Paper 1: Vertigo Flashcards
Themes of human experience in Vertigo
- Grief & loss
- The diverse ways in which human beings cope with this
- How challenging environments transform our views of ourselves and others
- Inconsistencies associated with love
Motifs in Vertigo
The Boy - most prominent motif in Novella (characters yearn for their stillborns growth/ painful memories associated with the los)
Bird-imagery - symbolic (freedom, peace, omens, fate, death etc.) > supports almost any point in essay!
Style & form of Vertigo
- Narrative voice
- Illustrations
- Motifs
Narrative voice in Vertigo
Present tense - personal proximity to the protagonist duo
Omniscient 3rd person narrator - enables Lohrey to seamlessly shift between Luk and Annas personal perspective
^Dichotomous voice
Illustrations in Vertigo
- 10 images within the Novella (landscape: bush, birds, fire)
- Monochrome colouration (complements rustic setting & vibe of the text)
- Spirit of preceding chapter/passage
Migratory pardalote > transition to Garra Nalla
Bush > constant state of reform & motion
Fire > ultimate symbol of rebirth
Chapter 1 quotes from Vertigo
- “the boy”
- “erratic and unpredictable”
Chapter 2 quotes from Vertigo
- “blot out emotion…on his own terms, whereas she seems to bleed out into it”
- “she feels like a fly caught in some invisible web”
- “disturbed…panic” when Anna feels “she is losing her power to summon him”
- “swimming beneath the sunlit surface like a water baby” > “detatchment infuriates” Anna
Chapter 3 quotes from Vertigo
- “the edge of the city…neat suburban”
- “couldt not bear the thought that the sweater might come to harm”
- “in it’s thick, smouldering resistance, the sweater had saved the house”
Chapter 1 brief summary
- Couples grievance in the city after still born
- Motivations for moving
- Initial period of settling into Garra Nalla
Chapter 2 brief summary
- Various day-to-day aspects of life in Garra Nalla
- Introduction to most neighbours
- Challenges of rural life
- Learning of their misgivings
- Short-lived return to Sydney
- Learn more about “the boy”
Chapter 3 brief summary
- Shortest chapter
- Focus on events surrounding the fire, its prelude, and aftermath
- First half=couples increasing trepidation as fire enroaches upon Garra Nalla
- Attitude is complacency in the fact that fire couldn’t possibly reach the coast
- Becomes clear the fire has overtaken town > couple is rescued in timely fashion by passing fire-truck
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“The boy”
Chapter 1
Interpretation:
symbolic motif of paradoxical boy > reason for protagonists migration from suburbia to country
Ideas/themes:
* human emotions of grief and loss
* collective human experience
Concepts & techniques:
* paradox of the boy
* context of migration motivation
* symbolic motif
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“Erratic and unpredictable”
Chapter 1
Interpretations:
Describes “boys” presence through migration. Emphasises power of grief over human psyche.
Ideas/themes:
* human emotions of grief and loss
* collective human experience
* how challenging environments transform our views of ourselves and others
Concept & technique:
* paradox of boy
* anomaly of migration
* descriptive language
* symbolic motif
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“blot out emotion…on his own terms whereas she seems to bleed out into it”
Chapter 2
Interpretations:
Anna: still experiencing loss
Luke: inconsistent with denial and contentment
Ideas/themes:
* diverse ways in which human beings cope
* individual human experience
* Inconsistencies associated with love
* Annas emotions: anxiety and anquish of grief
Concept & technique:
* juxtaposition
* descriptive language
* gruesome imagery
* Luke is inconsistent
* Paradox of boy
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“swimming beneath the sunlit surface like a water baby”
Chapter 2
Interpretation:
Futher emphasising Anna & Lukes contrasting feelings
Reccurent haunt (Anna) vs daydream like memory (Luke)
Ideas/themes:
* diverse ways in which human beings cope
* individual human experience
* inconsistencies associated with love
Concept & technique:
* simile
* juxtaposition
* imagery
* motif
* paradox
* Luke is an inconsistency
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“the edge of the city…neat suburban”
Chapter 3
Interpretations:
Juxtaposition from bush they have migrated to
Ideas/themes:
* How challenging environments transform our views of ourselves and others
Concept & technique
* Juxtaposition
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“could not bear the thought that the sweater might come to harm”
Chapter 3
Interpretations:
Lukes navy-ribbed sweater - worn during the scattering of his sons ashes
Ideas/themes:
* diverse ways in which human beings cope
* individual human experience
* grief and loss
Concept & technique:
* symbolic object
Interpretations, ideas/themes, concept & technique
“in its thick, smouldering resistance, the sweater had saved the house.”
Chapter 3
Interpretations:
Sweater and fire represent Luke’s final closure with loss and rebirth of protagonist duos life
Ideas/themes:
* diverse ways human beings cope
* * How challenging environments transform our views of ourselves and others
* individual & collective human experience
Concept & technique:
* symbolic sweater & fire
* imagery
* descriptive language
Essay structure
Thesis statement
1 dot point
- Writers enable the responder to explore the interpretations and meaning of grief and loss, through the utilisation of language and images, coneying universal individual and collective human experiences and challenges.
Essay structure
Introduction
Themes/ideas, concepts & techniques, emotions arising
6 dot points
- In the novella Vertigo, by Amanda Lohrey, explores/consists of the (universal human experience/human qualities) of >themes/ideas.
- One of the focal underlying motives of (questions motive, eg emotions arising, resilience) within the plot, revolves around the loss of Luke and Anna’s son, manifesting itself into a symbolic motif.
- Lohrey conveys this notion of a human experience by using a myriad of prose fiction features to convey this to the responder
- This foundation potrayed as the text’s tension > combining elements such as (concepts & techniques) to present a “honed sense of orientation throughout their migrating journey”
- Allowing…interpretation of Luke & Anna’s progress/developement from exp. > holistic collective experience
- Therefore, in contradiction to showing the intrinsic theme of grief = prominent, unstable, collective human exp. , Lohrey > individual exp., cope w/ & overcome it > features of prose fiction.
Esssay structure
Paragraph 1: Topic
Chapter 1, diverse ways human beings cope with grief & loss
4 dot points
- Chapter 1 brief summary: pursuit of abrupt migration from suburbia > influenced by “the boy”
- ^ notion manifests itself symbolic motif
- “erratic and unpredictable” > the power grief can hold over human psyche
- Furthermore, exp. of diverse ways in which protagonists cope > deeply juxtaposed
Essay Structure
Paragraph 1: Evidence
Chapter 1, diverse ways human beings cope with grief & loss
6 dot points
- “The boy” > paradoxical symbol of stillborn (prominent, yet factually inexistent)
- Anna’s pov: emphasises juxtaposition this perception > Lukes inconcistency to “blot out…”
- Simile: “she feels like a fly…” > prime example of Annas anxiety. towards grief, loss and guilt
- Insight of “disturbed…panic” conveyed > “she is losing her power…” highlighting (theme: diverse ways…cope)
- Contradicting this, Lukes benign recollection of “the boy” > “swimming beneath…”
- ^ “detatchment…infuriates” Anna > expresses (theme: coping of grief, loss) as subordanite, compared to her haunting hallucinations
Essay structure
Paragraph 1: Conclusion
Chapter 1, diverse ways human beings cope with grief & loss
1 dot point
- By conveying these juxtaposed, but equally important inconsistencies of grief, Lohrey suggests interpretations of appreciating the diversity of human beings’ experiences and overcoming loss’s nature through similes, and the prominent paradox of “the boy” as a motif.
Essay structure
Paragraph 2: Topic
Chapter 3, how challenging environments transform our views of ourself a
2 dot points
- confronting features of the environment > vital role in establishment of the orientation composer places Luke & Anna
- Whether physical, psychological or interpersonal, ft. potraying these confrontations > characterisation of couple (identity and collective percievement)
