How David Malouf has written Ransom And how you can write about it
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How David Malouf has written
RansomAnd how you can write about it
Stuff you already know
48 hours in the life of Achilles
Achilles Achilles basically looks basically looks like Dwayne like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ ‘The Rock’
JohnsonJohnson
48 hours in the life of Achilles
48 hours in the life of Achilles
Achilles and Patroclus were total BFFs!
48 hours in the life of Achilles
•Ancient Greek Rule no. 10: Do not drag corpses around behind a carriage - it’s very, very wrong.
48 hours in the life of Achilles
He is waiting for the break. For something to appear that will break the spell that is on him, the self consuming rage that drives him and wastes his spirit in despair. Something new and unimaginable. P. 35
48 hours in the life of Priam
Priam is pretty Priam is pretty much like this dude much like this dude
from from Lord of The Lord of The RingsRings
48 hours in the life of Priam
Priam was absolutely not o.k with the body of his son being dragged
around in the dirt.
48 hours in the life of Priam
The chance to break free of the obligation of being always the hero, as I am always expected to be the king. P. 59-60.
48 hours in the life of Somax
Both Both Somax and Somax and
Hagrid Hagrid have a have a
beard - the beard - the likeness is likeness is uncanny!uncanny!
If Somax had a facebook page it
would totally include updates on his donkey and his
daughter in law’s cooking.
48 hours in the life of Somax
We’re children of nature, my lord. Of the earth, as well as of the gods. P. 121
But that’s the easy stuff...
•2013 - Ransom shows that in war there is not just brutality, there is also honour. Discuss. How does it show this?
•2012 - Despite the violence in Ransom, the reader is left with a sense of optimism. Discuss. How is the reader invited to feel about the text?
•2011 - What role does love play in David Malouf’s Ransom? How has Malouf presented the idea of love in Ransom?
You can’t just write about what the characters do in Ransom, you need to discuss how Malouf constructs the text to give it meaning
It starts by acknowledging the
author’s role
•Malouf shapes the story of Ransom around three characters who...
•Malouf portrays a story of three characters who...
•Malouf’s story of...is driven by his portrayal of three characters who...
•Malouf first introduces us to Achilles not as a killer of Hector or a desecrator of Hector’s corpse, but as...
Acknowledge reader response
•Malouf’s portrayal of Achilles in the opening chapter of Ransom invites the reader to...
•Ransom begins not with the problem of the desecration of Hector’s body, but with a portrait of a grieving Achilles.
Write about the relationship
between characters
•Just as in the opening chapter Achilles can remember his first meeting with Patroclus as if it were happening now, so too can Priam in the second chapter...
•Like Achilles, Priam is also...
•Both Achilles and Priam are represented as...
•Achilles, Priam and Somax all/each have stories of...
Past / Present / Future
Before:Before: How Achilles met Patroclus; Priam How Achilles met Patroclus; Priam is saved from being killed by Heracles; All is saved from being killed by Heracles; All
Somax’s children have diedSomax’s children have died
Priam and Somax travel to meet AchillesPriam and Somax travel to meet Achilles
After:After: Achilles is killed; Priam is brutally Achilles is killed; Priam is brutally killed by Achilles’s son Neoptolemus; Troy killed by Achilles’s son Neoptolemus; Troy
is destroyed - Somax lives out his life is destroyed - Somax lives out his life retelling the adventures of the bookretelling the adventures of the book
•Acknowledge what is being done in a text and how this constructs meaning for the reader
•Ransom parallels the characters of Priam, Achilles and Somax, showing us that they all...In doing so, we see that...
What else apart from character
actions?
•Chapter 1: He is waiting for the break. p. 35
•Chapter 2: The grief that racks him is not only for his son Hector. It is also for a kingdom ravaged... p. 40
•Chapter 3: Dear me, the driver thought, he’ll get an awful pain in his back if he goes on sitting like that...p. 112
•Chapter 4: The great Achilles, eyes aswarm, is weeping. p. 174
•Chapter 5: The sun is already up and has begun to burn off the crisp white groundfrost as they leave...p. 205
•Most of Ransom is told in present tense, emphasising the idea that...
•In many ways, Ransom is a story of extraordinary men experiencing profound, but nonethless everyday, emotions: grief, mortality, wonder, companionship.
•The story of Ransom could be told in few words: hero dies, father pays ransom for the body. But what happens is much less important than...
Book 1 = Book 1 = AchillesAchilles
Book 2 = Book 2 = PriamPriam
Book 3 = Book 3 = Priam & Priam & SomaxSomax
Book 4 = Book 4 = Priam & Priam & AchillesAchilles
Book 5 = Book 5 = Priam, Priam,
Somax & Somax & AchillesAchilles
Each chapter is a study of characters
that reveals...
We see characters witnessing the
ordinary...
•He was sorry they had to move on. He had got used to the place and the small pleasures it provided...The rosebay bushes with their long pointed leaves...This cooling water that lapped his feet. The fishes...p. 142.
•The work they do here is women’s work - common enough, they do it daily...But Achilles, who has never before been to this hut, and has never till now considered its existence, is intrigued. Having followed Hector’s body this far, he is curious to see the next stage of its passage into extinction: the business, humble but necessary...p. 192
Thank you...
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