
The aggressive struggle for liberty was the essential ideological force that not only toppled British imperialism but also laid the framework on which future American society was believed to operate upon. Composed primarily of local farmers and tradesmen united under the "Continental Army" banner, the force's ability to "fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again" (Greene) symbolized perseverance in the light of preserving Liberty. The "indispensable man" (Flexner) and leader of the movement, George Washington himself viewed the war as a decision between "bloodshed or slavery", a stark choice, which echoed the Lockean principle that a government which operated without consent, effectively reduced its subjects to slaves. Such steadfast commitment to the cause of civic virtue within the leadership and core of the Continental army enabled it to triumph during instances like the Battle of Trenton (1776), where Fabian tactics successfully aided in the defeat of 1800 Hessian mercenaries. During more despondent periods like the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge when 1/3rd of soldiers had no shoes and Washington believed that the "Army [would] dissolve" (Washington), it was words like "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph", (Thomas Paine's American Crisis 1776) which transformed the grim reality of war within the infantryman's conflicting mind. Constantly reminded that their suffering was not loss, but rather an investment in a progressive future, the force developed further into a seasoned military that would ultimately conquer the British at Yorktown (1781). Thus confirming that liberal ideas drove America towards revolutionary victory.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: the issue for the argument analysis is…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 85%: Written by the editorial of the Washington Post — a major American newspaper with an audience of Californian…
Written by the editorial of the Washington Post — a major American newspaper with an audience of Californian citizens who value free speech and stand against laws prohibiting free expression, the editor writes in response to the March 2025 lawsuit against Meta and Google, filed by a woman named KGM. The lawsuit aimed to push large social media giants to admit their platforms were deliberately designed as addictive and to add an age ban to protect the youth from adverse mental health problems. While many progressives praised the jury’s decision to hold the giants accountable, the editorial writes to their conservative audience and intends to warn Californian citizens of their risk of losing free speech platforms by saying the lawsuit is actually a way to restrict citizens from their access to rights. This is done through an overall educate and activate argument structure, where the authors of the Washington Post highlight the risk of losing rights to free speech while urging Californian citizens to protest against the ban.
The author opens the piece by using a head and heart strategy to signify the risk of Californian citizens losing their freedom of expression if negligence is given to their own behaviors. The opening is accompanied by a large photograph where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg can be seen leaving court, surrounded by a swam of camera crew and other citizens. The photograph has a tone that highlights Zuckerburg’s nonchalance in the scene he is surrounded by, to emphasize he is just a businessman who created a platform without any ill intention of harming youth. It positions the audience of right-leaning citizens to see the court jury as an exaggerated situation and shift their focus to the main problem introduced in the opening text. The photograph helps to give the contect of the issue, supported by a fact on the court hearing where “$6 mulluon where given in damaged” to KGM for her social media “addiction”. It allows to emphasize how if citizens keep blaming companies who are running businesses, they risk taking away their own rights — signified through the use of inclusive language by highlighting “our” loss. The overall intended effect is to educate the audience about the main issue and inform them of their stake of losing freedom of speech.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Marsden explores how morals are altered in…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: John Marsden’s coming of age novel Tomorrow When The War Began published in 1993, set at the beginning of war,…
John Marsden’s coming of age novel Tomorrow When The War Began published in 1993, set at the beginning of war, suggests that though difficult circumstances can alter people’s perspectives and principles surrounding the world around them, their morals are equally as important when going through those challenging situations. To begin, Marsden believes that morals play an important role in how people view the world. Furthermore, he communicates how one’s morals can affect their actions in difficult situations. Finally, he portrays challenges as a key influence in one’s inner ideals and principles.
John Marsden suggests that morals play a vital role in determining how people view the world and the actions of others around them. Robyn, being Christian has certain morals that she follows every single day. These morals allow her to understand the actions of the people invading their country, “We’ve got all this land and resources, and yet there’s a country a crow’s spit away with people packed like battery hens.” These metaphors demonstrate Robyn’s understanding of the invader’s perspective, revealing her understanding nature and how her Christianity has influenced the way she views others’ actions. However, when Kevin criticizes her for ‘siding with the enemy’, Robyn pushes back by stating how “Understanding isn’t the same as supporting.” By clearly differentiating the concepts of understanding and supporting, she demonstrates that she is defined not just by the teachings of her religion, but also by the morals she had formed throughout her own personal experiences. Through Robyn’s personality and character, Marsden communicates the importance of following one’s own morals and inner beliefs to build understanding of the world around them.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘The new American society was molded by…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: The newly formed American society was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to…
The newly formed American society was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to which the ideals that pioneered the struggle for independence actually materialized equitably in the new society, remained questionable. Whilst the radical pursuit of liberty was integral towards the overthrow of monarchial tyranny, the collective inability to function as a nation due to self-destructive freedom, prompted the creation of a new constitutional order that prioritized national stability and the interests of the propertied elite, in lieu of an idealist world.
The radical pursuit of liberty was the essential ideological force that not only enabled the overthrow of British imperialism but also laid the framework on which the future American society would operate upon. The "shot heard round the world" in Lexington (1775) marked the beginning of a fight that would shape the colonial identity into one that was distinctly American. Composed primarily of local farmers and tradesmen united under the "Continental Army" banner, the force's ability to "fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again" (Greene) symbolized perseverance in the light of preserving Liberty. The "indispensable man" (Flexner) and leader of the movement, George Washington himself viewed the war as a decision between "bloodshed or slavery", a stark choice, which echoed the Lockean principle that a government which operated without consent, effectively reduced its subjects to slaves. Such steadfast commitment to the cause of freedom within the leadership and core of the Continental army enabled it to prosper during instances like the Battle of Trenton (1776), where Fabian tactics were successfully deployed to defeat nearly 2000 Hessian mercenaries. More despondent periods like the winter of 1777 in Valley Forge where 1/3rd of soldiers had no shoes and Washington believed that the "Army [would] dissolve" (Washington), only pushed the force to develop further into a seasoned military that would ultimately defeat the British at Yorktown (1781). Words like "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph", (Thomas Paine's American Crisis 1776) transformed the grim reality of war within the infantryman's conflicting mind, constantly reminding that their suffering was not loss, but rather an investment in a progressive future. Thus confirming that liberal ideas drove America towards revolutionary victory.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘The new American society was molded by…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: The newly formed American society was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to which…
The newly formed American society was fundamentally underpinned by liberal philosophy; however, the extent to which the ideals that pioneered the struggle for independence actually materialized equitably in the new society, remained questionable. Whilst the radical pursuit of liberty was integral towards the overthrow of monarchial tyranny, the collective inability to function as a nation due to self-destructive freedom, prompted the creation of a new constitutional order that prioritized national stability and the interests of the propertied elite, in lieu of an idealist world.
The radical pursuit of liberty was the essential ideological force that not only enabled the overthrow of British imperialism but also laid the framework on which the future American society would operate upon. The "shot heard round the world" in Lexington (1775) marked the beginning of a fight that would shape the colonial identity into one that was distinctly American. Comprising primarily of local farmers and tradesmen united under the "Continental Army" banner, the force's ability to "fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again" (Greene) symbolized perseverance in the light of preserving Liberty. The "indispensable man" (Flexner) and leader of the movement, George Washington himself viewed the war as a decision between "bloodshed or slavery", a stark choice, which echoed the Lockean principle that a government which operated without consent, effectively reduced its subjects to slaves. Such steadfast commitment to the cause of freedom within the leadership and core of the Continental army enabled it to prosper during instances like the Battle of Trenton (1776), where Fabian tactics were successfully deployed to defeat nearly 2000 Hessian mercenaries. More despondent periods like the winter of 1777 in Valley Forge where 1/3rd of soldiers had no shoes and Washington believed that the "Army [would] dissolve" (Washington), only pushed the force to develop further into a seasoned military that would ultimately defeat the British at Yorktown (1781). Words like "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph", (Thomas Paine's American Crisis 1776) transformed the grim reality of war within the infantryman's conflicting mind, constantly reminding that their suffering was not loss, but rather an investment in a progressive future. Thus confirming that liberal ideas drove America towards revolutionary victory.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The greatest threats the Blackwood sisters…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In her 1950s proto-feminist novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson illuminates the interplay…
In her 1950s proto-feminist novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson illuminates the interplay between psychological fragility and social hostility within the insular world of the Blackwood sisters. The suggestion that their greatest threats emerge from within invites an examination of how internalised fear and guilt function as forces of self-destruction. Through Merricat’s violent imagination and Constance’s paralysing compliance, Jackson highlights how self-imposed isolation evolves into a mechanism of entrapment. Yet the sisters’ inward collapse is inseparable from the cruelty of the outside world, who persecution reinforces their withdrawal. Ultimately, Jackson blurs the boundary between internal and external danger, revealing fear itself as the novels most destructive agent.
Jackson initially positions the sisters' internal pathologies as the primary threat, suggesting their self-imposed entrapment is more potent than any external force. Merricat’s obsessive thoughts and actions not only reveal her psychological instability but also actively shape the sisters’ environment, transforming their home into a space governed by fear and control. Jackson immediately establishes Merricat's detachment from reality when she confesses her wish to have been “born a werewolf,” a metaphor that establishes Merricat as psychologically unstable and obsessed with control, hinting at her detachment from reality. The werewolf metaphor symbolises her potential for destructive power, through this Jackson intends to show how internal fantasises amplify the threat she poses to herself and the household. Furthermore, Jackson employs the poisoning of her family to literalise self-destruction; her attempt to preserve the family paradoxically destroys it. It positions her internal obsession and fear as the origin of trauma, rather than societal pressure, aligning with the idea that the greatest threats are internal. Moreover, subsequent to the fire and destruction of their home, Constance chooses to remain inside the Blackwood home; stating “this is our home, we cannot leave it”, Jackson reveals how her domestic attachment prevents change or growth for either of the sisters, reinforcing isolation and psychological vulnerability. However, Jackson explores the paradoxical effect of the sisters’ actions; while it is Merricat’s superstition and Constance’s domesticity that ostracise them from society it is these same effects which act as a tool to discover female agency and autonomy. While Merricat’s violent imagination intitiates the household’s instability, it is Constance’s internalised fear and obsessive domesticity that sustain their fragile world, highlighting how Jackson portrays the sisters’ internal threats as both active and during forces that set the stage for the challenged posed by the outside world.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Write an opinion piece on any topic
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 72.5%: As right wing parties continue to gain traction in Australian politics, threatening to follow in the USA’s…
As right wing parties continue to gain traction in Australian politics, threatening to follow in the USA’s footsteps regarding abortion laws, it is impossible, as a woman, not to fear. Fear for my autonomy, for my right to live as I choose, to have children if and when I choose. As a woman, I am unable to turn a blind eye to the possibility that my body will be governed as an object of the state and the right to ignore the existence of my personhood will be legislated.
As of April 2025, following the 2022 overturn of Roe v Wade, the US saw a drastic increase in maternal mortality. In states where abortion was banned, mothers were almost twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or shortly after. In Texas alone, maternal mortality rose 56% by 2023. These figures represent real wome, who had lives and aspirations, people who loved them. Women who were murdered by the denial of their right to autonomy. Banning abortions doesn’t “save” lives - it takes them.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Ogawa explore the ways that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Ogawa contends that individuals inevitably dissociate from their identity in order to cope with loss. Through the…
Ogawa contends that individuals inevitably dissociate from their identity in order to cope with loss. Through the defining moment of the narrator and the old man casually discussing the insidious “speeding up” of the disappearances, Ogawa contrasts the old man’s usual considerate persona with his resigned acceptance of the “gaps in the island”. Hence, the writer reveals the internal dissociation between the “caring” old man and his incongruent passivity towards the disappearances. Moreover, his apathetic observation that the authoritarian Memory Police are “only after people who aren’t able to forget” illustrates Ogawa’s argument that systematic loss inevitably undermines individuals’ very selfhood. By revealing the intrinsic disparity between the old man’s established characterisation and subservient acceptance, Ogawa argues that systematic loss can fragment the essence of an individual's identity. Ogawa similarly
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: PERSONAL JOURNEYS
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: The quarter zip was folded at the bottom of the box marked MISC and the sleeves crossed over its chest like it…
The quarter zip was folded at the bottom of the box marked MISC and the sleeves crossed over its chest like it was waiting to be identified. I almost didn't recognise it. The navy had been dulled by the colour of dishwater, the zip stiff with rust, the collar gone thin, worn thinner by sleep than by wear. I held it to my face without meaning to, and there it was: a smell I couldn’t name, arriving half a second before the memory did.
I was fourteen the last time I wore it, I think. Old enough to remember, too young to have noticed that anyone cared.
Back then, I wore whatever was folded at the top of the clothing rack. I chose things because they were comfortable, or because they were the first thing on top of the drawer. It never crossed my mind that anyone was watching what I picked. Back then, there was no gap between feeling it and doing it. I ran everywhere instead of walking, even to the mailbox, even when no one was looking or timing me. If someone doubted me, I instinctively argued back before I thought it through. It hadn't occurred to me yet to just go quiet. I tended to speak out before I decided whether it was a good idea to say it. It was in that phase where nobody had told me there was a version of myself that I was expected to be performing instead of the one that already existed.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent is violence a form of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: When oppression and injustice remain unresolved, violence can become perceived as a form of justice, perpetuating a…
When oppression and injustice remain unresolved, violence can become perceived as a form of justice, perpetuating a devastating cycle of revenge and suffering. Directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson and released in 2020, High Ground explores the fractured relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians during the frontier conflicts of 1919 and 1931. Set during a time when indigenous Australians were oppressed, massacred and stripped of their identity, right and culture to the land, the film reflects enduring consequences of colonial violence, exposing how unresolved injustice can perpetuate cycles of revenge and conflict across generations. Johnson establishes how violence is perceived as an act of justice through revenge, fuelled by perpetual injustice. However, Johnson complicates this notion by arguing that violence ultimately perpetuates the very injustice it seeks to overcome. Johnson foregrounds the lasting consequences of the Gan Gan massacre through the characterization of key figures, illustrating how unresolved injustice can distort perceptions of justice, compelling individuals to pursue violent retaliation . Exposing how colonial authorities use violence under the guise of law and justice, revealing how violence can become a tool to maintain oppression rather than justice. However, Johnson challenges the idea that violence can deliver genuine justice, suggesting that true justice stems from acknowledging both sides' wrongdoing not through revenge and retaliation