Ruby

TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN – TASKS

 * TASK 1**
 * 1) If I was the leader of this group and we were deciding what to do out of trying to rescue our families, sit tight, wait and stay alive or inflict damage on the invading people; I would inflict damage. I think that they made the right decision. Because if they tried to rescue their families, ‘not [being] trained for this stuff’, it would probably end with them getting injured or killed, or they could be captured. Sitting tight has ‘got a lot to recommend it’ but who knows how long this war could go on for? When would be the right moment to come out from hiding? I agree completely with Robyn, to ‘stay there and wait’, not knowing anything about what is going on with our family out there, I don’t think I could handle that. ‘It’s … an emotional thing.’ As I said before it would be almost suicidal to attack the Showground or rescue our families, so I would inflict damage, ‘do something’ other than sit, or go on a suicidal mission.


 * 1) In a war situation like they have been put in, being forced into a war like they were and doing what they are doing, I see that as right. As with the bridge explosion they were not planning on killing people they were just planning on destroying the bridge. So is murder wrong in war? Well no I don’t think it is, because that is essentially what war is. I don’t like the fact that war happens, but in war you kill people; that’s what happens but that doesn’t mean that I agree with killing people. War is war, and in war for the country to get what they want they are always going to sacrifice something whether it be lives or otherwise. ‘They knew what they were doing’ when they came here; they knew that they could be killed.


 * 1) When Ellie rescued Lee she did kill the ‘enemy’ in the process, and when Corrie gets shot Kevin takes her to the hospital. The enemy could say, no, they won’t treat her as she is one of their ‘enemies’ and because of the things that Ellie and the others have done. The ‘enemy’ have lost many people because of them and their attacks, but if they do treat her then they have her as captive and she can no longer ‘win this war’. If they did not treat her they would still have her captive but she probably wouldn’t last long anyway. But if you saw an injured person and they needed help and you could give help to them, then the humane thing to do would be to help them. A human is a human we should all share equal rights.


 * 1) The role reversal of Australia and the invading country where the Australians would have the menial jobs and the attacking country would have the ‘good job[s]’ is still not fair. Even though now the raiding country will feel better and have the better jobs, us Australians would have to do the menial jobs, and for us that wouldn’t be too nice. But then we would understand the ‘enemies’ view of wanting the land and money and space, we could see life through their eyes. So it could be very beneficial if they had a role reversal as it would show each side the others lifestyle. It could mean that the country ‘had a future’.


 * TASK 2**
 * 1) The leader of their group is not just one person. They all show leadership at different points, displaying their strengths, but Homer and Ellie show the most leadership in taking control, planning and organising the group. Homer is good in the way of making decisions and being logical, thinking of plans and action, even when the situation is in chaos. He is able to make decisions fast and effectively and most importantly the group does as he says. When he orders them to ‘get out right now’, we’ll ‘go bush for tonight’ they agree and go with the plan. While Ellie is good at planning ahead, thinking through the consequences and looking for all the options. She has a really good way of planning out ideas because of her flexibility and being open minded on different strategies. They are the two main leaders of the group.


 * 1) Again they all prove themselves to have much courage. Ellie when she blows up the mower did show that she has the courage to save her friends and ‘do whatever is necessary’. Then the bridge, she has to run in the open for more than one hundred meters with the possibility of the enemies shooting at her. Kevin shows his control when Corrie gets shot, and has to ‘take her into town’ to the hospital for help. He is risking his life to save Corries even though the chances of her being saved are slim. The other person who shows a lot of courage and mental strength is Robyn, when Lee gets shot she ‘ran to Lee, heaved him on her back, across her shoulders and carried him through the door’ so he could rest. To run back in open fire for an injured friend and risk your life to help them, that takes courage. Without their courage this group would struggle and would probably have half as many people as they do now.


 * 1) The tension between Ellie and Lee with their relationship is a complicated one, because Ellie is ‘nervous a little’ about what would happen if their romantic relationship breaks up and what effects it could have on the group. She is concerned that if she ends the relationship and they won’t talk, or are too embarrassed to talk then their group could fall out because of loss of communication. As we watch everyone change in the book Lee has his changes, he changes into a really logical, strategic thinking way. And Ellie starts to see him differently; she notices him more. She wanted to learn about the people that she didn’t hang out a lot with at school. I want to get to ‘know people like Lee’; she in intrigued by what he does. Ellie sometimes gets on her nerves a bite views him differently to what she did at the start, she likes this Lee, although he can be pushy for answers. He can sometimes get on her nerve a bit but it makes you think if it is actually Lee changing or if it is Ellie.


 * TASK 3**
 * 1) Ellie is a reliable narrator as she’s ‘not holding back’ on what she writes down, she tells it like it is, and we come to see things in her perspective. We get shown what she sees and how she views the events that happen but she doesn’t change what happens to their group, she’s honest. Marsden chose her as the narrator because she is the thinker of the group; she thinks though all the possibilities of every plan, makes sure if something goes wrong they have a getaway. Her ideas and creative thinking help the group through some tough decisions; she gets the rest of the group thinking outside the box. She changes their way of thinking, ‘maybe we’re going about this the wrong way’ why not go the opposite? She gets the group asking questions, making improvements to their plan; that’s why she is the narrator.
 * 2) Foreshadowing in novels is when something might happen or be said early on in the book suggesting that an event will happen later on in the novel; or it might be foreshadowing what a person will do. Like when Corrie has ‘been shot’ ‘in the back’; she is not in very good condition when ‘they take her into town’ to the hospital. When they take her in they are not even sure if they will treat her because she is their ‘enemy’, so most signs are pointing towards a not very bright future for Corrie. Foreshadowing an event is like when Robyn says ‘I hope there’s no disasters’ on this trip, she is foreshadowing that something bad will happen. Or when they are in Hell and all the planes fly over, then the next morning they are discussing them and they throw around the ideas of it being ‘the start of World War Three’ and that some country has ‘invaded and [we] don’t even know.’ Although they might just be talking and making ‘crazy’ suggestions they are foreshadowing what will happen.

The Secret Seven is a book by Enid Blyton; it is about a society of seven children: Pam, Colin, Janet, Peter, Jack, Barbra and George. These seven hold many meetings throughout the book, at these meetings the talk is about many different types of things; sometimes it will be on mysteries others it will just be playing Red Indians, and others they discuss helping the community. These books go along with the Secret Seven (SS) and their adventures. This does not relate a lot to Tomorrow When the War Began but how they work as a group in both books and the fact that there are seven people. But they both help the community, although in completely different ways and circumstances; they hold their meeting and plan. They don’t have ‘a lot of bearing’ on what the group in Tomorrow When the War Began does but Marsden thought it right to be put in there.
 * TASK 4**
 * 1) The character that undergoes the most change throughout this book is Homer. From the ‘wild and outrageous’ and crazy Homer to the ‘fast-thinking’, taking charge Homer. From the prankster of the school where he ‘wasn’t even trusted to hand out the books’; to now giving us directions on how to survive in this war. Homer already had a mindset of ‘what to do next if this doesn’t go to plan’ he was just using it for his pranks not seriously. So when the war begins all he has to do is use that mindset for their plans to escape out of situations and planning attacks. This helps him change, he helps to fix the gaps in the plans and he gets them back in line when the group starts to go off track. They are making the list of essentials to take back to Hell and ‘family photos [and]… mother’s diaries’ end up on the list Homer takes charge. ‘We can’t take things like that’. ‘We’ve got to try to think rationally’; ‘this isn't a picnic we are going on’. He helps the group to realise what the situation is, and plans how to deal with it.
 * 2) Homer’s plans for rescuing Lee and blowing up the bridge were ‘genius’ in some ways but in others completely insane, as they ‘relied too much on the walkie-talkies’ for example. They had some “weakness in … [the] planning’ but luckily most of it worked out. In some of their plans they had to take guesses and risks that whatever they needed would be there. Like Ellie and Fi didn’t know for sure if there would be keys for the gas trucks in the office, they just had to ‘take the chance’ that they were. Homer’s genius plans could have gone perfectly, or could have ended with some of the people in their group getting caught or hurt. In a war situation it is very risky to go ahead as there ‘were endless ways that it could go wrong’ but it could also be very successful. For the effect they wanted they chose rightly to go ahead with their plans.
 * 3) Ellie is not a war criminal because she has never killed just because they are the enemy. She has only killed when it is essential. She is worried that she has done a bad thing by killing ‘three people’ and that it might affect her image badly; she was ‘guilty and ashamed about what had happened’. Ellie was afraid that she ‘could never be normal again,’ that ‘her feelings… [were] condemned to wither and die’ because of what she did. She always asks herself if she did the right thing, if she made the right decision to ‘value … [her] life above that of others’. She was concerned that if she blew up a bridge and killed someone in the process that she would be a bad person. But by now she was prepared that she might kill someone. Then ‘by sheer good luck no one was hurt’. Does that ‘let… [her] off the hook’? She would question every move she made, everything she did, but Ellie is a good person. She did not hurt anyone if it was not necessary, she would only harm the enemy if she or her friends were in danger.
 * 4) When Chris is on his sentry duty Ellie finds him asleep she is beside herself in anger and goes into a rage. She treats him more like a stranger than a friend, if it was someone else in their group like Homer she probably wouldn’t have had the same reaction as she did with Chris. So she was handling the situation differently; and by not giving the same reaction as if it was another group member she is, in a way showing us that she thinks that Chris does not belong in this group. But ‘he atoned’ later on, as she thought ‘he’d been the cause of my having a nervous breakdown’. He does not belong in the group because he is not in the right mindset and his addictions are setting him apart from the group. He is friends with the group but his attitude towards the situation they are in is different.
 * TASK 5**
 * 1) In this story Hell is the place where they can take refuge; a safe home. Ellie feels that she could ‘become part of the landscape’ herself. She feels it’s beautiful and it’s ironic that this place called Hell. She thinks that maybe ‘humans were Hell’; that being bad was being human. As when the dragonfly ate the mosquito it was neither right nor wrong, it just was. It was not considered wrong to kill a mosquito it was life. Hell is the place where Ellie feels she can belong, be a part of the land. It becomes the group’s home, their place to feel safe, where they can hide out. It is an important part of their life now as they rely upon it for many things.
 * 2) The novel does suggest that people can belong to the land. Ellie and the group are focused on ‘living off the land as much as possible’. They begin to think ‘long term’ because for all they know they might have to ‘survive like this for months, years even.’ So they try to be self-sufficient in growing their own food, bringing in their own animals to feed up etc. Homer wants the group to be ‘mobile and fast and tough’ so they won’t have to rely upon bringing in food supplies from houses and anywhere else. At points in time Ellie feels as if she can ‘become part of the landscape …, a dark, twisted, fragrant tree’. She feels like she belongs to the earth. People can be a part of the land; they can survive off it and become it.
 * TASK 6**
 * 1) Ellie, Corrie and Kevin are trapped in the back garden of Mrs Alexander, with the guns firing at them. Ellie goes on the basis of what she already knows; they don’t have much time, the enemies have guns, they don’t have any way out the back of the garden, and the materials she has like the ride on mower and the garden sheds. As the ‘flashes of fire from the guns’ go off in the yard it helps Ellie come up with the idea of the mower being a bomb. What goes on in her mind is an explosion; if they can create some way of distracting the soldiers then they have a chance of escape. Her general knowledge and rural living help give her the idea of the ‘fire from the guns’ and the petrol from the mower, can be made into an explosion if they have a few extra materials.
 * 2) The tension in this scene is tight as they do not have much time to make the ride on mower into a bomb, or escape. With Marsden writing Ellie’s thoughts he thinks through the options but leaves only one possible; by doing this he makes us feel that if Ellie can’t make this work then they’re ‘dead, and it’s all’ because she lead them into a dead end. How her ‘arrogance in taking the lead… might cost us our lives.’ He writes that Ellie is taking the blame if they do not make it out alive. He puts in those moments of complete ‘horror’ and terror, when they can hear ‘the crunch of gravel under soft menacing feet’. Marsden keeps reminding you about the fact that they are coming closer and that anything could happen in any number of seconds. It’s those moments of silence, and waiting. Waiting for something to happen.
 * 3) Marsden puts in only the slightest information about the soldiers coming towards Ellie and Corrie and Kevin. The fact that one was male and another was female is about as detailed information as he gives us. Mostly he describes them as ‘dark figures’ or ‘patrolling sentries’. He does not want to give us too much information otherwise we would feel as if they were people, and that they were like us. He did not want us to feel attached to the soldiers. Because if we did then we would not want them to die and we would be less sympathetic towards Ellie. Because Ellie is the ‘hero’ of the story Marsden does not want to make us feel like Ellie is a bad person.
 * 4) We do not condemn Ellie for the murders because we do not know much about these people/soldiers. Also because they are in a war circumstance, if they were not in the war situation then we would think differently. But because this war was forced on them ‘normal rules don’t apply’; they came here to take over our country. They forced this war on them; they ‘tore up the rule book not us’. We do not judge Ellie and say she is a bad person by killing three people because to us they are not really considered people. Marsden gives us very little information about the invaders so we do not really consider them as humans. This lets us think that Ellie is a good person because she saved her friends and did not intentionally go out to kill those soldiers. This is not a time when normal rules apply; they tried to kill the group. They took the risk of coming to invade; they knew what they were in for. In this story Ellie is the hero; we do not turn against her.
 * TASK 7**