Analyse how language features were used to deepen your understanding of a theme.
First step is to decide on which themes we want to focus on.
Here is a good summary of the element of fear running through the novel. This summary is useful in lots of ways for exploring both the crippling effect of fear on Charlie Bucktin and also the journey he takes to realise that he can be brave and that he can control his fears. However, I think that describing a theme in one word is inadequate for our analysis purposes.
We want to describe Charlie's relationship with fear in a phrase or sentence before we can dig into how it is developed and the role of language features in deepening our understanding.
Another concept which is part of Charlie's journey around fear is the bildungsroman, or coming of age story.
Fear has been carefully made into a powerful tool for Charlie Bucktin by author Craig Silvey using language in the novel ‘Jasper Jones’. At times fear propels Charlie forward and at other times holds him back. Fear was used carefully by Silvey to highlight Charlies triumph in the peach thieving scene towards the end of the novel. Charlie is to steal 5 peaches from the property of ‘Mad Jack Lionel’ which will ultimately prove his worth to the other youths of Corrigan while proving his development as a character and relationship with fear to the reader. Charlies overcoming of his past fear is highlighted in the scene in a moment where he retrieves his peaches making him triumphant “It requires more courage for me to tentatively bend and snatch up that rotten fruit from amid that sea of bees. My hands tremble. I can barely work my fingers. But I get them, all five of them, into the crook of my arm, hot and soft and mushy, and it feels incredible, like something has clicked into place, like how you feel when you can finally ride a bike or you trust yourself to swim in the deepest part of the river. I hold them against my thrumming chest. I get brave.” This moment is symbolic of Charlie moving forward as he overcomes his fear of insects, the once ‘Mad’ Jack Lionel and the ridicule of his town. This reflects on the revelations Charlie has throughout the novel about the things that he once feared not being as they once seemed such as Jack Lionel not being ‘mad’ instead just lonely and withdrawn. Charlies ‘legendary’ collection of the peaches also shows that he has developed as a person, rising above the other members of Corrigan not only by being the bravest but in terms of his awareness of injustice and morality.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Bucktin is put in a position where he quickly has to learn how to overcome the fears and stop holding himself back. In the book ‘Jasper Jones’ by Craig Silvey, Charlie Buckin is a young boy who gets pushed towards an adventure, which is not easy for him because of his fears of the unknown, and the danger this adventure could cause, once Charlie learns he needs to stop holding himself back, he takes up the challenge of stealing 5 peaches from mad Jack Lionels tree, and this is a key scene for showing Charlie overcoming his fears, with mad Jack Lionel being a symbol of the unknown and trying to take his peaches from the tree, would be the symbol of danger he began pushing himself, to overcome his fears. Charlie Bucktin does overcome his fear of the unknown and learns that ‘mad Jack Lionel’ was really a nice person, and this was showing Charlie Bucktin that the unknown isn’t as scary as he first thought which meant he was more confidence in answering his calls to adventure and pushing himself further.
ReplyDeletePARAGRAPH ABOUT FEAR:
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, Jasper Jones (written by Craig Silvey) the main character is the young, impressionable, white teenage boy by the name of Charlie Bucktin. Charlie deals with his phobias by submitting to them, refusing to overcome his fear of insects and Mad Jack Lionel - a greatly feared man by adolescents, being falsely accused of murder. In the scene in which Charlie is dared to loot Mad Jack Lionel’s peaches, he is forced into a situation where he must decide between his pride as a bullied, tormented young boy, and his fears of Lionel and insects. At the beginning of the story, Charlie fears Mad Jack as he has been portrayed by the town to be rude and abusive, however throughout the story Charlie realises that Mad Jack is, in fact a misunderstood, lonely man. This realisation teaches Charlie that fear is often the outcome of ignorance, and a lot of his fears are due to the unknown, or the assumptions created by others. When Charlie must face his entomophobia when he sees the peaches crawling with bees and ants, he is forced to be brave, for the sake of the peaches.
PARAGRAPH ABOUT STRATEGIES:
Even though Charlie is left paralysed by his phobias in some scenes within the novel, he does learn strategies to help him deal with the fears. One scene where we see such instance is when Charlie is dared by the notorious school bully, Warwick Trent, to steal peaches from the yard of Jack Lionel, a mysterious figure shrouded in local folk tales devised by local adolescence. Charlie Bucktin accepts this dare because unknown to Warwick Trent, Charlie has overcome the fear of Jack Lionel and made acquaintance with him early on in the novel and learnt that he is simply a misunderstood man. When Charlie is forced to retrieve the peaches from Jack Lionel's yard he forced to face his case of entomophobia, he sees the peaches covered in bees and ants and must make a decision, whether he backs down from the dare and face continuous torment from the bullies or momentarily overcome it and gain some respect from said bullies. When faced with this decision Charlie decides to momentarily overcome his phobia and retrieve the peaches, however, he did not do this alone. Charlie has the unlikely alliance of Jack Lionel who helps him embellish the situation by pretending to attack Charlie who bravely disarms him which astonishes his peers.
PARAGRAPH ABOUT TRIUMPH:
Once Charlie is able to deal with his constant fears throughout the novel, he is able to acknowledge his triumphs, and grow as a character. At the near end of the story, when Charlie goes in to grab peaches at Mad Jack Lionel’s backyard, he is put in a rather unpleasant and unexpected situation, where he faces two of his biggest fears, insects and Mad Jack Lionel. But Charlie is able to overcome the moment of discomposure, therefore showing his development as a character, considering that if put in that situation earlier in the story, it would have seemed impossible. When Charlie successfully loots Mad Jack’s peaches, he is overcome with the feeling of accomplishment. “I can barely work my fingers. But I get them, all five of them, in the crook of my arm, hot and soft and mushy, and it feels incredible, like something has clicked into place, like how you feel when you finally ride a bike or you trust yourself to swim in the deepest part of the river. I hold them against my thrumming chest. I get brave.” The short sentence at the end - “I get brave.” contrasts with before Charlie steals the peaches, where he must gain that bravery to overcome his phobia of insects. This is evident that Charlie’s main triumph is the defeat of his entomophobia.
Shown throughout the novel ‘Jasper Jones’ by Craig Silvey is the concept of fear pushing Charlie Bucktin to continue with the adventure he has been drawn into. At times this fear that holds him back, it stands in the way of what could be something great but other times it is the one thing that pushes him to accomplish something big. This fear that Charlie holds throughout the book is built up and helps highlight Charlies triumph in the peach scene. In this scene charlie decides to take up the well known challenge with the teens in this town of getting 5 peaches from the tree of the known ‘looney’ of the town, Mad Jack Lionel. This scene is one of the times that Charlie’s fear pushes him to complete the challenge. Throughout the story Mad Jack Lionel is shown as a symbol of the unknown, no one has ever seen him which leads to rumors and stories to be made. From these stories it is shown that he is feared, thought of as crazy, Charlie has also in the book stated his fear, “Here, ghostly in the moonlight, slumps the weather worn cottage of Mad Jack Lionel. I quickly look back at Jasper. I hope this isn’t our destination.”. By the time the book gets to the peach scene, Charlie’s fear is still shown and present but it was dimed after hearing a bit of Jack’s story. Charlie pushes through with his fear going to Jack’s house to complete the challenge ending up getting caught by Jack, who was more friendly and kind than mad. This moment shows us that final look at Charlies fear of him as well as his realisation of not everything being exactly as he thought. For instead of the people he used to trust, His mum and the police, being there to comfort him, it turned out to be one of the people who he used to fear.
ReplyDeleteThe novel “Jasper Jones” shows recurring literature references, with authors like Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain. Charlie has a fixation on literature and this influences his opinions on the world and his actions. Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird” gives him inspiration when dealing with Laura’s body, saying he should “be more like Atticus Finch”. He also shows admiration towards fictional superhero “Batman”. He shows favour to Batman because he is more relatable for him as Batman is a mortal human with no superhuman qualities but uses his bravery and ingenious to overcome his fears and enemies. During the story Charlie reads ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson” a story about babies who were switched at birth to prevent slavery happening to the 1/32 black kid. This book is proof that Charlie already knew of racism and had read about it, but probably thought detached about it as he hadn’t experienced it in his lifetime until Jasper Jones. The literature that Charlie read gave him knowledge that he could apply in real life situations.
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