Preview

essay writing on 10pm question

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
280 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
essay writing on 10pm question
Choose one of the central motifs used in the text and explain how it helps us understand the central issues.

The importance of individuality against normality.

“The 10pm Question” is an award-winning, young adult novel written by Kate De Goldi.
Set in New Zealand, the book explores the life of a 12 year old boy Frankie Parsons with a voice of anxiety that is constantly forming questions inside his head. After the arrival of a new girl at school, Frankie’s routine shaped life is turned upside down and he is forced to confront the 10pm question that he has been reluctant to ask. While the book explores numerous themes, one concept is very clear throughout the text, the importance of individuality against normality.

“Do you think I’m normal?” he said in a rush. “What is normal?” sighed Ma. (pg.7)
This quotation is a bold example of the main characters thoughts on normality, whilst Frankie requires reassurance to believe that he can be categorised as normal, Ma makes a central point in which she voices the doubt of there being any normality at all.
The simplicity of the words used, help the reader elaborate on the feelings felt by the characters, although Frankie fears being unusual or odd, Ma feels as though the meaning of normality has been altered and in reality there is in fact no way that a judgement can be made.
The use of the word normal is utilised in order to confront current issues faced by young adults, the way in which society is being forced to function under a set of standards that compel young adults to limit their individuality and sense of self.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Cosi, Louis Nowra forces the audience to question what it means to be “normal”. Explain.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Abnormality is very difficult to define. It can be hard to decide where normal behaviour ends and abnormal behaviour begins”…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Write two to three sentences each briefly addressing the implications of these events in the novel. Use attached sheet of lined…

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    She decides, “It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can't see who you are. It is better to lead than to follow.” (p.345). Frankie makes this empowering decision when her boyfriend breaks up with her. She did not let the breakup get to her and after a few days determined to cut out anyone in her life who tries to make her become someone she’s not. She realizes her attempts to fit into her boyfriend's crowd of friends were ridiculous and that she was not made to follow someone else’s way of life. Frankie uses her newfound inner strength to further take control of her life and create her own path during her remaining time at…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    McCourt encourages the reader to reexamine his/her relationships with others through his portrayal of Frankie. Although his father, Malachy, “drinks the dole money” forcing his mother “to beg … and ask for credit” (McCourt 208), Frankie is able to forgive his father and appreciate the positive aspects of Malachy’s character. With the justification that his “father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the prayer, the one at night with the stories, and the one who does the bad things” (210), the boy enables himself to evaluate the good in his father and ignore the disagreeable aspects of their relationship. As a result, Frankie is able to love his father for the time that they spend together, especially in the mornings…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Horses of the Night

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Most people don’t like talking about this kind of thing- it embarrasses them, you know? Or else they’re not interested. I don’t mind. I can always think about things myself. You don’t need anyone to talk to.” (pg. 298)…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who Owns the Ice House

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages

    1.) What did you find to be some key themes in this book? (Please list and describe at least 4).…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although in some parts there are feelings of panic and nervousness, which is experienced by Madge as she walks past beds looking for her lover, and also jealousy which Sarah feels when Madge and her lover plan on what to do on his leave. The writer cleverly uses the terms ‘green' and ‘hairy' implying Sarah was beginning to turn into a jealous monster. The writer includes these feelings again as a contradiction, this time between the feelings of the two girls and the rest of the men. As the reader, we are torn, not knowing whose feelings to trust and leaving us vulnerable in a way.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How funny it is, to think we could ever really know another human being. Oh we muddle through all right, mostly in peace, at some level of adequacy but you never have a clue as to what exactly is going on in anybody’s head, or as to why another person does anything. Nobody understands anybody, heck, nobody understands themselves. I doubt our minds could even grasp the whole truth about anything, let alone a person. One mind can only think up its own questions and biases; it rarely surprises itself. Our mental frameworks are never quite perfect, everything’s blurrier and everyone’s uglier up close. This is correspondingly illustrated by Director Sofia Coppola’s film, The Virgin Suicides, a town where ideas are real and reality is shadow. She…

    • 1849 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Harrison Bergeron, normality is what everyone strives/pushes others to be. The government took away what made a person special from them because everyone believing that everybody should act normal. Also, the handicaps and the sense of always being watched makes it hard to act as is everything’s normal, and live a normal life. Lastly, the future and their ways/actions have evolved. The standard for normal is different now. In today’s society, with everyone thinking that everyone should be normal, people tend to push their criticism and bashing on others in some ways. In today’s world, people will look at you like your crazy, or talk about you if you act different making it difficult to live a normal life. Although they want it to be normal, normal is different these days, everyone is special in their own…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Truth About Sharks

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Theme – Find on quote from the novel to prove the theme. Include the page number.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    'School' By Peter Cowan

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The text information in Peter Cowan's short story School, has been constructed in a way that we as the reader can interpret it in countless more ways than what it may mean on a surface level. Cowan limits the information of the text to allow the reader to form their own meaning. The text does not provide complete information about the boy in the story; it merely implies that he is feeling alienated and depressed. There is no text information that unambiguously explains that the boy is feeling alienated and excluded. In the last paragraph, the boy's difficulty is described by, 'He looked at the symbols on the paper and they blurred and made no pattern.' In this sentence, we assume that he does not understand the work, but this is only inferred. This text can be analysed as being limited in text information; to interpret it, the reader has to make assumptions of the omitted information.…

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Normality Of Social Norms

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages

    We judge people on their normal and abnormal behavior but where is the line between them. Societal normalcy is to behave in an acceptable and in a similar manner as everyone else. Psychological normalcy is simply to be without a mental disorder. However, both of these definitions have extreme variances. This blurs the line of normal and abnormal. So the question is asked, what is “normal,” and to what extent is psychology reliant on culture to define this? What creates these norms, how beneficial is a sense of normalcy, and how has societal and psychological normalcy changed over time?…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Super Normal, from a conceptual point of view, leans on an intentional and extraordinary ambivalence (Fukasawa & Morrison, 2012, p.1). Specifically, based on the terminology, it could be taken both as an oxymoron that ‘super’ opposes ‘normal’, means ‘beyond’; or a concept of absolute superlative in which the Super Normal determines the superlative of ‘normal’ to its greatest degree in its ontological form. Although the etymology of what is considered to be ‘normal’ relates to ‘ordinary’ with no features, in the context of what Fukusawa and Morrison defined, Super Normal are not ‘normal’ any more by making them so ‘normal’. They become both ‘normal’ and ‘exceptional’, pushing the norm to the boundaries of the possible, and introjecting the paradoxical…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He stopped for a while and then spoke again “to explain this motive, I would like to give you a parable. You must have seen young children. Many times they wake up at night and cry so that their mother can feed them. But the mother, despite that the milk feeders are nearby, don’t give them. Similarly an ill child would time and again ask for prohibited foods but parents don’t listen to them. They wish to run on the road, to play with the knives. But the parents turn down their all requests. Why?”…

    • 796 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays