English+Year+12

=Paper Nautilus Introduction =

= }The basics of textual analysis = } }Detailed knowledge is essential to valid ownership or your response. }What you have to say about a text is built on your own understanding and thought, not simply on what you have been told or on what someone else, perhaps a critic, has written or said. } }Reading the text }First Reading }If this is the first time you have read this novel, pause after you have finished a section such as several chapters. }Write notes in a reading journal about events in the past that might have influenced the thoughts and actions of the characters in the section you have just read. } }Second Reading }If you have already read the whole book, and know something of the events and people in the story of Jack's life, write in your reading journal about what is suggested to you by the image of the fish "drawn back through a whole lifetime." " }What does this suggest about the way the story is told?  }Have you read other novels or seen films in which the story is told in a similar way?  }What are the advantages of telling the story in this way?  }Looking back over the story, what images or 'motifs' hold the story together right from the opening chapter? How?  }  }Tracking the Connections  }The novel uncoils back through time. Each of the chapters in this novel focuses on a key period in the lives of the main characters and reveals new information about the main characters. It is only when we reach the last chapter, the most distant in time that the whole story is available.  }  }Consider each section in turn, asking the following questions:  }What key event/s does the chapter focus on?  }Which characters are most affected by these events?  }What new information is revealed in this chapter'  }What are the important connections between the memories in this chapter and the opening chapter? } }Structure your notes. }For example: (see Dr Stoney)

= }Chapter 1 = }The opening of a novel usually is a significant point, often containing many clues to what is to follow and many connections that became increasingly clear as the novel progresses. } }Consider the word 'peace' in, the opening line of the passage. The novel begins asense of peace, completion, and quiet reflection. Jack Tregenza's mind connects thoughts of peace with the tree on the promontory, and this is a link we need-to remember because that symbol of the tree recurs at other times in the text. } }A Wedding: February 1965 } }In this chapter, what is revealed about }(a) Jack }(b) Penny }(c) Vera? } }Select (brief) significant quotations about each of these characters.

Answers Chapter 1 JACK (uncle to Penny):

Image of the tree: ‘when he thought of peace’ + ‘the tree was the point inside himself where all things came together’ (the tree could be that goal that he’s reached) = he loves peace, but peace has been something that has come and gone in his life, and he hasn’t been able to hold it for long. (pg1)

He is a complex character: ‘His feelings moved between emptiness and satisfaction’ (he is satisfied at what has happened with the wedding, but at the same time it’s made him empty losing Penny) (pg2)

He’s been robbed of something precious to him: ‘Jack had felt bereft in the midst of everyone’s delight.’ ‘The words rent Jack because she was going’.

He’s thankful: ‘he sang out: Goodness and mercy all my days/ Will follow me’

Passionate: ‘blood came to the surface of his skin’

He feels old: ‘Jack didn’t feel young though’ (pg3)

Sentimental: gives away the Saint Christopher medal to Penny (pg4)

Ecstatic for Penny’s joy: ‘You kids have finally done it. ‘He felt weightless himself, soaring on winds above the mirror surface of the planet.’ (pg7)

Not seen as someone who someone else would want to marry anymore (at least in Penny’s mind- pg7)

Honest (pg7): ‘He was an honest mediator’

Sometimes gets it wrong ‘If he was sometimes wrong’ (pg7)

He’s a bachelor (pg8)

Jack brought up Penny by himself (pg8)

‘moon-faced’ (pg8)

A loving man ‘a fount of love’ (pg9)

Considerate: ‘To give them time, Jack went for a long, solitary, delicious swim’ (pg10)

PENNY (daughter of Vera):

She’s someone who rises to meet a challenge (a strong character): ‘Penny’s smile suggested obstacles overcome’ (pg2).

A stern character: ‘Penny had been a stern teenager, prepared to wait for the real thing to come.’

Lost some of the passion she had as a youth: ‘Jack never again saw such passion as between them at the beginning-‘

Patient: ‘prepared to wait for the real thing to come’

Strong and capable: ‘her own woman’ ‘ready to share her capabilities with the boy’

Kind hearted: ‘she now believed there was nothing finer than the work of easing distress’ (pg5)

Smart: ‘Creditable exam results’ (pg5) ‘keen and bright’

Pities Jack: ‘Poor old Uncle Jack’ (pg7)

Wise: ‘She knew how to resist when necessary’ (pg9)

She has matured at that point: pg9: ‘taken a single step into maturity’

=Chapter 2 Questions=

The Boy: Summer 1961

}

}1. How is Penny affected by having been away to school in Adelaide?

}2. How is Jack affected by her absence?

}3. Christmas. Re-read pp.19-22, from “Their own Christmas was different…” to “…Who cares?”

} (a) What does this section reveal about Jack and Penny and their relationship?

} (b) What gifts do they give each other?

} (c) Comment on the significance of each gift.

}4. How does Jack respond to Penny and Rob’s relationship? Re-read pp.26-30 and p.33, and trace his response in point form.

}5. What does Penny’s relationship with Rob reveal about her?

}

=__** Chapter 3 Questions. **__=

}Drift: 1953

}

}Vera’s visit pp. 39-43

}1. Describe Penny as a child, and describe her response to Vera.

}2. What is your response to Vera in this episode?

}3. What, in essence, does Vera say to Jack before she leaves? (p.39)

}4. What doubts are raised in Jack after Vera’s visit?

}5. How does Kath reassure and encourage him?

}

}The nautilus shells pp. 43-50

}6. Describe the nautilus shell and its characteristics.

}7. In what way could the shell be considered a symbol of some of some of the characters in the novel?

}

}Penny’s birthday pp. 51-60

}8. What does Jack tell Penny about her past? (p.52). Do you think it is all true?

}9. “Vera’s sense of theatre was precise” (p.55): what does this mean?

}10. How does Penny react to Vera’s speech and actions?

}11. Why does Vera give Penny the present of the miniature French chateau?

}
 * Chapter 4 Questions - The Road **

Jack, Irene and Penny pp. 69-72

1. How is it made clear that Peter was Irene’s favourite son?

2. How is Jack affected by the fact that he survived but Peter did not?

3. Describe the relationships that Irene and Jack have with baby Penny.

4. What kind of young man is Jack? Write down some brief quotations to support your answer.

Irene’s death: Penny and Jack pp. 72-77

5. What is revealed about 4 year old Penny in her responses to Irene’s death?

Jack and Kath pp. 77-80

6. “He was her boy, her natural match” (p.48): why were Jack and Kath so suited to each other?

Jack and Vera and Kath pp. 80-86

7. Jack: “Since the war he was different” (p. 81): how has Jack been affected by his experiences during the war?

8. Describe Vera’s treatment of Jack (you may use point form).

9. What happens to Kath and Jack’s relationship? (refer to pp. 83-84)

10. What does Vera want from Jack?

11. Why does Jack reject Vera’s sexual advance? (p.85)

Vera and the Tregenzas pp.87 – 92

12. How has Vera’s family background affected her?

13. Describe Peter as an adolescent and as a boy (write out some relevant phrases/words that capture his character and looks), and compare him to Jack (pp. 88-90)

14. How does Vera feel about Irene, and why does she stay on at the farm?

15. How does Vera’s relationship with Stan develop? Trace this in point form.

16. How does Irene react to Vera’s leaving?


 * Chapter 5 **
 * Biscuit **

__ Peter in Darwin __ pp.101-107 1. Describe Peter in this section, noting down some significant quotations. 2. Why does Lily think, ‘The charming young man would need protection against the gods’ (p. 105) 3. What is the attitude of ‘the boys’ to the war? (use quotations). Why are they referred to as ‘boys’ rather than men? 4. (a) Why doesn’t Peter write back ‘at once’ to Vera, after her letter telling him that she’s pregnant? (b) What does this tell us about his relationship with Irene, and how does this affect our perception of Vera’s belief that, ‘[if] Peter had lived, he and Vera would have spat in the old lady’s face, would have kicked up their heels and gone spinning out of the wretched district if old Mum didn’t let them have their fun’? (pp. 91-92)

__ Jack __ pp. 107-110 5. Describe (point form, with quotations) Jack’s physical and mental state, and his escape.

__ Peter __ pp. 110- 117 6. How can Peter’s plane being shot down be linked to Lily’s thought that Peter ‘would need protection against the gods’? 7. At Balikpapan Hospital, Peter is placed among the men with ‘minor wounds…at the end of the queue for medical attention’ (p. 111). What signs are there, however, that Peter is seriously wounded? (point form and/or brief quote from this section) 8. What does the doctor tell Peter about the P.O.W. who Peter believes is Jack? (p. 113- 114) 9. What do you think is the significance of Peter’s memory of when he and Jack were boys, and went to the island off Gleeson’s Landing? (pp. 115-117)

__ Peter and Jack __ (pp. 117 – 125) 10. Describe Jack’s physical condition. (p.p. 118 – 119) 11. How does Peter take care of Jack? Make notes in point form, with brief quotes. 12. Note (brief quotes) the signs that Peter himself is increasingly ill.

__ Jack’s story __ (pp. 125-129) 13. How did Jack manage to survive so long as a prisoner of the Japanese in the jungle of Borneo?

14. Describe Peter’s rapid decline and death. (pp. 129-131) 15. How does Jack respond to Peter’s death and the fact of his own survival? (pp. 133- 136) 16. ‘Saint Christopher was the token’ (p.136): what does this mean? 17. Why does he not get off the train in Sydney ‘and start a new life there’? (p.136) 18. Comment on the reference to the paper nautilus in the last paragraph of this chapter: what does the paper nautilus symbolise here? 19. Why is this chapter called ‘Biscuit’?

20. Everyone thought that Peter would be a heroic figure; how do both he and Jack turn out to be heroes?

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