Model Extended Response
Model extended response
This is the beginning of a model response to the question below. Read it carefully, and then attempt to finish it.
Question:
What new insights about her sense of belonging does Leah gain during her time in China?
How has the composer conveyed Leah’s new insights to the responder?
In The China Coin by Allan Baillie, Leah gains new insights about her sense of belonging during her time in China. This is revealed effectively through the composer’s use of narrative voice, flashback and descriptive language.
For Leah, her first encounter with China is negative. This is due, in part, to her perspective on who she is as she flies into Canton. Her understanding at this point is she is an Australian and has no connection with China. As the airhostess welcomes her home Leah coldly replies, ‘I’ve never been in China before.’ She then, through internal monologue, strongly voices her feelings and clear indignation about the airhostess’ comments. “Couldn’t the woman see? She was not Chinese, not even an ABC-Australian born Chinese. Joan was Chinese, all right, but Dad…had been English. Didn’t it show?’ The use of internal monologue allows the reader to clearly understand Leah’s point of view; she strongly identifies with her father’s ethnicity while rejecting her mother’s. This is further revealed as she states, ‘No she wasn’t going home. She was just ducking into a strange and probably hostile country.’ China, for Leah, was a country that she had little understanding of or connection with, hence the use of the words ‘strange’ and ‘hostile’. As well, at this stage, Leah’s relationship with her mother is strained. Anything that represents who she is, Leah chooses to reject. The ‘half coin was pulling them both into China. Separately. For Joan the coin was the key to a lost family…They were all the family Leah had but she wasn’t involved in that.’
As the novel develops, however, Leah’s perception of herself and her mother changes as she begins to
This is the beginning of a model response to the question below. Read it carefully, and then attempt to finish it.
Question:
What new insights about her sense of belonging does Leah gain during her time in China?
How has the composer conveyed Leah’s new insights to the responder?
In The China Coin by Allan Baillie, Leah gains new insights about her sense of belonging during her time in China. This is revealed effectively through the composer’s use of narrative voice, flashback and descriptive language.
For Leah, her first encounter with China is negative. This is due, in part, to her perspective on who she is as she flies into Canton. Her understanding at this point is she is an Australian and has no connection with China. As the airhostess welcomes her home Leah coldly replies, ‘I’ve never been in China before.’ She then, through internal monologue, strongly voices her feelings and clear indignation about the airhostess’ comments. “Couldn’t the woman see? She was not Chinese, not even an ABC-Australian born Chinese. Joan was Chinese, all right, but Dad…had been English. Didn’t it show?’ The use of internal monologue allows the reader to clearly understand Leah’s point of view; she strongly identifies with her father’s ethnicity while rejecting her mother’s. This is further revealed as she states, ‘No she wasn’t going home. She was just ducking into a strange and probably hostile country.’ China, for Leah, was a country that she had little understanding of or connection with, hence the use of the words ‘strange’ and ‘hostile’. As well, at this stage, Leah’s relationship with her mother is strained. Anything that represents who she is, Leah chooses to reject. The ‘half coin was pulling them both into China. Separately. For Joan the coin was the key to a lost family…They were all the family Leah had but she wasn’t involved in that.’
As the novel develops, however, Leah’s perception of herself and her mother changes as she begins to