Paige

Tomorrow When the War Began **Task 1** > “addressing the imbalances within the region”. She claimed it was fair, but the invaders result was role reversal, and that wouldn’t make them any better than the Australians in the first place. It could be fair if they just split up the land and nearly everybody got the same amount, but not if the invaders got the bigger land, and gave all the locals the “menial jobs”. It isn’t fair because they aren’t solving the problem there just going back to the way it was, but with the invaders sitting on top. **Task 2**
 * 1) After the group find out their country has been invaded, Homer puts 3 choices forward; try to rescue their families, inflict damage on the ‘enemy’, or sit tight and try to stay alive. In my opinion they did the right thing, they decided to create some havoc amongst the invaders. If they decided to sit tight, I believe that they would have been driven with madness, and if they tried to rescue their families they could have easily been killed or captured. Even though they were “schoolkids, too young to do much” they could still cause a lot of damage, because who else was fighting for their country? They needed to start screwing with soldiers getting them confused, and that’s exactly what they did.
 * 2) After they caused the bridge explosion Ellie was relieved that her actions hadn’t killed anyone, but she did “whatever was necessary”. In war, you know what you are signing up for, you know the consequences, and you know what you will have to do when the time comes. In my opinion murder isn’t that bad in war, because you’re doing it to save your country, your lives, and your families. The ‘enemy’ know what they are getting themselves into and they chose to take the risk of dying for the country, you can fight your hardest to stay alive, but if you die for your country, that’s that.
 * 3) After Ellie killed soldiers trying to save Lee, would it have been justified if the invaders refused to treat Corrie? It would have been fair if the soldiers refused to treat Corrie. Corrie was shot, which means that the soldiers would defiantly assume that she was a part of the group that was resisting them, which means she was their ‘enemy’. Would Corrie and the group treat a soldier if they had injured them when the soldier tried to attack them? War is a hard place, and you get what you get, and it would have been fair if they refused to treat Corrie.
 * 4) When Robyn claimed she ‘could understand’ why they were invading because they were
 * 1) In the book, nearly everyone showed enough initiative to be named ‘the leader’ of the group, but there wasn’t necessarily just one leader. Ellie thought that she had to show the most courage, even though she was secretly scared inside, because there needed to be someone to hold the group together. She believed that seeing everybody else in such a horrible state, it should be her. Robyn showed courage when they had discovered nobody at Ellie’s. “We’ve got to think, guys. I know we all want to rush off, but this one time we can’t afford to give into feelings.” She organised everyone and calmed them down, until they were in the right set of mind to make choices for themselves. Homer also showed initiative toward the end of the book when his mind sprouted the idea of the blowing up the bridge. In my opinion there was not just one leader.
 * 2) Every single character in this book showed courage, the one I believe showed the most was Lee. His wound felt like “someone stabbed a big hot piece of barbed wire” through his calf, but he continued to hobble on until Robyn noticed what had happened. When they got back to safety he continued doing the most he could trying to rehabilitate his leg. That would take a lot of courage and pain. Kevin also showed amazing courage at the end of the book, when he insisted on driving Corrie to the hospital. He knew the consequences and still had his heart set on doing it. Every other character showed courage too, at least once in the book, but I believe Lee showed the most.
 * 3) What tests Ellie and Lee’s friendship in the novel? Ellie and Lee have a very on and off relationship in the book, and at one point they had a romantic kiss, which made Lee’s feelings for Ellie increase majorly, but Ellie on the other hand started to confuse her feelings. After that day Ellie hadn’t “looked at him once since then. She’d hardly even spoken to him” either. Ellie confessed her confused feelings to Lee and it ended in a fight, which then created tension between the two. If they do break up after a romantic relationship there would be tension within the group and that is why Ellie is concerned and confused all at the same time.

**Task 3** “We’ve probably been invaded and we don’t even know.” When Lee suggested this everyone in the group laughed but little did they know what would happen. Another example is when Ellie dreams of being with Lee, and when wakes up she starts talking to him and they end up kissing. **Task 4** **Task 5**
 * 1) The group voted for Ellie to narrate the story, she was probably the most reliable source, to write every single thing that had happened. Ellie did write it in her own way though, she didn’t leave out any part of her experience out, even if it was between her and someone else. She had been a part of almost every major ‘quest’ they had done. Also she was a very detailed person. Ellie is the thinker of the group, she overthinks everything before she does it, but she is also a feeler. Her feelings show deeply in this story, and she was not afraid to write anything she felt or thought. Marsden chose her because of her strengths, her courage and her passionate mind; she is most reliable, because she thinks the most.
 * 2) Foreshadowing in a novel is when subtle hints are dropped throughout the book about what will happen in the future. In this novel Marsden is clever in the way he uses it.
 * 1) In my opinion Robyn changed the most throughout the course of this book. At the start of the camping trip she was shy and kept to herself a fair bit, she would overthink things and get easily worried. Before the invasion she wouldn’t even hurt a fly, but after all the havoc that happens she’ll “keep fighting them, for the sake of her family.” Also Homer made a big change because before the camping trip, he was a bit of a tool, he would always play practical jokes and be really mean to the girls. After the invasion he completely changed to a guy that has so much respect for girls and a lot of brains, war strategy wise.
 * 2) Homer is a genius for coming up with the plans to ‘rescue’ Lee and destroy the bridge. Near the end of the book, “Homer was fast becoming like the teacher he’d always despised.” If they didn’t blow up the bridge the trade would still be heavy coming from Cobblers Bay. His mind used to be tracked for practical jokes and humiliating people, but when the invasion happened, the way his mind worked was slightly changed to battle strategies instead of practical jokes.
 * 3) Ellie was worried about becoming a “war criminal” because of all the ‘bad’ she was doing, she killed people with the lawn mower explosion when she was saving Lee. Ellie is the type of person that overthinks everything, and this is something that shouldn’t be thought about too much. Everything Ellie is doing is completely necessary, because she wants to save her family and even her country. Ellie was an ‘amazing’ person.
 * 4) Ellie finds Chris asleep on sentry duty and loses her temper with him; did Chris belong in the group? Chris was a totally different person to everyone in the group, he doesn’t take his life as seriously as the others, on the outside he acts tough drinking, doing drugs and smoking, but on the inside his quite a depressed boy, he writes sad poems and keeps to himself. He isn’t as passionate about risking his life for his country; “Look, with my parents overseas, I’m not quite as involved as you guys”. Chris’ emotions didn’t belong with everyone else’s; he didn’t belong in the group.
 * 1) In the novel, “Hell” was their heaven, they thought of it as the safest place they could stay. Hell was their secret haven, their home. “This is pretty nice for hell,” it was beautiful, they all were astonished about the fact that only Hermit and they could be the only people to have ever seen this magnificent land. “Hell” is a very big part in this book, and is there saviour.
 * 2) This novel does suggest that people can ‘belong’ to the land. As soon as the group realise they have been invaded they decided to go bush, they believe it is the safest place for them. Not many people know of “Hell” and this makes their haven a very safe place. The group understands how to work their way round the land and how use it to their advantage. People can belong to the land, and this book is a perfect example.

**Task 6**
 * 1) Ellie was inspired by the idea of bombing the soldiers with the ride on mower, from Corrie almost running into it. They were being chased and Ellie’s mind was racing and then after Corrie ran into the mower and Kevin almost did, her “brain was operating like her lungs, in great big bursts” after her mind started to work so did her body, and her plan came into action.
 * 2) Before the scene Marsden describes how Ellie’s feeling, and how her body is reacting to the tension, this creates a feeling that a reader can relate to; “I felt the goose bumps prickle on my skin.” When Ellie was trying to blow up the lawn mower he stretched it out, and made her make mistakes before she finally got it right. “We’re about to die, just because I couldn’t light a match” this made the readers nervous and the suspense almost unbearable.
 * 3) Marsden does not strongly identify the invaders; he does this so the reader doesn’t start to feel sorry for them. He doesn’t want the reader to realize that they did have lives and families; if they understood this the reader may start to think of Ellie as the bad person, killing innocent people. His writes them as faceless people, so they seem cold and emotionless.
 * 4) We don’t condemn Ellie for the murders because, it was in war. When you sign up for war, you know what you’re getting yourself into, your risking your life for your country, Ellie was saving her own life as well as her friends. The murders cannot be condemned because its war.

**Task 7** The Scarlet Letter is book about adultery and sins. A young woman, Hester Brynne is married to an older man and they decide to move to a new place, Hester’s husband gets held up on the way, and Hester has an affair with a different man from her new home town. Everybody suspects she has committed a crime when she fell pregnant when her husband was away. The people of the town then force her to embroider a red “A” on her clothing for a sign of adultery. Her husband then comes to the town, and breaks it off with her quietly, then over years her child grows up and they are both shamed from the village, she then meets up with her secret lover, and they decide to run away together, but as soon as her lover admits to having the affair to everybody, and he is suddenly killed. Later on Hester and her daughter pearl leave and travel to a new home, but later only Hester comes back, and when she dies is placed in a grave right next to her former lover.

Marsden may have used this book as reference because of Ellie’s mixed emotions toward Homer and Lee. She has Lee but wants Homer as well, back in the old days this could be considered bad but probably not bad that she could get charged for adultery.

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.