VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The collection demonstrates that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 60%: Plan (7 1/2 mins) Acceptance is powerful in causing transformation CHarlie accepts military service TM Prot has no…
Plan (7 1/2 mins)
Acceptance is powerful in causing transformation
CHarlie accepts military service
TM Prot has no control over cancer
Funeral is sprung on Andy
A lack of acceptance shows the power of it
Mitchell Maze hurts himself bc of brother and doesnt accept his brother
Grandfather cannot accept pain of War so lets Charlie go off
Stuart lack of acceptance gets him shot in leg
Acceptance over powers self determination in the end
Angus’ father eventually gives in despite trying to be distinct
Jo becomes ok with dating an australian man
Every Move You Make is a collection of short stories by David Malouf, which feature the inner turmoils of characters as they navigate through life in post-war Australia. The text features some people attempting gain control over their lives whilst others become complacent and accept their circumstances. Throughout the anthology, Malouf underscores how acceptance of one’s societal and communal expectations proves far more powerful than any attempt at self determination, by exploring the perspectives of characters and the ways in which they come to decisions. Within the text, acceptance is proven to be a powerful determining factor in catalysing transformative events for individuals. Furthermore, in his anthology, Malouf outlines how a lack of acceptance of ones reality can dramatically alter the course of events, thereby proving its significance. Finally, Malouf displays that acceptance overpowers any attempt at self determination or control within life. Ultimately, within the text, Malouf undeniably eviscerates any notion of self autonomy presenting a valid source of power, wholly presenting a narrative featuring the unbridled power of acceptance.
(17 mins, including extra work on plan)
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: theme: "other worlds"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 70%: Detective Amnesia "Clatter!" The countless bottles collide together on the floor around me, an applause of…
Detective Amnesia
"Clatter!" The countless bottles collide together on the floor around me, an applause of clinks. I push myself upright, slow and groggy, with a pulsing ache in my head. My nostrils flare at the stale stench of sweat and old beer, making my face contort into a wincing cringe — Someone has been living here. The thought unsettles me. If someone has been living here, is that someone…Me?
I mutter to myself quietly in denial, “Why would anyone do this to themselves?” A cold metallic weight of shame sits lodged in the back of my throat, leaving me too speechless to move. “Who…am I-” I get cut off by a shivering breeze crawling up my back, drawing my attention to the shattered window. The lack of glass on the floor leads me to believe something was thrown from inside, and the absence of a shoe on my left foot hints at exactly what happened the night before.
Somewhere in the bloated ‘man-meat’ and droopy flesh — A sensation? Or a voice?
Limbic System: “A wave of melancholy floods your chest, dragging you heavily towards the window — it’s a desire you’ve felt before.”
Me: “Who is it? That dry, strained voice.”
Limbic System: “You need it. The pale is coming. The world is ending.”
Me: “No! I don’t need it anymore, I'm done!”
Limbic System: “It’ll make you feel like a superstar, just another sip.”
Narrowly, I fend off the voice, putting a halt to the hissing cacophonous whispers — leaving me with a silent yearning for an unfamiliar yet guilty pleasure. Standing at the still broken window, I stare down at the winding roads and streets, the buildings loom with a watchful, unwelcoming gaze — urging me to leave. I take a step back, my bloodshot eyes catching sight of the reflection of a greasy man with a bulbous nose and swollen face under all the facial hair — It’s a face I don’t recognise in the slightest. A stranger, even.
There’s a permanent grimace engraved upon my face, my eyes rimmed with fatigue that seems earned rather than inherited.
Limbic System: “This is the face of a real superstar.”
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah shows that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Introduction In his memoir Born a Crime, Trevor Noah shows that in a world built on division, language and humour…
Introduction
In his memoir Born a Crime, Trevor Noah shows that in a world built on division, language and humour are essential tools for connection. Growing up under Apartheid—a system designed to keep races apart—Noah had to find ways to cross the borders the government created. He contends that while your skin colour might place you in a category, your voice and your wit can change how people see you. By using language as a "chameleon" tool and humour as a way to handle pain, Noah illustrates that human connection can subvert even the most racist laws. Ultimately, he argues that these tools did not just help him survive; they allowed him to belong in a world that said he was a "crime."
Body Paragraph 1: Language as a Bridge
Noah first shows that language is a "cultural password" that allows him to cross the racial lines drawn by Apartheid. He describes himself as a "chameleon" who could change his identity just by speaking a different tongue. When he was almost mugged by a group of Zulu men, he spoke to them in their language, and their perception of him changed from an outsider to a "brother." This moment demonstrates language’s power over appearance. By speaking the language of his potential attackers, he was able to "bridge the gap" of fear and replace it with a sense of shared identity. It allowed him to belong to a tribe even though the law said he was separate. Noah suggests that language is a way to cheat the system of Apartheid. By being multi-lingual, he proves that race is a "social construct"—something made up—rather than a real barrier. This shared linguistic bond undermines the government’s attempt to keep them divided.
Body Paragraph 2: Humour as a Shield
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah illustrates…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: Under Apartheid, the “hood” was a deliberate creation - a place designed to concentrate and contain Black South…
Under Apartheid, the “hood” was a deliberate creation - a place designed to concentrate and contain Black South Africans. In Trevor Noah’s memoir ‘Born A Crime’ he argues that the “hood” functions as a physical, economic and psychological cage. He suggests that it forces people into “hustle” that feels like progress but actually ensures they never truly escape the system’s control.
Noah suggests that the “hustle”, while appearing to be a path to success, is actually a core part of the trap that keeps people in the hood, by exhausting their energy on immediate survival. He displays this through his description of his business selling pirated CDs and DJing, explaining the “logic of the hood” where everyone is doing “a little bit of something to get by”. He uses the metaphor of a treadmill, describing how “the hood is a trap… designed to keep you there”. The “hustle” is reactive, not proactive. Because the system denies Black South Africans access to real capital or stable jobs, they are forced to spend all their time on “side-hustles” that provide just enough to survive today, but never enough to invest in tomorrow. Through this, Noah highlights that poverty is a full-time job. By keeping people busy with the “daily grind” of survival, the apartheid system ensures they never have time or resources to challenge the structures that put them in the hood in the first place.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In these stories, growth requires…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Contention: Within the Post-Romantic anthology, Malouf highlights, by emphasising character epiphanies and…
Contention: Within the Post-Romantic anthology, Malouf highlights, by emphasising character epiphanies and displaying their perspectives, how, through confronting uncomfortable realities, or positive daily occurrences, characters grow.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In these stories, growth requires…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 67.5%: Contention: Within the Post-Romantic anthology, Malouf highlights, by emphasising character epiphanies and…
Contention: Within the Post-Romantic anthology, Malouf highlights, by emphasising character epiphanies and displaying their perspectives, how, through confronting uncomfortable realities, or positive daily occurrences, characters grow.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Creative about protest
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 67.5%: The Sun rose without asking permission as its cycle continued. It stretched itself across the city in sheets…
The Sun rose without asking permission as its cycle continued.
It stretched itself across the city in sheets of gold, slipping through windows, bouncing off glass and polished pavements. Everything it touched appeared clean, awake, deserving. Light spilled confidently over streets and faces, revealing only what it wanted to show. From above, the world looked organised. Balanced. Fair.
But light never settles evenly.
Where the Sun weakened, Shadows gathered. They clung to alleyways and back streets, folded themselves beneath bridges, pressed against walls where warmth could not reach. They moved quietly, shaped by the Sun’s position rather than their own will. Anywhere the sun looked, they would migrate into the darkness.
The Sun called this natural.
It claimed transparency, believing its glow meant honesty. When problems surfaced, it exposed them briefly, just enough to prove it was watching. People praised its clarity. They trusted the way it highlighted success, the way warmth crept into their souls at the sight. They looked up, never down.
The Shadows carried what the light refused to hold.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “I thought about burning, black, painful…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Across literature, although communities strive to maintain an image of harmony and order, they are often shaped…
Across literature, although communities strive to maintain an image of harmony and order, they are often shaped by alienation and ostracism. In her 1962 neo-gothic novella, Shirley Jackson exposes society's worst qualities by highlighting the detrimental effects of exclusion and mob mentality. Jackson establishes a world that feeds off envy and hatred, mirroring the society around her, utilising the antagonistic relationship between the insular Blackwood family and the surrounding village as a microcosm for the inherent cruelty of human society. Jackson utilises the pervasive hostility toward the Blackwood family to expose a society that prioritises rigid conformity and surface-level normalcy over the acceptance of those who exist outside the traditional order. Furthermore, Jackson harnesses the villagers' shift from passive gossip to collective aggression, demonstrating how easily civility collapses into mob violence. Finally, Jackson exposes the darkest Impulse of society by illustrating how relentless persecution eventually dehumanises the persecuted, turning their desire for safety into reciprocal hatred. Ultimately, Jackson suggests that the true horrors of society lie not within individual cruelty but are instead driven by exclusion and a desire to destroy what it cannot control.
Jackson explores the fragility of social decorum, suggesting that the villagers' performative politeness is a thin veneer that barely conceals a pervasive, deep-seated communal malice, resulting in the systemic othering and alienation of those who exist outside of strict social ideals. Utilising Merricat’s grotesque description of the village “rot[ting],” from the inside, Jackson exposes the profound moral deterioration that festers beneath the community's thin veneer of respectability. This internal decay is not merely a symptom of individual malice, but rather the result of systemic obsession with conformity that demands the punishment of anyone who deviates from the strict communal norm. Through Jackson's positioning of Constance and Merricat outside the expectations of marriage, domestic contribution, and social participation, the villagers cast them as aberrations, whose very existence threatens the illusion of social order. Jackson filters this antagonism through Merricat's wish for a “burning, black, painful rot” upon the village; she does not merely express direct animosity; rather, Jackson uses this visceral imagery to expose the internal decay of society that prioritises the facade of civility and neighbourly order over genuine compassion and understanding. Through the claustrophobic setting of the grocery store to enforce how the worst of society is found in the communal gaze. Jackson exploits the stares of the villagers to demonstrate the judgment of the sisters, exposing how, for the villagers, normalcy is held in higher regard than kindness demonstrating that they would rather be cruel to a young girl than accept someone who does not follow their rules. Merricats’ internal monologue reveals the truth – the villagers’ judgment is the real, objective “rot.” They are “eating away” at her from the inside, by their refusal to let her feel safe or seen. Her wish for them to “hurt dreadfully” is employed by Jackson to reflect the dread the townspeople impose on her. Jackson deploys the contrasting experiences Merricat has with the villagers to expose the selective nature of their empathy. While Stella offers a genuinely polite sanctuary, the stifling atmosphere of the grocery store, where silence is used as a catalyst for ostracism, acts as a toll of Merricats desire for the “painful rot” to consume them. In doing so, Jackson suggests that the “worst” of society is found in those who weaponize normalcy to exclude others, turning a simple errand into a psychological battlefield.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “I thought about burning, black, painful…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 67.5%: Across literature, although communities strive to maintain an image of harmony and order, they are often shaped…
Across literature, although communities strive to maintain an image of harmony and order, they are often shaped by alienation and ostracism. In her 1962 neo-gothic novella, Shirley Jackson exposes society's worst qualities by highlighting the detrimental effects of exclusion and mob mentality. Jackson establishes a world that feeds off envy and hatred, mirroring the society around her, utilising the antagonistic relationship between the insular Blackwood family and the surrounding village as a microcosm for the inherent cruelty of human society. Jackson utilises the pervasive hostility toward the Blackwood family to expose a society that prioritises rigid conformity and surface-level normalcy over the acceptance of those who exist outside the traditional order. Furthermore, Jackson harnesses the villagers' shift from passive gossip to collective aggression, demonstrating how easily civility collapses into mob violence. Furthermore, Jackson exposes the darkest Impulse of society by illustrating how relentless persecution eventually dehumanises the persecuted, turning their desire for safety into reciprocal hatred. Ultimately, Jackson suggests that the true horrors of society lie not within individual cruelty but are instead driven by exclusion and a desire to destroy what it cannot control.
Jackson explores the fragility of social decorum, suggesting that the villagers' performative politeness is a thin veneer that barely conceals a pervasive, deep-seated communal malice, resulting in the systemic othering and alienation of those who exist outside of strict social ideals. Utilising Merricat’s grotesque description of the village “rot[ting],” from the inside, Jackson exposes the profound moral deterioration that festers beneath the community's thin veneer of respectability. This internal decay is not merely a symptom of individual malice, but rather the result of systemic obsession with conformity that demands the punishment of anyone who deviates from the strict communal norm. Through Jackson's positioning of Constance and Merricat outside the expectations of marriage, domestic contribution, and social participation, the villagers cast them as aberrations, whose very existence threatens the illusion of social order. Jackson filters this antagonism through Merricat's wish for a “burning, black, painful rot” upon the village; she does not merely express direct animosity; rather, Jackson uses this visceral imagery to expose the internal decay of society that prioritises the facade of civility and neighbourly order over genuine compassion and understanding. Jackson utilises the claustrophobic setting of the grocery store to enforce how the worst of society is found in the communal gaze. Jackson exploits the stares of the villagers to demonstrate the judgment of the sisters, exposing how, for the villagers, normalcy is held in higher regard than kindness. That they would rather be cruel to a young girl than accept someone who does not follow their rules. Merricats’ internal monologue reveals the truth – the villagers’ judgment is the real, objective “rot.” They are “eating away” at her from the inside, by their refusal to let her feel safe or seen. Her wish for them to “hurt dreadfully” is employed by Jackson to reflect the dread the townspeople impose on her. Jackson deploys the contrasting experiences Merricat has with the villagers to expose the selective nature of their empathy. While stella offers a genuinely polite sanctuary, the stifling atmosphere of the grocery store, where silence4 is used as a catalyst for ostracism, acts as a toll of Merricats desire for the “painful rot” to consume them. In doing so, Jackson suggests that the “worst” of society is found in those who weaponize normalcy to exclude others, turning a simple errand into a psychological battlefield.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: revenge comes at a cost. how does johnson…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 62.5%: Steve Johnson additionally points out the cost of revenge faced by the Yolngu characters in High Ground and the…
Steve Johnson additionally points out the cost of revenge faced by the Yolngu characters in High Ground and the implications and that as a group of people fighting against colonial oppression. Baywarra experiences a change in his character after his friends and family members are killed in the film’s opening massacre. While he held to the opinion that his commitments “should fight against colonial forces, he first acted on his intent to fight after the massacre. The first time post massacre Baywarra is seen he and his gang are attacking the East Alligator mission. Baywarra is presented in a full shot standing on the high ground with flames in the background as a symbol of rebirth. Only his silhouette is visible suggesting a new level of mystery in his character indicative of a changing identity. Baywarra stands apart from his main family community and group on multiple occasions. This includes when Gutjuk Dharrpa and the rest of the party started to have to travel to the East Alligator mission for negotiations with Moran and British settlers. Baywarra and Gulwirri stand apart from the group on the High
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘We fear most what we do not understand’.…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Humanity possesses a built-in inclination to fear the unknown, often replacing reality with fearful perceptions…
Humanity possesses a built-in inclination to fear the unknown, often replacing reality with fearful perceptions as a means of defence and a lack of understanding. In Michael Gerard Bauer’s novel, The Running Man, fear is portrayed throughout the community of Ashgrove Avenue, a tight-knit, judgemental suburban area. Bauer conveys how fear is used a shield by the community to protect them against marginalised individuals. Fear is also depicted as an internal prison for the traumatised, such as Tom Leyton and Simon Jamieson. Through fear, Bauer creates an obstacle for Joseph, the main protagonist, so he can overcome his fear and develop emotionally and socially. Ultimately, Bauer implies that while fear is an inescapable human characteristic, it can be cured through the medicine of empathy and understanding.
Bauer explores how the community of Ashgrove uses fear as a defence mechanism to keep the unknown isolated through rumours and gossip, eventually distorting the truth. Tom is perceived by the neighbours as a “tantalising riddle” and a “ghost” with a “horrible deformity”. Bauer uses derogatory, belittling imagery to convey how the community treats Tom as a n object needing to be solved rather than a human to be helped. Additionally, Bauer suggests that society finds it easier to discriminate against people and use fear as an excuse rather than attempt to help them. Mrs Mossop, a “distributor of news and rumours” heavily opposes Joseph being near Tom, warning him that he is a “dangerous, sick man” that would be “watching [Joseph]”. Through these dehumanising adjectives, Bauer underlines how fear can create a “monster” out of misunderstood people just to justify exclusion and a lack of understanding. Furthermore, Bauer portrays that a person’s perspective is often a cause of their past trauma and history. Mrs Mossop subtly hints at her horrible past, telling Joseph that “[she knows] how people can appear one thing” and be the “opposite”. Bauer unveils how the community’s judgement often comes from their own past fears and inability to trust. He also suggests that characters such as Mrs Mossop “distribute” rumours and gossip as a coping mechanism for their fear, almost becoming a protector of their community. Overall, Bauer demonstrates that the fear of the unknown effectively creates social walls that isolate the misunderstood, and are used by the rest of the community as a social shield because of their fear of what’s on the other side.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘We fear most what we do not understand’.…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: Humanity possesses a built-in inclination to fear the unknown, often replacing reality with fearful perceptions as…
Humanity possesses a built-in inclination to fear the unknown, often replacing reality with fearful perceptions as a means of defence and a lack of understanding. In Michael Gerard Bauer’s novel, The Running Man, fear is portrayed throughout the community of Ashgrove Avenue, a tight-knit, judgemental suburban area. Bauer conveys how fear is used a shield by the community to protect them against marginalised individuals. Fear is also depicted as an internal prison for the traumatised, such as Tom Leyton and Simon Jamieson. Through fear, Bauer creates an obstacle for Joseph, the main protagonist, so he can overcome his fear and develop emotionally and socially. Ultimately, Bauer implies that while fear is an inescapable human characteristic, it can be cured through the medicine of empathy and understanding.
Bauer explores how the community of Ashgrove uses fear as a defence mechanism to keep the unknown isolated through rumours and gossip, eventually distorting the truth. Tom is perceived by the neighbours as a “tantalising riddle” and a “ghost” with a “horrible deformity”. Bauer uses derogatory, belittling imagery to convey how the community treats Tom as a n object needing to be solved rather than a human to be helped. Additionally, Bauer suggests that society finds it easier to discriminate against people and use fear as an excuse rather than attempt to help them. Mrs Mossop, a “distributor of news and rumours” heavily opposes Joseph being near Tom, warning him that he is a “dangerous, sick man” that would be “watching [Joseph]”. Through these dehumanising adjectives, Bauer underlines how fear can create a “monster” out of misunderstood people just to justify exclusion and a lack of understanding. Furthermore, Bauer portrays that a person’s perspective is often a cause of their past trauma and history. Mrs Mossop subtly hints at her horrible past, telling Joseph that “[she knows] how people can appear one thing” and be the “opposite”. Bauer unveils how the community’s judgement often comes from their own past fears and inability to trust. He also suggests that characters such as Mrs Mossop “distribute” rumours and gossip as a coping mechanism for their fear, almost becoming a protector of their community. Overall, Bauer demonstrates that the fear of the unknown effectively creates social walls that isolate the misunderstood, and are used by the rest of the community as a social shield because of their fear of what’s on the other side.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Jackson use the setting to…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 60%: In We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson explores the complexity of family and gender both within and away…
In We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson explores the complexity of family and gender both within and away from social environments through deliberate narrative construction. By employing specifically the technique of setting presentation and contrast, she shapes the reader’s understanding of traditional family structure. Rather than presenting ideas directly, Jackson filters meaning through Merricat’s limited perspective and the claustrophobic Blackwood environment. In doing so, she interrogates the morality of post-modern societal structures.
MBP 1:
Jackson presents the traditionalistic familial structure to be an oppressive force against women, often expressing such views through the medium of Merricat's perspective on the village which operates outside of her fantasy world she controls. This is evident with her labelling the village to be full of "grey wood and the ugly people," highlighting Merricat's continual perspective of the outside world, a world which is dominated by patriarchal power structures to be an undesirable place to exist. This asks the question to those reading, how grey and ugly really is the current world we live in? Jackson delves deeper into how societal grouping results in confirmative gender roles and familial structures with the layout of the village. With in Merricat's journey towards the library, she "must pass the general store and the men sitting in front.", noting that "the men stayed young [while] the women aged with grey evil weariness." This observation of the setting acts as a comment on the current familial structure's state, with men primarily sitting idle, while women are oppressed and burdened by domesticity, resulting in detriment to their wellbeing.
MBP 2:
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does apartheid impact Noah’s childhood…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 63.75%: Set predominantly during his childhood and upbringing in South Africa, “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah highlights…
Set predominantly during his childhood and upbringing in South Africa, “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah highlights the effects of apartheid on youth and self-discovery. The novel showcases Noah’s unique sense of humour, optimism as well as skilled detailed storytelling to reveal the injustice of the apartheid laws and the ideologies it caused people to adapt through his experiences growing up. Noah also incorporates symbolic elements within the novel to highlight the division between the working class and higher class individuals, as his family experienced poverty. Furthermore, Noah demonstrates how apartheid society developed his identity through social separation and isolation.
Noah opens by emphasising the inequality of apartheid laws throughout his upbringing. He realised the “perks to being “white” in a black family” through his grandparent’s special treatment due to his skin colour. The unfair advantage which he was oblivious to was a testament of ideologies planted within people during apartheid, which was still prevalent even after the regime ended. The treatment prompted Noah to draw comparisons between him and his cousins, discovering his self-identity as a coloured person and ultimately led him to feel more like an outsider in his own home. Additionally, apartheid resulted in Trevor’s various stories of misdemeanours and trouble that showcased how Noah questioned rules and their flaws, these rules included the apartheid system. This trait was evidently an adoption of his mother’s views and values that rules can always be changed and “[he] could always find loopholes in the law”. As a result, Noah utilises detailed storytelling to display the injustice of South Africa’s legal system during apartheid, and its effects on his childhood as a coloured child.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard reveals that Hollywood is…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: Billy Wilder’s iconoclastic meta-commentary, Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950, serves as an expose of the state…
Billy Wilder’s iconoclastic meta-commentary, Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950, serves as an expose of the state of Hollywood and its various implications on the general populace. Released at the height of monopolistic production studio control, and the manipulative star system, Wilder condemns these systems stronglysystemstraits strongly, warning studios, actors, and fans alike ofalikethe audience of the harm that is easily manifested through falling victim to the toxicity of the industry, but also emphasises the warmer elements of Hollywood, specifically the artistic opportunities allowed for via film as a medium, as well as the joy of creation in doing so, ultimately suggesting that good and evil are not intrinsically separate, but instead share significant roles in the prevalence of each other, as viewable in the humanity of Hollywood and wider human nature. Wilder serves to display this via exposing the entrapping and all-consuming impacts of Hollywood as a force of evil, but juxtaposes this against the ability for appreciation and unadulterated love of film as an artistic medium for self-expression and thematic guidance, finally showing the existence of good in bad and vice versa within the bounds of hollywood. Through his directorial efforts, Wilder unveils Hollywood’s complexities to a somewhat unawareignorantnegligent 1950s audience, putting on for show what really lies behind the screens and flashing lights.
Showcasing a critical harm enforced and supported by Hollywood, Wilder reveals and opposes the entrapment and endless delusion that can be brought on through stardom, both as an actor and within higher levels of film production. He notably unveils this through the character of Norma Desmond and Max von Mayerling, who share a toxic dynamic, engulfing their lives entirely and keeping them trapped in a cycle of delusion and manipulation. Norma, once “the greatest star of them all” is reduced to a reflection of her former self, “still waving proudly to a parade that had long since passed her by”. This quote, uttered by one Joe Gillis, reveals the extent of her delusion, still living in a world that has already rejected and forgotten her. This reflectionary state is further symbolised by the abundance of mirrors and self portraits filling her house, claustrophobically leaving the ageing mansion packed with “Norma Desmonds, more Norma Desmonds, and still More Norma Desmonds.” The mirrors unveil her obsession with beauty and allow her to keep what made her famous decades prior visible and pronounced, that being her eyes, through which she claims to be able to “say anything” with. Paired with her self portraits, a constant feeding for her delusion through keeping her surrounded by a snapshot of a time long since past, her choice for a home interior makes entirely clear the evil she has been exposed to, and the leakage it has caused in her life. On the other hand, her loyal butler and “ex-husband”, Max, maliciously feeds into this delusion. As he reveals to Joe, he “discovered” Norma when she was “16 years old”, and retired from film making altogether despite his talent as one of “three directors that showed promise” during the age of silent film upon her failed transition to ‘Talkies’. This highlights his incessant devotion to Norma, completely and utterly blinded by her ‘stardom’, even long after it has passed. To keep himself in a state of directorial management, with Norma as his pawn, he constantly feeds Norma lies and deceit he knows will only further solidify Norma’s less of her veridical self, playing into the noxious manipulation of Hollywood and reflecting its systems, as seen by his reveal that he in fact writes Norma thousands of fan mails, telling Joe he shouldn’t “look too closely at the postmarks”, and even directly stating “Madame is the greatest star of them all” upon Joe’s fatal confrontation with Norma. Max’s gloved hands and constant background framing in a significant number of shots with Norma, ever present in the background, symbolise this control, as well as Max’s omnipotent directing of the fantastical world he and Norma have become entrapped within. Through the characters of Max and Norma, Wilder aims to criticise the star system, using Norma as a specific instance of the evil that is brought on by its extreme values, implicitly denying the notion that causing human suffering is worth the production of art. He also responds to the idolisation of directors in the production of film, rejecting their extreme status within hollywood as damaging to the their psyche of actors who depend upon, having Max as an extreme example of the control it may force such individuals to pursue having in their lives, even after Hollywood has left them behind. Overall, Wilder shows the creation of delusion and entrapment within one's own mind as an evil force, directly brought on in Max and Norma through Hollywood.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The film, "V for Vendetta", implies that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller…
Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller “V for Vendetta”, the regime’s most decisive act of control is not its curfews, surveillance, or secret police, but its systematic dismantling of the very thing that makes resistance conceivable: the individual self. Identity is not merely the first casualty of authoritarian rule, but the necessary casualty, one that must precede all others. Yet, McTeigue does not present this erasure as total or permanent. Through the parallel journey of a young woman rediscovering her identity and a vigilante whose sense of self has been destroyed beyond recovery, the film proposes something more disturbing than simple loss: that suppressed identity does not disappear, but calcifies into something even the regime can no longer predict or contain. It is precisely in this transformation that the seeds of authoritarianism’s own undoing are sown.
From the outset, McTeigue posits how authoritarian control does not begin with the physical body, but with the intangible mind. In “V for Vendetta”, McTeigue argues that before a regime can control behaviour, it must first dismantle an individual’s sense of self: the psychological architecture that makes resistance imaginable. This process is most precisely demonstrated through the film’s portrayal of surveillance, which McTeigue deliberately refuses to frame as dramatic or threatening. The “Eyes and Ears” network, a title whose almost biblical resonance, suggests the state has construed its penetration of private life. Appearing not as a dramatic close-up but embedded within wide shots of the city, McTeigue underscores surveillance as a norm in everyday existence. The camera does not linger on it, and neither do the citizens, forming McTeigue’s most unsettling cinematographic argument: how the most effective surveillance is the kind that has ceased to register as surveillance at all; absorbed so completely into the landscape of ordinary life that it no longer requires acknowledgment. In this absorption, identity begins to dissolve, not through direct confrontation, but through the slow, cumulating weight of being perpetually observed. The consequence of this psychological domination is most vividly expressed when Evey Hammond confesses, “I am afraid of everything.” The totalising absolutism of “everything” serves as the line’s most important word. Not the regime, not the curfew, not the surveillance, but everything, without limit. Fear has ceased to be a response to specific threats, transitioning into the entire medium through which she experiences the world. Furthermore, this admission is made in a moment of relative safety, revealing the Norsefire regime’s greatest achievement: it no longer needs to be present to enforce compliance. McTeigue’s argument here is precise and chilling: identity is not the first casualty of authoritarian rule because the regime destroys it directly, but because the regime engineers conditions in which citizens destroy it themselves.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The film, "V for Vendetta", implies that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller…
Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller “V for Vendetta”, the regime’s most decisive act of control is not its curfews, surveillance, or secret police, but its systematic dismantling of the very thing that makes resistance conceivable: the individual self. Identity is not merely the first casualty of authoritarian rule, but the necessary casualty, one that must precede all others. Yet, McTeigue does not present this erasure as total or permanent. Through the parallel journey of a young woman rediscovering her identity and a vigilante whose sense of self has been destroyed beyond recovery, the film proposes something more disturbing than simple loss: that suppressed identity does not disappear, but calcifies into something even the regime can no longer predict or contain. It is precisely in this transformation that the seeds of authoritarianism’s own undoing are sown.
From the outset, McTeigue posits how authoritarian control does not begin with the physical body, but with the intangible mind. In “V for Vendetta”, McTeigue argues that before a regime can control behaviour, it must first dismantle an individual’s sense of self: the psychological architecture that makes resistance imaginable. This process is most precisely demonstrated through the film’s portrayal of surveillance, which McTeigue deliberately refuses to frame as dramatic or threatening. The “Eyes and Ears” network, a title whose almost biblical resonance, suggests the state has construed its penetration of private life. Appearing not as a dramatic close-up but embedded within wide shots of the city, McTeigue underscores surveillance as a norm in everyday existence. The camera does not linger on it, and neither do the citizens, forming McTeigue’s most unsettling cinematographic argument: how the most effective surveillance is the kind that has ceased to register as surveillance at all; absorbed so completely into the landscape of ordinary life that it no longer requires acknowledgment. In this absorption, identity begins to dissolve, not through direct confrontation, but through the slow, cumulating weight of being perpetually observed. The consequence of this psychological domination is most vividly expressed when Evey Hammond confesses, “I am afraid of everything.” The totalising absolutism of “everything” serves as the line’s most important word. Not the regime, not the curfew, not the surveillance, but everything, without limit. Fear has ceased to be a response to specific threats, transitioning into the entire medium through which she experience the world. Furthermore, this admission is made in a moment of relative safety, revealing the Norsefire regime’s greatest achievement: it no longer needs to be present to enforce compliance. McTeigue’s argument here is precise and chilling: identity is not the first casualty of authoritarian rule because the regime destroys it directly, but because the regime engineers conditions in which citizens destroy it themselves.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The film, "V for Vendetta", implies that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller…
Authoritarian control does not begin with violence, but with erasure. In James McTeigue’s 2005 political thriller “V for Vendetta”, the regime’s most decisive act of control is not its curfews, surveillance, or secret police, but its systematic dismantling of the very thing that makes resistance conceivable: the individual self. Identity is not merely the first casualty of authoritarian rule, but the necessary casualty, one that must precede all others. Yet, McTeigue does not present this erasure as total or permanent. Through the parallel journey of a young woman rediscovering her identity and a vigilante whose sense of self has been destroyed beyond recovery, the film proposes something more disturbing than simple loss: that suppressed identity does not disappear, but calcifies into something even the regime can no longer predict or contain. It is precisely in this transformation that the seeds of authoritarianism’s own undoing are sown.
From the outset, McTeigue posits how authoritarian control does not begin with the physical body, but with the intangible mind. In “V for Vendetta”, McTeigue argues that before a regime can control behaviour, it must first dismantle an individual’s sense of self: the psychological architecture that makes resistance imaginable. This process is most precisely demonstrated through the film’s portrayal of surveillance, which McTeigue deliberately refuses to frame as dramatic or threatening. The “Eyes and Ears” network, a title whose almost biblical resonance, suggests the state has construed its penetration of private life. Appearing not as a dramatic close-up but embedded within wide shots of the city, McTeigue underscores surveillance as a normal in everyday existence. The camera does not linger on it, and neither do the citizens, forming McTeigue’s most unsettling cinematographic argument: how the most effective surveillance is the kind that has ceased to register as surveillance at all; absorbed so completely into the landscape of ordinary life that it now longer requires acknowledgment. In this absorption, identity begins to dissolve, not through direct confrontation, but through the slow, cumulating weight of being perpetually observed. The consequence of this psychological domination is most vividly expressed when Evey Hammond confesses, “I am afraid of everything.” The totalising absolutism of “everything” serves as the line’s most important word. Not the regime, not the curfew, not the surveillance, but everything, without limit. Fear has ceased to be a response to specific threats, transitioning into the entire medium through which she experience the world. Furthermore, this admission is made in a moment of relative safety, revealing the Norsefire regime’s greatest achievement: it no longer needs to be present to enforce compliance. McTeigue’s argument here is precise and chilling: identity is not the first casualty of authoritarian rule because the regime destroys it directly, but because the regime engineers conditions in which citizens destroy it themselves.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: This is a story from the perspective…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 62.5%: I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The…
I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The men sat around the fire, their faces half-hidden by the smoke. I was close enough to see the light flicker in Pa's eyes, though he didn't look at me. They spoke in voices that curled low through the dark, thick with something I didn't have the word yet for. Fear maybe... or anger. I sat a bit back, pretending to play with a stick, but my ears caught the words they thought the night would keep a secret. "Surprise 'em tonight, settle' ‘em by breakfast," someone said, and Pa didn't argue. The fire cracked and I jumped, my heart hammered against my ribs. The smell of salt and woodsmoke mixed in the air, and somewhere out in the black water, a fish splashed. I wish it had taken me too, down into the quiet.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: This is a story from the perspective…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 65%: I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The men…
I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The men sat around the fire, their faces half-hidden by the smoke. I was close enough to see the light flicker in Pa's eyes, though he didn't look at me. They spoke in voices that curled low through the dark, thick with something I didn't have the word yet for. Fear maybe... or anger. I sat a bit back, pretending to play with a stick, but my ears caught the words they thought the night would keep a secret. "Surprise em’ tonight, settle' em’ by breakfast," someone said, and Pa didn't argue. The fire cracked and I jumped, my heart hammered against my ribs. The smell of salt and woodsmoke mixed in the air, and somewhere out in the black water, a fish splashed. I wish it had taken me too, down into the quiet.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: This is a story from the perspective…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The men…
I remember that night by the river - the air so tranquil it felt like the world was holding its breath. The men sat around the fire, their faces half-hidden by the smoke. I was close enough to see the light flicker in Pa's eyes, though he didn't look at me. They spoke in voices that curled low through the dark, thick with something I didn't have the word yet for. Fear maybe... or anger. I sat a bit back, pretending to play with a stick, but my ears caught the words they thought the night would keep a secret. "Surprise em’ tonight, settle' em’ by breakfast," someone said, and Pa didn't argue. The fire cracked and I jumped, my heart hammered against my ribs. The smell of salt and woodsmoke mixed in the air, and somewhere out in the black water, a fish splashed. I wish it had taken me too, down into the quiet.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: George Orwell’s Animal Farm reveals…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 62.5%: Animal Farm is a fable by George Orwell that illustrates the rise and fall of the Russian Revolution. Orwell…
Animal Farm is a fable by George Orwell that illustrates the rise and fall of the Russian Revolution. Orwell highlights the dangers of totalitarianism and the consequences that accompany it. The author depicts how a government will always fall the way it leans. Animal Farm illustrates how an unfair rule exploits the work of others, with little being given back. Adding on, Orwell demonstrates how promises of equality get swiftly shattered when overruled by power and privilege. Ultimately, Animal Farm is a book used to spread awareness towards the dangers and threats that the masses face when paired with an unequal government.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus The King, there is nothing the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Greek playwright Sophocles’ tragic tale ‘Oedipus The King’, set within the confines of the plague-torn ancient…
Greek playwright Sophocles’ tragic tale ‘Oedipus The King’, set within the confines of the plague-torn ancient city of Thebes, depicts the paramount governance of the gods’ decrees in ancient Greek mythology. Sophocles first ostensibly portrays a world in which its inhabitants are subject to the mercy of the supernatural forces that overrule their lives, catalysing an obedience to the pantheon. Contrarily, individuals within the world of ‘Oedipus The King’ seemingly possess autonomy; rendering mortals’ own virtues and flaws as crucibles for their outcomes. Ultimately, the tragedian elucidates the lack of control humans maintain over their destinies despite their best efforts to escape their fates. Essentially, Sophocles suggests that mortals are unable to influence their destinies as decreed by the divine, cautioning his Grecian audience against attempts to do so.
Holistically, Sophocles illustrates a world in which its inhabitants are willingly subject to the celestial forces that dictate their lives. This is first epitomised in the very stasimons of the Theban chorus, they concede that “destiny guide[s] [them] always”. Through these lyrics, the people of Thebes establish themselves as submissive to the will of the gods. Furthermore, in the same ode, the Thebans claim the gods to be “reared on high”, these directional phases highlight the contrast between two antithetical elements: high and low. The former represents “the brilliant vault of heaven” as established, and the latter represents the mortals “huddled at the altar”, praying to it. Sophocles utilises this juxtaposition of the Grecian deities and the mortals to illustrate the submissive and malleable nature of the Thebans in the face of the gods, and hence, the Athenian audience they depict. Moreover, their relinquishing of their leader’s capabilities compared to the power of the pantheon further accentuates the mortals’ submission to the gods. Amidst “red waves of death” and a “blight on crops”, the Theban people’s desperation is epitomised through their “[prayers] to the gods”. Despite this, their leader Oedipus’ “[readiness] to help” and eagerness to “grant [their] prayers” is overlooked. The Theban chorus’ capitulation that “[Oedipus] cannot equal the gods” despite being “[rated] first of men” outline the titular character’s lack of control over his people’s destined apocalypse, despite his position of authority amongst the mortals. Through the concessions of the Theban chorus, both regarding their own malleability and the limits of their king’s capabilities, Sophocles frames mortals in ‘Oedipus The King’ as powerless in comparison to the absolute authority of the gods. Their submissive nature elucidates their willing obligation to the pantheon, and thus, portrays them to be willing participants as divine martyrs.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How Does Jackson present a world in which…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 68.75%: Individuals have reasons to isolate themselves, either physically mentally or socially . Shirley Jackson's…
Individuals have reasons to isolate themselves, either physically mentally or socially . Shirley Jackson's enigmatic gothic novel 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' (1962) explores the isolated life of the Blackwood sisters as a result of their lurid past experiences. Set in an era scarred by the Red Scare and post World War II conformity, Jackson emphasizes the measures individuals go through to barricade themselves from the outer world. Moreover, the text highlights how communal hostility and societal pressure can further drive self-imposed isolation. Alongside these factors, Jackson accentuates how psychological trauma can manipulate one's reality to perceive the outside world as a threat, reinforcing one's seclusion. Ultimately, Jackson postulates how the ideology of alienation is paradoxical, denoting one's mental state drives self imposed isolation while social dynamics and the environment shape it.