English A Language and Literature SL Written Task (Grade: high 7, 19/20)

Rationale

The following pastiche, inspired by Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried (1990) fulfills Part 4: Critical Study’s learning outcome “Analyze elements such as themes and the ethical stance or moral values of literary texts.” by exploring themes of the anti-war genre. The pastiche intends to capture the theme loss of innocence by showing the backstory of a misunderstood character, Azar, revealing how Azar could transform from an innocent kid to a character desensitized to death that the audience is shown in the short story, Spin.

To effectively demonstrate the theme of loss of innocence in war, this pastiche imagines Azar’s backstory to show the enthusiasm that soldiers have when joining the war to the effects that their actions have on them. Using O’Brien’s style of storytelling, O’Brien retells the story told to him by Mitchell Sanders. Imitating O’Brien’s writing, sensory and surreal imagery are used to vividly depict the setting Vietnam as the enemy of the protagonist. For example, the environment is described as alive and speaks to Azar, which depicts the fear that soldiers would have felt…