A Level English Language and Literature (EMC) H474/03 Reading as a writer, writing as a reader MARK SCHEME

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Wednesday 13 October 2021 – Afternoon A Level English Language and Literature (EMC) H474/03 Reading as a writer, writing as a reader MARK SCHEME Duration: 2 hours MAXIMUM MARK 64 Post Standard... isation Version Last updated: 22.10.21 This document consists of 30 pagesH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 2 1. Annotations Annotation Meaning Blank Page – this annotation must be used on all blank pages within an answer booklet (structured or unstructured) and on each page of an additional object where there is no candidate response. Positive Recognition Assessment Objective 1 Assessment Objective 2 Assessment Objective 3 Assessment Objective 4 Assessment Objective 5 Attempted or insecure Analysis Detailed Effect Expression Link Answering the question View Relevant but broad, general or implicitH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 3H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 4 Subject-specific marking instructions Candidates answer one question from Section A and two question parts from Section B. Assessment objectives AO1, AO2 and AO3 are assessed in Section A. Assessment objectives AO1, AO2 and AO5 are assessed in Section B. For each section the level descriptors are organised with the dominant assessment objective first. The question-specific guidance on the tasks provide an indication of what candidates are likely to cover in terms of AOs 1, 2, 3 and 5. The guidance and indicative content are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive: candidates should be rewarded for any relevant response which appropriately addresses the Assessment Objectives. INTRODUCTION Your first task as an Examiner is to become thoroughly familiar with the material on which the examination depends. This material includes: • the specification, especially the assessment objectives • the question paper and its rubrics • the texts which candidates have studied • the mark scheme. You should ensure that you have copies of these materials. You should ensure also that you are familiar with the administrative procedures related to the marking process. These are set out in the OCR booklet Instructions for Examiners. Please ask for help or guidance whenever you need it. Your first point of contact is your Team Leader. Awarding Marks (i) Each section is worth 32 marks. (ii) Section A has one question worth 32 marks. Section B has two questions which added together are worth a maximum of 32 marks. (iii) In Section B question 3 is worth 18 marks and question 4 is worth 14 marks. Mark each question and then add the marks together for a total mark out of 32. For each answer, award a single overall mark out of 32, following this procedure: • refer to the question-specific Guidance for Higher and Lower response and indicative content • using ‘best fit’, make a holistic judgement to locate the answer in the appropriate level descriptor • place the answer precisely within the level and determine the appropriate mark out of 32 considering the relevant AOs • bear in mind the weighting of the AOs, and place the answer within the level and award the appropriate mark out of 32 • if a candidate does not address one of the assessment objectives targeted they cannot achieve all of the marks in the given level.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 5 Mark positively. Use the lowest mark in the level only if the answer is borderline /doubtful. Use the full range of marks, particularly at the top and bottom ends of the mark range. When the complete script has been marked: • if necessary, follow the instructions concerning rubric infringements; • add together the two marks out of 32, to arrive at the total mark for the script out of 64. Rubric Infringement Candidates might infringe the rubric in one of the following ways: • only answering one question • answering two questions from Section A or one from Section B • answering more than two questions. If a candidate has written three or more answers, mark all answers and award the highest mark achieved in each Section of the paper. These are the Assessment Objectives for the English Language and Literature specification as a whole. AO1 Apply concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate, using associated terminology and coherent written expression. AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of contexts in which texts are produced and received. AO4 Explore connections across texts informed by linguistic and literary concepts and methods. AO5 Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English to communicate in different ways.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 8 WEIGHTING OF ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES The relationship between the units and the assessment objectives of the scheme of assessment is shown in the following table: Component % of A Level AO1 AO2 AO3 AO4 AO5 Total Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts (01) 4% 3% 4% 5% 0% 16% The language of poetry and plays (02) 9% 12% 8.5% 2.5% 0% 32% Reading as a writer, writing as a reader (03) 9% 11% 5% 0% 7% 32% Independent study: analysing and producing texts (04) 3% 4% 2.5% 4.5% 6% 20% Total: 25% 30% 20% 12% 13% 100% USING THE MARK SCHEME Study this Mark Scheme carefully. The Mark Scheme is an integral part of the process that begins with the setting of the question paper and ends with the awarding of grades. Question Papers and Mark Schemes are developed in association with each other so that issues of differentiation and positive achievement can be addressed from the very start. This Mark Scheme is a working document; it is not exhaustive; it does not provide ‘correct’ answers. The Mark Scheme can only provide ‘best guesses’ about how the question will work out, and it is subject to revision after we have looked at a wide range of scripts. The Examiners’ Standardisation Meeting will ensure that the Mark Scheme covers the range of candidates’ responses to the questions, and that all Examiners understand and apply the Mark Scheme in the same way. The Mark Scheme will be discussed and amended at the meeting, and administrative procedures will be confirmed. Co-ordination scripts will be issued at the meeting to exemplify aspects of candidates’ responses and achievements; the co-ordination scripts then become part of this Mark Scheme. Before the Standardisation Meeting, you should read and mark in pencil a number of scripts, in order to gain an impression of the range of responses and achievement that may be expected. In your marking, you will encounter valid responses which are not covered by the Mark Scheme: these responses must be credited. You will encounter answers which fall outside the ‘target range’ of Bands for the paper which you are marking. Please mark these answers according to the marking criteria. Please read carefully all the scripts in your allocation and make every effort to look positively for achievement throughout the ability range. Always be prepared to use the full range of marks.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 9 Section A - Reading as a writer The weightings for the assessment objectives are: AO2 6% AO1 5% AO3 5% Total 16% In Section A the dominant assessment objective is AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Answers will also be assessed for AO1 and AO3. Answers should explore how meanings are shaped by analysing the author’s use of narrative techniques (AO2). They should develop a coherent argument, using relevant concepts and methods from linguistic and literary study and associated terminology (AO1). Answers should be developed with reference to literary and generic contexts (AO3). The criteria below are organised to reflect the order of the dominant assessment objectives. A response that does not address any one of the three assessment objectives targeted cannot achieve all of the marks in the given level. Level 6: 27-32 marks AO2 Excellent, fully developed and detailed critical analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Excellent application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Consistently coherent and fluent written expression and apt and consistent use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Perceptive understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are produced and received.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 10 Level 5: 22 - 26 marks AO2 Clear and well developed critical analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Secure application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Consistently clear written expression and appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Clear and relevant understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are produced and received. Level 4: 17 - 21 marks AO2 Competent analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Competent application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Generally clear written expression and mainly appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Some understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are produced and received. Level 3: 12 - 16 marks AO2 Some analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Some application of relevant concepts and methods selected appropriately from integrated linguistic and literary study. Generally clear written expression with occasional inconsistencies and some appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Some awareness of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are produced and received.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 11 Level 2: 7 - 11 marks AO2 Limited analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Limited attempt to apply relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study appropriately. Some inconsistent written expression and limited use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Limited awareness of the significance and influence of the context in which texts are produced and received. Level 1: 1 - 6 marks AO2 Very little analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. AO1 Very little attempt to apply relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study appropriately. Inconsistent written expression and little use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO3 Very little awareness of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are produced and received. 0 marks: no response or response not worthy of credit.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 12 Question Response Marks Guidance 1 How does the writer of your text make use of any one important character in shaping the narrative? You should range across the text to explore how your chosen character is used to shape the narrative, the function they play in the novel as a whole, and the broader generic context. A higher level response (levels 4 – 6) will: AO2 Explore the ways the writer uses an important character, going beyond the most obvious features, and giving a strong sense of the role played within the novel as a whole. AO1 Use vocabulary, terminology and narrative concepts appropriately, to analyse the ways in which an important character is used in the novel. Express ideas coherently and fluently, with a wide vocabulary. AO3 Show an understanding of the literary and generic context, using this knowledge to illuminate 32 The indicative content shows an integrated approach to AO2 and AO1 with additional guidance for AO3. Depending on the text studied, candidates may discuss: Jane Eyre AO2 and AO1 Most will choose Jane, as the character who arranges the narrative and settles our view of all the other characters. Answers are likely to show the importance of such a character, operating with the key quality of hindsight, in a Bildungsroman presented from the autobiographical standpoint. Some may select Mr Rochester, as the Byronic hero/villain with a slowly emerging past, the character whose dilemma and moral decisions shape his life, and Jane’s, and force her out onto the moor and into her great dilemmas in the novel’s final section. St John and Helen would be brave choices, but an answer could be sustained by suggesting each offers a higher – or at least a more unworldly – lifestyle than is available to Jane. A colonial reading, or second-wave feminist reading of the novel (or both), might be sustained by explaining the structural importance of Bertha. All of these characters except the last offer usual individuating effects in their speech which might be picked up and analysed by candidates. AO3 The plot is shaped by Mr Rochester’s half-hidden delinquency, not so much by Jane’s candour. This and the semi-repressed nature of other female voices may suggest Charlotte Brontë is driven by pre-feminist concerns. Some will show that the book has many qualities of folklore and even fairy-tale, attractive to an early Victorian audience, darkly shadowing those ‘leading characters’ of literary fairy-tale Bluebeard and, more positively, Cinderella. The Great Gatsby AO2 and AO1 Most will choose Gatsby, that walking contradiction, the Platonic idea of success who is also a cheap bootlegger. Nick’s admiration of him, which grows as his understanding of the character deepens, reveals a Gatsby backstory (which largely shapes the novel) in which he has been soldier, anglophile, Romantic obsessive, pioneer and compiler of his own ‘poor Richard’ conduct books. The novel seamlessly integrates these significant paradoxes in itsH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 13 their discussion of the role of the important character in the novel. mixture of celebration and satire. Nick, the shrewd but generous disciple, provides the book’s viewpoint and may be another interesting choice as ‘leading character’. Some are likely to choose Daisy: look for interest in her structural importance, not simply focus on ‘women’s issues’. AO3 Gatsby represents the Mid-Westerner made good through communing with nature and the Protestant virtues, especially in the sequence where he works for Dan Cody; he also represents what Gertrude Stein famously called the ‘lost generation’, whose ideals were shaped by their bit-part in World War One. He is also a generous but not always effectual host, facilitating the dash and gluttony of the ‘roaring twenties’. Daisy is the pre-war fairytale heiress who lacks vim to move forward completely into the novel’s contemporary time of flappers. Nick may be seen as a voice of the Modernist novel, a ‘limited’ narrator who makes a virtue of his limitations, and especially of what he does not securely know. Things Fall Apart AO2 and AO1 Okonkwo, a great if violent man in traditional Igbo society, cannot adapt to the profound changes brought about by the coming of the European missionaries to Nigeria and later to British colonial rule. Candidates are likely to choose him as the ‘important character’ as Achebe conceives him as a tribal equivalent to the protagonist in Greek Tragedy. The nemesis of the novel is brought about by a combination of changing situation and his inflexible personality. There are powerful linguistic contrasts throughout the novel between Okonkwo’s tumultuous feelings and the simple language, often following Igbo rather than English syntax, with which Achebe describes them. AO3 Achebe’s depiction of Okonkwo sees him return to his native community after a seven year exile. Throughout the novel the reader is forced to slot his calculated savagery (particularly the slaughter of Ikefuma) into a wider context of tribal culture and clan need. Essentially a tragic victim of the ‘noble and harmful’ machismo of the tribe, Okonkwo is unable to judge the significance of the coming of the white missionaries, or their impact on his society. Essentially an heroic, unreflecting man, he is prepared to live and die by a superseded creed of violence. Look for reasonable security in discussing theories of tragedy, shouldH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 14 candidates introduce them. The God of Small Things AO1 and AO2 It seems reasonable to allow candidates to argue that the male and female twins are of equal structural importance: Esta experiencing the darkness behind bland surface appearances (the orangedrink lemondrink man) and shielding his sister from the dangerous edge of things until quite late in the novel, when their rather perfunctory incestuous lovemaking provides all the novel can offer by way of closure. Some candidates will feel that Rahul’s female role is increasingly and pointedly as a viewpoint character in a novel where viewpoint is famously serendipitous, and she gives it what coherence it may have as a Bildungsroman. Many feel she also provides the novel with a narrative coherence it may not otherwise possess. Some may feel the novel’s refusal to appoint a ‘viewpoint’ is part of its post-colonial intention. AO3 The convent-educated ‘Baby’ Kochamma (a very calculating adult) symbolizes the mischievous and manipulative side of Indian domestic life; the same is partly true of the Eurasian Sophie Mol, who lives in quietly discontented stillness at the heart of the novel, half-Indian, half-English, effortlessly impressive yet widely resented (like memories of the Raj) and reaching out to most of the novel’s characters without ever making satisfactory contact with them. Velutha, the lower-caste dalit who captivates the twins and makes love to their mother, and who is beaten to death for it, focuses Roy’s exploration of the resilience and cruelty of the caste system in modern India. Atonement AO1 and AO2 It is likely candidates will choose Briony Tallis as the most significant character: her lively imagination generates the novel’s dark plot. She even invents a post-Dunkirk meeting with Robbie and Cecilia which serves to consolidate rather than expunge her guilt. This suggests both the power and limitations of the novelist and novel. Briony’s career as an accomplished writer, drawing the attention of luminaries like Cyril Connolly, forms the book’s picture frame. Her structural importance is to explore the painful border between art and life, between the things we can shape or change and those we can’t. Some may feel Robbie, victim of theH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 15 class system and one of the unsung heroes of Dunkirk, makes the sacrifices Briony only guiltily wishes for. Cecilia, a more generous, less self-contained figure than Briony, spends most of the novel straying from one marginal role to another, before she chooses nursing as a profession and is killed in an air raid. Candidates may feel she expresses the plight of women more sharply than the successful novelist Briony, and she stands by Robbie when Briony and class prejudice bring him down. The graphic account of his retreat from Dunkirk features a panicked scramble and strafing by Stukas rather than the more familiar orderly wait on the beach. Candidates who select Robbie as their important character may claim he attracts most of the tragic, gory writing. These bullet-torn sequences at the heart of the book suggest the glamour of Tallis House was never more than a knowing illusion. AO3 It is possible to see in the juxtaposition of the 1935 and 1940 settings an allegory of Britain’s already failing Empire. Tallis House sustains the class system by letting the molester get off scot-free. On the road to Dunkirk officers fall victim to their own hysterical soldiers in an apparently un-English way. There is also a tendency for Briony to write more brutally, and more directly, about the unpleasant outcomes of her error, while continuing to drape the swimming pool and terrace in the glamour (and symbolism) of memory. The Namesake AO1 and AO2 Lahiri’s prose unfolds in the present tense, is unambitious, ‘arms-length’ and nonjudgmental, but insists on the importance of Ashoke’s experience of the train-wreck, and the way this becomes a critical determinant in the life of his son. Most will choose the focaliser, Gogol, as their ‘important character’, but there may well be reference to the way his unlikely bond with Ashoke straddles the two cultures as the son seeks to groom his own cultural ‘overcoat’, partly handed on by his father. Lahiri is writing something like a modern picaresque novel, the narrator’s explanations serving as a guide to his part-embracement part-rejection of Bengali culture. Gogol is a particularly interesting viewpoint character because he is not always sure of the ground himself. Some may pick Gogol’s mother, Ashima, as their ‘important character’, as she is more absorbed with the need for Bengali family, friends and cultural reassurance than the males. AO3H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 16 Gogol defines himself (more than his family does) against the liberal cultural shift in America in the 60s and 70s. When he changes his name, he compares himself to ‘revolutionaries and transvestites’. Eventually he embraces the Bengali cult of arranged marriage, only to find he’s linked with a Francophile wife engaged in serial adulterous relationships. Indeed, she is so thoroughly ‘westernised’ she comes to detest him as a link to a Bengali world ‘that is slowly dying.’ Gogol chooses to study architecture as a change from favoured immigrant subjects like Medicine Law or Science, turning out to show some aesthetic flair. Question Response Marks Guidance 2 In what ways does the writer of your text make lexical choices? You should range across the text to explore how lexical choices contribute to narrative effect, the function that different registers play in the novel as a whole, and the broader generic context. A higher level response (levels 4 – 6) will: AO2 Explore the ways the writer makes lexical choices, going beyond the most obvious features, and giving a strong sense of the role played within the novel as a whole. 32 The indicative content shows an integrated approach to AO2 and AO1 with additional guidance for AO3. Depending on the text studied, candidates may discuss: Jane Eyre 2. Lexical Choice AO2 and AO1 Brontë’s choice of language suits the form in which she is writing: an early Victorian bildungsroman focusing the views and feelings of her first person protagonist. By modern standards the language seems quite literary, reflecting that Brontë is a first time novelist who has read very widely. This is especially prominent in the phrasing of Rochester’s speeches: ‘Ladies, keep off! or I’ll wax dangerous!’ Some of the language is notably Gothic, such as ‘swift darting beam’ or ‘preternatural voice’, and reference is made to ‘a North-of-England spirit’ called the ‘Gytrash’; some wording anticipates modern feminism, ‘women feel just as men feel’; and some is unashamedly hyperbolic, as when Jane describes her feelings for Rochester as ‘pure gold, with a steely point of agony’. For a strong performance, candidates will need to show how the various linguistic registers contribute to the novel’s constantly changing and developing structure and explore the wider structure of Jane’s life. AO3H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 17 AO1 Use vocabulary, terminology and narrative concepts appropriately, to analyse the ways in which lexical choice is made in the novel. Express ideas coherently and fluently, with a wide vocabulary. AO3 Show an understanding of the literary and generic context, using this knowledge to illuminate their discussion of lexical choice in the novel. A lower level response (levels 1 to 3) will: AO2 Identify and list some ways in which the writer uses lexical choice. AO1 Use some appropriate vocabulary and narrative concepts to analyse the ways in which lexical choice is made in the novel. Expression is clear but may lack precision. AO3 Show limited understanding of the literary and generic context in relation to lexical choice. Changes in register often reflect the novel’s changing contexts: Romantic diction to convey the escapism of Jane’s paintings, comfortless descriptors for Gateshead, portentous Gothic wording to suggest the secrets of Thornfield, bleak language to convey the ‘Canadian’ temperatures at Lowood’, imagery of fire and smouldering furze to express the intensity of Jane’s passion, and also the irregular energies of Bertha. The evangelical movement figures bleakly in the book’s language: Mr Brocklehurst is a ‘black pillar’, St John ‘not flesh, but marble’. Some will show that Jane’s choice of words reflects her character: a mixture of Puritan restraint and the intensity of strong Puritan feeling. The Great Gatsby 2. Lexical Choice AO2 and AO1 Nick Carraway’s narrative undercuts the consumerist pretensions of New York and its environs, ‘the huge wet barnyard of Long Island Sound’, and is almost always inventive in its use of language. He tells us he was ‘rather literary’ in College. One of his most striking descriptive sequences is listing the confused ethnicities of the guests at Gatsby’s party, with their evocatively imprecise European names. Another is the powdery symbolism that invokes the Valley of Ashes, which candidates often point out recalls T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. But Nick’s choice of vocabulary also reflects the dreams of this place and these people: the trembling green light on Daisy’s dock, for instance, or the novel’s evocation of the first vision of New York, with ‘all the mystery and the beauty in the world’. The choice of language in this novel is so rich and varied that any engaged and well-illustrated response will be appropriate, as long as concentration is on words rather than themes and symbols, and there is an attempt to show how choice of lexis develops narrative. AO3 The novel’s contexts fall during the Jazz Age after World War One, with a new York drinking set making the prohibition laws look ridiculous: the atmosphere is thus a mixture of enchantment and brazenness, and the language reflects this, with Gatsby,H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 18 both hero and victim, sucking ‘on the pap of life, [gulping] down the incomparable milk of wonder.’ Look for some sensitivity to the satirical tone of the writing (smiles full of money) but also how language is used to celebrate the charm of New York culture at a uniquely charismatic moment. Good answers will pick up both tendencies, much as the spare language of Gatsby’s 1906 ‘Schedule’ leads into the magnificently lyrical and lugubrious final pages. Things Fall Apart 2. Lexical Choice AO2 and AO1 Achebe seems to confine the language of the novel to what can be brought back into his native Igbo, so the words used are often simple and familiar, suiting an oral culture with basic husbandry. Candidates will need to demonstrate how this deliberate limitation of effect operates, both to seal the limits of parochial pre-colonial culture in Nigeria, and to point up gaps in the range of thought and feeling, especially when it comes to bringing its past to life. There is also a tendency to underwrite moments of disaster: ‘One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself.’ Similar understatement haunts the book’s most tragic moment, when Okonkwo cuts down Ikemefuna with a matchet: ‘He was afraid of being thought weak.’ AO3 In some ways the novel’s choice of lexis anticipates the predicament of an emerging literature in a world increasingly dominated by the major European languages. Achebe uses very few words of his native Igbo, though a few are used to designate the Gods early in the book. Thereafter the European words of the missionaries and colonists hold sway. Some will point out that many of the words given to the Europeans are instructions or orders. Many will be intrigued by the fact that Okonkwo is a tragic hero without big tragic speeches, in a novel that respects the tribal Gods by greeting them in the book’s few words of untranslated Igbo. TheH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 19 words don’t change very much when the missionaries come, followed by the British, except there are snatches European dialogue (mainly orders, barked in an imperative mood) and finally the journalistic impulses of the British District Commissioner in the book’s closing paragraphs. The God of Small Things 2. Lexical Choice AO1 and AO2 The freedom and variety of the novel’s various prose registers are sometimes argued to express the complex problems of communication problems of the multilingual India (or Indias) that have emerged since the Raj, reflecting the author’s own linguistic experience. ‘Malayalam’ dialect words (often insulating the twins in their own private linguistic world) alternate with the still-current lingua franca of India, English, which is often used with administrative impersonality, ‘for practical purposes’ and sometimes unfortunately for purposes of snobbery and oneupmanship. As in many post-colonial novels written in English the majority languages of India are largely silent, building up the sense of a hidden wall of sound, never fully comprehensible to the reader, for in this book: ‘They were all Anglophiles.’ AO3 Roy’s novel uses many linguistic registers, of which the child’s talk, the fluent and officious language left over from the Raj, and the lush, repetitive rather belle-lettrist descriptions, with their overpowering contrasts of scent, sound and colour, are some of the most obvious. Many will suggest the cornucopia of language directly suggests the largeness and strangeness of India as a setting. Some of this writing is very lavish, and may be deliberately over-written for effect. Many will feel there is a pervasive sense of cultural instability when the dominant language, English, is used,H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 20 not least in wisdom drawn from the dictionary (‘Place suitably in particular order’) or in unusual insults (on the Subcontinent) such as ‘Soviet Stooge’. Atonement 2. Lexical Choice AO1 and AO2 The early scenes at the Tallis family home in the 30s are full of a rich stylized language that suggests other novelists of the time – explicitly Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen. Some of the vocabulary is deliberately chosen to evoke the clumsy experiments of an early adolescent writer, such as the extract from Briony’s play: ‘This is a tale of spontaneous Arabella/Who ran off with an extrinsic fellow’. Description dwells on the home’s lavish theme-park qualities, ‘the hovering stillness of nothing much seeming to happen’. Word-choice in the retreat to Dunkirk sequence is much more abrupt and purposeful (‘his wound, thirst, the blister, tiredness, the heat, the aching in his feet and legs, the Stukas, the distance, the Channel’) except when it is faintly surreal: you trudge in ‘tired iambic rhythm’ and pass a disembodied leg up a tree. Wording of the London sequence in the hospital is antiseptic: ‘Vacated lockers were scrubbed, mattresses fumigated, brass coathooks, door-knobs and keyholes were buffed.’ None of this competes, however, with the unsparing directness of bloody bandages and ‘missing portions of skull’. AO3 It is tempting to think the novel’s settings, and therefore the words used to describe them, provide an allegory of Britain’s decline in this period, especially the lushly written sequence of the broken vase and the way that setting is described with a subtle ache of nostalgia, as though the House had already been turned into a kind ofH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 21 theme-park. Candidates are likely to suggest that choice of words in the wartime scenes is much more functional. The last section, set in 1999, finds Briony a grand literary dame in a ‘comfortable chair’. The language of this section is arguably a little fatigued, marked by unassuaged guilt at the story she has been telling. The Namesake 2. Lexical Choice AO1 and AO2 As befits a bestseller serialised in The New Yorker, Lahiri’s prose is modern and functional, rarely drawing attention to itself. It belongs with the lifestyle of professional expatriates who live in an enclave of ultra-modern privilege. The language reflects an elite educated in a global literary culture, the prose-style losing distinctive ethnic colour as it comes to fit all tastes and needs. Lahiri’s point seems to be that what her characters hanker after is the lost colour of a half-remembered Bengal, but the language they use and that surrounds them is that of cosmopolitan America, flavoursome but ubiquitous. Gogol’s parents are unsettled that their children speak ‘perfect American’, but cannot read or write Bengali. The one moment Ashok speaks Bengali a symbolic hospital curtain is drawn between man and wife. One particular choice of language bulks large in the novel: Gogol’s choice of name. As a critic puts it: ‘Bengali nomenclature grants, to every single person, two names. In Bengali the word for pet name is daknam, meaning, literally, the name by which one is called, by friends, family, and other intimates.’ As a child, he associates his new name with a new identity, though he is not quite sure what it is. AO3 Lahiri uses the functional vocabulary of modern America to show how hard it is for immigrants to hold on to an ever fainter ethnic identity. Lahiri signals the inevitability of globalisation by describing the commitment of second generation Bengalis, like Gogol and Moushumi, to the mores of the sexual revolution, while showing a hunger for Bengali rituals and a more conservative lifestyle that can never be satisfiedH474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 22 without basic cultural building-blocks such as language and cuisine. Barely a word of Bengali features in the book from end to end, but the glib multi-culturalism of modern America (e.g. ‘Happy Holidays’) features throughout. The canny underwriting of this novel is often singled out by critics for particular praise.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 23 Section B – Writing as a reader The weightings for the assessment objectives are: Narrative writing: AO5 7% AO2 2% 9% Commentary: AO1 4% AO2 3% 7% Total: 16% In Section B Question 3 (a) Narrative writing the dominant assessment objective is AO5 Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English to communicate in different ways. Answers should also demonstrate understanding of how meanings are shaped in their original writing (AO2). A response that does not address one of the two assessment objectives targeted cannot achieve all of the marks in the given level. In Section B Question 3 (b) Commentary the dominant assessment objective is AO1 Apply concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate, using associated terminology and coherent written expression. Answers will also be assessed for AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. A response that does not address one of the two assessment objectives targeted cannot achieve all of the marks in the given level. Question 3(a) Narrative writing Level 6: 16–18 marks AO5 Flair, originality and a high degree of control demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Excellent, fully developed and detailed demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 5: 13–15 marks AO5 Control and creativity demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Clear and well developed demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 4: 10–12 marks AO5 Competence and engaging effects demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Competent demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 24 Level 3: 7–9 marks AO5 Some accuracy and attempt to create effects demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Some demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 2: 4–6 marks AO5 Limited accuracy and some attempt to create effects demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Some limited demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 1: 1–3 marks AO5 Little accuracy and little attempt to create effects demonstrated in the use of English to communicate in different ways. AO2 Very little demonstration of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. 0 marks: no response or response not worthy of credit.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 25 Question 3(b) Commentary Level 6: 13–14 marks AO1 Excellent application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Consistently coherent and fluent written expression and apt and consistent use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Excellent, fully developed and detailed critical analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 5: 10–12 marks AO1 Secure application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Consistently clear written expression and appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Clear and well developed critical analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 4: 7 –9 marks AO1 Competent application of relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study as appropriate. Generally clear written expression and mainly appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Competent analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 3: 5–6 marks AO1 Some application of relevant concepts and methods selected appropriately from integrated linguistic and literary study. Generally clear written expression with occasional inconsistencies and some appropriate use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Some analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 26 Level 2: 3–4 marks AO1 Limited attempt to apply relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study appropriately. Some inconsistent written expression and limited use of associated terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Limited analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. Level 1: 1–2 marks AO1 Very little attempt to apply relevant concepts and methods from integrated linguistic and literary study appropriately. Inconsistent written expression and little use of terminology relevant to the task and texts. AO2 Very little analysis of ways in which meanings are shaped in texts. 0 marks: no response or response not worthy of credit.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 27 Question Response Marks Guidance 3 Choose one of the storylines below. Write your narrative, masking your own choices about the story’s starting point and linguistic techniques. You are writing the opening to a narrative, and can use any one of the bullet points as the beginning of your story. You are not expected to write the full story and you are not required to use all six bullet points. You should write approximately 500 words. A higher level response (levels 4 to 6) will: AO5 Demonstrate expertise and creativity in its use of English to create an effective opening to a narrative that shows a high degree of control over the techniques that have been chosen. AO2 Demonstrate a sophisticated awareness of the ways in which meanings are shaped in narrative texts. A lower level response (levels 1 to 3) will: AO5 Show some ability to shape the opening to a narrative, drawing on some techniques that go beyond basic storytelling. AO2 Show some awareness of the ways in which meanings are shaped in narrative texts. 18 Candidates will use a range of different narrative techniques, drawn from their study of narrative texts for Section 1 in order to create the opening of a narrative of their own. They may draw selectively on techniques such as dialogue, description, evocation of setting and imagery and will choose a particular narrative voice, point of view, way of handling time and prose style. They will make their own choices to create an effective opening to a narrative. Note: Candidates are writing the opening to a narrative, and can start at any point, using any one of the bullet points as the beginning of their story. They are not expected to write the full story and are not required to use all six bullet points.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 28 Question Response Marks Guidance 4 Outline the key narrative and linguistic techniques you have used in your writing for Question 3. You should write approximately 250 words. A higher level response (levels 4 to 6) will: AO1 Apply concepts and methods from the study of narrative techniques, using relevant terminology and coherent written expression to convincingly show how techniques have been used in the Question 3(a) response. AO2 Effectively and convincingly analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in the Question 3(a) narrative writing response. A lower level response (levels 1 to 3) will: AO1 Identify some concepts and methods from the study of narrative techniques, using some terminology and clear written expression. AO2 Describe some ways in which meanings have been shaped in the Question 3 narrative writing response. 14 Candidates will be expected to explain and analyse the narrative techniques they have used in their own creative writing for Question 3. They will not be expected to write about connections between their writing and the text studied for Section 3 but rather to write about the narrative concepts and techniques they have adopted.H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 29 Appendix 1 Assessment Objective weightings are given as percentages. Assessment Objectives Grid Narrative text Question AO1% AO2% AO3% AO4% AO5% Total% 1 5 6 5 0 0 16% Totals 5% 6% 5% 0% 0% 16% Original writing Question AO1% AO2% AO3% AO4% AO5% Total% 2 0 2 0 0 7 9% 3 0 2 0 0 7 9% Totals 0% 2% 0% 0% 7% 9% Commentary Question AO1% AO2% AO3% AO4% AO5% Total% 4 4 3 0 0 0 7% Totals 4% 3% 0% 0% 0% 7%H474/03 Mark Scheme October 2021 30 [Show More]

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