The following sample written task 2 is based on the novelA Clockwork Orangeby Anthony Burgess. It answers the fourth prescribed question:
Which groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?
Although the sample task is not the best task, with a few changes it could be an excellent task. In other words it is built on a solid foundation, as it is relevant to the prescribed question, but it fails to deliver what it promises. Furthermore, read the outline carefully. There seem to be missed opportunities here as well.For those who are familiar with the workA Clockwork Orange, you will see its relevance to this question. Nevertheless, assume that you are the examiner and your understanding of this work may be limited.Before you read the examiner's comments below, assess the task according to the assessment criteria for written task 2.
Primary source
This sample passage may help you become familiar with the novel. Although this passage does not particularly focus on voilence towards women, it show you how Alex feels about violence in general. In this passage he is being questioned by P.R. Deltoid, a school counselor.
A Clockwork Orange
Anthoy Burgess
1962
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‘Nobody’s got anything on me, sir,’ I said. ‘I’ve been out of the rookers of the millicents for a long time now.’
‘That’s just what worries me,’ sighed P. R. Deltoid. ‘A bit too long of a time to be healthy. You’re about due now by my reckoning. That’s why I’m warning you, little Alex, to keep your handsome young proboscis out of the dirt, yes. Do I make myself clear?’
‘As an unmuddied lake, sir,’ I said. ‘Clear as an azure sky of deepest summer. You can rely on me, sir.’ And I gave him a nice zooby smile.
But when he’d ookadeeted and I was making this very strong pot of chai, I grinned to myself over this veshch that P. R. Deltoid and his droogs worried about. All right, I do bad, what with crasting and tolchocks and carves with the britva and the old in-out-in-out, and if I get loveted, well, too bad for me, O my little brothers, and you can’t run a country with every chelloveck comporting himself in my manner of the night. So if I get loveted and it’s three months in this mesto and another six in that, and then, as P. R. Deltoid so kindly warns, next time, in spite of the great tenderness of my summers, brothers, it’s the great unearthly zoo itself, well, I say: ‘Fair, but a pity, my lords, because I just cannot bear to be shut in. My endeavour shall be, in such future as stretches out its snowy and lilywhite arms to me before the nosh overtakes or the blood spatters its final chorus in twisted metal and smashed glass on the highroad, to not get loveted again.’ Which is fair speeching. But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the cause of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don’t go into what is the cause ofgoodness, so why of the other shop? If lewdies are good that’s because they like it, and I wouldn’t ever interfere with their pleasures, and so of the other shop. And I was patronizing the other shop. More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddyknockies, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. And is not our modern history, my brothers, the story of brave malenky selves fighting these big machines? I am serious with you, brothers, over this. But what I do I do because I like to do.
Sample critical response
Sample written task 2 - Question 4 (A Clockwork Orange)
Outline
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Prescribed question:Which groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?
Title of text for analysis:A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Part of the course to which the task refers:Part 3: Text and Context
My critical analysis will:
- Point out a marginalized group within the text
- Show how they are being marginalized
- Explain why the author marginalizes the particular group in the text
- Define what message the author wants to send with the marginalization of this group
- Make clear what effect marginalizing the group has on the author’s message
- Answer the prescribed question in a conclusion
Written task 2
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‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess takes place in a so called dystopia: a non-existing society, often an author’s prediction of the future, which is based on negative elements. The book is all about a society full of ultra-violence. A society in which the government does not have a clue how to stop the terrorizationof the people by mostly gangs of youngsters who use violence as a solution for their boredom and sexual needs and have no mercy for anyone. Burgess also discusses the hierarchy in those gangs, he even lets the reader experience the pain victims of this terrorization feel by bringing an earlier victim back in the story. Yet, those groups of victims are not the ones who are being marginalized within this text. The opinions and feelings of one very large and important group in society and in the story as a whole are suppressed within this text. As DeLarge and his gang (consisting of Dim, Pete and Georgie) assault lots of people, they seem to prefer one group in society in particular, the same group that’s marginalized: Women.
Also by silencing the voice of women in the text, their inferior role in the dystopian society is being emphasized by Anthony Burgess. To DeLarge and his friends, a woman’s voice has got absolutely no value and whilst Alex is the story teller, women’s opinions mustn’t be mentioned. The way that women are described in the story makes them seem like numb objects rather than actual human beings who have feelings. Women were just a tool for satisfaction and amusement, no more. At the end of the book, the author once mentions another use of a woman that Alex discovers then: When he writes how Alex tells his audience that he would like to have a son, he briefly mentions that a woman is involved in this. He says:“There was Your Humble Narrator Alex coming home from work to a good hot plate of dinner, and there was this ptitsa all welcoming and greeting like loving. But I could not viddy her all that horrorshow, brothers, I could not think who it might be. But I have this strong idea that if I walked into the room next to this room where the fire was burning away and my hot dinner laid on the table, there I should find what I really wanted, and now it all tied up, the picture scissored out of the gazetta and meeting old Pete like that. For in that other room in a cot was laying gurgling goo googoo my son. Yes yesyes , brothers, my son.”[1]The way he talks about the woman (ptitsa) who is presumably the mother of his son, is still as a kind of tool to get him the child, of course a son, he so craves for. Burgess expresses how she has got loving eyes but Alex does not see her all that well, he is only focused on his son in the other room.
While one continues to read ‘A Clockwork Orange’, one can recognize a certain repetition of words throughout the story, regarding the way the story is being told. Burgess repeatedly reflects to the reader by speaking to them with ‘Oh my brothers’. In a way this may also be seen as the silencing and thus also the marginalization of women whilst ‘Oh my brothers’ refers to men, not to women. Of course this is a more farfetched link to the marginalization in the book but it still gives the image of DeLarge not seeing women as important aspects in the society, since he does not make the effort to align the story to them as well.
This also conveys the bitterness with which ‘A Clockwork Orange’ was written; Burgess based the story on an incident during the Second World War when his wife was assaulted, robbed and violated by deserters of the Army of the U.S. Probably as a result of this violent act, his wife had a miscarriage. As I interpret it, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is Burgess his way of describing how he himself experienced the attack and how coldhearted and cruel the men who assaulted his wife must have been in his eyes and how misogynistic they must have been, even though they grow older. The Author probably illustrates society as he had seen it in that time.
To conclude this story, Anthony Burgess actually wrote ‘A Clockwork Orange’ to show the reader what violence there is in the world. What crazy and heartless people there are and what they’re capable of, since they have no standards and know no limits or proper manners. While reading ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the reader is experiencing Burgess his own dystopia where women are marginalized, not only by the cruel assaulting of women like his wife, but also by the disrespectful attitude a lot of men have towards women. The way ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is written seems to contain a warning for the rise of such a society, however one will probably only find this message when learning about the author’s past. Even so, once one learns about Burgess’ motive for writing the book, one is likely to discover more dimensions within the entire story of ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
[1]Page 140,A Clockwork Orange(Reprinted in penguin classics 2000)
Examiner's comments
Criterion A - Outline - 2 marks
The outline clearly states the focus of the task
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0 out of 2 -This outline does not actually highlight the particular focus of the task. The candidate says that she will ‘point out a marginalized group within the text,’ but she does not say which group. She does not answer the prescribed question.
Criterion B - Response to question - 8 marks
Student explores all of the implications of the prescribed question chosen. The critical response must be focused on and relevant to the prescribed question. Furthermore, the response is supported by well-chosen examples from the text(s).
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5 out of 8 -Although the essay is built around the term ‘marginalization’, the candidate does not actually define what is meant by this term. In a confusing way she introduces ‘victims’ of the Alex’ terror in the opening paragraph, as writes that they are not being marginalized. This seems contradictory, as she continues to explain that women are the focus of Alex’ violence and therefore marginalized. The reference to the context in which Burgess wrote is very relevant to the question. Unfortunately this paragraph on the assault of his wife lacks a solid source or quotation. Furthermore, while women are raped and assaulted in the novel, almost no reference is made to these women as marginalized victims. The single, long quote is explained quite well. Unfortunately there is only this one.
Criterion C - Organization and argument - 5 marks
The response must be well organized and effectively structured in order to score top marks for this criterion. The response should make a case and develop it thoroughly.
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3 out of 5 -While there is a general focus on the marginalization of women in the text, the arguments are rather weak and slightly unorganized. For example the introduction is more about the hierarchy of gangs and their violence, instead of the marginalization of women. The argument that the phrase ‘Oh my brothers’ excludes women is a good but small (or even ‘farfetched’) one.
Criterion D - Language and style - 5 marks
The response must be written effectively and accurately. Students should use an academic register and strong style.
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3 out of 5-The use of language is generally clear and effective, though the candidate slips into a colloquial style from time to time with phrases such as ‘lots of’ or ‘kind of’. Punctuation is lacking in places as well, such as ‘In a way this may also bee seen as the silencing and thus marginalization of women whilst ‘Oh my brothers’ refers to men, not to women.’ This should be split into two sentences, with a new sentence starting with ‘Whilst’. Furthermore, the novel is sometimes analyzed in the present tense, i.e. “womenaredescribed in the story,” and sometimes in the past tense, i.e. “womenwerejust a tool.” Such inconsistencies take away from the academic style and register of this essay.