Worldshaker Essay - Themes of Rebellion and Revolution

Essay - Worldshaker (2013, Term 1)

Planning Steps

1. Read the Question at least twice Worldshaker, as an example of the steam punk genre, explores themes of rebellion and revolution. Comment on this statement with reference to your reading and understanding of the novel.

2. Highlight key words Worldshaker, as an example of the steampunk genre, explores themes of rebellion and revolution. Comment on this statement with reference to your reading and understanding of the novel. Look at meaning - diamond You can use first person to say some things because you comment on your understanding. All essay’s are written - present simple - I write, I listen, the author convey’s etc. He likes. The verb + s (talk(s))

3. Define key words Steampunk: a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy with advanced machines and other technology based on steam power of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world. Themes: a unifying idea, image, or pattern, repeated or developed throughout a work. Rebellion: resistance to or defiance of any authority, control, or tradition. Revolution: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. Reference: To refer to another passage, book, text or idea. To direct attention to another thing.

4. Rewrite the question in your own words so you understand it Worldshaker has the two main themes of revolution and rebellion. How is this typical of steampunk genre? Comment on how you understand the novel, sometimes in first person point of view 5. Brainstorm Everything - Nothing is stupid Rebelling - Riff/Filthies rebelling against boundaries set by the upper class. - Col rebelling against traditions for Riff by throwing down the rope to start the revolution - Sir Mormus tries to rebel against the filthies hostile take over

- Riff rebels against every expectation of her life and gender. She doesn’t fit to the gender stereotypes of being feminine, soft, pretty, proper, gentle, submissive.
Revolution - The actual fight scene - The people who had to leave worldshaker and go on the ground

6. Plan - select and create relationships (i.e pick your best ideas and find the common link between them)

7. Introduction - Thesis - That different elements of the steampunk genre with it’s Victorian style community promote themes of revolution and rebellion in the novel. - Author and texts name - Define Steampunk - Answer the question - May include a meaningful global statement that is about genre as a whole and not particularly related to the book. - Outline of key ideas - NO Quotes

8. Body Paragraphs - At least one quote in each body paragraph - Around 200-ish is a good aim because you write ULTRA SLOWLY Paragraph 1 - How Oppression from a stratified society inspires revolution and rebellion of lower class. How is this typical of steampunk? - Filthies, being below and tortured - They are trying to rebel the whole time but they finally end up revolutionizing Worldshaker - The people of power at society’s highest positions, mainly Sir Mormus, decide to treat the filthies as horrible, insignificant and animalistic. - This keeps the powerful in power and gives the working class and filthies no chance to better themselves within society’s rankings. - The filthies are pushed by their imprisonment and torture to try and revolutionize the society they live in, making it fairer for them. - Quote “...” Paragraph 2 - Conformity from the expectations of the Victorian Era and how that promotes revolution and rebellion. How is this typical of the steampunk genre? - People on Worldshaker live in a society that doesn’t allow individualism or creativity through strict social traditions and expectations.

- However some people in the society want to rebel against these typical aspects of life, like the male dominated society, the dress code and standard of etiquette, the expectations of marriage and marrying as high a class as you can. - An example of one person who wants to change these ideals is Gillabeth, who want’s to succeed and gain leadership but isn’t given the opportunity because of the fact that she is a woman. - This is a large part of the Victorian society that the novel is set in, which is one of Steampunk's main elements. Chapter 3 - How a denial of education is keeping the society stratified. How does this relate to rebellion and revolution. - A denial of education is used to control and oppress the filthies and lower working classes of Worldshaker’s community. - Knowledge is power and those who yearn for knowledge don’t have access to it due to their families standing in society - One example of this is Septimus Trant. - He is a young boy that has gotten into an exclusive school due to being smart and working hard. But he is denied knowledge by his teacher, Mr Gibber, and the way he teaches his class biased information and not fact. - Also, he isn’t allowed near the library on the upper decks because it contains to much information that he could learn about Worldshaker and the Earth, information that only the important citizens are meant to be privy to. - This denial of knowledge leads to rebellious ideas and eventually a revolution, fueled by
Paragraph 4 - Gender stereotypes typical of steampunk’s Victorian era that promote rebellion and revolution. - Very Male dominated society - Women stay at home, don’t do any work - They aren’t expected to know to much or be very educated - They have kids but get servants to take care of them the majority of the time - just bring them out for social occasions to appear as a family - Easily upset or tired, with a tendency for mood swings...unstable - unreliable - Have the powerful name (Porpentine) but don’t have any power in the actual family - Males are the ‘bread winners’ - They have the power in the family - Make all the decisions - Meant to be aggressive, proud, strong mentally and physically, dominating

9. Conclusion - No new points - Always shorter than the introduction, about a half to a third of it. (i.e if introduction was 200 words, conclusion would be 100 - 150)
- This text fits the general genre of steampunk through the elements shown in theses paragraphs like : Small sentence about each paragraph. - What is your aim/understanding of the question

10.Last proof read and edit Use TEEL - Topic sentence - Explain your main idea - Example - Direct quote or reference - Link to first sentence QUOTATION OR TWO IN EVERY PARAGRAPH Around 800-1000 words give or take :) - However many you need Essay must have a definition for rebellion and revolution IF YOU SAY ‘THE ASPECTS’ OF SOMETHING SIMILAR EXPLAIN WHAT ‘THE ASPECTS’ ACTUALLY ARE be specific

First Essay Draft Draft One - Introduction Worldshaker, by Richard Harland, is a prime example of the relatively new genre, Steampunk. Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy.It features advanced machines and other technology based on steam power in the Victorian Era. It is also a very critical genre that often leads to themes about society’s issues, in the case of Worldshaker, rebellion and revolution. This essay is exploring how different elements of Victorian era’s society promote rebellion and revolution in the novel’s civilization.These elements are oppression, conformity, and gender stereotypes. These issues are typical of many steampunk novels and show very predominantly through the text.

Draft One - Paragraph One In steampunk novels, and Victorian society alike, working class citizens are oppressed and looked down upon because of a stratified society that benefits the rich and leaves the larger population at a disadvantage. Filthies are born and live their whole life in a torturous environment at the very bottom of Worldshaker. They resent the upperclass citizens for their freedom and lavish lifestyle. This causes dissent among them, which leads to rebellious thoughts and plans that take place in the minds of the abused filthies. The opposite to that, Sir Mormus is the single most powerful and rich person on Worldshaker, and leads the ship. He makes all the decisions, including the maltreatment of lower status families and filthies. He is so indifferent to the filthies that he doesn’t even treat them as people, which he proves by saying that “QUOTE”. This system of power distribution keeps the most influential and extremely wealthy at the top. Whilst leaving the working class in a situation that makes it all most impossible to improve their social rank.

Draft Two - Paragraph One [In steampunk novels, and Victorian society alike, working class citizens are oppressed and looked down upon because of a stratified society that benefits the rich and leaves the larger population at a disadvantage. Filthies are born and live their whole life in a torturous environment at the very bottom of Worldshaker. They resent the upperclass citizens for their freedom and lavish lifestyle. This causes dissent among them, which leads to rebellious thoughts and plans that take place in the minds of the abused filthies. The opposite to that, Sir Mormus is the single most powerful and rich person on Worldshaker, and leads the ship. Mormus admits this to the Filthies in the last chapters on the bridge saying, “Now you see who has the power!”(pg. 357). He makes all the decisions, including the maltreatment of lower status families and filthies. My opinion is that he is indifferent to the plight of the filthies, which is why he doesn’t even treat them as people, he proves this by saying that, “Ten thousand people and two thousand Filthies”(pg. 28) live on the ship. He obviously regards them as more animal than human and not anything like him at all. This system of power distribution keeps the most influential and extremely wealthy at the top. Whilst leaving the working class in a situation that makes it all most impossible to improve their social rank.] This creates utter hopelessness for most filthies apart from a few, including Riff, that forever hope to escape. They plan a revolution because they have to resort to violence for their voices to be heard, and for their opinion to be considered. I believe this last resort is from years of tyrannical behavior finally liberates the filthies and other inhabitants from a stratified and unfair social system.

Draft One - Paragraph Two Citizens of Worldshaker are expected to conform to normal social practices and expectations which, for some, are controlling and biased. They live in a society that doesn’t allow individualism or creativity through strict social traditions and expectations. This causes issues with strong characters who want to rebel against these traditions and revolutionize the social norm, for example, Gillabeth. An example of one person who wants to change these ideals is Gillabeth, who want’s to succeed and gain leadership but isn’t given the opportunity because of the fact that she is a woman and her life is already set to help run the family and, one day, have her husbands sons so the bloodline continues. This is a large part of the Victorian society that the novel is set in, which is one of Steampunk's main elements. Gillabeth rebels against this in her own way, by learning all the secrets and passages of Worldshaker. This is her quiet way of gaining knowledge and power over the others on the ship who don’t know its real inner workings. Eventually she helps revolutionize Worldshaker as much as she dares, by helping Col rescue Riff from her imminent change to a life of servitude as a menial. She also stands against her Grandfather on the bridge. She revels in finally being at the front of an event and not having to sit back with no input. This mindset for a woman in her community is well ahead of the times and her circumstances of constantly being forced to conform motivate her to rebel and act through a revolution.- NEEDS QUOTE(S)

Draft Two- Paragraph Two Citizens of Worldshaker are expected to conform to normal social practices and expectations, which certain characters find controlling and biased. It gives them no space for individualism or creativity through strict social traditions and expectations. In my opinion the strongest examples of these characters would be Riff and Gillabeth. They want to live a life that is different to what their society is saying is normal. Gillabeth wants power and influence over the ship so she can make a difference to the running of Worldshaker, instead of just marrying and having her husbands sons to continue a bloodline. And Riff is completely set on revolutionizing the stratified society that punishes them constantly. She isn’t content with a short life full of pain, steam and back breaking work. So she rebels against the conformity of Below, against the utter hopelessness her people have been born into. This is very controversial on the ship and is seen as crazy and unheard of, yet they both achieve their goals. I think this is from their sheer force of will and perseverance. Upper Decks citizens are appalled when the revolutionaries and Filthies rebel against their strict social traditions and Sir Mormus is disgusted to see them with a mind of their own, standing up against the social norm. He makes comments about how they are corrupt and yells that his family bloodline is tainted with “None fit to follow in my footsteps.”(pg. 356). I think that Sir Mormus never expected anyone to be as good as him because he has such a high opinion of himself. This obedient society only ends through colossal social upheaval by the rebellious thoughts of active revolutionaries, typical of Steampunk’s Victorian setting.

Draft One - Paragraph Three Gender Stereotypes in Worldshaker are directly from Steampunk's Victorian era society, but for strong minded characters these are challenging to change in the minds of the community. Within the text there are two vastly opposing opinions of how a society should be structured and administered, one that endorses stereotypes and one that demotes them. The women in these upperclass decks are prim, poised and punctual with little actual power. They seem to like thinking that picking that cutlery for this afternoons picnic is a very meaningful and influential decision, while the men of the family make the actual decisions that really affect Worldshaker and it’s citizens. These women are deluded into a sense that they are very important. They also have to act right, appear kind and gentle like Grandmother Ebnolia who is “Known for her soft heart and compassion towards menials”(pg. 101). Yet she is actually starving them just so she can watch them suffer and appear loving and saddened by their death. It is all about keeping up appearances. Characters like Gillabeth want to change the power difference between the genders. It angers her into action that equal opportunities aren’t apparent in the community. This causes her decision to be active in the revolution and stay aboard Worldshaker for good, so she could be with Filthies have be an equal participant in the running of their society. I also think that the men have a code for how they are expected to behave that is as strict, if not stricter than the women. They have to be well presented, educated, strong physically and mentally, conservative and not be too emotional or empathetic like Orris. They also have to be very proper in how they treat the women in their society, very fragilely and decently. The men are also the decision makers. They have to be decisive and aren’t meant to consult their wives for matters that concern the running of Worldshaker. The main protagonist, Col, goes against the standard gender expectations by loving some one not of a high class background, someone who isn’t refined and is very improper. He also helps to educate a girl because he empathizes with her and cares for her which is a general sign of weakness among Victorian males.Sir Mormus discourages this and tells Col to dominate his classmates, to “Grind them down”(Pg. 93) Col doesn’t agree with this and I think he is just too kind hearted to ever treat someone in a way that degrades them. Both genders are brought up to very strict social expectations and in the few that rebel and revolutionize the society, elements of Steampunk are explored as well Victorian era expectations.

Draft One - Conclusion Through three of the main elements that make up a Victorian society, which are oppression, conformity and gender stereotypes, I have explored how Worldshaker is not only an exceptional example of the Steampunk genre, but also my understanding of how the Victorian style community, promote themes of revolution and rebellion in the novel.

Draft Two - Conclusion [Through three of the main elements that make up a Victorian society, which are oppression, conformity and gender stereotypes, I have explored how Worldshaker is not only an exceptional example of the Steampunk genre, but also my understanding of how the Victorian style community, promote themes of revolution and rebellion in the novel.] These themes make for an exciting novel which also has relevant commentary on elements of today’s society.

Approx. 1200 words give or take for paraphrasing on the day