Hi there could I have feedback on my answer for Question 1 of the 2016 paper - It Was Over Before it Began
a)Give an example of this language feature from the text.
A thermos flask, Christmas presents, and pegs for the tent are arranged along the back window so that they won’t fly on tight corners, and so that Dad can still see. - Listing
(b) Explain how this and / or other language feature(s) helps you to understand the highs and lows throughout the text. You might consider: • the writer’s feelings about the road trip • other people’s perspectives of the road trip • the expectations and reality of the road trip
At the beginning of the text the author does not not express any strong emotions towards the road trip, the author presents the idea of the trip as if it’s a fact we see this in the text when stated “I’m 10. Dad has decided that this summer the whole family is going on a road trip.” The fact the author says Dad has decided, instead of describing the decisions as a collective family decision hints that this trip may be against the will of the author.
We can see the author is skeptical of the success of the trip when stating “An epic mission, made more difficult by the fact that the car is an ironically named Triumph 2000.” The use of the adjective ‘epic’ indicates that the author sees the success of the trip as a great challenge. Usually when something is described to be a mission it is generally task that have not been achieved before therefore the success of the task is challenging and uncertain. The reader can gather from the word ‘mission’ that this may be the first time the author’s family is going on a large road trip and the author is uncertain about the success of the trip.
We see the author repeatedly describes the road trip as an “epic road trip” the reader can assume that this may have been the way Dad described the trip to the author. This reveals Dad’s expectation of the trip to be really good. We see from Dad’s’s initial decision to go ahead with the trip and then describing the trip as epic that he has high hopes for the success of the trip. This is reiterated through his action when he “pats step-mum’s leg reassuringly and winks in the rear-view.”
You generally pat someone to provide comfort and reassurance, while Dad may have high hopes about the trip, Mum may have similar skepticisms to the author. Dad patting mum’s’s legs reassuringly indicates to the reader that Dad is aware of the general skepticism in the family but still believes the epic road trip will go ahead successfully.
The author then continues by using listings to explore the potential that this road trip holds: “A thermos flask, Christmas presents, pegs for the tent…” The reader can see that the author recognizes that the trip has the potential to be really fun. Possible activities such as camping may take place which the author is clearly not against.
When the author states “I sit on my best sweatshirt. The one I hope my new cousins will think is stupidly cool.” despite the road trip being just Dad’s decisions they have gone along with the idea of making special efforts to pack clothes. They have put special thought into parking clothes they believe their cousins will think are cool. Despite their initial skepticism they have hope of the trip going successfully and reaching their cousins.
When the author describes the Triumph 2000 to have died we can see that “Dad is so deflated he doesn’t even swear. He just stands there quietly and waits.” The body language of Dad suggests to the reader that despite his high hopes a small part of Dad felt the Triumph 2000 wouldn’t get them through the road trip. We can see the disappointment in Dad and he doesn’t even react angrily just quietly experiencing the emotions of sadness as the reality of the trip set it to be very different from his expectations.
Though the story doesn’t return to its initial high, the family recovers from their failed road trip after seeing Tom in Mom’s wedding dress. We see Dad has returned to his normal state reacting as he normally would: running after Tom, swearing at him. The text ends in a light mood.