Jasper JonesContents

1.Series of book covers2.Interview with Craig Silveywww.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=647

3. Establishing The Narrative Voice4. Characterisation5. Ideas template6. Relationships7. Essay task8. Imaginative Writing

Establishing the Narrative Voice in the Novel

Both of the novels Jasper Jones and Walking Naked are told from the perspective of the protagonist.

What are the advantages of first person narration?....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

What are the disadvantages of this perspective?...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Read the following passages from the novel and identify how the composer has used language features to establish an authentic adolescent voice and reflect emotions.How do we feel about the characters at these points in the novel?Walking Naked: pgs 1-3, pg 25, pg 51, pg 81, pg 120, pg 142Jasper Jones:pgs 1-3, pgs 17-22, pgs 41-42, pgs 281-282

As you read these passages, mark in pencil on your text the following text annotation symbols.

? In the margins record a question mark(?) for any questions that you have about what is happening or about the vocabulary

Underline

Underline aspects of the writing style. This could be a line or phrase that you think is beautifully worded or makes you think. It could be something about the style or tone that strikes you or that you like or dislike. Put a double line under what you think is the best written sentence in the extract in capturing the adolescent voice

C Draw a C for your connections when the story reminds you of something you have read or seen or felt or done in your own life

! Write ! when something is interesting, important, unusual and it surprises or even shocks you

AHA Record AHA when the text identifies an idea or assumption about adolescence.

Choose any one of the passages listed above. Describe where/when the passage is found in the text and what is being described.Identify what it reveals about the protagonist at this point in the novel.Explain how the reader feels towards the protagonist at this point in the novel.Record two sentences/phrases from the extract and explain how the language features help to shape ideas about or reactions to characters.

An example has been done below:Extract from Walking Naked (pg156)

This passage occurs in the novel after Megan learns about Perdita’s suicide. It describes her at home being comforted by her parents and her reaction to Perdita’s death. The passage reveals that Megan is deeply distressed at this point in the novel and feels extremely guilty about her response to Perdita and her cruelty towards her. The reader feels a sense of sympathy towards Megan at this point in the novel, even though her treatment of Perdita earlier was brutal and insensitive. We feel as though Megan is genuinely sorry for her actions. “ We were eating chicken. I carefully put down my drumstick and then vomited onto the plate. I sat there looking at it for a moment”. Here the short statement reflects Megan’s lack of connection and interest. The sudden contrast of the deliberate actions of putting down the food and the verb “Vomited”, shows Megan’s sense of shock and violent physical reaction to Perdita’s death. Further, “I could hear a low hacking, moaning noise. It was me”. The adjectives reveal Megan’s grief and pain.

Characterisation in the Novel

Both of the novels Jasper Jones and Walking Naked establish authentic adolescent characters.

Read the following descriptions of Charlie Bucktin.

Identify the context for the quotes: where/when in the novel? How is the reader positioned to view Charlie? Through close

reference to language and structural features, discuss how the writer has shaped this response:

My exit from the window is a little like a foal being born. It’s a graceless and gangly drop...”(pg 2)

“I’ve never smoked before. I’ve certainly never been offered one. I feel a surge of panic. Wanting both to decline and impress, for some reason I decide to press my palms to my stomach and puff my cheeks when I wag my head at his offer, as if to suggest that I’ve smoked so many this evening that I’m simply too full to take another. (pg 4)

How strange and abandoned and unsettled I am. Like a snowdome paperweight that’s been shaken. There’s a blizzard in my bubble. Everything in my world that was steady and sure and sturdy has been shaken out of place, and it’s now drifting and swirling down in confetti of debris. (pg 30)

My mouth is dry, and so my response is a mute whisper followed by a single nod and a tight smile. I am an idiot. I consider trying again, once more with feeling, but in the time it takes me to decide we’ve already walked straight past her. Should I turn around? I should. I should probably turn around. I’m going to turn around. But I don’t. (pg 73)

It should be getting easier, the tide of anxiety should be creeping back. But even as the fever around Laura’s disappearance dissolves, that red stripe of mercury climbs higher inside me. My breath gets shorter, that knot in my chest gets tighter. Eliza Wishart has taken my appetite, Laura Wishart has stolen my slumber. I’ve traded my pansy sandals for heavy boots. Because I know they’ll come for me one day. The buzzards will always be circling. (pg 288)

I turn my back and walk away from them. I cross the grass to Eliza, who swivels upon my approach and crimps her lips into a short sad smile as I place my hand on her shoulder. I’ve finally got the right words in me (pg 394)

Read the following descriptions of Jasper Jones.

How is the reader positioned to view Jasper? Through close reference to language and structural features, discuss how the writer has shaped this response

Jasper is tall. He’s only a year older than me, but looks a lot more. He has a wiry body, but it’s defined. His shape and his muscles have already sorted themselves out. His hair is a scruff of rough tufts. (pg 2)

Jasper Jones has a terrible reputation in Corrigan. He’s a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a Truant. He’s lazy and unreliable. He’s feral and an orphan, or as good as. His mother is dead and his father is no good. He’s the rotten model that parents hold aloft as a warning. This is how you’ll end up if you’re disobedient. Jasper Jones is the example of where poor attitude and aptitude will lead. (pg 6)

Of course this town will blame him. Of course Corrigan is going to accuse him of this. And it does n’t matter what he says. His word isn’t worth shit...He’ll be cuffed and led away. The outcast that killed the Shire president’s daughter. He doesn’t stand a chance. (Pg 19)

Walking Naked

Read the following descriptions of Megan Tuws.

Identify the context for the quotes: where/when in the novel? How is the reader positioned to view Megan? Through close

reference to language and structural features, discuss how the writer has shaped this response:

I hurried towards the door, bumping my thigh on the edge of the desk. I didn’t want to be in the same space as Perdita. I felt the need to get as far away from her as I could. I didn’t want to breathe the same air, or smell her. As she approached, I held my breath. (pg 13)

Besides, where would I go? I didn’t want to sit with the group.I didn’t want to sit with any other group. I certainly couldn’t sit on my own. I had to come up with something. (pg 61)

Still, sometimes you’ve got to be cruel to be kind, so I continued. I suggested that perhaps she should imagine it like two sporting teams. I was on the green team and she was on the red team . (pg 77)

We were the group. There were others, but it was the bond that Candice and I had that made the group the unit that it was. People were envious of us. We were smart, funny, pretty-everything you could want to be-everything you needed to be. (pg 87)

I’d just deceived the only real friend that I’d ever had, in the most public and unforgivable way. (pg 154)

Read the following descriptions of Perdita.

Identify the context for the quotes: where/when in the novel? How is the reader positioned to view Perdita? Through close

reference to language and structural features, discuss how the writer has shaped this response:

Perdita Wiguiggan hunkered down with her shoulders stooped and her chin forward. She took long clomping strides like a man. (pg 4)

I could tell when she walked away because the group called after her, an incoherent rabble noise at first that became a chorus of jeers. Others joined them in a single chant echoing off the walls of the quad, louder and louder: ‘Freak! Freak! Freak!’ (pg 153)

Ideas explored in the novel Jasper Jones

Example

Idea Points to support this idea

Elaboration of idea.(2 sentences)

Textual evidence

Identification/Analysis of language features

Adolescence can be a time of facing change within oneself, in one’s perception of others and in one’s immediate world

*In the novel, Jasper Jones, Charlie undergoes transformation in his understanding of others.

*In the novel, Charlie develops a new understanding of his environment.

*

*

Adolescence can be a challenging time of confusion; a time of searching for one’s identity and where one belongs or fits in.

*Charlie is seen to be uncomfortable and uncertain.

*

*

*

Adolescence involves developing relationships

* *

*

Relationships in Jasper Jones

1. List the significant relationships in Charlie’s life during the course of the novel.

2. From the list above, identify the new relationships he develops during the novel. Why do these relationships became significant? Use textual references and language analysis in your response.

3. From the list above, identify the long term relationships Charlie has in the novel. How do these relationships change over the course of the novel? Use textual references and language analysis in your response.

Adolescence can be a time of facing change within oneself, in one’s perception of others and in one’s immediate world.

Adolescence can be a challenging time of confusion; a time of searching for one’s identity and where one belongs or fits in.

Adolescence can trigger a desire for independence and freedom.

Adolescence is a time of discovery, of new experiences and rites of passage.

Adolescence involves developing relationships. Adolescence often involves feelings of self-doubt and a lack

of acceptance.

Essay task

Q. “It is through relationships that the adolescent character experiences change; in their perception of themselves, of others and their immediate world.”

Discuss this statement with close reference to the novels Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

In order to answer this question, you should refer to the notes processed in class about relationships.

You must include an introduction, approximately 3-4 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

You must also include 1-2 textual examples for each point made; these need to be analysed and evaluated in terms of the idea expressed in your topic sentences.

The approximate length of your response should be 800 words

Outcomes assessed:

Student responds to increasingly sophisticated and sustained texts for understanding, interpretation and critical analysis.

Student uses a range of processes for responding to texts. Student uses language forms and features and structures of texts according

to different purposes. Student thinks critically and interpretively using information, ideas and

increasingly complex arguments to respond to texts.

Imaginative Writing.

You have explored a range of texts, some long, some short, some written, other s visual or aural which all explore aspects of being an adolescent.

The dominant paradigm (the dominant way of thinking about teenagers in texts) has been that the teenage years are full of conflict, both internal and external and that it is a difficult period of growth.

Write an imaginative piece which subverts this dominant paradigm. In other words, write an imaginative piece which tells a positive story about adolescence. Look at the images below and base your imaginative piece on one of these.