Dazzler

**Darian O’Donohue- 8D**
 * Tomorrow when the war began **
 * Task 1**
 * 1) As a group they made the right decision to ‘Inflict damage on the enemy’. As Homer said ‘We can try to rescue our families from the show ground, however it is very dangerous and we are most unlikely to succeed’, though there were big benefits for the group, there were also major costs they may have to pay. By sitting tight and waiting for this war to end is probably the worst thing they could have done. For a start they didn’t know how long they would be hiding and waiting in Hell for and the other, they would have been bored out of their brains, with not much food and nothing to keep them going. Also by inflicting damage on the enemy it lets them know that there are some ‘guerrillas’ in hiding and ready for revenge. The enemy would be scared and confused of what just happened.
 * No, murder is not wrong in war. If you are an innocent country, with innocent people and you have been invaded and everything you have worked for your whole life has been taken over, your family and friends have either been killed or taken in as hostages and buildings have been blown up, you have nothing to feel guilty about. Yes killing is a horrible thing in and outside of war, but if you and your family were in harm or threatened to be murdered than you should have a right to defend yourself. In Ellie’s case I believe she had nothing to feel bad about, she was protecting herself and her friends from being killed. It’s not like she wanted to murder the enemy but at the time it was the only thing they could have done to survive. Her country was innocent and did not deserve what they received.
 * 1) The enemy had a right to not look after Corrie. In the invader’s point of view she was the enemy, her friends and herself were the ones who had been a part of the killing of their soldiers and who also came up with the idea to blow up the bridge. This may sound horrible but the soldiers did the right thing by ignoring her.
 * 2) The role reversal of the two countries is not fair. Australia has done nothing wrong, they have their own country to worry about and take care of. Why should we share a whole lot of our wealth that we earned with another country, when we have the priority to look after ourselves first. I am all for giving and donating and I know that some countries don’t have the same experiences that we have but why should we give so much to them, that we end up with no money because we were too generous, sometimes in life you have to be selfish.
 * Task 2**
 * 1) All members of the group show leadership at one point in the story, however there are two people that stand out the most for making the decisions and being in charge. Ellie and Homer seem to be the brains of the group, they are the ones who take control and plan ahead. To the others these two seem to be indestructible, but by looking a little deeper into their minds you can see that their just as scared and worried as everyone else. Homer seemed to take control when he asked the question that no one else wanted to ask, he told everyone basically that ‘There are three choices’ and as a combined answer they chose to inflict damage. Ellie had the genius plan that lead Corrie, Kevin and herself to safety when she blew up the ride on mower, she is like Homer’s assistant. They both believe in the same decisions and they always seem to have their thoughts combined as one, but when it is time for destroying and danger Homer is always the one who shines. This is probably because he is a bit of a trouble maker, at school he is always messing around and sitting in the Principals office. Though some people in the group don’t show as much leadership as Homer and Ellie, they do show courage.
 * 2) Everyone in the group showed courage at one stage, whether it was little or big. Robyn had a heroic effect on the others; Lee and Robyn were being chased down Barker Street by a patrol. They broke in and entered a news agency to confuse the soldiers a bit, Robyn had made it to the rear exit door where she turned around and saw Lee stumbling towards her. His face was pale white with pain and Robyn’s slowly turned into that when she realised what had happened to Lee, he had been shot. Not wasting any time Robyn threw Lee over her back and carried him five buildings down to his family’s restaurant. They had found Mr Clement who was the local dentist and convinced him to treat Lee, after his wound was cleaned Robyn made the long travel back up to her house, where she hoped to find a group member. Ellie also showed courage by blowing up the ride on mower. Herself, Corrie and Kevin were cornered in the backyard of Mrs Alexander’s house, after running into the mower Corrie gave Ellie the idea to make an explosion that will save them. When Ellie looked back at this event she felt guilty for being a killer, but the group felt like she was a hero. Homer showed a whole lot of courage with his mind blowing plans, you would have never thought someone who hated school that much would be so smart, but it was obviously possible.Fi did the tiniest thing by throwing the rock into the window, this showed remarkable courage to Ellie who was watching. Never breaking a window before in her life and actually wanting to do something that was a bit rebel showed another side of Fi, that no one knew she had. It was determination and power. Another small thing she did that was heroic was that fact that she got out of the petrol tanker and would run out in the open at night time not knowing what laid ahead and waved Ellie on.
 * 3) Ellie and Lee have a different relationship to what they had before when they were just friends. After having a romantic session with each other on the haystack behind Ellie’s house it had brought up a few questions that Ellie didn’t really want to answer. Who does Ellie have feelings for, Homer or Lee? Does she want to have a romantic relationship? Is she ok with Fi and Homer being boyfriend, girlfriend? However, whatever Ellie felt Lee was the opposite. Lee felt suspicious about Ellie, he would always try to talk to her, but she would refuse to share her emotions. Lee eventually started to believe that Ellie had romantic feelings for Homer, where the truth was Ellie had no idea who she had feelings for. Finally Ellie found her true feelings which were for Lee and he was over joyed. Some of the test that their relationship went through was Lee getting shot. Having a bullet hole in him put Lee in a mood that no one was sure about, he was in pain and couldn’t move. The hardest thing the two had to go through was trying to sort out what the relationship really meant, once they worked that out, it was all a breeze. However if there special bond was torn in half it would put everyone in an awkward situation. It won’t just be Lee and Ellie feeling weird; it would also be everyone else, by having different emotions to the group it starts to become contagious and before you know it everyone is down, sad and at each other.

**Task 6**
 * Task 3**
 * 1) John Marsden chose Ellie as the narrator because she is the ‘thinker’. As a girl she would go through different emotions every day making the story more and more interesting. Out of all the characters Ellie seems to be the most exciting; she is the most reliable, and also seems to think deeper into the plans than anyone else. Her fast thinking has saved members of the group multiple times and also has made the enemy feel threatened.
 * 2) Foreshadowing means seeing into the future. Throughout the book it shows little hints of how the novel may end, some examples are, when the group are having fun in Hell talking and mucking around, and the joke of World War 3 comes up. After having seen the hundreds of air force planes fly over the top of them that night, they started saying ‘How funny it would it be if world war three is starting to happen right now, and when we get back everything is gone.’ However when they realise that this has actually happened, no one is laughing. John Marsden has put a few hints throughout the book trying to say that Ellie and Lee will end up with each other. A couple examples are when Ellie is trying to call Lee to invite him to come to Hell, but she spends awhile trying to tell his mother that ’I want your son’, also when she is having a romantic dream on the haystack behind her house, she is dreaming about being with her family and having a boat ride in a little creek with him. When Ellie wakes up she finds herself lying next to lee, starting a relationship with him.
 * Task 4**
 * 1) All character’s show change throughout the book, but the person who shows the most would have to be Homer. Homer was the class clown, he always managed to find a way to annoy every human being on earth and he would end up in trouble every day whether it was from the school or even the police. However since the group has turned into guerrilla’s, a new Homer is starting to show. He seems to be some sort of hero in this new world of theirs, he is coming up with ideas and is always ready to attack. Everyone in the group seems to notice his change; Ellie even starts to become confused about if she is in love with this new man. Towards the end of the book you don’t see much of the trouble maker, though however you do get to see his experience come into action. Another character who has changed a lot would be Fiona. Fi was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, who lives in a rich house on top of the hill, her whole life she has had everything done for instead of her doing it herself. Though since entering Hell for the very first time Fi has become more and more responsible.
 * 2) Yes, Homer is a genius, his clever plans to rescue Lee and blow up the bridge were amazing, however Ellie did cooperate to those ideas and none of those plans could have been successful if Ellie didn’t drive either the bulldozer or the petrol tanker. Homer should be recognised for his genius ideas, but the group should have also see what Ellie has done for them and what she has put at risk.
 * 3) Elle is definitely a good person. In no circumstance did she turn into a war criminal by taking things too far. Yes she did kill those people with the ride on mower but if Corrie, Kevin and herself were found by the soldiers they would have ended up being the dead ones. With the blown up bridge incident no soldiers were actually killed, so she doesn’t really have anything to feel guilty about. When the enemy shot both Lee and Corrie when they weren’t doing anything dangerous, that was more war criminal than what Ellie really did, it wasn't necessary. Ellie needs to be more optimistic with herself, she needs to look at things with a different perspective, like, if she didn’t kill those soldiers, if they didn’t blow up the bridge, all these things are very important to look back at, however you don’t want to go too far back or else you may regret your choices.
 * 4) Chris belongs in the group. Chris is very different to the rest of the characters, he is known for taking his fair share of drugs, but when you look closely at each person they are all very different. You have Lee whose nationality is Asian, Robyn who has a deep religious belief, Fi who is a pretty rich girl, Homer whose nationality is Greek, Kevin who is a tough farm boy, Corrie who is a red head and Ellie who is very opinionated. Chris may sometimes slow the group down and annoy everyone by being off his face, but that is just who he is and you can’t leave him because of that.
 * Task 5**
 * 1) Hell plays the role of ‘home’ in the novel. When their houses are empty and too dangerous to live in they need somewhere where they can feel safe and are comfortable. Living at one of the sevens houses would be difficult because at all times you will need someone to be on sentry duty and you will be putting yourself at risk to looters. All of the houses hold memories in different ways, and if you happen to get seen by an aircraft that was flying over you, it may just turn into dust like Corrie’s house. This would then feel like all of the great moments you had there have disappeared and the only way to ever see them again would be in your imagination. Hell brings the feeling of love and comfort to everyone, it is such a beautiful place that they can hide out in. It has all the right resources you would need to survive, such as a creek for water, shelter for protection either from rain or the enemy and sun for delight. To the group Hell already feels like their home before it actually really becomes it. On the way back from the camping trip they are talking about how they never wanted to leave such a beautiful place, but they may have spoken to soon.
 * 2) Yes, the novel does suggest that people can belong to the land. Bertram Hubert Sexton Christie did, he belonged to the land of Hell. After been accused for his wife Imogen Mary Christie and son Alfred Bertram Christie’s death, he had nowhere to go a part from Hell. No one really knows if he shot his wife and son in the head and then burnt them to hide that fact, or if his family really did get stuck in a bushfire and were being burned alive, so he had to do what any loving husband and father would do by putting them out of their misery. Hell accepted Bertram for who he was and gave him a second chance at life. If you think deeply about the group of seven you can see that they are also slowly beginning to belong to this land of theirs.
 * 1) Corrie is the one who inspired Ellie to blow up the ride on mower; if Corrie never ran into it the three of them would have probably been killed. Since the mower has petrol in it, this gave Ellie the idea to make a bomb and to blow up the soldiers, so they can get back to Robyn’s house safely. Straight away her mind started ticking, ‘Find some matches, or a cigarette lighter. And a chisel. And a hammer. Quick. Very quick. Try these sheds.’ Kevin realised what she was trying to achieve but he didn’t quite understand why they needed a chisel or hammer, Ellie’s plan was excellent but since they were rushing around, there were some faults. She soon understood that by uses these two tools, everyone would have been blown up. However there were more problems that occurred, when you want to find something, you never can and when you don’t want to find something, you do. This was the case for them, once they had the box of matches it was a matter of if they can re-find the ride on mower before the soldiers find them. After minutes of looking Corrie again saves the day by re-discovering it, within a matter of time the three of them found their way back to safety.
 * 2) Some of the techniques that John Marsden uses to add tension in the scene are language, tone and pace. It talks about how the volley of gunshots are frightening and loud, the way that there wasn’t anywhere to hide because the soldiers tactic was to shoot at any space that would hold a person. He describes how scared the three of them are without actually saying it. They know what the consequence will be if they stuff up, the way that they are rushing through everything and thinking of the worst and you can tell that Ellie was the worst dealing with the pressure because she didn’t even think threw her plan properly, which could have ended up killing everyone, if Kevin didn’t correct her. Her hands were shaking too much that she couldn’t light the match and she also ends up chucking the lit match on the ground so fast that the flame nearly goes out; this tells me that she is starting to panic and that she can feel the nerves kicking in.
 * 3) Marsden purposely doesn’t describe the soldiers to us who died with detail because they are the enemy and if we knew some facts about them our opinions may change. However he makes sure that we know that they are actually people by adding in their gender and nationality, this way we understand the story and who the enemy is without feeling sorry for them. You can’t have a novel that doesn’t tell anything about the enemy because you end up being confused and puzzled, it’s like if it was a basketball game, you want people to acknowledge your hard work by knowing who you versed, but not facts about them because they may start to feel bad that they didn’t win.
 * 4) As the reader we do not condemn Ellie because to us she is the good guy and she did the right thing. Herself, Kevin and Corrie would have been killed by the three soldiers, so when you think about it, it was basically three against three, so one group had to die. Marsden also made sure that the enemy is faceless, so you don’t feel sorry for them when they die or so you don’t hate Ellie after for doing it.

My brilliant career is a 1901 book written by Miles Franklin, it is based on a girl called Sybylla Melvyn who is growing up in Australia, New South Wales in the 1890’s. A series of poor business decisions and drought brought her families extinction level up, her father began to drink excessively and Sybylla started to struggle with the pressure. Fortunately she was sent to live at grandmother’s house, where she felt more comfortable. There she meets a wealthy young man named Harry Beecham who falls in love with her and proposes that she must marry him, however convinced of her ugliness and tomboyish ways, Sybylla was unable to believe that he truly loved her. Eventually her father’s drinking problem got the family into a lot of debt, so she was sent off to work as a governess/housekeeper of the family her father owed money to. She finds life horrible there and eventually she suffers from a massive physical breakdown, which leads her to return to the family home. When Sybylla returns Harry asked her to marry him again, but she concluded that by being with her she would only make him unhappy, so she sent him away and was determined to never marry. The novel ends with no suggestion that Sybylla will ever have her ‘brilliant career’ as an author.
 * Task 7**
 * My Brilliant Career**

John Marsden mentioned ‘My Brilliant Career’ in the novel because it relates to Sybylla Melvyn and her family. The group of teenagers have entered a point of life where it’s not all fun and games; they have to work for survival and have to take in the fact that everything can’t be perfect. By being stuck in the middle of a war they don’t have time to sit back and relax like they used to. They are starting to become like Sybylla, they don’t get any good freedom or choice of how to live their life, it has just been dumped right in front of them.

//“Loyalty, courage, goodness. I wonder if they are human inventions too, or if they just are.”// Loyalty, courage and goodness have been discussed a lot throughout the novel Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden the author and the characters. John suggests many different ideas and concepts of what their meanings are, being true to your friends, to step up when needed and to remember that you are a good person deep down. Everyone has these feelings deep down inside of them but sometimes in certain circumstances they will appear. When the town Wirrawee gets invaded by Asia, the group of teenagers have had to grow up much quicker; they had to find loyalty, courage and goodness within them to survive. Loyalty has been shown by every character in the novel; it has been suggested several times that by staying true to your friends, your chance of survival is higher. By being loyal you are increasing your chance of life, if you don’t have trust or that special bond with your friends then you may discover that time from here on is not going to be easy. You cannot be stuck in the middle of war with no one and think that your chance of living is high but if you are with people you can trust, you may feel more comfortable with the situation you’re in. Ellie stays loyal to Corrie and Kevin when they are cornered in the garden by soldiers; she discovers that safety is the most important thing to them, so she decides to have a mental punishment in her mind for the rest of her life by killing those soldiers. Courage is one of the things that you see everyone has at some point; the main concept shown was to step up when needed. If you don’t take control or help out people will get hurt. Whether it was from not being able to protect your friends because you’re too scared or if you couldn’t handle the pressure. When you are put in a war situation there is no time to sit back and relax, you cannot lie around and do nothing while the only people you have are risking their lives for you. Ellie and Homer showed courage when they made the long travel back to Robyn’s house to make sure their friends were safe. ‘//In front of me came a noise, the unmistakable sound of a bolt being drawn back in a breech, then slid forward to cock the rifle. Robyn!’ Ellie did not know if Robyn was in the room, it may have been a looter or a soldier with an old fashioned gun, but she took that risk to save Homer and herself from death. Kevin put his life at risk for Corrie after she got shot, someone had to drive her to the hospital if they wanted her to survive but the question was who? Who was going to put their life in danger to make sure one of their friends had a chance, who? He put up an argument to the group and told them ‘It has to be me or Ellie because we are the only drivers, and Ellie if you don’t mind, I want to do it.’ Courage is all about being able to step up and help out and if you can’t find it within you, then you’re going to have a problem. // Goodness was what everyone knew they had but that was before they were put in a war situation. Each character was made to do something that they thought was bad but what they didn’t know was that by doing that one bad thing, you don’t turn into a horrible person. Ellie needed that reassuring by the group, she needed them to tell her that by killing those soldiers wasn’t all that bad and that she is still a good person deep down. Homer comforted Ellie when she was in a depressed mood, ‘Don’t feel so bad, we are in war now and normal rules don’t apply, they tried to kill you three Ellie.’ To save their friends and family, everyone has to do something that they don’t believe in. Look at Robyn; before the war she knew that murder was wrong and that she would never do it but when the question came up within the group she had to re-think her answer. Everyone has goodness inside of them but sometimes you just need to be reminded. Tomorrow when the war began suggests that when you are stuck in the middle of war with no escape, you need to rely on three qualities. Being loyal to your friends and family is a very important thing; in the long run you need these people to keep you alive. They are the only people you have left, so you have to make sure you stay true to them. At some point in time you are going to need to step up and show courage, you cannot sit around and watch your fellow friends do it for you. People will also have to remember that deep down inside of you, is a good person, however sometimes you may need to be reminded. John Marsden as the writer suggests that you don’t take things for granted in life and that love and friendship is a very important thing. Before their country was invaded the group of teenagers took a lot of things for granted but when they had to step up and think for themselves without any adult opinions, they came to realise how much their parents and others did for them. John tries to send these messages to the readers head throughout the book; he wants them to know how lucky their life is at the moment and that sometimes it’s not all fun and games.
 * Essay**
 * What does Tomorrow When the War began suggest that loyalty, courage and goodness are? DISCUSS**