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S2 Critical essay on ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’

Name:

How well does Michelle Magorian present the theme of overcoming challenges in her novel Goodnight Mister Tom?

Introduction
Include the title of the book and name of the author
Say who the main characters are
Write a brief summary of what happens
Say at the end what you will write about in the main part of your essay

The novel ‘Goodnight Mister Tom is written by Michelle Magorian and is a very ……………… book. The main characters are ……………… and ………………… and in the novel [explain what happens in the story]
In this essay I am going to write about…………

Paragraph 1
Write about Willie’s challenges
How he overcomes his inability to read and write.
How he gains confidence and trust in people.

Throughout the book Willie has to overcome many different challenges. One of these challenges is that ……………
This means that he has to go move to the infant’s class at school. He tells Mister Tom ‘I’m with the babies.’ Willie feels [think of one or two describing words here] about this.
However, with the help of ……………… and …………………… Willie soon starts to learn how to read and write. Mister Tom tells Willie, ‘You’ve jest written yer name, boy.’ This is after Mister Tom has helped Willie to write each letter out carefully. Now that Willie is starting to overcome this challenge he feels [think of one or two describing words].
Another one of Willie’s challenges is that he is very low in confidence and does not trust people easily. This is because …………………… A quote which shows us this is when Willie first arrives at Mister Tom’s and ‘with shaking fingers Willie undid his belt and buttons.’ This shows us that Willie is feeling extremely [think of one or two describing words]. However, later on Willie begins to …………… and ………………… When he visits his mum in London she is surprised at how much Willie has changed. ‘Mrs Beech was stunned. Her son had answered her back. He had actually disagreed with her.’ This quote shows us

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