Comparative SAC Cheat Sheet for Black Diggers and The Longest Memory PDF

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Comparative SAC Cheat Sheet for Black Diggers and The Longest Memory...

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Catherine Meagher 2019

★COMPARATIVE Key knowledge: The goal is to analyse and write on two texts, comparing their similarities and differences.

INTRODUCTION: An introduction must include:  Context (or background)  Contention  Main arguments (using firstly…furthermore…finally etc.) This is where you will establish what you are going to analyse and how you are going to do so. You must think broadly, eg: how do the ideas impact readers and what do they present about society.

Easy structure to follow:  Contention: reference both titles and the prompt.  2 sentences: briefly summarising context of texts (one sentence each)  3 sentences: stating one argument each.

CONTEXT SENTENCE: This opens your comparative essay by giving background to the texts being analysed. This must include:  Both authors’ names  Both titles of the texts (underline these)  Form of each text (eg: novel or play)  Time periods in which the texts are set  Brief gist of the novel (using one sentence only) A preview of your contention can be weaved into this sentence as indicated below in blue.

Sample context sentence for The Longest Memory: Set against the backdrop of pre-civil war Virginia, Fred D’Aguiar’s novella, The Longest Memory, follows the suffering and hardship of an African American slave and explores the role on hope in battling through adversity.

Sample context sentence for Black Diggers: Tom Wright’s play, Black Diggers, revolves around the insufferable racial prejudice experienced by Indigenous Australians in World War 1, detailing the varied experiences of Australian soldiers as they navigate through an era of war, crisis and loss of hope.

CONTENTION: This is a broad statement about your viewpoint towards the given prompt.  DO NOT use a first-person writing perspective (eg: ‘I agree’ or ‘I disagree’).  Use your contention as an ‘UMBRELLA’ that your body paragraph ideas will fall under.

Catherine Meagher 2019

Sample contention structure for The Longest Memory and Black Diggers: Utilising a multitude of narrative voices/perspectives and non-linear timelines, both The Longest Memory and Black Diggers…contention. OR Throughout both The Longest Memory and Black Diggers, the presence of (contention theme) proves to be an integral notion of the character’s development and perseverance through societal discrimination.

Hope themes: Throughout both the longest memory and black diggers, the idea of hope is portrayed to be an integral aspect of the respective societies as they battle through issues such as prejudice and discrimination. 1. Young characters demonstrate hope whilst the older characters lack hope  Old characters caution against hope  Age, background and societal position  Is an individual concept, affecting all differently, universal emotion yet all experiences of hope are different and dictated by their individual characters 2. Loss and downfall of hope  Hope can be a fragile entity, easily destroyed by a pervasive negativity such as racism. Texts explore whilst hope can be uplifting force providing solace for characters, presence of overwhelming discrimination demonstrates the fragility of the concept.  What leads characters to this  Racism and violence against them 3. Creation of hope 4. Lack of hope  Past and continual, never ending aggression 5. Presence of joint hope, goals and ambitions are what unifies society. Brings people together  Shared hope can be the catalyst for destructive events  Racist plantation owners coming together perpetuating this destruction  Shared ambition for unity and running away together (Lydia and Chapel)  Demonstrated as a constructive or debilitating force Views and values statements: Hope: 1. Thus, through the employment of descriptive imagery and intricate character depictions, both The Longest Memory and Black diggers highlight the destructive effects of lost hope and a pervasive lack of optimism.

Race themes: Throughout both the longest memory and black diggers, the presence of racism (in both TLM and BD), is demonstrated to be a critical/defining aspect of society that has significant impacts on both the victims and the perpetrators …powerfully explore the impacts that preconceptions of race can have on individuals. ALL EXPERIENCE PREJUDICE THAT EXCLUSES THEM FROM WIDER SOICETY AND LEAVES THEM WITH BOTH MENTAL AND PHYSICAL SCARS

Catherine Meagher 2019 Through the varied viewpoints presented in each text, the authors both show that there was no one singular experience to racial stereotyping and that the impacts were felt in different ways, regardless of time and location. Throughout both the longest memory and black diggers, the concept of hope proves to be an integral notion of the characters development and perseverance through societal discrimination.  Don’t use 'those involved' use victims and perpetrators 1. Physical and emotional effects of racism  Psychological trauma and lasting impact 2. Throughout both texts whilst racism is primarily enacted from the majority onto the minority, TLM and BD explore the fluidity and flexibility of racial discrimination.  Racism is depicted to be dynamic as during times of comradery and solidarity such as war time, and through generational relationships, characters look past skin colour and focus on the strength of unity.  Racism is not consistently present, only appearing in times of need  Whitechapel and Mr Whitechapel examples  Only at war 3. Both texts demonstrate the power of the group and human’s ability to be easily influenced and conditioned by the racist ideologies that prevail in their society.  Notion that humans are like this because this is the societal norm, grown up thinking this way (superiority and inferiority)  Setting and time period promotes the hierarchal ideology where it is believed to be human nature that white people are superior  Perpetuated by ignorant individuals who lack the open-mindedness to see past and break free from the societal norm 4. Destructive effects of racism on both the perpetrator and the victims  The way humans respond to racism differently  Complex nature of humans responding differently in times of crisis  Concept of racism is also a defining factor within society in exploring the individuality of humans in the way people respond to racism: can offer a lot of insight into a person’s mindset from the way they react  Mr Whitechapel demonstrates how racism cannot always be defined as part of someone’s personality but a part of their values  BD: some were violent, spoke out  As some people act out in response to racism, violence, anger and fury can be a coping mechanism for racism as they battle through and against moments of victimisation Compare the ways in which the texts explore the effects of racial prejudice. In both Tom Wright’s play, Black Diggers, and Fred D’Aguiar’s novella, The Longest Memory, racial prejudice and its consequent effects on the marginalised population is explored. Views and values statements: Racism: 2. Through the portrayal of emotional suffering both during times of violence and in the aftermath of crisis, D’Aguiar and Wright exemplify the debilitating effect of racial discrimination on individuals’ psychological stability.

Memory themes: Both D’Aguiar and Wright explore the tangible concept of memory as being both an inescapable feat and an unbearable reality in both a physical and emotional context.

Catherine Meagher 2019

3. The nature of memory is inescapable/inescapability of memory 4. Lasting emotional effects/trauma of memory 5. Throughout, both texts the concept of memory is demonstrated to have both uplifting and destructive impacts on the individuals in the texts.  Could still look at the positives from memory  Narranderra show  Lydia and chapel looking back fondly  Childhood memories linked to innocence contrasts with the violent trauma of war 6. Memory as a unifying force, shared memories can form solace  Those experiencing the same trauma can find comfort in this  Drinking salute  Stan and harry

Pain/trauma themes: o o o o o o

It is through both texts in which trauma stems from the experiences of violence and racism. Trauma is represented through the brutality and consequences of violence experienced by both slaves and soldiers throughout both the texts. The effects of trauma cause lives to be driven by fear through the violence experienced by individuals D'Aguiar presents trauma through not only the aspect of slavery but also in the sexual abuse, brutal killing and fratricide throughout the novel. Black Diggers presents trauma through the experience of both violence and racism experienced by Indigenous soldiers. The theme of trauma proves visible throughout both texts, the use of the social hierarchy playing a large role in the trauma experienced by both the slaves and the soldiers.

BODY PARAGRAPHS: Structure to follow: 1. Topic sentence/assertion in reference to both texts 2. Explain and elaborate on the topic sentence 3. Analysis of Text 1  Integrate quotes  Add in structural elements  Evaluative words: adverbs  Eg: the playwright ‘critically condemns’… 4. Transition sentence: provides comparative gradience 5. Compare/contrast both tests in one sentence.  Prepares the reader for the analysis of Text 2 6. Analyse Text 2 (same as the first) 7. Linking sentence back to the topic sentence/assertion (views and values statement)  Refer to both texts/authors  State their intention and how they achieved this, eg: reinstate your argument but with more reference to the author’s values and intentions.  Eg: Through the harsh depiction of …, both … and … demonstrate the…

QUOTE BANK – THE LONGEST MEMORY:  “Memory is pain trying to resurrect itself” - Whitechapel

Catherine Meagher 2019  “I was just boy, mule, nigger, slave or whatever else anyone chose to call me.” – Whitechapel  “There are two types of slave: the slave who must experience everything for himself before coming to an understanding of anything and he who learns through observation.” – Whitechapel  “Africans may be our inferiors, but they exhibit the same qualities we possess, even if they are merely imitating us.” – Mr. Whitechapel  “They may be inferior but they’re people like us.” – Mr. Whitechapel  “I told my son that we are different from slaves in intelligence and human standing before God.” – Sanders Senior  “We are Christians but Christianity does not equal weakness.” – Mr. Whitechapel  “By teaching little Whitechapel to read and write when he can never use it you have done him the gravest injustice.” – Mr. Whitechapel to Lydia  “The whip ate into him” – Whitechapel about Chapel  “He ordered me to shut up or be lashed” – Sanders Junior to Whitechapel  “He laid hands on her” – Mr. Whitechapel to Sanders Junior

QUOTE BANK – BLACK DIGGERS:                     

“Full-blood, too. Unusual. Perfect specimen” – Taxidermist about Nigel “Deficient physique” – recruiting sergeant “The white man needs us coloured boys now” – Harry singing about War “Australia. Never heard of it.” – Bertie’s Grandfather “If you blokes have a beer with me then that’s a start.” Harry to his battalion. “You have been used and abused. You are victims of your oppressive masters.” – German prison guard to Nigel “For you the war’s over. What’s starting to dawn on me is that, for us, it’s never going to end.” – Mick at the Solider Settlement Convention “I don’t give a rat’s arse where you’ve been and what you’ve done. I don’t give a fuck what happened on the other side of the world” – Ranch overseer to Mick and Archie "You're as good as a white man, Harry." - White Solider to Harry “We don’t see the skin, we see the service” – RSL secretary “Our own iron harvest” – Ern “They painted my colour back on the day I got off that boat” – Norm “I thought things would change after the war” – Archie “You will help us understand racial difference” – Professor to Nigel (when measuring his skull) “Bertie just stands there, almost at attention” – Stage direction when reuniting with his mother “Massive wound” – Mick = denied land and the emotional effect of war “My hand is twitching like a dying sparrow” – Ern, sensory image of the PTSD “I thought I won something over there. And then I lost it back here” – Norm “Would you and the other blokes at the RSL…hold onto these for me” – Ern to returned serviceman “Good turn of a phrase for a darkie” – Editor to Nigel “I’m the British Forces Representative in this camp” – Nigel to the psychiatric nurse

CONCLUSION: 1. Reword (start with a word like thus, ultimately, overall etc.) 2. Reword your 3 arguments

Catherine Meagher 2019 Through D'Aguiar and Wright's exploration/portrayal/depiction of individuals in a time of crisis…, the hope is uncovered and both writers demonstrate …. Thus, ultimately and overall What it demonstrates about humans as a whole. Overall highlighting the traumatic impacts of racism on individuals...