I will now talk about the intended audience of Source G. Audience means who the Source was produced for. The Source was produced for children to read and be excited by. Therefore, the story would have to contain an exciting event so that the reader would keep reading on. The author wanted people to read her book, her motive was not to produce a factual account of evacuation. Her motive is more likely to have been to make money, by making the story more interesting, more people will buy copies and therefore the author will get more money. Therefore, the author has possibly made up a lot of information to make the story more exciting for the reader. However with it being written by an ex-evacuee, the novel becomes slightly more credible because she will have based a lot of the story on her own experiences. However some of the information in the novel does back up my own knowledge, for instance the awkwardness between the families and foster children is underlined. Even though the information does back up my own knowledge, it is still unreliable because it is a made up story for children. Also, because it was written for children, some of the more gruesome details of evacuation will have been excluded because they would not have been deemed appropriate for children. Therefore Source G is unreliable as evidence about evacuees because important information could have been missed out and other parts of the Source maybe over exaggerated.
I will next examine the content of Source G. The content of a Source means what the Source consists of and what the Source is trying to portray what its key message is. Source G helps show the many awkward situations between host families and evacuees. Many host families in those days stereotyped evacuees to be poor, dirty and working class and this often caused misunderstandings. Source G also shows how there was not a lot of room in the evacuees suitcases because children could not bring slippers. Any luxuries had to be left at home which did not help evacuees feel more at home. The information in the novel backs up my own knowledge. I know that evacuees took a spare change of clothes, and their gas masks. They also brought other essential items such as a toothbrush and a wash kit. They were also allowed one item that would comfort them such as a blanket or a teddy bear. This is shown in the novel, when Mrs Evans, the foster parent, asks the children whether they had slippers and because they do not, she automatically assumes they are poor. However, the reason they did not have slippers was because they could not fit them in their suitcases. This therefore makes Source G quite reliable because it backs up my own knowledge. However, it has again possibly been based on the authors own experiences, which would be different to another child’s experience. This is evident because Mrs Evans the foster parent is extremely nice, whereas I know from my own knowledge that many foster parents were so bad that they even abused their evacuees. This is an example of the novel possibly being censored because it’s for children. Therefore this once again makes Source G unreliable because of some important information being excluded. However, there are some reliable aspects in the content of Source G because it does support some of my own knowledge to an extent.
I will now talk about the tone of Source G. The tone of the Source is how it is meant to make the reader feel and how the content of Source is portrayed, for example, the tone of a Source could be positive, negative or even humorous. I believe that Source G has a positive tone because the children and foster parents appear happy. It is also humorous because the children are laughing about how Mrs Evans believes they are poor. The Source is presented in a positive way because the author is writing a story for children which means that the story has to be positive so that it is appropriate for the children to read. Therefore, the extract is unreliable because it is only showing one side of the story, whereas I know that some evacuation stories were very negative. This is missed out on because of the nature of the story. Because it was written for children, many gruesome details could have been missed out. However, Source G does portray an accurate view of a positive evacuation story which means that the Source is reliable in that aspect, although because it does not tell the whole story, it is not totally reliable about the experiences of all evacuees
In conclusion, I believe that Source G is partially reliable as evidence about evacuees. The author who wrote the novel is an ex-evacuee, which means her own experiences may have been included in this extract. However, just because the author might have had a positive evacuation experience, many children did not. Many children were abused and bullied by their foster parents, and this extract shows no sign of this. However, it does show some of the awkwardness and misunderstanding between the evacuees and their foster parents. For example when Mrs Evans assumes the children are poor because they did not have slippers, when actually there was not enough room for their slippers in their suitcases. This is a reliable aspect of the Source because it backs up my own knowledge. Also the story was a novel, made up for children, which means that many details may have been exaggerated to make the story more exciting. Also, because it was made for children, many gruesome details could have been censored to make the story appropriate for children.
Overall I believe that Source G has both reliable and unreliable aspects because it is a novel, which means that it is a made up story and therefore it is unreliable, however, the information included does back up my own knowledge which means that it is reliable in that sense.
Rory Barham
