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Tomorrow When the War Began- John Marsden

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Tomorrow When the War Began- John Marsden
Tomorrow when the war began- John Marsden
Novel essay.
“Tomorrow When The War Began” by John Marsden, is a novel of survival, friendship, love and war. He uses many language techniques (e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, oxymoron, irony, symbol, allusion etc.) to get across to the reader the importance of each of the themes discussed. He also uses these techniques to set the mood in each chapter and to help emphasise each major point in the novel. “We’ve learnt a lot and had to figure out what’s important- what matters, what really matters.”- Ellie

Survival in “Tomorrow When The War Began” is a very important issue. The whole novel is about Ellie and friends learning to become independent and to fend for themselves in a world of violence and disaster. With there families and loved ones in capture, the team of troubled teenagers must fight to stay alive and kill, or be killed. John Marsden uses a variety of narrative devices to convey the meaning of survival and the worth of life itself to Ellie and her friends. He uses techniques like symbolism to represent a characters status or position in the book. E.g. Ellie was chosen to start the book off, because she is the main character, so the author wants the reader to be informed about her first of all, with her writing about there series of unfortunate events that make up the whole rest of the novel. He also uses imagery very well, by describing each event in clear detail to emphasise the way the characters are feeling, and the mood of the place they are at etc. E.g. “In the house, nothing was wrong, and that was wrong. There was no sign of life at all. Everything was neat and tidy. At that time of day there should have been food spread out on the kitchen table, there should have been dishes in the sink, the TV should have been chattering in the background. But all was silent. Corrie opened the door behind me and came in quietly. ‘Jesus what’s happened’ she said, not as a question. The tone of her voice

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