Example essay:
Question: Through friendship, Marina progress. Explore this statement and comment on how the reader is positioned to viewed
Intro:
In his novel, ‘So Much to Tell You’, John Marsden presents a traumatised teenager who makes progress through friendship. Important friendships Marina encountered include those with school friends, her councillor, Mrs Ransome and crucially, her father. When witnessing Marina’s progress, the reader is positioned to feel sympathy, relief, and joy as the novel develops.
Body Paragraph 1:
The reader is first introduced to Marina in Chapter 1 when the author/ Marsden reflect her thoughts as she has recorded them in her diary. However, over time and though growing friendships, Marina makes great progress. Marina is an elective mute and seems isolated. She states that she is, ‘very embarrassed at being noticed’ and ‘uses only grey school blankets’ as if to facilitate hiding. Marina has experience a traumatic accident that has resulted significant scaring to her face. It seems that as a means of coping with the trauma she has opted not to speak. However, her feelings about her mutism are ambivalent. Marsden presents her feelings on her silence as ‘always my fortress, sometimes my prison.’ These metaphors are highly effective; a fortress suggest a fortified building that is impregnable and invulnerable to intruders and this suits Marina as she feels protected by her silence. Oh the other hand, prison is also apposite (fitting) because it suggest a state of isolation and punishment and sums up the way Marina sometime feels. This isolation positions the reader to feel sympathy for Marina, and the reader is encouraged when Marina begins to make progress through connections with her peers and starting to feel mildly safe.