Ellie at the beginning of the novel is…

• A simple country girl who is a “tomboy”. She is very proud of being able to do practical farm things like driving the land-rover, tractor, working with stock and mending fences. Ellie though is unsophisticated and not that in touch with her feelings. She has never faced a war situation where she has to hide, dodge bullets and murder to keep herself and her friends alive.

• We see the first sign of change in Ellie’s personality when they are sneaking up on showgrounds where all the residents of Wirrawee have been held prisoner. Ellie doesn’t know if she will have the courage – but she does. “I felt then, and still feel now, that I was transformed by those four steps. At that moment I stopped being an innocent rural teenager and started becoming someone else, a more complicated and capable person, a force to be reckoned with … not just a polite obedient kid.

Ellie now a murderer to keep her friends alive in a state of war

• Reflecting on how she had blown up the lawnmower and the soldiers. “It was hard for me to believe that I, plain old Ellie, nothing special about, middle of the road in every way, had …just killed three people…. I could never be normal again… feelings… condemned to wither and die.”

Ellie wonders whether she is any more moral than the hermit.

• She killed for the reasons of saving herself and her friends. The hermit killed his family so that they wouldn’t suffer. “ I too had blood on my hands. …just as the hermit couldn’t tell whether his actions were good or bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were. Had I killed out of love of my friends as part of a noble crusade to rescue friends and family and keep our land free…I didn’t feel like a criminal, but I didn’t feel like a hero either.”

Ellie thought hard about what was “right” and “wrong”. She had to rely on the fact that she was different to those people who were ugly on the inside. A war criminal perhaps, but like the hermit, had been forced to commit crimes and murder because of the extreme circumstances she was faced with. “ I had a sense within me… to find the right thing to do – instinct, conscience, imagination.”

Ellie changes from innocent rural girl to someone who realises the

seriousness of their situation. Then becomes a mature teenager that is

ready to face her new situation.

Ellie processes the information about what has been happening to her in a nightmare – she is an uncontrollable monster; hurting her family and killing and maiming.

She wakes from her nightmare to a symbolic rebirth. She is now calm and able to cope again. Evidence for this is John Marsden writing that Ellie notices the cockatoos flying above like ‘white angels’. She notices that new life still exists around her with “many shades of green”. Ellie emerges from her sleeping like she is a new butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. She goes down to the creek to wash/cleanse/renew.

Ellie comes to terms with the morality of killing in a war situation.

• She considers that she is not a mean or brutal person as some people are that she knows. “Call it anything – instinct, conscience, imagination…I could think of one way in which I was different. It was confidence.” Fortunately she had come to this decision before she heard from Robyn that she had killed soldiers in the explosion.

• “it’s different than in the movies, isn’t it?” Lee.

Ellie doesn’t want to end up a coroner’s report

• Standing in the stream after they had been through the hermit’s belongings.

• Ellie noticed that the emotion of the facts had been buried in the coroner’s report.

• She wants to live life with emotion and feel her emotions.

• WE see later that she learns how to abandon herself and start to “fool around” quite keenly and comfortably.

Homer

• Beginning of novel – Homer is boisterous and unreliable.

• “He was wild and outrageous. He didn’t care what he did or what anyone thought….Homer always seemed to be in trouble…He wasn’t even trusted to hand out the books at school.”

Homer a very different person – according to Ellie

• While Fi is stealing the tanker with Ellie, Ellie discusses how Homer has changed.

• “Homer was the surprise of my life. He even seemed better looking these days, probably because his head was up and he walked more confidently.”

Fi becoming mature and brave

• Fi says that they can’t just sit there and keep themselves safe – even though that’s what their parents would like. “We have to do what’s right for us. We have to find meanings for our own lives…scared out of my skin…but I’ll do it.”

Fi develops the confidence• To volunteer to be first sentry. This is just before they go

to blow up the bridge.• Just before they go about stealing the tanker to go and

blow up the bridge, Ellie is expressing her thoughts about Fi’s improvement. Meaning that she has got braver. But Ellie is also very worried about how Fi will cope under extreme pressure of danger. Will she be able to trust her?”I did just hope that when the chips were down she wouldn’t stand there frozen with fear.”

• Ellie gets a lot more confident about Fi’s ability to carry out her mission. “ here she was, elegant, Vogue …seemed delicate an timid, and she even claimed herself that she was, but she had a determination I hadn’t recognised before. There was a spirit to her, a fire burning inside her somewhere.”

Ellie

Kevin

Corrie

Chris

Homer

Robyn

Fi

Lee

Themes/main ideas/ issues:

Change to environment

Change to life

Change to relationships

Change in personalities

Change to the way each of the teenagers viewed each other

Relationships between the teenagers

Settings:

After Common Day when the Wirrawee Show was on.

Town of Wirrawee

The concentration camp at the Wirrawee Showgrounds

“Hell” or an “Eden” of safety hidden by Satan’s Steps

Setting of first assault:

Mrs Alexander’s garden

Suspense created during the match-striking scene. They blew up the ride-on mower.

Ellie tired and worn out but must keep biking away from Mrs Alexander’s garden. SURVIVAL.

PAGE 95 HOMER STARTS TO SHOW LEADERSHIP QUALITIES.

THREW A COFFEE MUG AT THE BACK OF THE FIRE PLACE

ELLIE REALISES THAT SHE HAS CHANGED SO MUCH SHE COULD NOW MURDER. “Killed three people”

Change to how they are having to live to survive.

• Context is Homer speaking to them about how they are going to have to live.

• “…just got to become totally nocturnal and triple-check every move…we should get more supplies in and make it a proper headquarters…organising rations…living off the land… a guerrilla outfit.”

The morality of war• Robyn can understand why the neighbouring country

would want to invade. Australia hasn’t been prepared to share their natural resources.

• “We’ve got all this land and all these resources, and yet there’s countries a crow’s spit away that have people packed in like battery hens. You can’t blame them for resenting it.”

• “well that’s the way the cookie crumbles,” says Kevin.• “In fact it looks like they are taking the whole packet!”

Robyn replied.• “If you’ve lived your life in a slum, starving, unemployed,

always ill, and you saw the people across the road sunbaking and eating ice cream … then you’d convince yourself that taking their wealth and sharing it around …isn’t such a terrible thing to do… There doesn’t have to be a wrong side or a right side. Both sides can be wrong.”

The Hermit from Hell represents someone who had to escape from

society because they had been misunderstood.

He is someone who has been judged by society.

He has been accused of murdering his wife and child. He shot them in the head.

It turns out that there had been a fire and Bertram Christie [the hermit] had found his family either burned badly and needing to be put out of their misery, or about to be burnt with no escape.

He had been a war hero.

Change “Hell” - “the place was beautiful and I was with my friends and they were good people, we were coping OK with tough circumstances. There were lots of things to be unhappy about, but somehow the papers I’d read in the Hermit’s hut …had given me a better perspective on life.”

Hell is a human invention of the MIND. Not a geographic location. Guilt.

Ellie thought hard about what was “right” and “wrong”. She had to rely on the fact that she was different to those people who were ugly on the inside. A war criminal perhaps, but like the hermit, had been forced to commit crimes and murder because of the extreme circumstances she was faced with. “ I had a sense within me… to find the right thing to do – instinct, conscience, imagination.”

Robyn tells Ellie that the soldiers she had blown up had died. But she is Ok with it now. “It’s different from the movies,” Lee.

Relationships theme

• Ellie’s developing relationship with Lee.• Context/example from the text – was when Ellie

and Lee were asleep together in the haystack. They are talking about how things have changed and all the things that happened to them in such a short time. “Too many things – too much has happened”

• They are cuddling and Ellie tells him that she dreamed about him. They end up kissing passionately. Desperate times draws people together

Chris is someone that you can’t trust

• Chris falls to sleep when he is meant to be on sentry duty. Pg 161. “He’d risked the lives of all of us by being so slack.”

Change to their world/environment

• Context when Corrie tests the ‘tranny’ and stumbles onto a report about how their country had been invaded “many civilian and military prisoners have been captured”. “forces have occupied major coastal cities”. Pg 168

Change to the environment

• Context – example – evidence from Kevin and Robyn who have been in Wirrawee. “40 people have been killed.”

• “They keep talking about a ‘clean’ invasion. …They’re going to colonise the whole country with their own people, and all the farms will be split up between them, and we’ll just be allowed to do menial jobs, like cleaning lavs.”

• “Hey, we could end up being the nation!” Kevin.

Homer shows leadership and strategic thinking – blowing up the bridge. “It was a high risk plan but a brilliant one.” Ellie

Epilogue• Kevin – went from being macho, turned

out to being a wimp – blood-thirsty/scared – finally Ellie describes him as “Loyalty, courage and goodness” this is when he is looking after Corrie and takes her to the hospital.

• Fi – ends up reliable and wanting to be a “rural” making fence posts for the hens.

• Robyn continues to read her bible for understanding of her situation.

Essay questions for Extended Text.• Describe an idea that interested you in the text.

Explain why this idea interested you.• Describe an important place or period (time) in

the text. Explain why it was important.• Describe an important relationship in the text.

Explain why the relationship was important.• Describe a challenge faced by a character in the

text. Explain how the character dealt with the challenge.

• Describe an important incident in the text. Explain how it affected an important character.

Describe an interesting aspect of the text’s style (e.g. word choice, use of language features/ techniques, structure or layout of the text This is NOT a question which you should try to answer in an exam.

Describe a problem that a character faces. Explain how successful the character is in solving it.

Describe a place or an object. Explain why it is important.

Describe a theme that interests you. Explain what you think about it.

Describe an event that surprised you. Explain why the event is important.

Briefly describe One important scene or event in your novel. Explain why it is important.

Describe how a character faced pressure. Explain how he or she coped with it.

Describe a character in conflict in your text. Explain how this conflict is resolved. Robyn’s religious beliefs and her ability to understand why the soldiers had invaded (sharing resources) with morality of killing to save friends’ lives. Ellie and the morality of war.

Describe a dominant personality and the effect that person has in the text.

Describe the most important relationship in your text. Explain how this relationship influences events.

Describe the most important thing that happened to a main character in your text. Explain, with detailed reasons, why it was important.

Describe the main challenge to a major character in your text and explain, giving detailed examples, how the character responded to this challenge.

Explain an important idea in your text and give detailed reasons as to why it was important.

Describe an important decision that a main character had to make. Explain what effect this decision had on the people OR events of the text you studied.

Describe an idea that interested you in the text. Explain why this idea interested you.

Describe a challenge faced by a character in the text. Explain how the character dealt with the challenge.

Describe a problem that a character faces. Explain how successful the character is in solving it.

Describe how a character faced pressure. Explain how he or she coped with it.

2004 Choose ONE topic.Write at least 200 words for your answer.Support your points with specific details from the text.Make sure you ANSWER BOTH PARTS of each question. Each part is equally important to help you show understanding of the text.1. Describe an impressive character or individual in the text.Explain why he or she is impressive. 2. Describe an inspiring idea in the text.Explain why this idea inspired you. 3. Describe an important event in the text.Explain how this event helped you understand an important idea (or ideas) in the text. 4. Describe a significant relationship in the text.Explain why this relationship was significant. 5. Describe a major change in a character or individual in the text.Explain why this change was important. 6. Describe an exciting event in the text.Explain why this event was exciting.

TOPICS (Choose ONE) Describe a choice made by a character or individual in the text. Explain how this choice brought about a change in that character or individual. Describe an important idea you learned about in the text. Explain why this idea was worth learning about. Describe an experience or event that was important to a character or individual in the text. Explain why this experience or event was important to that character or individual. Describe an important time or place in the text. Explain why this time or place is important in the text. Describe a strong relationship between at least TWO characters or individuals in the text. Explain how this relationship helped you understand these characters or individuals. Describe an important scene or event at (or near) the beginning of the text. Explain how this scene or event helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text.

2005 TOPICS (Choose ONE) 1. Describe a memorable setting in the text. Explain how this setting helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text. 2. Describe a situation or event in the text that shocked or surprised you. Explain how this situation or event helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text. 3. Describe an important change that happened in the text. Explain how this change helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text. 4. Describe a challenge faced by a character in the text. Explain how the challenge helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text. 5. Describe an important scene at (or near) the end of the text. Explain how this scene helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text. 6. Describe an important conflict in the text. Explain how this conflict helped you understand an idea (or ideas) in the text.