Dan

TWTWB assignment

1. If I was the leader of the group I would choose to stay alive because both of the other ideas are so dangerous. I wouldn’t try to save our families because although everyone wants to be a hero it’s just not that easy. I also wouldn’t try to sabotage things and go looking for trouble with the enemy because they are to strong and well-armed. I would choose to sit tight but if the right opportunity comes to inflict damage with low chances of anyone being hurt I would take it. 2. When a soldier kills another soldier it is just part of war. Both sides are willing participants and have agreed to kill and die for their country. You can’t say that he can’t shoot me because it’s wrong. If it is wrong to kill someone, why are you even holding a gun? Whether it’s the ‘good guys’ or the ‘bad guys’ both sides are fighting to survive. 3. I think it is right to treat the Corrie, but after I would put her in the showground as a prisoner. If I was a soldier I would treat her because they want a ‘clean invasion’. But if they didn’t the group would only think it was wrong because Corrie was their friend, if the roles were switched over, and the soldier was injured and he had just killed two of your best friends. Would you help him? In the heat of the moment I wouldn’t have. What we don’t think about is that to him you are the enemy and if your friends are heading towards him with guns he’s going to have to shoot them. Another example is that if a criminal kills ten people but get shot in the leg by police, the criminal gets treated and then sent to jail. 4. I do not think it is any less fair than when we wouldn’t share our wealth, because the only difference is a new country owning the land. If the reason why they invaded was because we were not sharing then are they doing any better? If they do, do that then it won’t take very long for another country to get jealous, as-well and decide to invade them as-well. It would just end up being a very long line of invasions until one country decides to change something. So no I don’t think it is any less fair.
 * Tomorror when the war began test **
 * Task 1 **

1. In the group I think that there are two main leaders for different jobs, but there are also parts in the story where everyone shows some leadership. I think that Ellie is the person who comes up with ideas for around the camp and some more survival things. Homer is the main person who makes plans for dealing with the enemy and other big plans to do with staying away from them and being safe. Ellie also seems to do the main things in the story like how she drove the bulldozer to save Lee and she makes more of the quick decisions that seem to save the group. 2. I think that two people showed the most courage, although everyone had their moment. They were Ellie and Robyn when they had both saved Lee. Robyn’s hero moment was when Lee first got shot and Robyn had carried him to safety even while bullets were buzzing all around her. Ellie’s hero moment was when she was driving the bulldozer and how she managed to escape all of the soldiers and jeeps that were chasing after them and no one got shot. She also shows lots of courage when she blew up the mower and blew up the bridge saving many lives when she did this. 3. I think that Lee is trying to pressure Ellie into their relationship and Ellie is only really going along with the relationship for the sake of the group. I think that if Ellie did break up with Lee then there would be more arguments and there would be a lot of tension between the two of them. I think that the reason Ellie is going along with Lee is because if she breaks up then it will be hard to make good decisions for the group and they could be in lots of danger because they would make wrong decisions.
 * Task 2 **

1. I think that Marsden chose Ellie to narrate because she actually thinks about stuff more than other people and she also seems to have more feeling than other people. She is one of the main leaders and it would make the story better if you could read what she was thinking about. If it was Lee who the story was told by it wouldn’t have been very interesting because Lee is paralysed for most of the story and he would miss a lot of the action. Because Ellie was in almost all of the main storyline it made the book a lot better. 2. Foreshadowing is when the author adds small clues into the book that will lead into something that occurs later in the story. For example a character might find an object that has something to do with a key part later in the story later.
 * Task 3 **

1. I think that Homer went through the biggest change. Homer had the biggest change because before the war they all went to school and Homer was seen as the “Dummy” in the group. While everyone else was flourishing at school they all lacked the hands-on skills that homer had. When they were invaded they didn’t go to school and they were forced to do work. When they all had to learn to do these things Homer already new most of them, he became the role model and was no longer known as a “dummy”, but he was known as a smart person. He also came up with lots of ideas and plans. 2. I believe that Homer was not exactly a genius. I believe that he did come up with some really good ideas and plans, he was only considered to be genius because no one else in the group could have come up with it. If his ideas were compared to an army tactician it would have been considered a normal plan and nothing special. Because it was Homer and he is normally considered one of the stupid people to have suddenly came up with a really smart plan, which was the reason it was considered a genius plan. 3. I think that Ellie is a good person and not a war criminal because she had never killed anyone in cold-blood. She had only ever killed anyone in order to survive. It is basically impossible for Ellie to be considered a war criminal because she never killed anyone who didn’t need to be killed. I see a war criminal as Hitler. He killed thousands and thousands of people for no reason at all. He killed people who were not even the enemy soldiers and were simply innocent civilians who had done absolutely nothing wrong. He had ordered all of them to be killed in total cold-blood. Ellie has done nothing compared to him. Ellie is a good person. 4. I’m not entirely sure if Chris does belong in the group. Basically everyone in the group seems to want to contribute to surviving. Everyone else has been a part of the group for the entire time and they do their jobs well. Chris on the other hand falls to sleep during work or duties, he doesn’t seem to do anything risky and when they are looking around for more useful supplies, Chris is looking for cigarettes and drugs, nothing to do with the survival of the group. Although they are all survivors and anyone they find has to be accepted into the group because it is wrong for them to not accept people. Chris hasn’t really done anything to show that he wants to be a part of the group he is just slacking off while everyone else does the work.
 * Task 4 **

1. I think that Hell is a bit ironic because of its name ‘Hell’ yet it is playing the role of a ‘safe haven’ for the group. Hell is basically a natural barrier, separating the Ellie and her friends from the soldiers trying to get them. 2. I think that in a way, people can belong to the land. The group is living off the land and they need it to survive so in that way they do belong. But they do not literally belong because land can’t own something. Also they ‘belong’ to the land because of the way that hell is protecting them and keeping them safe. So yes metaphorically people can belong to the land. 1. Ellie started thinking about traps and ambushes, and when she led Kevin and Corrie into a trap I guess traps were the only thing on her mind. She then saw the mower and thought about petrol and then blowing it up was the plan. 2. Some of the moments when tension is made in this scene are when Ellie has just realised that the soldiers are shooting at them and they are being chased through the street. The fast paced action makes tension in the book. Another scene is when he describes hearing the soldier’s footsteps coming towards them near the mower. He slowed down the pace of the story and that created another type of tension. 3. Marsden leaves the enemy ‘faceless’ because he doesn’t want the reader to feel sorry for the enemy soldiers. He wants them to be seen as dark and evil. He never mentions names or what they look like. He wants them to be just blank faced soldiers. 4. We do not condemn Ellie for killing the soldiers because didn’t just kill them for no reason. She had to kill them because they were stopping her from surviving. Also because they were never named and they were just ‘the enemy’ and they weren’t really seen as people who the reader would care about. But if they were killed and they were known as people then she would have been condemned as being bad or evil. They were just enemy soldiers trying to get her.
 * Task 5 **
 * Task 6 **

1. I think that in my opinion Marsden chose to mention the secret seven because even though one is about war and the other is about children’s adventures they are both about a group of young people that have to solve a series of problems on their own without any adult help. In both of the stories they will come across problems and will go on adventures, on their own with no adults to help them. Even though one is a matter of life and death and the other is children’s adventures with a happy ending. I think they are similar for the reason that there are no adults.
 * Task 7 **

Task 8 = = = It was like a bad dream, my world was spinning around. I couldn’t stand up straight, I stumbled over a small box, my eyes couldn’t focus. Memories started to fade into my mind. Suddenly sitting patiently on my bed Imogen appeared, the love of my life. I managed to present a smile, stumbled over to the bed held out my hands to her and she just stared at me blankly. No movement whatsoever, I reached out to her but I could feel nothing, just air around me. The memories started to pour in. = = Suddenly I wasn’t it my hut anymore, but in another house I hadn’t seen for years, a big old house, it was my house from the Mt. Tumbler district. I started to feel feverish; I walked slowly to the door, until I heard a soft cry of pain, my heart skipped a beat, I ran up the stairs to a room I didn’t quite recognise, it wasn’t until I had entered the room and saw death itself, and it was only then I had realised the house was engulfed up in flames. Curled up in a ball lay Imogen, seeing her in this much pain made me cringe, in her arms was a small child, my small child, I could hear them quietly whimpering to themselves. Imogen looked up but her eyes slowly darted away, at that moment I saw myself walk in the doorway as a young stronger man, in his hand was a rifle, I cringed. Imogen encouraged him to put them out of their misery, she quietly whispered, “I love you.” My face was filled with emotions, sadness anger. The younger me walked slowly over to Imogen, held the gun up to her head and said “I’m sorry,” He pulled the trigger, Bang! He walked over to Alfred raised the rifle and… = = Suddenly my whole vision went black. I couldn’t see anything. Then a blinding flash of white light erupted into my vision, I saw Imogen’s face rush past me, and then Alfred’s. Suddenly I saw the ceiling of my hut rush up towards me. Then I was thrown up into the air all I saw was the hut floor, I was coughing and spluttering. I realized it was a bad dream. I rolled over, onto my back and thought about what I had just seen. It was my wife and child. I hadn’t thought about them for so long, it was too distressing for me. It was wrong how they died; I was forced to put them down, like animals. I started to cry. I rolled onto my knees and then slowly stood up. I wanted to get some fresh air, but it seemed as though my body was beginning to give up now. I was a good 67 years old. I walked outside my hut, near to the cliff edge, and looked out over the horizon, the sun was beginning to rise now. I thought back to before Hermit life up here. We had lived on the farm, Imogen and I, and of course Alfred. How could this have happened to us. A tear rolled down my cheek. = = As I wiped my eyes my vision blurred. At first I just blinked but then I began to recognise the landscape taking shape before me. Green, grassy meadow. I gasped as I realized what I was looking at, the farm where we used to live. So many memories, and there was Imogen, playing with Alfred, I gasped, I hadn’t seen them for so long. I walked forward hesitantly, wanting it to be real, and waved. They looked up at me and smiled, and then they waved back. Memories were rushing through my mind and I took another step forward, Alfred looked up at me and pointed at me with a smile, I couldn’t hold back any longer I broke into a run, no I was sprinting. Imogen stood up holding Alfred. I was almost there when, the grassy meadows broke away to form the sheer cliffs, again, but Imogen was still there, I couldn’t stop, they were almost in my arms, agonisingly close I leapt towards them, suddenly I was falling, I closed my eyes and imagined the family hugs we used to do together. = = Instead of falling into their arms I was falling away from life itself. My leap towards my family, had taken me off the cliff’s edge. There was no green, grassy meadow, this existed only in my mind. = = Although my leap had taken my life, I was closer to my family than what I had been for what seemed like eternity. = = By Dan and Paige. =.