VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Jeff Kennett: The charges against Ben…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 80%: Following the arrest of highly decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith on war crimes charges, fierce debate has…
Following the arrest of highly decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith on war crimes charges, fierce debate has erupted as to their validity. In an opinion article for the Herald Sun, Jeff Kennett (Jeff Kennett: The charges against brave Ben Roverts-Smith should be withdrawn) argues that civilians are unable to make effective judgements on wartime decisions and therefore criticises the charges laid against the former soldier. He writes to the Herald Sun’s conservative audience, who are likely supportive of Australian soldiers, with a purpose of discouraging civilian criticism of Roberts-Smith and encouraging the charges against Roberts-Smith to be dropped.
In his first substantive, Kennett affirms the admirability of Ben Roberts-Smith as a highly effective and duty-bound soldier. By qualifying him as ‘one of the most highly decorated soldiers the nation has ever produced’, Kennett immediately establishes Roberts-Smith as a man of high achievement. Kennett shifts to emphasise his gallantry, in ‘putting his life on the line time and time again’. Its sequencing immediately succeeding the emphasis on Roberts-Smith’s achievement subtly positions the audience to view Roberts-Smith as both effective and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. This is aided through a visual medium depicting Roberts-Smith on tour. Roberts-Smith’s downward gaze and eyes obscured by sunglasses symbolise an apparent ignorance to the camera, feeding the audience the impression of focus. This is reinforced through Roberts-Smith’s headset, implying his senses are consumed by the task and enhancing the appearance of focus. The Australian flag depicted on the armband frames Roberts-Smith’s actions within the microcosm of duty, presenting the soldier’s positioning in war as a desire to serve the interests of Herald Sun’s Australian reader. For the reader, the visual medium enhances the perception of both Roberts-Smith’s eliteness and sacrifice established by Kennett. Through describing Roberts-Smith’s sacrifice as a deed ‘most Australians will never comprehend’, Kennett establishes the disqualification of the reader in making a judgement on the disgraced soldier, implicitly conditioning an internal stifling of questions about his conduct. This disqualification’s emergence as a pattern is utilised by Kennett to continually reinforce this idea, and consolidate said stifling within the mind of the reader. In concluding the substantive, Kennett shifts to criticising the process of Roberts-Smith’s arrest. Kennett’s appeal to pathos through describing the arrest as ‘in front of his children’ and ‘absolute disgrace’ elicits anger within the audience at the process, encouraging their perception of Roberts-Smith as a victim of an unfair system. Within his first substantive, Kennett establishes the admirability of Ben Roberts-Smith, positioning the audience to a more favourable position on the former soldier.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Wang explore the theme of lies in…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Perhaps nothing exemplifies the power of deception more than the protagonist, Billi’s family decision to conceal…
Perhaps nothing exemplifies the power of deception more than the protagonist, Billi’s family decision to conceal their grandmother’s devastating cancer diagnosis in Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell”. Many of her characters exhibit sorrow and responsibility to carry emotional burdens that requires each other’s support. The farewell is Lulu Wang’s 2019 comedy-drama film, set between New York and Changchun in the 2010’s, is based on her own Chinese family’s experience with illness, deception and grief. She initially presents an unorthodox view of ‘lies’, challenging the assumption that lies are always malignant, instead portraying it as an act of care. However, contrary to this portrayal, the film simultaneously explores the inharmonious psychological and moral depravity from anticipatory grief experienced by Billi, revealing that pursuing the greater good through deception still comes at an emotional cost. Ultimately, more than merely a frivolous and poignant comedy drama, Wang’s The Farewell unveils the didactic aspect of the film that benevolent deception facilitates the negotiation of interpersonal tensions to uphold family cohesion-a sentiment that reflects “Chinese cultural values of collectivism and the moral responsibility to ease the suffering of loved ones”.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Explore the significance of the passage…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 92.5%: Question 1: The passage for the Sporting Spirit involves Orwell evaluating the serious and violent nature of…
Question 1:
The passage for the Sporting Spirit involves Orwell evaluating the serious and violent nature of sport in modern times, as in earlier nations, sport was trivial. Orwell compares earlier centuries where sport was not dependent on competition with the later century of his time. He connects the "games cult" with the overarching growth in nationalism, where sport is watched and followed with mindlessness similarly to a cult. The passage is situated towards the conclusion of the text. It precedes the connection to sport and nationalism, marking the change of the sporting environment stemming from later communities.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The power of ambition
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 62.5%: I used to say ambition was the only currency I had until I hit it big in the market. My world was my parents'…
I used to say ambition was the only currency I had until I hit it big in the market. My world was my parents' basement and an old macbook. Today, looking at the city from my Penthouse. I remember when I was walking on those streets wondering whether my ambition was a blessing, curse, or something in between.
I remember the nights when I would stay awake on a couple cans of Red Bull and a sliver of hope, studying whitepapers and keeping track of the market and its variability. At first, I was chasing possibility. Some day I believed in me and I needed to find a way to prove them wrong with success. Expecting my will to achieve success. One successful trade led to ten, and ten led to a fortune. And the fortune turned me into something I never would be able to become.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: This is a reflective commentary on the…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: For my personal creative response within the Framework of Personal Journeys, I chose to write a persuasive…
For my personal creative response within the Framework of Personal Journeys, I chose to write a persuasive essay exploring “this is me”, and the stimulus being “life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”. The title and stimulus helped me to argue on my contention of my speech on how identity is not something constructed from our innate minds, but is instead forged through our choices, consistent habits and experiences that shape us.
Exploring the complex web of the formation of identity, I drew particularly on Helen Keller, who had experienced great struggles throughout her life. Yet through her daily habit of learning from her teacher, she became a prominent figure in women's rights and became the first deaf-blind person to receive a bachelor's degree.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: This is a reflective commentary on the…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: For my personal creative response within the Framework of Personal Journeys, I chose to write a persuasive…
For my personal creative response within the Framework of Personal Journeys, I chose to write a persuasive essay exploring “this is me”, and the stimulus being “life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”. The title and stimulus helped me to argue on my purpose of this speech on how identity is not something we believe in our minds. But is instead formed by the choices we make, the habits we form and the experiences that shape us over time.
Exploring the complex web of the formation of identity, I drew particularly on Helen Keller, who had experienced great struggles throughout her life. Yet through her daily habit of learning from her teacher, she became a prominent figure in women's rights and became the first deaf-blind person to receive a bachelor's degree.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 97.5%: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience.…
#7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience. Discuss."
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, its tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence defuses the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack its comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen Clark, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet, her face unseen for the first several seconds of her appearance, her interior life accessible only through voiceover, a formal choice that grants the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When Aibileen tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child rather than as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity, moving the audience toward tenderness rather than outrage at the system that makes the scene necessary. Minny Jackson is similarly subordinated, her narrative function reduced to comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of Minny's confrontations with Hilly pitches toward audience satisfaction rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its…
PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience. Discuss."
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, the film's tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence works to defuse the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing an emotional experience of satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack the film's comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help is a film that earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen Clark, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet, her face unseen for the first several seconds of her appearance. Her interior life is accessed almost entirely in voiceover, a formal choice that grants her the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When Aibileen tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child, not as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity. The scene is genuinely moving, but it moves us toward tenderness for the relationship rather than outrage at the system that makes such a scene necessary. Minny Jackson is similarly subordinated: her central narrative function is comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity.Taylor's framing of Minny's confrontations with Hilly consistently pitches toward audience satisfaction, the bad woman humiliated, the good woman vindicated, rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 95%: Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about…
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, its tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence defuses the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack its comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen Clark, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet, her face unseen for the first several seconds of her appearance, her interior life accessible only through voiceover, a formal choice that grants the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When Aibileen tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child rather than as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity, moving the audience toward tenderness rather than outrage at the system that makes the scene necessary. Minny Jackson is similarly subordinated, her narrative function reduced to comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of Minny's confrontations with Hilly pitches toward audience satisfaction rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 100%: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its…
PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience. Discuss."
INTRODUCTION
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, the film's tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence works to defuse the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing an emotional experience of satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack the film's comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help is a film that earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen Clark, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet, her face unseen for the first several seconds of her appearance. Her interior life is accessed almost entirely in voiceover, a formal choice that grants her the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When Aibileen tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child, not as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity. The scene is genuinely moving, but it moves us toward tenderness for the relationship rather than outrage at the system that makes such a scene necessary. Minny Jackson is similarly subordinated: her central narrative function is comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of Minny's confrontations with Hilly consistently pitches toward audience satisfaction, the bad woman humiliated, the good woman vindicated, rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 100%: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its…
PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience. Discuss."
INTRODUCTION
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, the film's tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence works to defuse the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing an emotional experience of satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack the film's comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help is a film that earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen Clark, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet, her face unseen for the first several seconds of her appearance. Her interior life is accessed almost entirely in voiceover, a formal choice that grants her the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When Aibileen tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child, not as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity. The scene is genuinely moving, but it moves us toward tenderness for the relationship rather than outrage at the system that makes such a scene necessary. Minny Jackson is similarly subordinated: her central narrative function is comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of Minny's confrontations with Hilly consistently pitches toward audience satisfaction, the bad woman humiliated, the good woman vindicated, rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 100%: PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its…
PROMPT: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good racism' — a narrative that soothes rather than challenges its audience. Discuss."
INTRODUCTION
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation. It is a contention more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering them as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, the film's tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence works to defuse the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing an emotional experience of satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the moments where performance and honesty crack the film's comfortable surface and expose something more truthful underneath. Ultimately, The Help is a film that earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Her growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. The film's central Black narrator, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet. Her interior life is accessed almost entirely in voiceover, a formal choice that grants her the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When she tells the child in her care "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as a gift to a white child, not as evidence of her own thwarted intelligence and dignity. The scene is genuinely moving, but it moves us toward tenderness for the relationship rather than outrage at the system that makes such a scene necessary. The film's secondary Black protagonist is similarly subordinated: her central narrative function is comic relief and the delivery of a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of her confrontations with the film's villain consistently pitches toward audience satisfaction, the bad woman humiliated, the good woman vindicated, rather than toward the structural reality that such cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centring a white gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: #7 — "The Help functions as 'feel-good…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 97.5%: INTRODUCTION Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells…
INTRODUCTION
Systemic racism endures not only through overt hostility but through the stories a culture tells itself about its own moral progress. Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, presents racial injustice as a problem solved by individual courage and personal goodwill, ultimately framing white guilt as the catalyst for Black liberation, which is a contention that is more comforting than it is true. While the film gestures toward the lived terror of Jim Crow through its Black maids' testimonies, it consistently positions white discomfort and white redemption at the centre of its moral universe, rendering Aibileen and Minny as supporting players in their own story. Furthermore, the film's tonal reliance on humour and warmth around moments of serious racial violence works to defuse the very outrage it briefly provokes, producing an emotional experience of satisfaction rather than reckoning. Yet to dismiss The Help entirely is to ignore the genuine weight Viola Davis brings to Aibileen's interior life, in moments that crack the film's comfortable surface and expose something more honest underneath. Ultimately, The Help is a film that earns its "feel-good" label far more than it earns the moral authority it reaches for, because it privileges the emotional comfort of its assumed white audience over the complexity and danger of the Black women's experience it claims to centre.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1
When a narrative of oppression is told primarily through the perspective of the privileged, the oppressed are inevitably reduced to instruments of another's growth. The Help constructs its moral architecture almost entirely around Skeeter Phelan, a young white woman whose ambition to become a writer provides both the film's inciting action and its resolution: the published book is her achievement, her manuscript, her escape route to New York. Skeeter's growth from naive Southern belle to crusading journalist is tracked with the full apparatus of classical character development, including close-ups of her doubt, wide shots of her courage, and a swelling score at her vindication. Aibileen, by contrast, is introduced cleaning a toilet. Her interior life is accessed almost entirely in voiceover, a formal choice that grants her the appearance of interiority while confining her voice to narration rather than action. When she tells Mae Mobley "you is kind, you is smart, you is important," the film frames this as Aibileen's gift to a white child, not as evidence of Aibileen's own thwarted intelligence and dignity. The scene is genuinely moving, but it moves us toward tenderness for the relationship rather than outrage at the system that makes such a scene necessary.
Minny's arc is similarly subordinated: her central narrative function is comic relief and the delivery of the "Terrible Awful," a revenge fantasy that generates laughter rather than gravity. Taylor's framing of her confrontations with Hilly consistently pitches toward audience satisfaction, the bad woman humiliated, the good woman vindicated, rather than toward the structural reality that Hilly's cruelty was not exceptional but entirely normal, legally protected, and socially celebrated. The film, in centering Skeeter's gaze, tells us that racism is something a sufficiently enlightened white person can fix, which is precisely the kind of story that soothes rather than challenges.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framwork of Ideas - Childhood
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: Before I Knew Better For the first twelve years of my life, I lived in a kingdom where Appa was the chief…
Before I Knew Better
For the first twelve years of my life, I lived in a kingdom where Appa was the chief knight, the architect, the ruler and everything in between.
He was the joy of my house. He was a person of great jokes… or at least, that’s what he would say. To me, he was the man from the comic books. A superhero some would say. My superhero. The person who could fix anything with a roll of duct tape and a smile stretching across his face. He was immune to the gravity of sadness.
I lived in that ‘kingdom’ he built for me. I always knew that nothing could go wrong because he was at the gates. But that was before I knew better…
The shift didn’t happen gradually. It happened in the time it took to open a living room door.
When Paati, my grandmother passed, the light in our house didn’t just dim. It went out… fully. I saw a side of Appa that I never knew existed. The person who once filled the room with lame dad jokes and his captivating laughter, now filled it with such overwhelming silence that I could feel it in my chest.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “To what extent does Robert Frost explore…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Isolation is the actual or perceived state of separation from others — a complex phenomenon that extends far…
Isolation is the actual or perceived state of separation from others — a complex phenomenon that extends far beyond simple physical distance. The well-known twentieth-century American poet Robert Frost examines, across a body of work, how individuals react to being alone. In doing so, Frost reveals that isolation is not a uniform experience; rather, it manifests in emotional, physical, and psychological dimensions. Through "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "Desert Places," "The Road Not Taken," and "Mending Wall," Frost persistently demonstrates that isolation is an inevitable and multifaceted feature of the human condition — one that can simultaneously offer stillness and inflict suffering, shaped as much by the choices people make as by the world they inhabit.
In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost portrays isolation as a calm and introspective experience, suggesting that withdrawal from society can offer a rare space for reflection. The speaker pauses to watch as "the woods fill up with snow," drawing attention to the silence created within the snowy landscape. This silence is not merely descriptive; it functions as a symbolic clearing — a momentary reprieve from the demands of ordinary life. The stillness emphasises both calmness and a sense of solitude that the speaker appears to welcome rather than fear. However, Frost complicates this tranquillity by revealing that the speaker has "promises to keep," exposing the tensions of his "urban" life and the responsibilities that weigh upon him even in this secluded moment. The speaker's lingering awe — reflected in the observation that "the woods are lovely, dark and deep" — creates a comforting yet subtly melancholic atmosphere: the darkness and depth of the woods are seductive precisely because they represent an escape the speaker cannot fully take. Ultimately, the closing lines — "miles to go before I sleep" — affirm that even as isolation provides serenity and an opportunity for self-reflection, human beings remain tethered to their obligations. Frost thus implies that the appeal of isolation is inseparable from its impossibility: the deeper the longing for escape, the more powerfully society's claims reassert themselves.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: analysis on Jordan Chens's comment on…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 70%: In his online comment on the 19th of July 2023, Jordan Chen adopts a foreboding tone in reply to the ongoing…
In his online comment on the 19th of July 2023, Jordan Chen adopts a foreboding tone in reply to the ongoing use of petrol cars. Contending there is a deleterious impact of gas-powered cars, labelling them to be more of an environmental and financial burden than being beneficial. He strives to position the Australian motorists to view gas cars as counterproductive and transition to Ev cars.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Christopher Nolan’s film, ‘The Dark…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: In Christopher Nolan’s film, ‘The Dark Knight’, he often suggests that the line between good and evil is often…
In Christopher Nolan’s film, ‘The Dark Knight’, he often suggests that the line between good and evil is often blurry. He discusses how the way Gotham is portrayed depicts a world where both good and evil are present. Furthermore, he demonstrates how the challenge characters face lead them to become ‘evil’. Ultimately, Nolan depicts how characters actions in ‘The Dark Knight’ lead them to bluring the line between good and evil.
Nolan initially depicts Gotham as a cruel and evil place. He does this through opening the film with the bank heist scene. The bank heist scene portrays how Gotham is an inherently evil place. Furthermore, it reveals to the audience how there is ‘no honour in criminals’. This tells us that in Gotham, some may view criminals as good; with the emergence of the Joker, criminals start to blur the line between what is good and what is evil. The portrayal of vigilantism in Gotham is another technique employed by Nolan. Nolan uses the Batman in ‘hockey pads’ as a way to showcase the negatives and positives of Vigilantism in society. Although what they were doing might be seen as helping the broader society, is hunting people down with a gun good or evil? It attempts to demonstrate to us how vigilantism blurs the line between good and evil. Vigilantes, like Batman, are considered heroes to society by some characters, like Harvey Dent; however, others, Bruce’s russian girlfriend, see them as evil and actively harming the broader society. This demonstrates to us how the vigilantism in Gotham can often blur the line between good and evil. Nolan’s use of film techniques further enhances this. During the interrogation scene, Nolan constantly shifts the power dynamic between the 2 characters through the composition of the shot, trying to confuse the audience. It attempts to establish how there is no clear ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in that scene. Nolan’s use of film techniques and individual scenes presents to the audience how the world of Gotham does not present a clear picture of what is good and what is evil.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The struggle for self in the shadow of…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 95%: Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of…
Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of me. Every perfect grade and measly plastic award I’d ever received was to impress him. I am a performer who forgot the show had ended, trapped in a costume of success that wasn’t even for the crowd, but the ringmaster himself. I have mistaken his pride for my own purpose. I don’t know why I adore his validation so much. Is it because I am so afraid of his disappointment? Or is it because without my shackles of perfection, I wouldn’t even have a purpose?
Nobody really knows why they’re wired the way they are. I was never enough for him, or for the meticulous things he wanted me to achieve. The silent pressure was so loud. Even though he stopped telling me what he expected, I still remembered it being ingrained in my brain. Perfection. That’s what I needed to be. But how is that even remotely possible? That costume I had been stuck in would get tighter and itchier each time. I always compared my father to the fathers of my friends. The way they’d talk about them, the way they would congratulate them over the smallest victories. Was that even possible for me?
I know he wants the absolute best for me. He fulfils the fatherly role in many ways, but falls short in others. He’s taught me to never be scared to ask for what you want and to always be hard working. He shows affection from time to time, but that love transforms into hateful, heated arguments in the blink of an eye. So it never really feels like it’s there.
Why is he wired the way he is? Maybe he is the performer alongside me trying to impress his own ringmaster? My mother had told me how hard his youth was. He was left by his parents at the age of 13 and had to solely depend on himself while living with his cruel aunt. I know it’s my father’s first time on this earth too. And I know he had it worse when he was little. But I was little too.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The struggle for self in the shadow of…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 92.5%: Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of…
Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of me. Every single perfect grade and measly plastic award I’d ever received was to impress him. I am performer who forgot the show had ended, trapped in a costume of success that wasn’t even for the crowd, but the ringmaster himself. I have mistaken his pride for my own purpose. I don’t know why I adore his validation so much. Is it because I am so afraid of his disappointment? Or is it because without my shackles of perfection, I wouldn’t even have a purpose?
Nobody really knows why they’re wired the way they are. I was never enough for him, or for the meticulous things he wanted me to achieve. The silent pressure was so loud. Even though he stopped telling me what he expected, I still remembered it being ingrained in my brain. Perfection. That’s what I needed to be. But how is that even remotely possible? That costume I had been stuck in would get tighter, and itchier each time. I always compared my father to the fathers of my friends. The way they’d talk about them, the way they would congratulate them over the smallest victories. Was that even possible for me?
I know he wants the absolute best for me. He fulfils the fatherly role in many ways, but falls short in others. He’s taught me to never be scared to ask for what you want and to always be hard working. He shows affection from time to time, but that love transforms into hateful, heated arguments in the blink of an eye. So it never really feels like it’s there.
Why is he wired the way he is? Maybe he is the performer alongside me trying to impress his own ringmaster? My mother had told me how hard his youth was. He was left by his parents at the age of 13 and had to solely depend on himself while living with his cruel aunt. I know it’s my father’s first time on this earth too. And I know he had it worse when he was little. But I was little too.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The struggle for self in the shadow of…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of…
Throughout the entirety of my almost 16 years of life, all I’ve ever cared about is what my father thought of me. Every single perfect grade and measly plastic award I’d ever received was to impress him. I am performer who forgot the show had ended, trapped in a costume of success that wasn’t even for the crowd, but the ringmaster himself. I have mistaken his pride for my own purpose. I don’t know why I adore his validation so much. Is it because I am so afraid of his disappointment? Or is it because without my shackles of perfection, I wouldn’t even have a purpose?
Nobody really knows why they’re wired the way they are. I was never enough for him, or for the meticulous things he wanted me to achieve. The silent pressure was so loud. Even though he stopped telling me what he expected, I still remembered it being ingrained in my brain. Perfection. That’s what I needed to be. But how is that even remotely possible? That costume I had been stuck in would get tighter, and itchier each time. I always compared my father to the fathers of my friends. The way they’d talk about them, the way they would congratulate them over the smallest victories. Was that even possible for me?
I know he wants the absolute best for me. He’s my father in many ways but some. He’s taught me to never be scared to ask for what you want and to always be hard working. He shows affection from time to time, but that love transforms into hateful, heated arguments in the blink of an eye. So it never really feels like it’s there.
Why is he wired the way he is? Maybe he is the performer alongside me trying to impress his own ringmaster? My mother had told me how hard his youth was. He was left by his parents at the age of 13 and had to solely depend on himself while living with his cruel aunt. I know it’s my father’s first time on this earth too. And I know he had it worse when he was little. But I was little too.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 100%: Silence Back then, I only saw the fun parts of you. The humming while you cooked, the catchy TV-ad tunes you…
Silence
Back then, I only saw the fun parts of you. The humming while you cooked, the catchy TV-ad tunes you would sing under your breath, the way you would tap my shoulder twice to make me laugh. I mistook your tension for mystery, not fear, not pain.
I found the key by accident, buried beneath takeaway menus and rubber bands in the kitchen drawer, its brass surface cool from being hidden from the sun. I remember holding it up to you, expecting a story; instead, you froze for a moment before forcing a smile that didn’t reach your eyes. You told me to leave it be, your voice too sharp for an object so small. I didn’t understand why your hand lingered on the drawer as if steadying yourself.
I still miss those times when you picked me up from school with a snack waiting for me when I got in the car, the comforting dinners you would prepare while I sat on the counter, both of us a giggling mess as you cooked. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. You were so at ease then, or at least you made it look that way. I didn’t know then that peacefulness and ease can be performed.
That day I imagined how the key would open treasure chests or secret passageways that were embedded in the wall, anything except the truth you were trying so hard to keep tucked away behind closed doors. Even now when I think of that moment, I can still feel the weight of the key in my palm, light enough for a child to carry, heavy enough to change everything I knew about you later.
Distance
I had the courage to ask you once about what the key unlocked. I remember you stiffened, as if the question pressed up against something bruised inside of you. For the rest of that day, you disappeared from time to time, retreating to your bedroom with the door left slightly ajar, almost inviting me in but still keeping me at a distance.
The longer you left me, the longer I had to inspect the mere object keeping us separated. The wooden door to your bedroom had the kind of tired dignity that decades of living could give it. Its once‑smooth varnish had dulled to a soft, uneven sheen, worn down by years of hands pushing it open and pulling it shut. The grain ran in long, wavering lines, like the rings of an old tree still trying to remember its shape. Near the handle, the wood was slightly discoloured, a pale oval where your palm had rested countless times, leaving behind the faint polish of touch and habit.
A space between us began to take root, widening each day in ways I couldn’t articulate. We didn’t fight, mum, but eventually, slowly, gently, we drifted. You moved through the house like someone half-present, drifting between warmth and withdrawal. You were tired in ways I didn’t have words for, a deep exhaustion that lived in the darkening circles under your eyes, or the slumped shoulders and constant slouching. I was busy with my part-time fast-food job or hanging out with my friends and enjoying being surrounded by people who seemed like they wanted me around.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 97.5%: Silence Back then, I only saw the fun parts of you. The humming while you cooked, the catchy TV-ad tunes you…
Silence
Back then, I only saw the fun parts of you. The humming while you cooked, the catchy TV-ad tunes you would sing under your breath, the way you would tap my shoulder twice to make me laugh. I mistook your tension for mystery, not fear, not pain.
I found the key by accident, buried beneath takeaway menus and rubber bands in the kitchen drawer, its brass surface cool from being hidden from the sun. I remember holding it up to you, expecting a story; instead, you froze for a moment before forcing a smile that didn’t reach your eyes. You told me to leave it be, your voice too sharp for an object so small. I didn’t understand why your hand lingered on the drawer as if steadying yourself.
I still miss those times when you picked me up from school with a snack waiting for me when I got in the car, the comforting dinners you would prepare while I sat on the counter, both of us a giggling mess as you cooked. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. You were so at ease then, or at least you made it look that way. I didn’t know then that peacefulness and ease can be performed.
That day I imagined how the key would open treasure chests or secret passageways that were embedded in the wall, anything except the truth you were trying so hard to keep tucked away behind closed doors. Even now when I think of that moment, I can still feel the weight of the key in my palm, light enough for a child to carry, heavy enough to change everything I knew about you later.
Distance
I had the courage to ask you one time about what the key unlocked. I remember you stiffened, as if the question pressed up against something bruised inside of you. For the rest of that day, you disappeared from time to time, retreating to your bedroom with the door left slightly ajar, almost inviting me in but still keeping me at a distance.
The longer you left me, the longer I had to inspect the mere object keeping us separated. The wooden door to your bedroom had the kind of tired dignity that decades of living could give it. Its once‑smooth varnish had dulled to a soft, uneven sheen, worn down by years of hands pushing it open and pulling it shut. The grain ran in long, wavering lines, like the rings of an old tree still trying to remember its shape. Near the handle, the wood was slightly discoloured, a pale oval where your palm had rested countless times, leaving behind the faint polish of touch and habit.
A space between us began to take root, widening each day in ways I couldn’t articulate. We didn’t fight, mum, but eventually, slowly, gently, we drifted. You moved through the house like someone half-present, drifting between warmth and withdrawal. You were tired in ways I didn’t have words for, a deep exhaustion that lived in the darkening circles under your eyes, or the slumped shoulders and constant slouching. I was busy with my part-time fast-food job or hanging out with my friends and enjoying being surrounded by people who seemed like they wanted me around.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: ‘My Truth’
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: February fifth. The day the world changed shape. And I didn’t even know it. You finish school in a daze and…
February fifth. The day the world changed shape. And I didn’t even know it.
You finish school in a daze and head straight to the train station, moving through the blur of grey school blazers and static announcements like a ghost. My mind is stuck in her kitchen. I am not waiting for the train. Instead, I am five again begging to help roll her highly acclaimed ‘choccy balls’, or help tenderise the chicken for her famous lemon scaloppine
Usually, I dread the trip to Melbourne and look for any excuse to avoid the long, exhausting commute. But today was different. Feelings of dread were overcome with urgency. Rather than looking for a way out, I am desperate for the way in. The only thing at the end of the tunnel was her: that scent of clean spring air and Chanel perfume, followed by the intense and rich smell of caramelised onions. I needed to reach her before her smell became eroded by the sterile, white-tiled silence of the hospital.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Protest. Half-blog, half-creative.
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: How to avoid execution? First of all, do not raise both fists to society and bathe in controversy in the midst…
How to avoid execution? First of all, do not raise both fists to society and bathe in controversy in the midst of a national revolution. Or do. Just be prepared to face the fate of Olympe de Gouges.
***
Paris roared for blood, and for the first time it was mine they were after. Cold air bit the skin as the crowd grew unruly, volcanic cries erupting through the town center. They wanted me dead. And their wish would be granted. In a matter of minutes, if I was lucky.
I once wrote that if a woman has the right to ascend to the scaffold, she must also have the right to ascend to the political rostrum. Those words suddenly rang too close to home.
I was a performer, my legs trembling with every small step on the tightrope. Ten metres in the air, this was my parting act. But it didn’t belong to me. My gaze scanned the crowd; their eyes illuminated with desire. They saw straight through me, as if I was merely a beacon of misguided rebellion, wilfully blind to the struggles that brought me down this path.
Abhorrent words they shouted! They punctured my arms like pikes, wounding my frail body. I could’ve given them what they wanted. I could’ve dropped to my knees, my head solemnly glued to the cobblestones. I could’ve wept every tear my forlorn body could muster, professing my wrongdoings. And maybe then, I could’ve lived.
But no. I was not about to become a spectacle in the circus.
***
Hands up if you knew she was a playwright? Unfortunately, Gouges is not a major historical figure for that reason. She is one because ignorant men were not able to accept her condemnation of male-centered political choices. Sound familiar?
This is a theme that has reverberated across centuries of women’s progress and unfortunately is unlikely to fade out.
Enter 1789, and France is seen as revolutionary for creating the Declaration of the Rights of Man. While the male politicians gave themselves a pat on the back, Olympe de Gouges got to work on updating the declaration to cater for women that were mysteriously left out of the seemingly ‘universal rights’ (what a shocker). Two years later, her head was in a basket.
***