Tutorial Letter

ENG1501/202/3/2014

Tutorial letter 202/3/2014
FOUNDATIONS IN ENGLISH LITERARY
STUDIES

ENG1501
Semesters 1 & 2
Department of English Studies

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
FEEDBACK AND EXAMINATION GUIDELINES

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FEEDBACK ON ASSIGNMENT 02

Dear student
In this feedback letter, we have given you some pointers about how you could have answered the questions based on the following texts: Introduction to English Literary
Studies, The Road to Mecca, The Catcher in the Rye, and When Rain Clouds
Gather. We expected you to expand these ideas sufficiently in order to earn full marks. Please note that you will pass only if you do the following:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)

write in paragraph format; write an introduction in which you demonstrate that you are addressing or answering the question. express yourself in intelligible English; develop and substantiate your answers by providing evidence from your chosen text; and avoid merely re-telling the story of your chosen text.

Assignment 02 (a)
The Catcher in the Rye
In this assignment, you were asked to write an essay in which you discussed the following: The title of the novel is taken from a poem by Robert Burns. Write an essay in which you explain how this poem sums up Holden’s deepest desire, and how this theme is developed in the novel.
Below are some of the ideas you could have developed in your essay:

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In this novel Holden is negotiating the transition from childhood to adulthood.
This is not an easy journey and in many ways he resists it. It involves the loss of innocence, and the gaining of experience which accompanies the transition into adulthood. Holden tries to resist this loss of innocence and his desire to be „a catcher in the rye‟ is an expression of his need to save others, such as his sister Phoebe, his friend Jane, his classmate James Castle, from this same loss.

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

He regards adulthood as epitomised by phoniness – falsehood and falsity on the part of most of the adults he knows or meets – most adults in the story are fairly disappointing, in his eyes. His parents are peripheral, mostly acting as reminders of how he has let them down in one way or another, and perhaps reminders of the guilt he feels for not being able to „protect‟ Allie from death.
His brother DB has „prostituted‟ his talents in Hollywood; even his teacher Mr
Antolini, whom he admires most, turns out to have what Holden suspects are homosexual tendencies. Most of the adults in his life he considers have let him down in some way or another. Adulthood is characterised by sex, racial issues, lies and phoniness, issues Holden does not want to face.



In his desire to be a „catcher in the rye‟, Holden wishes to protect children and to prevent them from „falling off a cliff‟ – the motif of falling and its associations with death form a thread throughout the novel. He is unable to prevent James
Castle from falling to his death, for instance, and he has a fear of death, which is associated closely with adulthood, growing older and, inevitably, dying. He tries to prevent Phoebe from making the transition to adulthood and his allowing her onto the carousel, in one of the final scenes in the novel, is symbolic of his acceptance that he cannot stop her growing up. However, he can be there to watch over her – something he could not do for his younger brother Allie; a sadness which plagues him throughout the novel.

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Holden himself is a mass of contradictions – in appearance he is closer to an adult than to a child. He is very tall with greying hair. But in spirit he still has the innocence of a child about him – consider his retreat into the world of the movies whenever a crisis occurs, and his desire at times to behave like an adult (his meeting with the nuns, with his classmate‟s mother in the train, with the prostitute and pimp). His inability to follow through on the actions associated with adult behaviour suggests an unwillingness to be phony, a fear of adulthood which is bound up with his fear of loss and his fear of death.



He is fearful of taking that adult step into sexual relationships because he fears the attendant loss of innocence and because the adults around him have set a poor example. Holden seems to value the sanctity of sexual relationships more than most adults or adolescents around him (think of
Stradlater‟s attitudes, of Holden‟s desire to protect Jane from Stradlater, his fear and anger at what he construes as a sexual advance by Mr Antolini, his desire simply to talk to the prostitute, his behaviour in the Lavender Rooms).
Although he thinks of sex constantly, he cannot take the plunge when the moment presents itself, and there is an innocence about his thoughts and behaviour in this regard.

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

There is also a certain comfort to be found in revisiting the places that were important to him as a child. In a childlike way, Holden longs for these places to have remained unchanged. However, when he finds that both the museum and his old school have been defiled, he realises that he cannot stop change or protect the innocence of everything around him, as he would like to in his role as catcher in the rye. He could not protect Allie, and he is unable to protect Phoebe or Jane. He comes to understand that children have to learn about the dangers life holds for themselves. This can be a painful process, but it is a necessary one. All he can do is give Phoebe his red hunting cap, a symbol of his difference and innocence and his rejection of conformity, and be there to watch her and cushion her fall. Just like the carousel, she will come full circle and return to him, and what he must do is simply watch over her as best he can.

There are of course other points you could have made in your essay. Remember to provide evidence from the text to support your arguments; that is, back up your claims and comments with quotations from the text. Make sure you develop a clear argument in the opening paragraph. Then ensure that there are clear links between ideas in the body of your essay and a conclusion which shows that you have achieved what you set out to do, as expressed in your opening introduction. Check your work very carefully before submitting it – make sure you have dealt with careless errors and that spelling, punctuation, paragraphing etc. are in order. Make sure, too, that you have spelt the names of characters and places correctly.
Remember that when you refer to the name of the novel in your essay, this should be italicised if you are typing, or underlined if your essay is handwritten.

Assignment 02 (b)
The Road to Mecca
This question contained two parts. You needed to submit both of them in order for your assignment to be complete.
You needed to follow the steps below:
1. First, you needed to study the chapter on „Reading Drama‟ in Introduction to
English Literary Studies and answer the questions on the review of The Road to Mecca.

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This chapter contains an example of a review of a play. Reviews are an important genre in which critics and audiences respond to plays, and if you are going to watch plays and films regularly, you will need to engage with reviews. The review of The Road to Mecca in Introduction to English Literary
Studies is negative (that is, the reviewer did not enjoy the play). For this section of the assignment, you needed to write a paragraph in which you responded to the review.
A paragraph has the following features:
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
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It is approximately 10-15 lines long, but should not be longer than a page. It contains between two and six sentences.
It contains a topic sentence and some supporting sentences.
It is written in correct grammatical English.

Your paragraph on the review of The Road to Mecca should have mentioned the following aspects of the reviewer‟s response:






The reviewer did not enjoy the play. (You should support this by saying
“We know this because …” and then provide quotations from the review of negative comments that she makes.)
She admires the emotional intensity of the play, but she does not enjoy the long, drawn-out development of Act 2, where Helen and Elsa are talking to Marius. To her, this extended discussion is too involved and spends too much time exploring people‟s feelings and interactions.
This reflects the reviewer‟s subjective, personal opinion of the play. It need not be an objective evaluation of the play‟s structure at all, even though we know that the second act of the play is longer than the first.
In the first act of the play, we are introduced to the characters of Helen and Elsa. Their various internal conflicts, as well as the main theme of the play (Helen‟s proposed move to the old age home) are introduced to the reader. Act two introduces the third character: Dominee Marius
Byleveld, who has come to persuade Helen to move to the old age home. The rest of the play sees the characters discussing this possibility, and it culminates in Helen‟s final refusal to sign the paper committing her to the old age home.

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2. Then you needed to deal with the next section of the assignment, in which you needed to answer the question below:
In Act 1, when Elsa and Helen are discussing Katrina (Helen‟s “maid”), Elsa says: “There‟s nothing sacred in a marriage that abuses the woman” (p. 11).
Use this statement as a starting point for a discussion of the way the play represents women‟s rights to express themselves freely.
This question should have been answered in an essay (approximately 2-3 pages in length).
An essay has the following features:
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




An introduction, summarising your standpoint with regards to the question; A body (3-4 paragraphs), supporting your view of the question;
A conclusion, in which you tie up all the threads of the argument you have presented;
You use correct referencing techniques (that is, you provide references for all the sources you consult);
Your language is grammatically correct.

There are several key ideas you should have mentioned in this essay. These are listed below, but they are not exhaustive.
One of the main themes of The Road to Mecca is women‟s right to express themselves. Helen Martins is the central character in the play, and the whole dilemma concerns her need to express herself artistically through her statues. Your essay should have focused mainly on her. Helen felt confined and restrained by her marriage to Stefanus, which, she says, was more like imprisonment than like the union of two equal souls. It did not allow her to express herself either artistically or personally. During Act 2 of the play, Helen talks to Marius and remembers what she felt on the day of Stefanus‟s funeral:
You didn‟t know I wasn‟t mourning Stefanus‟s death. He was a good man, and it was very sad that he had died so young, but I never loved him. My black widowhood was really for my own life, Marius. While Stefanus was alive there had at least been some pretence at it … of a life I hadn‟t lived. But with him gone …! You had a little girl in here with you … (p. 71)

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With these words, Helen implies that her marriage did not give her freedom to express herself (which, for her, is the same as living). She was confined and not allowed freedom.
The church has much the same impact on Helen. It is no coincidence that she does not go to church on the morning when she makes her first owl. The owl represents her own creativity, and it is contrasted with the forces of the church, which Helen experiences as stifling and confining in the same way as her marriage. Fugard represents both the church and marriage as social institutions that stifle women, implying that women can express themselves more freely outside of both institutions.
The other women in the play also experience restraints on their self-expression, although these are not as strong as the restraints on Helen‟s creativity. These restraints are associated with male behaviour in the play.
Elsa has been badly treated by her lover, David, who did not see fit to tell her that he was married, and so, when she became pregnant, did not think he needed to help her at all. Elsa is very bitter about this experience, and feels that her life and selfexpression have been stifled in the same way as Helen‟s marriage stifled hers. Elsa is a woman who leads an unconventional lifestyle, with a great potential for creativity.
She has strong opinions, especially on political matters, such as the treatment of women, but the play gives the impression that her potential is not reached.
Katrina is Helen‟s maid. She is very young and is already a mother, with a husband who drinks too much and who often beats her (as implied by the quotation in the question). Helen explains that Koos (Katrina‟s husband) “still doesn‟t believe it‟s his child”. This means that he thinks his wife has been unfaithful, and is taking it out on her through violent means. There is probably not much hope for Katrina since, as
Helen conservatively points out, “They‟re married”. This means that social norms prevent Katrina from leaving Koos and pursuing her own happiness away from him.
Once again, we see a woman whose freedom is curtailed (and, in this case, completely ruined) by her relationship with a man.

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MARK ALLOCATION
You would have received good marks if you:
a) completed both sections of the question;
b) wrote a paragraph with a clear topic sentence for the section on Introduction to English Literary Studies;
c) wrote an essay that clearly examined the theme of women‟s need and rights to self-expression in The Road to Mecca, including a discussion of all three female characters;
d) used the correct method of referencing;
e) wrote in idiomatic, grammatically correct English with correct spelling and punctuation. Assignment 02 (c)
When Rain Clouds Gather
This question has two parts to it. In the first part, you were expected to show how the text deals with Makhaya‟s suffering, trauma and eventual healing, particularly when he arrives at Golema Mmidi. In the second part, you had to show how the novel also deals with problems of tribalism, greed and hate the community of Golema Mmidi.
In a two to four page essay, discuss these statements by referring closely to the novel. It is clear from the beginning of the novel that Makhaya is intelligent, generous and a gentle soul who cannot put up with being called a “black dog”. This comes across later in the text when, in talking to Mma-Millipede, we read that:
Makhaya understood anything that appealed to his generosity because, in the depths of him, he was a lover of his fellow men. Yet the savagery and greed of these fellow men had set him to flight. At the same time the experiences of all forms of twisted, perverted viciousness had knocked out of him most of these evils. The problem was to control this desire for flight for, in turn, it became an act of hatred against all mankind (126).
This gives us a very good view of Makhaya‟s character for he has experienced untold suffering at the hands of the South African apartheid regime. There is clearly a history of trauma in his life, but having arrived at Golema Mmidi and through the dignity conferred by hard labour as he works on the cooperative set up by Gilbert
Balfour, he slowly but surely „thaws‟, by allowing himself to see the possibility of a life lived without pain and suffering. It is this insight that leads him to begin the difficult but ultimately regenerative process of healing and love.

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Note: Make sure you mention and describe some or all of the characters in the novel white or black who are good, kind and helpful to Makhaya and, in the process, provide the healing that he needs, having suffered so much pain and mental turmoil in his life.
At the same time, the novel sets up a counterfoil of this healing process personified in the figure of Chief Matenge. He is the direct opposite of the character of Makhaya precisely because he believes in outmoded ways of organising society. Fairly early in the novel we read that as independence was seeping through Africa, “The tide of
African nationalism had swept down the continent and then faltered at the northern borders of Botswana” (58). This allows the sons of chiefs to take up political office at the expense of the sons of slaves. This order of things, for someone of Chief
Matenge‟s mindset, establishes in his mind that he is “royalty”. This idea feeds his greed and is the reason he represses and torments others, whom he sees as nothing more than slaves. Coupled with this mindset is the concept of tribalism, through which people are discriminated against, or even killed, because they are of a different tribe. Because Matenge is a tribalist, it is easy for hate to fester in his soul with regard to Makhaya, who is a refugee and thus has fewer rights than ordinary citizens. Early in the novel, Makhaya clearly shows that his mindset is different when he tells the old man sheltering him that he is “no tribalist”(3) even if his own parents are. He does not, for instance, like his own name, but would rather have opted for a neutral name such as Samuel or Johnson.
For Chief Matenge, therefore, the emphasis on “tribe” is important for oppressing others, while for Makhaya it is anachronistic and needs to be unlearned to ensure a free, democratic society.
NB
We hope you enjoyed working on this assignment. Please note that we expect you to read ALL your prescribed books with careful attention in order to prepare adequately for the examination.

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PRE-EXAMINATION INFORMATION
Welcome to ENG1501. In this module we are aiming to do two things:
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We want to inspire you to enjoy the diversity and artistry of English literature; We also want to introduce you to some of the ways in which we can think about English literature and write about it academically and critically.

Your examination will demonstrate how well we (and you) have succeeded. The format of the exam paper is as follows:
You will be presented with FIVE examination questions, one on each text:
Introduction to English Literary Studies, Seasons Come to Pass, The Catcher in the
Rye, The Road to Mecca and When Rain Clouds Gather). The examination is two hours long and you will have to answer TWO of the FIVE questions. Each question is out of 50, although your assignment mark counts 25% of your final mark.
The questions on The Catcher in the Rye, The Road to Mecca and When Rain
Clouds Gather are essay-type questions. Each of these should be answered in an essay (about two to four pages long) and each question focuses on a controversial or ambiguous aspect of the text. You will need to answer these questions in essays that are argued coherently, and present evidence for your point of view.
When we mark your examinations, we’ll be looking for:
1.

2.

A sustained focus on each examination question. Answers that retell the story of any of your prescribed texts will definitely fail on the grounds that they do not address the questions adequately.
Clear and grammatically correct expression in English. Because this is so important, it is worth taking a few minutes at the end of your exam to read over what you have written for each question to make sure your grammar, spelling and style are as good as they can be.

Below are our contact details. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help:
Ms Ruth Scheepers

[phone] [e-mail]

Ms B Janari

[phone] [e-mail]

Ms R Latha

[phone] [e-mail]

Prof Raditlhalo

(012 429 8928 [e-mail]

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