Pearson English VCE Comparing The Namesake and Joyful Strains

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CONTENTSHow to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

Knowing: The Namesake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Context and author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Structural elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Textual elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Ideas, issues and themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Learning activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Knowing: Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Context and authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Structural elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Textual elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Ideas, issues and themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25


Comparing: The Namesake and Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home . . . . . . . . . .28

Types of questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Practice topics: Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Practice topics: Cultural context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Practice topics: Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34


Writing the essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Shaping information and planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Essay structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

The simple essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

The alternating essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

One text at a time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Comparing texts side-by-side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

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iv PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide

How to useThe Pearson English VCE Comparing Guides have been written to the new Victorian Certificate of Education English and English as an Additional Language Study Design for 2016–2020 and cover Units 2–4 Area of Study 1 Reading and comparing texts.

The Comparing guides are divided into four sections:1: Knowing: The Namesake2: Knowing: Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home3: Comparing: The Namesake and Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home4: Writing the essay.

4 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Knowing: The Namesake 5

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTSGenreThe Namesake is both a drama and a coming-of-age story. The reader is introduced to the Ganguli family in 1968, at the beginning of the marriage between Ashima and Ashoke. It moves through the next thirty-two years of important familial moments including religious celebrations, graduations, marriages, deaths and divorce. Readers witness the everyday occurrences in the Ganguli family, from the preparation of Indian food, to the casual conversations between Ashima and Ashoke.

The Namesake also can be categorised as a coming-of-age novel, which follows the protagonist’s character development, from childhood to adulthood. Gogol moves through a number of developmental stages, common in coming-of-age stories, to reach adulthood.

Stage 1: He endures a loss at an early age.Stage 2: He is thrust into the world, discontent with his environment, wanting to

escape and be free.Stage 3: He experiences repeated clashes between the values and judgments of a

rigid society and his own wants and desires. This process is long and difficult.Stage 4: In time, he eventually accepts the values and judgments of the society,

which he rejected earlier.

PlotThe Namesake is divided into twelve chapters and spans three decades. The chapters do not have chapter names and only some are given year markers. The novel spans large amounts of time in the Ganguli family. Jhumpa Lahiri introduces us first to Ashima and the difficulty she faces in a foreign country, newly married and unaccustomed to the new culture in which she has been plunged. We are allowed access to her intimate thoughts on her new home in the United States, of her homesickness and the longing to be connected to her family in India. This initial storyline overlaps with the introduction of her son Gogol Ganguli. We meet him as a newborn, and follow him through his life into his thirties. In him, we see the reversal of Ashima’s cultural concerns, for him, American culture is a normal way of life and the Bengali traditions seem out of place and uncomfortable. The intersection of these two conflicted characters and their experiences in cultures in which they feel both included and excluded, is the fundamental exploration that occurs in this text.

Did you know?

‘The reader should realise himself that it could not have happened otherwise, and that to give him any other name was quite out of the question.’The extract at the beginning of a text is referred to as an epigraph. In The Namesake the epigraph is taken from Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat. It is a famous short story by Gogol, who was an influential figure in Russian literature. Even Fyodor Dostoevsky is claimed to have said, ‘We all come out of Gogol’s overcoat’.

■ Nikolai Gogol■ The Namesake, timeline of events

Ashoke Ganguli survives a train crash in India. He is found by rescuers due to a page in a book he was reading – a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol.

Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli move to the United States, to further Ashoke’s studies in engineering at MIT. Ashoke and Ashima’s marriage was arranged.

Ashoke and Ashima have a baby boy. The parents wait for a letter from a respected family elder in Bengal to name the baby, however, the letter does not arrive and the baby is named Gogol – in honour of the book that saved Ashoke’s life.At Gogol’s rice-eating ceremony at six months, he rejects all the objects put before him.Ashoke, Ashima and Gogol are now living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Ashoke and Ashima purchase a new home with no Bengali neighbours and Gogol is enrolled in kindergarten. Ashima enrolls him under the name Nikhil, but he tells the teacher he wants to be called ‘Gogol’.Ashoke learns about the death of his parents. Ashoke and Ashima have a baby girl, named Sonali ‘Sonia’.

Ashoke gives Gogol a copy of Nikolai Gogol’s short stories as a present on his fourteenth birthday. Gogol is not really interested, preferring popular culture.The Gangulis travel to Calcutta for eight months, while Ashoke is on a sabbatical from the universtity.Gogol starts junior high school and Mr Lawson, the English teacher, assigns a short story from The Overcoat. Gogol learns about the complicated life of his namesake and is reluctant to be associated with the story.Gogol changes his name to Nikhil before he attends Yale.Gogol meets Ruth on a train to Boston.Gogol begins to date Ruth. He experiences freedom for the first time and chooses a career as an architect, not as an engineer like his father.Gogol becomes an architect and lives in New York. He starts to date Maxine Ratliff who has wealthy parents, who are intelligent, yet much more easy-going than his family. Gogol lives with Maxine in her parents’ townhouse.Ashima invites Gogol to come and visit, however, his visit ends up being a short lunch while on the way to spend time with Maxine and her parents.Ashoke Ganguli dies of a heart attack. Gogol goes to identify his body and clean out his apartment.Gogol has broken up with Maxine.Gogol starts dating Moushumi Mazoomdar, a childhood friend with a similar Indian-American background.Gogol and Moushumi marry in a traditional marriage ceremony, which is planned by their parents. They move to an apartment and begin married life.Gogol discovers that Moushumi has been having an affair. Gogol and Moushumi decide to divorce.Ashima decides to sell the family home in Pemberton Road and to have one final Christmas party at the house. During the party, Gogol visits his old bedroom and discovers the collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol, given to him by his father on his fourteenth birthday. He reads what his father inscribed: ‘The man who gave you his name, from the man who gave you your name.’ He begins to read The Overcoat.

[Flashback] 1961

1966–67

1968

1969

1971

1973

1974

1982

1983

1986

1987

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

32 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Comparing: Namesake and Joyful Strains 33

What similarities can be found between the cultures explored in The Namesake and Joyful Strains?

What similar values and attitudes are held in the United States and Australia, as identified in the texts?

How is the importance of education presented in the texts?

Which cultural norms challenge the reader?

How are gender roles explored in The Namesake and Joyful Strains?

Are the cultural contexts of the authors important in understanding the texts?

How are different cultures presented in The Namesake and Joyful Strains?

Cultural context

■ Mindmap: Cultural context

Cultural context questions ask you to consider the cultural background in which the text is set, the events in history that shape the text, and the social worlds that both texts reflect. The table below explores some ideas related to cultural context.Consider the following topic: Examine the role of education in The Namesake and Joyful Strains.

How does immigration and expatriation impact education in the texts?

What role does education play for the characters in the texts?

What impact does heritage and tradition have on education in the texts?

The Namesake

• Immigration allows Ashoke to work at universities and provides a home and necessities for his family.

• Gogol, Sonia and Moushumi are given education opportunities specific to the United States, and they are able to leave the family home.

• Ashoke studies and lectures at universities in the United States.

• Gogol is able to study at Yale and obtain a job in an architectural office.

• Sonia is an attorney.• Moushumi is a lecturer

and travels to deliver papers in Paris.

• The Ganguli parents support education in their children’s lives.

• It is an expectation that women will bear children and run the home and this is limiting for Sonia and Moushumi.

Joyful Strains • Immigration allows for the authors to express their perspectives of Australia as a new home.

• Some come to Australia with an education, while others find education opportunities here.

• Many of the authors have come to study in Australia.

• There is much emphasis by families on the importance of education.

• Deborah Carlyon finds gender education to be missing in Australia unlike in Papua New Guinea.

• Ali Alizadeh is bullied at school and his Iranian heritage means he feels pressure to apologise for his cultural blunder.

■ Exploring ideas related to cultural context

■ PRACTICE TOPICS: CULTURAL CONTEXT1. Examine the role of education in The Namesake and Joyful Strains.2. Leaving a homeland in search of a new life brings with it cultural concerns

for those involved. Discuss with reference to The Namesake and Joyful Strains.3. Authors are influenced by the world in which they write. How do the cultural

contexts of the authors influence the construction of their texts?4. How is heritage tied to character and author identity? Discuss in relation to

The Namesake and Joyful Strains.5. What role does gender play in the immigrant stories in The Namesake and

Joyful Strains?6. Compare the two settings of the United States and Australia as new homes for the

characters. How does life in these countries enable the authors to explore different cultural experiences in The Namesake and Joyful Strains?

7. The authors of The Namesake and Joyful Strains explore simultaneously living in two worlds. Discuss.

8. Which values and attitudes explored in The Namesake and Joyful Strains are similar and which are different?

GenreThese topics will ask you to compare how stories are told and the way in which the message of the text is delivered in its structural elements. For genre questions, you will need to show your understanding of narrative voice, use of symbols and motifs, and characterisation.

For your study of The Namesake and Joyful Strains you must understand the features of a coming-of-age text and a memoir and examine how these have been used to tell a story. You might be asked to explore the different ways in which the authors use narrative voice (for The Namesake third person limited omniscient, and for Joyful Strains, first person). You could be asked to consider the difference in narrative voices, and how this impacts a reader.

Genre

How does Lahiri’s use of characterisation compare to the personal memoirs?

What symbols are used in The Namesake and Joyful Strains?

Why might Lahiri have selected a coming-of-age genre?

Do both texts share similar conflicts?

How does setting impact the stories being told?

How does narrative voice impact the stories being told?

Compare the traditional novel format to a memoir format.

■ Mindmap: Genre

Knowing the textsThese sections provide a deep insight into the texts, covering context and author, structural elements, textual elements and ideas, issues and themes. At the end of each section is a set of learning activities.

Comparing textsThis section outlines how to compare and contrast the two texts. The two texts are compared and contrasted in regards to: themes, cultural context and genre. This section also provides practical tips and ideas on how to compare texts as well as practice topics.

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How to use 1

Introduction

Body paragraph 1: looks at the first text

Body paragraph 2: looks at the second text and makes comparisons

with the first

Body paragraph 3: contrasts the points

discussed in paragraphs 1 and 2

Conclusion

36 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Writing the essay 37

• weaving of the two texts throughout the analysis• complex links, which recognise similarities and differences but also go further

to establish subtle distinctions.

Before you start■■ BRAINSTORMING THE TOPIC

Begin by brainstorming the topic. Consider any sub-questions that are raised by the topic, and think about what evidence you have from each text to support these ideas. By brainstorming questions about the topic you will be able to set the boundaries for your response.

Writer’s toolboxWhen you brainstorm, ask questions about the topic. A good way to do this is to make sure you answer the Who? What? Where? Why? When? Which? and How? of the topic.

Writing the essayThere are many different ways to write compare and contrast essays. Selecting an essay framework for comparative writing can be challenging because essays need to be more than lists of ideas. Rather they should aim to be thoughtful, in-depth analyses of the two texts, The Namesake and Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home. Compare and contrast essays encourage critical thinking, and the more complex comparative models provide more scope to demonstrate these skills.

SHAPING INFORMATION AND PLANNINGOnce you have read your texts, deconstructed for meaning and prepared your notes, it is time to start to write essays.

This section will model how to:• work through a topic• brainstorm a topic• develop a contention• create an essay plan• write different types of essays.

The topicThe very first step you should take when approaching the topic is to highlight and identify the key words. It is very important to recognise what the topic is asking you to do. Highlighting and identifying the key words assists you in understanding the specifics of what the topic is asking of you.

Consider the following example:

In what ways, or by what means

The question focuses on one structural element: narrative voice. You will need to explore this in detail, and it will be the tool by which you compare the texts.

You must analyse how the choice of narrative voice impacts the cultural experience.

How is narrative voice used in The Namesake and Joyful Strains by the authors to explore differing cultural experiences?

High-scoring responsesHigh scoring responses should include the following:• consistent engagement with the topic throughout• a well-sustained contention, supported by strong supporting arguments and

excellent use of evidence• complex but well-controlled sentences that use punctuation accurately

and purposefully• formal language of critical analysis used effectively• accurate and specific details supported by judiciously-used quotes and examples

Are the cultural experiences portrayed in the texts positive or negative? Does narrative voice impact this?

Why does Lahiri show three alternate perspectives? Why does she use those three characters?

What narrative voice is used in Joyful Strains?

What is left untold, due to the choice of narrative voice in each text?

What narrative voice is used in The Namesake?

Does the narrative voice change throughout Joyful Strains? Why?

How is narrative voice used in The Namesake and Joyful Strains by

the authors to explore differing cultural

experiences?

■■ Mindmap: Brainstorming

Creating the essay planAfter you have brainstormed the topic and created a list of useful quotations as evidence, you should begin planning your essay. Your essay plan can be developed using a simple table, and it is a valuable way to consider the most important points that will make up your body paragraphs. A detailed analysis of an essay question should include at least three main arguments or body paragraphs.

Writer’s toolboxMake sure you are developing an argument and not falling into the habit of storytelling. If you find yourself writing about what happens for the majority of your paragraph, then you are probably storytelling. Try arguing a case by asking Why? and How? in each paragraph.

Writing the essayThis section provides a step-by-step guide on how students can plan and write a comparing essay. Four different essay styles have been included as well as an essay sample with annotations.

eBook and online resourcesOnline resources support the comparing of texts and include:• essay templates• graphic organiser templates• worksheets.

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2 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide

Knowing: The NamesakeJHUMPA LAHIRI

The Namesake tells the story of the Ganguli family, who migrated to Massachusetts, United States, from West Bengal, India. It is a story of immigrants and their experience in a new country. The novel focuses on the life of Gogol, born to Indian parents in the United States and caught between two worlds – the world of his parents who still cling to their Indian customs and rituals, and life in the United States as a teenager and young man.

CONTEXT AND AUTHORContextAuthors are moved to write texts for a number of reasons including: to question values held by their society, to challenge political and social movements, or to explore self-identity. Jhumpa Lahiri’s parents were born in West Bengal, India, and her family moved to Rhode Island, in the United States when she was two years old. While Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri is her birth name, she goes by her nickname of ‘Jhumpa’. Her teachers claimed it was easier to pronounce, and it has remained with her since. It is this dual identity in Lahiri’s own life, which inspired the protagonist Gogol Ganguli, and the novel The Namesake. Lahiri’s own immigrant experience, the clashing of two cultures and the development of self-identity is reflected in the Ganguli family as they are described across three decades of Indians living in the United States.

■■ WEST BENGALWest Bengal is located in north-east India and is India’s fourth most populous state. During India’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the former state of Bengal was split along religious lines – West Bengal was mainly Hindu while East Bengal was predominantly Muslim. East Bengal became Bangladesh in 1971. West Bengal is noted for its political activism and for 34 years (until 1977) was ruled by a democratically elected government. The region is also known for its cultural and educational institutions – the capital, Kolkata is known at the ‘cultural capital of India’.

■■ RHODE ISLANDRhode Island is a state located in the north east of the United States, it is part of the New England region. It is the smallest state in size in the United States. The capital of Rhode Island is Providence. Rhode Island is generally described politically as a democratic state and is one of only nineteen states in the United States to have abolished the death penalty. The main ancestries of people in Rhode Island are Italian, Irish, English and French.

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Knowing: The Namesake 3

Author: Jhumpa LahiriJhumpa Lahiri was born in London on July 11, 1967, raised in Rhode Island, and identifies as an Indian American author. She received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her collection of short stories titled Interpreter of Maladies. The Namesake is her debut novel, written in 2003. It was followed by Unaccustomed Earth in 2008 and The Lowland in 2013. She currently resides in Brooklyn and is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.

■■ The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri

■■ Jhumpa Lahiri

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STRUCTURAL ELEMENTSGenreThe Namesake is both a drama and a coming-of-age story. The reader is introduced to the Ganguli family in 1968, at the beginning of the marriage between Ashima and Ashoke. It moves through the next thirty-two years of important familial moments including religious celebrations, graduations, marriages, deaths and divorce. Readers witness the everyday occurrences in the Ganguli family, from the preparation of Indian food, to the casual conversations between Ashima and Ashoke.

The Namesake also can be categorised as a coming-of-age novel, which follows the protagonist’s character development, from childhood to adulthood. Gogol moves through a number of developmental stages, common in coming-of-age stories, to reach adulthood.

Stage 1: He endures a loss at an early age.Stage 2: He is thrust into the world, discontent with his environment, wanting to

escape and be free.Stage 3: He experiences repeated clashes between the values and judgments of a

rigid society and his own wants and desires. This process is long and difficult.Stage 4: In time, he eventually accepts the values and judgments of the society,

which he rejected earlier.

PlotThe Namesake is divided into twelve chapters and spans three decades. The chapters do not have chapter names and only some are given year markers. The novel spans large amounts of time in the Ganguli family. Jhumpa Lahiri introduces us first to Ashima and the difficulty she faces in a foreign country, newly married and unaccustomed to the new culture in which she has been plunged. We are allowed access to her intimate thoughts on her new home in the United States, of her homesickness and the longing to be connected to her family in India. This initial storyline overlaps with the introduction of her son Gogol Ganguli. We meet him as a newborn, and follow him through his life into his thirties. In him, we see the reversal of Ashima’s cultural concerns, for him, American culture is a normal way of life and the Bengali traditions seem out of place and uncomfortable. The intersection of these two conflicted characters and their experiences in cultures in which they feel both included and excluded, is the fundamental exploration that occurs in this text.

Did you know?

‘The reader should realise himself that it could not have happened otherwise, and that to give him any other name was quite out of the question.’The extract at the beginning of a text is referred to as an epigraph. In The Namesake the epigraph is taken from Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat. It is a famous short story by Gogol, who was an influential figure in Russian literature. Even Fyodor Dostoevsky is claimed to have said, ‘We all come out of Gogol’s overcoat’.

■■ Nikolai Gogol

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Knowing: Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home 13

Knowing: Joyful Strains: Making Australia HomeEDITED BY KENT MACCARTER AND ALI LEMER

Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home is a 2013 collection of memoirs in which writers from around the world explore their experiences in Australia. The collection is edited by Kent MacCarter and Ali Lemer.

CONTEXT AND AUTHORSContextExpatriation is about leaving a place to begin a new life in another country. Joyful Strains is a collection of memoirs, by twenty-seven authors who have expatriated and come to Australia. The assortment of personal stories provides snapshots into the lives of the writers, and offers many perspectives of Australia and Australian culture. The collection includes stories of new customs clashing with old, of language barriers, of multiculturalism and diversity.

N

■■ The contributors to Joyful Strains have come from all around the world .

Did you know?

In Australia almost 30% of the resident population was born overseas. The top five countries of birth are the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, India and the Philippines. According to the 2011 Census the top five languages spoken at home after English are Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese and Greek.

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Knowing: Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home 15

Editors: Kent MacCarter and Ali LemerKent MacCarter and Ali Lemer are the editors of Joyful Strains. Kent MacCarter is a writer and editor, originally from the United States, now based in Melbourne. He is the author of several poetry collections and is the managing editor of the Cordite Poetry Review. Ali Lemer was born and raised in New York City and she came to Melbourne in 2005. After studying editing at Melbourne University, she worked as an editor at Lonely Planet. Lemer is the author of three travel books.

In MacCarter and Lemer’s ‘Editors’ Note’ they write about their own experiences: ‘As expatriates ourselves, we know what it means to tear away from bonds of home and family to start over in a new country … we too turned our lives upside down to move here … We chose to move here, but many of the writers in this collection were not blessed with the same freedom.’

The editors claim that they put together the anthology because they ‘wanted to give native-born Australians an outsider’s insight into their country. A national literature needs to encompass all Australian stories to truly reflect the modern nation we have become – no matter how we got here.’

AuthorsThis collection contains works by twenty-seven authors. The memoirs allow the reader insight into how moving to Australia changed the writers, what they think of Australia now, and their views on multiculturalism.

Author and country of origin

Title Description

Arnold ZableNew Zealand

Introduction Zable states that ‘apart from Australia’s Indigenous peoples, we are all descendants of expatriates’ . He discusses the battle we face between joy and strain in a new home . He briefly tells of his Polish-Jewish mother and the longing for her own community once she settled in Australia . He describes the collection as one that differentiates and unites us and reiterates that our stories matter .

Dmetri KakmiTurkey

‘Night of the Living Wog’

Kakmi and his family emigrated from Turkey to Australia in 1971 when he was a child . He tells of his fascination for television and the unlikely allies he discovers in television personalities as he struggles to find his place .

Alice PungCambodia

‘Stealing from Little Saigon’

Pung describes the microcosm that is the Little Saigon market, and the place her mother holds in it . She details the reflection of the traders, their past lives and the ways in which the market runs as a world unto itself, one misunderstood to the uninitiated, or those new to the market .

Maria TumarkinRussia

‘The Beast, the Accent’

Tumarkin, a professional translator, recounts her own arrival in Australia twenty-two years ago, as she translates documents for new immigrants . She feels that her immigrant story is an old one, yet her unshakeable accent is the last trace of her former life .

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Author and country of origin

Title Description

Michael SalaNetherlands

‘Swarte Piet’ Sala tells of fragmented childhood memories of Saint Nicholas in both Holland and Australia and the disparity between his homes . He traces his mother’s relationship decisions and the impact they had on him and his brother .

Meg MundellNew Zealand

‘Confessions of a Ditch-Jumper’

Mundell moved from New Zealand to Australia with little effort or impact . She tells of the absorption of her New Zealand culture and the loss of her self, as Australia simply accepts her arrival with little fanfare or concern . She also fears that her homeland has forgotten her .

Paola TotaroItaly

‘Pointing North’ Totaro recounts her traumatic days being in primary school in the 1970s, when she was teased for her ethnicity, and felt like an outsider . As an adult and journalist she describes her struggles with dual citizenship and the concept of ‘the other’ . As a London-based journalist Totaro lives and works in neither Italy nor Australia, and she comes to realise that both places have shaped the person she is today .

Chi VuVietnam

‘The Uncanny’ Vu arrived in Australia in 1979 when her family fled Vietnam as refugees . Settling in Australia, she recounts the sights and tastes of her new home . She tells of the confusion and miscommunication that comes with a new language, a new environment and the fragmentation of herself through this cultural shift .

Malla NunnSwaziland

‘An Unanswered Prayer’

Nunn explores her place in Australia through the lens of her ill grandmother, and the differences in heritage and skin colour in her extended family . She recalls her grandmother’s gratitude for Australia’s opportunity and safety .

Amy EspesethUnited States

‘Staying Away: A Memoir of Wisconsin’

Espeseth reflects on her time in Australia as her best friend is laid to rest in the United States . Their childhood and adolescence is the focus of the piece, as well as the distance between them geographically and metaphorically . She reveals that she does not want to return to the United States, and until she does, for her, her best friend will still be alive .

Roanna GonsalvesIndia

‘The Patron Saint of Excess Baggage’

Gonsalves questions her place in Australia after her arrival from India . She uses food as a tool for cultural identification, studies how she fits into the physical landscape as an Indian woman, and raises many unanswered questions .

Michelle Aung ThinMyanmar (formerly Burma)

‘Backtracking’ Aung Thin explores her Burmese heritage through the words and memories of her parents, which she takes as her own . Inspiration for her comes through the possibility of losing herself . She details the concept of displacement, as she lives in Australia but feels the pull of her Burmese story .

Chris FlynnIreland

‘Gun for Hire’ Flynn details the frustration of desperately wanting to escape his Irish home while being reminded of his Irishness every day . This forces him into a process of reinvention . He recalls the numerous jobs and trades that allowed him to experiment with identity and thanks Australia for the opportunity to recreate himself .

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Writing the essayThere are many different ways to write compare and contrast essays. Selecting an essay framework for comparative writing can be challenging because essays need to be more than lists of ideas. Rather they should aim to be thoughtful, in-depth analyses of the two texts, The Namesake and Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home. Compare and contrast essays encourage critical thinking, and the more complex comparative models provide more scope to demonstrate these skills.

SHAPING INFORMATION AND PLANNINGOnce you have read your texts, deconstructed for meaning and prepared your notes, it is time to start to write essays.

This section will model how to:• work through a topic• brainstorm a topic• develop a contention• create an essay plan• write different types of essays.

The topicThe very first step you should take when approaching the topic is to highlight and identify the key words. It is very important to recognise what the topic is asking you to do. Highlighting and identifying the key words assists you in understanding the specifics of what the topic is asking of you.

Consider the following example:

In what ways, or by what means

The question focuses on one structural element: narrative voice. You will need to explore this in detail, and it will be the tool by which you compare the texts.

You must analyse how the choice of narrative voice impacts the cultural experience.

How is narrative voice used in The Namesake and Joyful Strains by the authors to explore differing cultural experiences?

High-scoring responsesHigh scoring responses should include the following:• consistent engagement with the topic throughout• a well-sustained contention, supported by strong supporting arguments and

excellent use of evidence• complex but well-controlled sentences that use punctuation accurately

and purposefully• formal language of critical analysis used effectively• accurate and specific details supported by judiciously-used quotes and examples

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Writing the essay 37

• weaving of the two texts throughout the analysis• complex links, which recognise similarities and differences but also go further

to establish subtle distinctions.

Before you start■■ BRAINSTORMING THE TOPIC

Begin by brainstorming the topic. Consider any sub-questions that are raised by the topic, and think about what evidence you have from each text to support these ideas. By brainstorming questions about the topic you will be able to set the boundaries for your response.

Writer’s toolboxWhen you brainstorm, ask questions about the topic. A good way to do this is to make sure you answer the Who? What? Where? Why? When? Which? and How? of the topic.

Are the cultural experiences portrayed in the texts positive or negative? Does narrative voice impact this?

Why does Lahiri show three alternate perspectives? Why does she use those three characters?

What narrative voice is used in Joyful Strains?

What is left untold, due to the choice of narrative voice in each text?

What narrative voice is used in The Namesake?

Does the narrative voice change throughout Joyful Strains? Why?

How is narrative voice used in The Namesake and Joyful Strains by

the authors to explore differing cultural

experiences?

■■ Mindmap: Brainstorming

Creating the essay planAfter you have brainstormed the topic and created a list of useful quotations as evidence, you should begin planning your essay. Your essay plan can be developed using a simple table, and it is a valuable way to consider the most important points that will make up your body paragraphs. A detailed analysis of an essay question should include at least three main arguments or body paragraphs.

Writer’s toolboxMake sure you are developing an argument and not falling into the habit of storytelling. If you find yourself writing about what happens for the majority of your paragraph, then you are probably storytelling. Try arguing a case by asking Why? and How? in each paragraph.

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Documents

Pearson English VCE Comparing The Namesake and Joyful Strains