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Paper2 Sample Response 1
Paper2 Sample Response 1
Question 1: Referring to two works you have studied, discuss how the writers portray the
significance of a journey.
The play “Death and The Maiden” by Ariel Dorfman, published in 1990 and set in
post-dictatorship Chile, and the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien, also
published in 1990 and set during the Vietnam War, depict their protagonists’ struggles to
overcome adversity and oppression. Specifically, both texts describe the main characters'
journeys to overcome severe trauma, portraying the significance of these journeys by using
them to comment on the inevitability of trauma and how it is perhaps insurmountable and
oppression that individuals in society face, conveying how the pursuit for resolution of
trauma can be obsessive and self-consuming, and highlighting how trauma may never truly
One way the authors use the protagonists’ journeys to comment on the nature of
trauma is by establishing the sources of their trauma and depicting the institutional
oppression that these characters must face, in turn also commenting on such oppression as
being unavoidable. In "Death and The Maiden,” this is primarily done through Dorfman's
Gerardo, her husband and the lead of the justice commission, represents the justice system
and Paulina's family, and Miranda, Paulina's accused rapist, represents the former
dictatorship government. Paulina's oppression is clearly shown when Miranda, upon her
accusing him of having raped her, tells her she is "insane, almost prototypically schizoid."
Dorfman’s use of hyperbolic adjectives and technical language shows how Miranda is trying
symbolic of how governments can induce trauma in individuals and use their power to
evade responsibility after the fact. Institutional oppression is also shown through Gerardo's
and condescending tone in lines like "all this because fifteen years ago someone..." as well
as rhetorical questions in "how can you possibly be this way? Talk this way?" to emphasise
behaviour, symbolic of how even institutions that are designed to support and protect the
individual, like the justice system and one's own family, can end up oppressing victims
through their apathy and lack of understanding. Furthermore, Dorfman sets up the play
such that Paulina is surrounded by two male characters who constantly look down on her,
also showing the effects of the patriarchy on female victims like Paulina. Dorfman uses
anadiplosis in the line "Silly. Silly girl, my baby" to emphasise Gerardo’s condescension
towards Paulina which is representative of male condescension towards females and their
experiences. Through the interactions between these three characters in the first act,
Dorfman effectively shows the various types of institutional oppression that Paulina has to
face in her journey to overcome her trauma. By doing so, Dorfman uses Paulina's journey to
O'Brien also depicts the oppression that institutions can impose on individuals to
convey its inevitability, though in a way that focuses more on the effects of such oppression
on the individual as opposed to the interactions between the institutions and the people.
This is best shown in the chapter “On the Rainy River,” in which a young Tim O'Brien
receives his draft notice for the Vietnam War from the government. The ramifications of this
effects. He states that "there were times when [he] felt Like he'd gone off the psychic edge,"
using the metaphor of a cliff-edge to connote a sense of uncontrollability and the idea that
he has suddenly been plunged into a point that there is no turning back from. His physical
effects are emphasised to the reader through repeated use of direct address and rhetorical
questions in the phrases "what would you do?", “would you run as I did?" and "would you
cry?". The short, jarring syntax of these questions makes the reader feel attacked or
confronted by them, conveying more vividly the pressure and anxiety that O'Brien would
have felt at having to answer them for himself. That he felt such extreme effects shows the
oppression and trauma induced by a simple, meaningless act for the government — an act
they would have done thousands more times that day – emphasising how much damage the
institutions can do to the individual with no recourse. Like Dorfman, O'Brien also shows how
society can further oppress such victims through their apathy and expectations. O'Brien
states that he felt “all eyes on [him] - the town, the whole universe”, using hyperbole to
convey just how much pressure and anxiety he felt at the hands of society's judgements.
This is further shown in the phrase "I was a coward. I went to the war" in which O'Brien uses
irony to suggest that enduring society's judgement as a deserter is a harsher sentence than
fighting for his life in a war. By emphasising the severity of the oppression he felt from
society and the government, O'Brien, like Dorfman is showing the reader just how difficult it
is for the individual, especially a trauma victim, to avoid institutional oppression. Although
Dorfman portrays this as a close, intimate fight between the victim and authorities that are
actively trying to evade blame and further suppress the individual, O'Brien sheds light on a
different side of institutional oppression — how governments can severely objectify and
of this trauma speaks to its inevitability and how it is perhaps unavoidable as an individual in
society.
The authors also convey how the pursuit of resolution of trauma may be self-
consuming and obsessive, ultimately doing more harm than good, and showing how the
journey to fulfilment for a trauma victim is not as simple as it may seem. In “Death and the
Maiden,” Dorfman conveys this through Paulina's increasingly dangerous and unhinged
behaviour, even bordering on completely unjustifiable actions. Such behaviour is first seen
in scene four of the first act, when she ties up Miranda after suspecting him to be her rapist.
Dorfman gives Paulina a dramatic monologue in which she recounts what happened to her
after she was raped. Dorfman gives her a loose, casual tone, heavily juxtaposing the tense
situation, ironically creating even more tension as the audience's expectations of how
Paulina should be behaving are entirely subverted. This makes the audience question what
she will do next as she already seems unpredictable. Her escalation is shown in the next
scene, as Gerardo asks what she will do if Miranda is innocent, and she states that "if he's
innocent, then he's really screwed." Dorfman's use of matter-of-fact and blunt tone conveys
her seriousness, showing that she may perhaps murder an innocent man in her pursuit of
resolution. Her behaviour becomes even more unhinged as the play continues, with
Dorfman using the dramatic technique of stage directions to depict her “pointing the gun at
his temple." Dorfman's use of this technique make her perceived craziness and dangerous
behaviour more poignant to the audience as visuals can more vividly portray one’s
showing how the pursuit for overcoming trauma may lead someone down a dark path,
than good. This stage in Paulina's journey is significant as it sheds light on an ugly truth
about the process for trauma resolution — it is not simple, and may just cause even more
trauma.
The notion of the pursuit of resolution being obsessive and self- consuming is also
highlighted by O’Brien, though through a different type of obsession that is more depressive
and melancholier. This is best shown in the chapter ‘Speaking of Courage,” which follows
Norman Bowker, a returning soldier, and his experiences after the war. Bowker received
many medals for his bravery, something that is emphasised to the reader through the
asyndetic listing of these medals early in the chapter. These medals are supposed to
symbolise recognition and thus comfort for Bowker, but this is an example of O'Brien's use
of antiphrasis as the medals actually just remind him of his trauma from the war. The dark
irony in a symbol of comfort actually being a symbol of pain shows Bowker's helplessness
and depression, something reinforced by the matter-of-fact and melancholy tone in phrases
like "he had no place in particular to go." Just as Paulina's gun perhaps represents her
obsession, the best representation of Bowker's obsession is the motif of the Silver Star, a
medal that he would have won had he saved his friend from dying in combat. O'Brien
repeatedly mentions this symbol throughout the chapter — Bowker imagines talking to his
dad about it and he mentions it to two boys he sees while driving — symbolic of how
Bowker repeatedly thinks of the Silver Star and his friend's death. That this is the only thing
he can think about, so much so that when he thinks of his family, he imagines himself telling
his dad about it, shows how this has consumed him and made him completely obsessed
with the past and his trauma. This obsession contrasts that of Paulina, which drives her to
can't muster the motivation or willingness to do anything to move on. Through these
contrasting depictions of trauma victims' obsessions, the authors show that despite
Another way the authors use the journeys of their protagonists to convey the
insurmountable nature of trauma is by highlighting how extreme trauma may never truly
leave the victim, making it impossible to fully overcome. In “Death and The Maiden,” this
can immediately be seen in the opening sequence of the play. Dorfman pairs the dramatic
techniques of stage directions and setting to vividly portray Paulina's anxious, tense, and
lonely state of mind. She is described as “grabbing a gun" and “hiding behind the curtain"
upon simply hearing a car approach, a seemingly irrational approach to a common stimulus
that suggests she is having a trauma-caused response. Additionally, the opening scene is set
in an isolated beach house at midnight, an ominous setting that reflects the isolation and
loneliness she feels despite it having been many years after her trauma, However, Dorfman
most clearly shows how trauma never leaves the victim in the final scene, where Paulina
and Gerardo go to the opera and sees Miranda again. Dorfman describes him as having a
"faint, phantasmagoric moonlight quality," using magical and illusory visual imagery to leave
ambiguous whether she is really seeing Miranda or just hallucinating. Dorfman utilises
this ambiguity to make the point that regardless of whether Paulina killed Miranda or not,
he still re-appears in her life, whether it be in reality or as a hallucination in her head. This is
representative of how despite Paulina's best efforts to resolve her trauma, her trauma
keeps coming back to haunt her. This is also shown through the symbol of music in this
performance of Schubert's “Death and The Maiden,” the quartet that was playing when
Paulina got raped. While it is possible that this shows her overcoming her trauma as she is
able to listen to a piece that previously haunted her, when paired with the re-appearance of
Miranda it seems that this symbol is an ominous reminder that she will never escape that
traumatic event.
O'Brien also effectively conveys how trauma victims never fully overcome their
trauma and how it lingers with them for years after the events. This can first be seen
through the fragmented structure of the novel, in which stories aren't chronological, but are
arranged randomly and with no specific order. This perhaps reflects the fragmented nature
of a trauma victim's mind, always reeling from their experiences and never able to create
order or sense of their trauma. The chapter “Field Trip” describes O'Brien's trip to Vietnam
with his daughter many years after the war. Upon revisiting a war site, he states that he
"looked for forgiveness of personal grace or whatever else the land had to offer," utilising
strong diction in words like “forgiveness” to show that despite the fact that he was
oppressed, his trauma was so extreme that he feels that he is the one who needs
forgiveness and absolution. This is not unique to O'Brien however. In the chapter “Love,”
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross states that he “never forgave himself" for the death of his friend
Ted Lavender, which he feels responsible for as he was distracted with a picture of the girl
he liked. That Cross kept the picture is symbolic of how he has never let that trauma go and
how it lingers with him to this day. Perhaps the most compelling evidence that O'Brien's
trauma never left him is the book itself, which O'Brien reveals in the closing line of the book
as "Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story." The metaphor of ‘saving his own life' shows
there, and the person that emerged was a trauma-riddled man. The ‘ending’ of O'Brien's
journey through his trauma contrasts Paulina's ending as it seems that Paulina is no longer
trying to resolve her trauma, but O'Brien is. This contrast is important as it perhaps reveals
the true nature of trauma — it is something that never really gets overcome, but that the
from their trauma. Both authors convey a similar journey, portraying this journey's
significance by using it to reveal the true nature of trauma — that it is perhaps unavoidable,
that the pursuit for its resolution may cause more harm than good, and that it is ultimately
particularly powerful as it highlights the timeless and universal nature of certain aspects of
trauma that everyone goes through. The journey these texts depict convey that whether it
be thirty years ago or today, and whether it be a warzone or a beach house, trauma is
perhaps an inevitable part of the human experience, and that it may sometimes be simply