HL English A1 2013 Paper 1 - Interpretations?

[Esther Baar]

I talked about the poem Language as an Escape from the Discrete. I addressed the title and structure of the poem (and how it reflected the tower of Babel mentioned in the last line), repetition ("who" and "says"), and personification/characterization of the wasps, cat, and baby. I related all these literary features to a theme of communication and language and the problems it can bring but also a common thing that unites people as well as animals. Oh! And of course all the enjambment. I thought the last stanza was very interesting as it pertains to miscommunication and the difficulties that arise as people are unable to communicate with other or animals for that matter.

[al Zayid]

I did the prose on the TZ2 paper by Abraham Verghese. At first I found it difficult to find anything to talk about. After much reading and analyzing, I came up with this thesis: 'In this passage, Abraham Verghese marries overwhelming emotion with literary techniques to portray the bliss of a reunion.'

I thought this was quite good, and I had a lot to work with. And then, half way through, I struck gold. I realized that not only were conventional literary features being used, but the themes were also conventional to literature!

Verghese discussed themes that were used in Homeric times. The bliss of a reunion, the long journey home, the joy of a feast etc. These are almost taken directly out of Homer's Odyssey. I think mentioning this point drastically strengthened my paper.

Any other opinions/ideas?

[Dana4survival]

aw man...i fell like crying now. it seems no one came to the same conclusion as i did about "the tunnel" OMG i'm gonna fail!!!!

I basically wrote about his sexuality...that he's actually gay. Rainbows...you know, pride...lol
and I thought the strawberry ice cream was symbolic of women because it has a "ready made hole" and was "popular" and the fact that the protagonist dislikes it shows that he's gay.
but seeing as i'm the only one who came to this conclusion...I feel death awaiting me

[Da Wong]

Tunnel by William Gass


I think mine was horrible. I talked about how Rainbow Ice Cream reflects childhood and life and growing up and talked about using colours as symbols... nativity as a child... use of language... change of tone at line 34 etc and the complications of the journey to adulthood... But I think my friend's interpretation was much better. She talked about cultural diversity.

yea.... I failed that one

I also failed paper 2

[yii yann]

To be honest guys I think the interpretation matters much less than discussing literary features and the effect it has on the interpretation. So even if you claim some weirdo thing, if you can identify and analyze literary features, you'll still score relatively high. That's what I think, anyway.

[JackalJack]

To be honest guys I think the interpretation matters much less than discussing literary features and the effect it has on the interpretation. So even if you claim some weirdo thing, if you can identify and analyze literary features, you'll still score relatively high. That's what I think, anyway.

Well I think interpretation does kind of matter for that score in understanding the text but I think its a combination of identifying, analyzing features and being able to back up your interpretation with evidence and technique but I have no idea what the rubric is because its out of 20 marks...

Tunnel by William Gass

I think mine was horrible. I talked about how Rainbow Ice Cream reflects childhood and life and growing up and talked about using colours as symbols... nativity as a child... use of language... change of tone at line 34 etc and the complications of the journey to adulthood... But I think my friend's interpretation was much better. She talked about cultural diversity.

yea.... I failed that one

I also failed paper 2

Don't be so hard with yourself, i think you will do fine as long as you're able to analyze your lit devices effectively with your theme. You never really did go into depth of what your points were so I can't really help assess if your points are agreeable or not, maybe you don't remember and I don't blame you because exams; if you do then you should expand on what you said for others to critique on what you said. I like your theme because it looks plausible since I've seen that kind of transformation.

Confidence, avocado, Confidence is what I'm told by my teacher and honestly I do much better when I'm confident

aw man...i fell like crying now. it seems no one came to the same conclusion as i did about "the tunnel" OMG i'm gonna fail!!!!

I basically wrote about his sexuality...that he's actually gay. Rainbows...you know, pride...lol

and I thought the strawberry ice cream was symbolic of women because it has a "ready made hole" and was "popular" and the fact that the protagonist dislikes it shows that he's gay.

but seeing as i'm the only one who came to this conclusion...I feel death awaiting me

If you're interpretation is unique then that's a good thing. If its not common then that means you stand out from the rest of the IB students which means you provided your own voice and thus scored points I'm thinking so because the rubric changed.... It seems like you haven't really mentioned a theme of the passage; that's death, that is death. Maybe you haven't mentioned it also I think you should expand your points so I as well as others will be able to help critique on it. (if you have exams then just whenever u finish)

Your interpretation of the protagonist being gay sounds interesting and I want to hear more.

[madame_lexie]

Did English SL TZ2. I chose the poem, but I found it hard to write about it because it was so plain and modern. The guiding questions bothered me, I spent too much time trying to find what contributed to the humour. Then in paper 2, I did Q7, talked about Bluest Eye, Awakening and Scarlett Letter. I think I did better in paper 2 actually

[Emma SYW]

I did the prose excerpt from The Tunnel. Seems like only 2 other people in my class of 90 did it, but I have only talked to a small portion of my class.

I talked about the humour and lightheartedness of a child's experience in stark contrast with his parents, who seemed detached and cynical (father). In addition, the father's negativity seemed to rub off onto his son's, who constantly is badgered with echoes relating his treat to garbage and the like. I think my paragraphs were: the voice of childhood, contrast between parents, and the unique imagination of this child in particular. I don't quite remember all the devices I discussed, some included diction (e.g. comparing the taste of rainbow to a noise, showing creativity and even humour) structure creating vocal pauses near the beginning and end, as well as juxtaposition, again, with the parents' realistic negativity and aloofness to the child's seriousness towards ice cream.

[Lilbailey]

I did mine on the prose piece, The Tunnel. I talked about how the author disguised the themes of racism, freedom, discrimination and judgement through literary devices such as symbolism, amibguity, structure, dialogue/diction and characterization (and some more things that I randomly saw). I also concluded by stating what his bigger message through these literary devices might be.

[Gemma B]

I did the poem Soap Suds.

Pretty easy to understand

Yeah I did it as well.... my worst nightmare was that I was going to walk into the exams and find a haiku or something like that. I was happy with the paper

[TykeDragon]

Sorry, I just want to counter what was said earlier. The prose with Tsige from Cutting From Stone was not set in America, it was said in Ethiopia. The guy said he had been working in America for 6 or 8 years, and had come back to his native country for a visit. Hence why they were speaking the language and he hadn't seen her since he was a boy. Sorry original person who asked, but your friend was right for saying it was set in Ethiopia

[Guest Fiorella]

For my commentary on "The Tunnel", I did NOT mention the gay/cultural diversity aspect...lol there was a really smart kid in my class though that mentioned it so I think if you explained yourself well and supported it from the text you should be OK!

On the other hand, I explicitly talked about a contrasting view of how parents and children (well in this case the child) differ quite a bit from one another (using how different they both see the ice cream flavor of rainbow)...(so basically a contrast between adulthood and childhood). I supported this by lots of opposing similes made by the child and the father, imagery, characterization. I also mentioned the importance of the rainbow ice cream for the child and how it kind of represented his childhood? (I had to come up with something and highlight its importance lol). Finally, I also noticed that the verb tenses were all kind of in the past-tense, as if the child was reminiscing as an adult? I don't know if this is correct and I hope to god the examinator tries to see it because if that I'm screwed. I also mentioned a contrast of the beginning/end in tone (again supported by the past-tenses verbs I mentioned and diction used, etc).

So for the ones who did this prose, do you see/agree with my point? I'm just really worried about it I think paper 2 went better for me because I felt prepared, I read the books and the question I picked was pretty straightforward.