Download Section A Essay – Scholarship English mock exam paper The

Section A Essay – Scholarship English mock exam paper
The following two passages deal with sadness. Write an essay comparing the treatment of
sadness and the crafting techniques used to reveal theme.
The prose piece Childcare by Laurie Moore and the poem It will not gleam by Tim Upperton
both deal with the emotions of sadness and hopelessness, though presented in different
contexts. Childcare describes a woman’s disappointment trying to adopt the baby she wants,
while the poem It will not gleam deals with the speaker’s inability to escape from sadness, as
he sees it in everything around him. Through the use of crafting techniques such as imagery,
tone, diction and structure, these writers effectively create an atmosphere of sadness, as well
as illuminating certain common themes between them such as the inevitability of death and
old age.
Figurative language is an important crafting technique in the treatment of sadness in both of
these texts. In Childcare, the narrator uses the following simile, “thinning skin like a crepe” to
describe Sarah, whom the narrator considers “a pretty woman who was no longer pretty”.
This comparison of Sarah’s skin to a crepe gives the reader the impression that Sarah appears
fragile and feeble, revealing not only her physical appearance, but alluding to the immense
disappointment she feels which is likely to have diminished her hopes and her strength. In the
poem It will not gleam, sadness is frequently compared to a variety of dull, everyday sights
such as “the fitful flap of sheets”, “the green smear of algae”, and “the dust that collects on
top of books”. While these images might first appear insignificant and relatively ordinary, the
use of these metaphors actually enforces the idea that the speaker finds sadness in absolutely
everything around him, even the most mundane household images. These allow the reader to
relate to his sadness, as these comparisons are familiar and easily identifiable with suburban
life. The images used in the poem are similar to that of Childcare, in that they often refer to
the theme of deterioration and old age or decay. The poem compares the deterioration of the
speaker’s home to “what becomes of our human traces, the sloughed skin, the nameless hair.”
Similarly, the narrator of Childcare observes the decaying, diminishing effect of sadness on
an individual as Sarah’s “gnarly knuckled hand” is described as “arthritic”, carrying strong
negative connotations of old age and disease.
In each text it is clear that choices in vocabulary have been made carefully and deliberately,
to create a tone of sadness and helplessness, as well as alluding to the theme of the
inevitability of old age. In Childcare, the narrator uses a series of present-participle verbs to
negatively describe her observations of the aging process—“drying, hunching, blanching,
hobbling, fading, fattening.” All of these words carry negative connotations, reflecting the
narrator’s determination to avoid such “negative aging”, as she puts it. The use of present
participle verb forms is effective, in that it gives an impression of immediate, continuous
action which is ultimately unavoidable. The use of the technique listing also clearly reflects
the drawn-out, tiresome and exhausting process of aging itself. Word choice is also
significant in the poem It will not gleam, this time with adjectives that all contribute to the
negative, hopeless tone; “bitter”, “sloughed”, “nameless”, and “overwhelmed”. The structure
of both of these texts also highlights the inevitability of sadness, as they both end negatively.
However, unlike the narrator of Childcare who is able to escape from the situation which
created such sadness, the poem’s first and last stanzas refer back to the same bleak and
“fitful” image of “the sheets hanging now, caught as they are in the grey strands of rain.”
This ending effectively bookends the poem, and the image of sheets flapping unable to free
themselves reflects the poet’s inability to free himself of sadness, even in the most mundane,
homely images.
These texts Childcare and It will not gleam by Laurie Moore and Tim Upperton provide the
reader with insight into sadness, disappointment, helplessness and deterioration. Although
these emotions are presented in different subject matter, these writers employ similar uses of
crafting techniques such as figurative language, tone, word choice and structure. While using
these to create a strong sense of the oppressive, inescapable nature of sadness, the theme of
the inevitability of deterioration and old age is also brought to light.