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iii CONTENTS How to use iv Knowing: Tracks 2 Context and author 2 Structural elements 4 Textual elements 8 Ideas, issues and themes 10 Learning activities 13 Knowing: Into the Wild 15 Context and director 15 Structural elements 17 Textual elements 23 Ideas, issues and themes 27 Learning activities 29 Comparing: Tracks and Into the Wild 30 Types of questions 30 The comparison 31 Practice topics: Theme 34 Practice topics: Cultural context 36 Practice topics: Genre 37 Learning activities 38 Writing the essay 39 Shaping information and planning 39 Essay structures 41 The simple essay 41 The alternating essay 42 One text at a time 43 The comparing texts side-by-side essay 44 The essay 46 Sample pages

Pearson English VCE Comparing Tracks and Into the Wild

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Page 1: Pearson English VCE Comparing Tracks and Into the Wild

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

Knowing: Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

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

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

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

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

Learning activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Knowing: Into the Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Context and director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Structural elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Textual elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Ideas, issues and themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Learning activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Comparing: Tracks and Into the Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Types of questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Practice topics: Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Practice topics: Cultural context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Practice topics: Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Learning activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Writing the essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Shaping information and planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Essay structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The simple essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The alternating essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

One text at a time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The comparing texts side-by-side essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

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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: Tracks2: Knowing: Into the Wild3: Comparing: Tracks and Into the Wild4: Writing the essay.

16 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Knowing: Into the Wild 17

Annandale, VirginiaAtlanta, Georgia – May 1990Lake Mead National Recreational Area (July 90)Orick Beach/Cut Bank Montana (Aug. 90)Morelos Dam (Dec. 90)El Golfo de Santa Clara (Jan, 91)Houston, Texas (Feb. 91)Las Vegas, Nevada (Feb.–May 91)Bullhead City, Arizona (Oct. 91)Niland, California (Dec. 91)San Diego, California (Jan./Feb. 92)Carthage, South Dakota (Apr. 92)Fairbanks, Alaska (Apr. 92)Stampede Trail, Alaska (May 92)

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Annandale, VirginiaAtlanta, Georgia – May 1990Lake Mead National Recreational Area (July 90)Orick Beach/Cut Bank Montana (Aug. 90)Morelos Dam (Dec. 90)El Golfo de Santa Clara (Jan, 91)Houston, Texas (Feb. 91)Las Vegas, Nevada (Feb.–May 91)Bullhead City, Arizona (Oct. 91)Niland, California (Dec. 91)San Diego, California (Jan./Feb. 92)Carthage, South Dakota (Apr. 92)Fairbanks, Alaska (Apr. 92)Stampede Trail, Alaska (May 92)

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STRUCTURAL ELEMENTSGenreThe genre of the film is biographical drama. Into the Wild begins with Chris McCandless leaving Annandale, Virginia. As he takes on the frontier in Alaska, the film takes on the style of an adventure story. Because it follows Chris’s life story, it is biographical. However, it is told through Sean Penn’s lens, which is based on Jon Krakaeur’s interpretation of Chris McCandless’s writings, and interviews with those who knew him. Although the audience of Into the Wild knows Chris dies, the drama is heightened as we see his deterioration and anticipate his death.

ChronologyThe film does not follow a conventional chronology. It flashes forward to Alaska, to Chris’s death, before taking us back, to show the journey leading up to that moment. The narrative flashes back even further to grainy images of Chris’s early years. By doing this, Penn explores Chris’s psychological rationale for leaving as he did. The sequencing affords greater suspense and drama, because the film takes a long time to reach what we know will happen.■ Into the Wild (2007)

■ Map of Chris McCandless’s journey

■ AUTHOR: JOHN KRAKAUERInto the Wild is based on a non-fiction book by the journalist Jon Krakauer, which was published in 1996. Krakauer is particularly interested in how Chris McCandless died, and has published five different theories. Krakaeur’s interest in McCandless’s death stems from his desire to prove that McCandless wasn’t just a naive runaway. He reveres him as an adventurous young man, who acted upon a youthful rite-of-passage.

Writer’s toolboxA rite-of-passage refers to a significant event in a person’s life, where they transition from one stage of life, into another.

30 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Comparing: Tracks and Into the Wild 31

Comparing: Tracks and Into the WildThere are different kinds of comparative questions and different ways to approach them. This section will help you develop an understanding of how to use a range of strategies when planning your essays about Tracks and Into the Wild. These strategies, or graphic organisers, such as Venn diagrams, scales and data charts are especially useful tools in assisting you to explore the similarities and differences between the texts.

TYPES OF QUESTIONSThere are three types of questions:• the themes, issues and ideas• the social, historical and cultural context• the genre and style.

Common words used in essay questions include the following.• Discuss: Debate the arguments for and against the topic backing up these ideas with

selected evidence from the text. Provide a conclusion.• To what extent: Assess the evidence in your text that would support an argument.

Also look at alternative explanations.• Do you agree?: An opinion is being sought as to the extent to which the statement or

quote is accurate. Evidence will be provided to support or contend the point of view.• Quotations: Essay questions that use quotations are a way to delve into the issues

embedded in a text. You should make reference to the quote and the ideas that it raises.

Theme questionsThemes are prominent, recurring ideas that pervade a literary work. Both Tracks and Into the Wild explore themes related to:• the journey of self-discovery• landscape• unreliability of representation• stereotypes of women and men in nature.

You can also explore concepts within themes, as shown in the following table.

Theme Concepts within themes

The journey of self-discovery

adulthood, coming of age, morality of the individual, integrity, individual and social values, transformational experiences, motivators, conviction and individual power, individual need and collective will, autonomous action, guilt, forgiveness, personal responsibility, selfishness

Landscape wilderness, frontierism, exposure, fear, resilience, transcendence, freedom, letting go and resistance, exclusion and inclusion, uniqueness

Unreliability of representation

whose story is being told?, authenticity, reality, creative licence, interpretation, memory, limitation, the power of distance (temporal, geographical, spiritual, emotional), the importance of text, storytelling

Stereotypes of women and men in nature

being seen as ‘the other’, survival, enrichment, defying the odds, alienation, social non-conformity, expectations of gender, power of gender

■ Concepts within themes

Cultural context questionsCultural 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.

You might be asked to explore the aspects of society the authors, or characters see as important (views) and their judgements on those views (values).

Robyn Davidson is a woman in the 1970s trekking across the Australian desert, and Chris McCandless is a man in the 1990s in the Alaskan wilderness, however, there are commonalities between the worlds they leave and the worlds they enter.

Genre questionsGenre questions could ask you to think about the conventions of the genre and consider how and why the authors conveyed their ideas in certain ways.

Despite the different genres of these texts, we need to consider the features they share, and differences in their representations of setting, narrative perspective and other textual elements.

THE COMPARISONHow to compareThe following section shows you a number of ways to compare the two texts. A variety of methods have been used, such as tables that allow you to chart and track data and graphic organisers that let you see quickly the links and variations.

In a comparison essay, you must critically analyse any two texts pointing out their similarities and/or differences. It could also be called a compare and contrast essay. Your task could be comparative only (looking only at similarities), contrasting only (pointing out the differences) or both comparative and contrasting.

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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Page 3: Pearson English VCE Comparing Tracks and Into the Wild

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

40 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide Writing the essay 41

Both texts explore the solo experience.

Robyn’s solo experiences include:• going from Alice Springs to Utopia• from Areyonga to four days out of Docker• after Mr Eddie leaves her.

Chris’s solo experiences include:• spending time on the road (hitchhiking/

trains/walking)• spending time alone Alaska.

Is the transformation physical, mental or spiritual?

Robyn:• develops her metaphor of the ‘net’ to

describe how she is connected, and describes her ‘self’ as limitless and expanding

• was initially just travelling through the desert, but by the end she feels connected to it.

Chris:• was looking for someone else to tell him

how to find happiness• had to open his own heart, not his mind,

to find the answer• experiences his transformation as he dies,

because it is only then that he can ‘share’ his happiness.

What methods do the texts use to help the audience share the experience of the transformation?

Robyn’s solo experience causes the transformation, not just being alone.

The openness to change creates Chris’s transformation, not just being alone.

■■ DEVELOPING A CONTENTIONThe contention is the overarching statement that answers the topic. It is the central argument that runs the whole way through the essay. A good way to develop the contention is to work out what your supporting arguments will be. From there, you can conclude what your overall belief about the question is. That is your contention.

Paragraph/ Argument 1 =Paragraph/

Argument 2Paragraph/ Argument 3

Contention+ +■■ Formulating a contention

ESSAY STRUCTURESThe simple essayIn the simple essay structure, each paragraph focuses on one of the texts and then in the final body paragraph the texts are drawn together and compared. When using this structure, ensure that the second body paragraph focuses on the second text, but also compares it to the first. This will demonstrate to the reader that you are aware that the task is about comparative writing.

■■ THE TOPICRobyn Davidson’s Tracks and Sean Penn’s Into the Wild explore how being alone can be a transformative experience. Discuss.

■■ Brainstorming the topic

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.

The following diagram shows how to ask questions about the topic: Both texts explore the concept of the transformational solo journey. Discuss.

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

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.

■■ 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 tool, which 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.

Introduction• This paragraph identifies and names the two texts and authors.• It establishes your contention in the piece.

Body paragraph 1: looks at Tracks

This paragraph looks at Tracks.For example, it:• identifies Robyn’s three solo experiences and the differences between

them• identifies how Robyn ‘transforms’• demonstrates that the transformation occurs in the third solo

experience and explains why• explores what the focus is, the language used, and the tone of the

section to indicate how we understand her attitude.

Tracks Into the Wild

Body paragraph 2: looks at Into the Wild and

compares it to Tracks

This paragraph looks at Into the Wild and makes comparisons with Tracks. For example, it:• identifies how the two texts are similar (both contain multiple solo

experiences, both identify a significant transformation, both identify the need to open your heart to experience change)

• explores the focus of the film: Chris’s emotional state (we see him ‘doing’ rather than ‘feeling’, telling others how they should live, rather than listening or being open to change), the textual details of his searching (Penn shows him focused on an external meaning), and the eventful experience of Chris’s awakening.

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: TracksROBYN DAVIDSON

Tracks is Robyn Davidson’s 1980 memoir about her solo trek across Australia. The perilous journey took place in 1977. Davidson offers readers the context for her text in the postscript, written thirty years after the events that are described. She claims that to understand her text is to understand its context in Australia in the 1970s.

CONTEXT AND AUTHORSociety and politicsAustralia in the 1970s was in a dynamic era of growth and political awareness. It was the period in which feminism made tangible progress when the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission ruled that a woman doing the same job as a man should be paid the same wage. Women also won the right to paid maternity leave.

It was a period of emerging social sensitivity. In 1970, Neville Bonner was the first Indigenous Australian elected to the Australian Parliament. In 1972, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was erected on the grounds of what is now known as Old Parliament House, and the ‘White Australia policy’, adopted in 1901, was formally retracted. The Whitlam Government introduced the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 into Parliament, under which traditional affiliation and traditional landowners were given land rights.

Author: Robyn DavidsonRobyn Davidson was born in Western Queensland and lived at Stanley Park, an isolated cattle station, with her parents and sister. Her father travelled through Africa and told her stories of his adventures. Davidson’s mother committed suicide at 46. After this, Davidson was sent to live with her aunt, and was then sent to boarding school.

Davidson believes she had a difficult childhood, and felt she didn’t have an identity for a great part of her early life.

In an interview for ABC Radio, on the ‘Talking Heads’ program, Davidson said: ‘During all that time since I’d left school, I’d virtually not seen my dad. I wrote to him and I said, “I need you to come and get me.” And he did […] we decided to go out bush, looking for opals. It was just the most wonderful time with him. In ’73, I decided that I wanted to go to the Australian desert. So I thought I’d go to Alice Springs and I’ll find myself some feral camels and I’ll use them to go through the desert.’

She did this, and that is where Tracks begins.

Writer’s toolboxThe ‘White Australia policy’ refers to a collection of government policies which only permitted immigrants to come to Australia from the United Kingdom, Ireland and a small number of European countries. It was dismantled between 1949–1973.

Did you know?

Robyn Davidson wrote Tracks while living in London. Davidson was living with Doris Lessing, a winner of Nobel Prize in Literature. Doris Lessing can be regarded as a feminist and post-modern writer.

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STRUCTURAL ELEMENTSGenreThis is a memoir and a travel narrative. Robyn Davidson narrates her 2700km journey from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean on the west coast of Australia. It was written two years after she completed the journey. She is in a flat in London when she writes Tracks, so there is geographic space and considerable time between her setting forth in the Northern Territory of Australia, and writing the text.

The book follows a direct, first person, past-tense linear narrative that focuses on the trip itself. It is not a text that ranges much beyond the experience itself, except in a few places, for example, when Robyn talks of her family’s past and how that lends particular significance to her travels.

Glen HelenTourist Camp

Utopia

Alice Springs

WilunaMeekatharra

Kalgoorlie

Fremantle

Carnarvon

Canning Stock Route

PERTH

INDIAN OCEAN

Geraldton

Tempe Downs

Mount Olga Uluru

Docker River

Wingelinna

PipalyatjaraWarburton

Carnegie

GlenyaleWell no. 9Well no. 6

Cunyu

Dalgety Downs

LakeMcLeod

Aboriginal Reserve

Nullarbor Plain

GunbarrelHighway

LakeDisappointment

LakeMackay

WoodleighHamelin Pool

FINISH

START

NORTHERNTERRITORY

SOUTHAUSTRALIA

WESTERNAUSTRALIA

RedbankGorge

AboriginalReserve

GibsonDesert

Areyonga

ADELAIDE

Great Sandy D

esert

300 miles0

0 500 kilometers

N

S

W E

Great Victoria Desert

■ Map of Robyn Davidson’s journey

Plot■ PART 1

• Robyn arrives in Alice Springs in 1975. She works at the Polsel place, training camels. Later she goes to work with Sallay Mahomet.

• She goes to Brisbane and on her return to Alice Springs, chooses two camels – Zeleika and Kate, and moves to Basso’s farm to train them in March, 1976.

• Eighteen months later, the camel Kate becomes sick and Robyn shoots her while Zeleika is pregnant. She continues to use the facilities at Basso’s farm.

• Two years later, in midsummer 1977, Robyn’s dog, Blue, dies from strychnine poisoning.

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Knowing: Tracks 5

• Robyn meets Rick Smolan who convinces her to contact National Geographic to sponsor her trek.

• The camel Zeleika’s baby, Goliath, is born.• Robyn sets off for the eight-day trial run to Utopia.• She meets with National Geographic and is offered $4000 in sponsorship.• Robyn returns to Alice Springs for preparations and, in March 1977, begins

her journey.

■ PART 2: SHEDDING BURDENS• Robyn is on her own until she hears the ‘click’ of

Rick’s camera. After taking some shots, he leaves, arranging to meet her at Ayers Rock.

• Day 3 crisis – the map is inaccurate.• Robyn arrives at Areyonga Aboriginal community.• She beats the camel Bub for panicking the other

camels.• Robyn is in Tempe, where she makes calls on the

two-way radio but gets no reply. On the trip to Ayers Rock she stops at Wallera Ranch but leaves because they were ‘typical ockers’. She enters wild bull country and at Angas Downs station, the Liddles ‘stuck me in the shower [and] fed me up’. She arrives at Ayers Rock.

• Rick arrives and brings Jen, who is injured, which leads to tension. Jen leaves.• At the Olgas, Rick and Robyn fight, and eventually resolve their issues about his

presence and photographs. She comes to the realisation that she has to ‘take full responsibility for his being there’.

• Dookie the camel cuts his foot two days out of Docker. Robyn spends six weeks in Docker waiting to see if Dookie is going to recover. Rick stays for two days and tension is high.

• Rick films a secret women’s ceremony and in doing so, distances Robyn from the Aboriginal community. She cannot find a guide to take her across the desert to Pipalyatjara.

• Out of Docker, Robyn is attacked by bulls and kills three of them.• Four days out of Docker, she has an emotional breakdown and then moves into

a euphoric mania. In this state she meets a group of Aboriginal men, including Mr Eddie, who offers to go with her across country.

■ PART 3: LITTLE BIT, LONG WAY• Robyn travels with Mr Eddie to Pipalyatjara where she talks with Glendle.

She feels herself ‘knitting together again, putting things into perspective, clearing my confusion’.

• She leaves for Warburton with Mr Eddie, crossing the desert. Five months from Alice, they arrive in Warburton, Rick arrives and Eddie leaves with Glendle.

• Robyn leaves Warburton in July, travelling along the Gunbarrel Highway alone.• She develops the metaphor of the ‘net’ to explain the connectedness of everything,

including herself. She determines that the ‘self’ is a ‘reaction between mind and stimulus’.

Did you know?

Uluru was previously known as Ayers Rock. It was named by William Gosse in 1873 after Sir Henry Ayers (1821–1897), an early legislator and businessman. Uluru is the Aboriginal and official name.

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Knowing: Into the Wild 15

Knowing: Into the WildSEAN PENN

Into the Wild is a 2007 film. It is based on a non-fiction book of the same name, about the death of Christopher McCandless. At 22, after graduating from university, McCandless abandons his family, and his wealthy upbringing to travel north into the Alaskan wilderness. He carries very little: only 5 kg of rice, a .22 calibre rifle, and a backpack of his favourite books. When he finds a deserted school bus, it becomes his home for 113 days. He suffers from starvation and eventually dies, and his body is found nineteen days later.

CONTEXT AND DIRECTORThe United States in the 1980s to early 1990sInto the Wild opens in 1992, when Chris McCandless arrives in the Alaskan wilderness. The film moves between 1992 and 1990, when Chris began his journey. Although the film’s timeline is the early 1990s, Chris McCandless’s formative years were the 1980s. This was a decade characterised by consumerism and extravagance. Under President Ronald Regan, the United States economy was revamped and consumerism and materialism increased. The term ‘shop till you drop’ became popular, and this attitude of spending was popularised in programs such as Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Globally, the 1980s was also the time of the Ethiopian famine, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and the rise of AIDS. In 1990, when McCandless began his journey, the United States President was George HW Bush, who had been Regan’s Vice President. The excesses and impacts of the 1980s were still ever present.

Director: Sean PennSean Penn is an American actor, director and has also been described as a political activist. Penn has received numerous acting and directing honours during his career, including two Academy Awards for best actor. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1960, he began his acting career as a child on the series Little House on the Prairie in an episode directed by his father, also an actor and director. Penn has specialised in playing dramatic roles in films with a social message such as Dead Man Walking and Milk. Penn began his directing career in 1991, with the film The Indian Runner. Into the Wild is Penn’s fourth feature film. Penn is also well known for his political and social causes. He wrote an open letter in the Washington Post critical of then-President George Bush’s war on terror, and after Hurricane Katrina, he travelled to New Orleans to assist with the rescue effort.

Sean Penn directed and wrote the script for Into the Wild in 1996, after reading Jon Krakauer’s book of the same name and acquiring film rights. In the documentary, The Making of Into the Wild, Penn claims that he wrote the film adaptation without re-reading Krakaeur’s text. He says that the images were ‘leaping out from the pages’ and speaks of a close connection between Krakaeur’s version of Chris McCandless journey, and his own version.

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16 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide

■ Into the Wild (2007)

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Knowing: Into the Wild 17

Annandale, VirginiaAtlanta, Georgia – May 1990Lake Mead National Recreational Area (July 90)Orick Beach/Cut Bank Montana (Aug. 90)Morelos Dam (Dec. 90)El Golfo de Santa Clara (Jan, 91)Houston, Texas (Feb. 91)Las Vegas, Nevada (Feb.–May 91)Bullhead City, Arizona (Oct. 91)Niland, California (Dec. 91)San Diego, California (Jan./Feb. 92)Carthage, South Dakota (Apr. 92)Fairbanks, Alaska (Apr. 92)Stampede Trail, Alaska (May 92)

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Annandale, VirginiaAtlanta, Georgia – May 1990Lake Mead National Recreational Area (July 90)Orick Beach/Cut Bank Montana (Aug. 90)Morelos Dam (Dec. 90)El Golfo de Santa Clara (Jan, 91)Houston, Texas (Feb. 91)Las Vegas, Nevada (Feb.–May 91)Bullhead City, Arizona (Oct. 91)Niland, California (Dec. 91)San Diego, California (Jan./Feb. 92)Carthage, South Dakota (Apr. 92)Fairbanks, Alaska (Apr. 92)Stampede Trail, Alaska (May 92)

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STRUCTURAL ELEMENTSGenreThe genre of the film is biographical drama. Into the Wild begins with Chris McCandless leaving Annandale, Virginia. As he takes on the frontier in Alaska, the film takes on the style of an adventure story. Because it follows Chris’s life story, it is biographical. However, it is told through Sean Penn’s lens, which is based on Jon Krakaeur’s interpretation of Chris McCandless’s writings, and interviews with those who knew him. Although the audience of Into the Wild knows Chris dies, the drama is heightened as we see his deterioration and anticipate his death.

ChronologyThe film does not follow a conventional chronology. It flashes forward to Alaska, to Chris’s death, before taking us back, to show the journey leading up to that moment. The narrative flashes back even further to grainy images of Chris’s early years. By doing this, Penn explores Chris’s psychological rationale for leaving as he did. The sequencing affords greater suspense and drama, because the film takes a long time to reach what we know will happen.

■ Map of Chris McCandless’s journey

■ AUTHOR: JOHN KRAKAUERInto the Wild is based on a non-fiction book by the journalist Jon Krakauer, which was published in 1996. Krakauer is particularly interested in how Chris McCandless died, and has published five different theories. Krakaeur’s interest in McCandless’s death stems from his desire to prove that McCandless wasn’t just a naive runaway. He reveres him as an adventurous young man, who acted upon a youthful rite-of-passage.

Writer’s toolboxA rite-of-passage refers to a significant event in a person’s life, where they transition from one stage of life, into another.

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30 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide

Comparing: Tracks and Into the WildThere are different kinds of comparative questions and different ways to approach them. This section will help you develop an understanding of how to use a range of strategies when planning your essays about Tracks and Into the Wild. These strategies, or graphic organisers, such as Venn diagrams, scales and data charts are especially useful tools in assisting you to explore the similarities and differences between the texts.

TYPES OF QUESTIONSThere are three types of questions:• the themes, issues and ideas• the social, historical and cultural context• the genre and style.

Common words used in essay questions include the following.• Discuss: Debate the arguments for and against the topic backing up these ideas with

selected evidence from the text. Provide a conclusion.• To what extent: Assess the evidence in your text that would support an argument.

Also look at alternative explanations.• Do you agree?: An opinion is being sought as to the extent to which the statement or

quote is accurate. Evidence will be provided to support or contend the point of view.• Quotations: Essay questions that use quotations are a way to delve into the issues

embedded in a text. You should make reference to the quote and the ideas that it raises.

Theme questionsThemes are prominent, recurring ideas that pervade a literary work. Both Tracks and Into the Wild explore themes related to:• the journey of self-discovery• landscape• unreliability of representation• stereotypes of women and men in nature.

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Comparing: Tracks and Into the Wild 31

You can also explore concepts within themes, as shown in the following table.

Theme Concepts within themes

The journey of self-discovery

adulthood, coming of age, morality of the individual, integrity, individual and social values, transformational experiences, motivators, conviction and individual power, individual need and collective will, autonomous action, guilt, forgiveness, personal responsibility, selfishness

Landscape wilderness, frontierism, exposure, fear, resilience, transcendence, freedom, letting go and resistance, exclusion and inclusion, uniqueness

Unreliability of representation

whose story is being told?, authenticity, reality, creative licence, interpretation, memory, limitation, the power of distance (temporal, geographical, spiritual, emotional), the importance of text, storytelling

Stereotypes of women and men in nature

being seen as ‘the other’, survival, enrichment, defying the odds, alienation, social non-conformity, expectations of gender, power of gender

■ Concepts within themes

Cultural context questionsCultural 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.

You might be asked to explore the aspects of society the authors, or characters see as important (views) and their judgements on those views (values).

Robyn Davidson is a woman in the 1970s trekking across the Australian desert, and Chris McCandless is a man in the 1990s in the Alaskan wilderness, however, there are commonalities between the worlds they leave and the worlds they enter.

Genre questionsGenre questions could ask you to think about the conventions of the genre and consider how and why the authors conveyed their ideas in certain ways.

Despite the different genres of these texts, we need to consider the features they share, and differences in their representations of setting, narrative perspective and other textual elements.

THE COMPARISONHow to compareThe following section shows you a number of ways to compare the two texts. A variety of methods have been used, such as tables that allow you to chart and track data and graphic organisers that let you see quickly the links and variations.

In a comparison essay, you must critically analyse any two texts pointing out their similarities and/or differences. It could also be called a compare and contrast essay. Your task could be comparative only (looking only at similarities), contrasting only (pointing out the differences) or both comparative and contrasting.

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32 PEARSON english • VCE Comparing Guide

Theme■ THE JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY

At the core of both of these texts is a protagonist on a journey. Over the course of the texts, each protagonist develops a new understanding of themselves and their place in the world. Both protagonists are young, and reject the concept of adhering to a predetermined notion of who they should be and how they should behave.

Starting pointsBoth texts identify that the journey of self-discovery is a conscious process. Each journey has a distinct starting point, spurred by a discontentment.

Robyn embarks on her trip because she is not content with the expectations society has on women . She rebels against the concept that women should find security and contentment in the usual institutions of marriage and motherhood common in this time period .

Chris sees his father as an example of what he is expected to become . This sets off his desire to leave it all for the great wilderness of Alaska .

Preparing for the journeyBoth Davidson and Penn focus on the preparations the protagonists make before setting out on the actual journey.

Robyn spends two years in Alice Springs trying to learn the skills she needs for her journey . In doing so, she learns about herself and her world, which informs the eventual journey itself .

Chris spends two years travelling around the United States, in preparation for his final journey . In doing so he learns about himself and his capabilities, this informs the eventual journey itself .

Going soloBoth protagonists believe that the true journey of self-discovery cannot be done in the company of others, and that true transformation begins when we are alone.

Robyn spends some of her time with others as she moves across the desert, but it is only when she sets out alone that the true connection with the landscape occurs . The ‘net’ appears, and she loses herself into it .

From the moment Gallien drops Chris off at the beginning of the Stampede Trail, Chris’s transformation begins in the quiet of the Alaskan wilderness .

■ Comparing texts on the theme of the journey of self-discovery

■ LANDSCAPEAlthough the landscape is vastly different in each text, the impact of the journey on the protagonists is immense. Both Robyn and Chris, despite their fears seek freedom, and ultimately learn about the importance of landscape.

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