Month: November 2019

1. What do you consider are your prized possessions?

• Ring
• Books
• My house
• Tennis racquet

1. Who are the people you consider your family?

• Mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma..
• My pets
• Really close friends

1. What does “safe” look like to you?

• Home
• a comfortable and free place
• surrounded by people that I am close with.
• grassy and green surrounding; place that I am more familiar with

1. What image represents all your longing, desire, desperation, and hope?

• Home
• Pets
• Nature
• Family
• My own country
• Sports and musics.

Carefully read and annotate Norma’s meeting with Mr Hands in Chapter 13 (pg 209-229)  How does Rawle create tension in this chapter?  Consider:

 The description of Mr Hands and his home

– Norma’s narrative voice & the use of irony

– The relationship between comedy and threat.

Graham Rawle creates tension in this chapter through Mr. Hands behaviours and Norma’s high expectations which did not turn out well. The various uses of typographies, visual and lexical elements creates meaning and gives the readers a clear understanding of what might happen or what is going on in the text. In the beginning of the page there is an image of drab wallpaper background and this, from the starting indicates that something dull is going to happen if she goes out to meet Mr. Hands. Norma starts to expect and create her own imaginations of what might happen or what she is hoping to happen at the studio. However, as Norma approaches to the address given by Mr. Hands, she describes it in a very low classy way. On page 211, she said “ this was not quite the setting I had expected for a PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO”; Norma was expecting Mr. Hands’s studio to be big, bright and like a professional but rather, it was old, small and not really like privately owned. Page 211 “I could hear a saucepan being scraped and a women’s voice shouting at a child” “BIKES in the hall” “smell of old dinner” all of these shows that Mr. Hands’ studio is not really like the way he expressed himself to Norma when he first met her. Norma expected Mr. Hands  as a connoisseur of quality when she first met him and had high hopes but as she comes to see his studio, she thinks that she has overestimated him; she describes his room (studio) as “overcrowded with clutter, seedy, down at heel, dilapidated”

Page 212  “TEN”, “Picture?”,  “Mr. Hands” , “I have got EVERYTHING ready” these words written in bold and capital letters indicates that Mr. Hands might have planned everything about what he is going to do with Norma by pretending to be like a professional photographer and take pictures of her; in ten pictures revealing or finding the true identity of Norma and everything. On the other hand, he always compliment her in  an exaggerated way and when Norma asked him questions like, 216 “Where’s YOUR CAMERA?” he didn’t give direct answers (Yes/No); instead he complimented her “No picture can hope to capture your true beauty” thus this also shows that Mr. Hands is hiding something from Norma and since Norma likes compliments, he is taking advantage of it so that she doesn’t find missing things about him. Towards the end of the page 216, Mr. Hands says, “ Ah. so you have a brother” the way the words aliens and arranged seems like as if he got a hint of something and thus he says; page 217 “That’s interesting”. On the other hand, the words look like as if they are being pulled by something and I think the magnet which is on top of the page 217, pointing towards the end of page 216 is pulling the words. The magnet has two poles at the end but in one magnet;  also indicates Norma and Roy as one person. Consequently, if we connect the ideas together, we can see that Mr. Hands is getting to know Norma’s true identity and therefore indicating the approach of danger and creating tension. 

On page 218 “ Except he didn’t exactly use the word ‘romantic’ or the word ‘profile’ ” here Mr. Hands uses the term romantic to express Norma’s good portrait but that is not how a professional or experienced photographer would say. Norma says, “ This was strictly serviceman’s language – be warned!”; his use of words during the photoshoot shows Norma his low class and lack of experience. Actually if we put all the pieces of terms/descriptions mentioned by Norma, we can see that Mr. Hands is a low class person with no experience in photography, nevertheless, Norma ignores all of those since Mr. Hands always try to cover his bad side by complimenting her which makes her unnoticed of things around her. This brings danger and tension to her as she ignores little important parts. In addition to that, the image of a rose on the page 219 also gives ideas to the readers about what type of person Mr. Hands is. The outside appearance of the rose indicates the gentle and soft emotions which is exactly how Mr. Hands is towards Norma but if we look at what’s behind those beautiful leaves, we can see thrones which can hurt the one who is plucking it. Likewise, those thrones indicates the bad side and evil actions of Mr. Hands which he had not shown yet but it might hurt Norma either emotionally or physically soon. Thus, Norma is digging her own grave by neglilating  all little important hints.

On page 221, “MOOD-CHANGING moMENT caught a terrifying glimpse of what he has been fiddling with” the change in the font and size of the letters represents the biggest incident that might happen to Norma soon. This is because the different use font of the letters between “mood change” and “moMent” shows the change in Mr. Hands actions and the “moMENT” changing the size of the letter from small to big shows that the situation is jumping from small to big which can affect both of them but mostly Norma. In addition to that, the page number on that page is also written from small to big size (221).  The situation becomes more intense when Mr. Hands takes crazy actions against Norma and which hurt her. The word “bed” was repetitively shown throughout the chapter (in the beginning , middle and at the end); I think this signifies how and where the problem might have started (photoshoot on the bed) without realising  but ending at where it started. On page 225 “ I shoved him hard towards the bed”; this is when Norma had hit Mr. Hands’ head and runs away. These situations were not as what Norma has expected when she decided to meet Mr. Hands. It was the opposite and a threat to her. Page 227 “ I opened up the back to check there was no film in it” though she expected so many good photos being captured on the camera, she was glad that there wasn’t any picture at the end. Again “ with my feminine loveliness captured on film” even during that kind of situation, she phrases herself which is quite funny but if it actually captured her pictures then there would have been dangers that someone would find the picture and could threaten her.

On page 223 “ I wanted him to STOP; I wanted it all to STOP,” the “STOP” was the biggest font used in the chapter, even the size of page number was written in a really small font so that readers’ attention is drawn to the word “STOP” and thus it shows that Norma desperately wanted everything to stop because she doesn’t want anyone to know about her identity. 

To conclude the author uses simple texts and humour in critical situations to make the reader understand easily but at the same time try to understand and relate back to Norma’s sad life and her confused identities. It also gives further analysis on what is going on and what tensions are created in depth  rather than just what is shown in the book.

What prompts Roy to admit that he must ‘give up’ Norma?  Why does he find it so hard to do?

• Roy had to give up Norma because Norma had killed someone and Roy is being responsible for that because Norma is within himself and he is Norma which makes him the killer. Since he killed Mr. Hands with his identity as Norma, it prompt him to ‘give up’ Norma so that no one knows about her existence. He found it so hard to do it because Norma’s existence has become a part of him and has been with him for so long and if he easily gives her up, he will have to face the fact that his sister is dead and that he is abandoning her; that he is guilty in her death.

Focus on the passage where Norma explains the relationship between her and Roy.  In your own words, explain how Roy’s ‘alter-ego’ came to be, and why Mary has tolerated it. Roy has dressed as Norma for many years, of his own volition.  Can you explain why this incident with the policemen is so traumatic ?

• Roy was never able to let go of Norma’s existence for so many years. the fact that he has created the existence of Norma within himself made him feel so attached to her that he wasn’t able to abandon her. Even when Mary asked him to take away Norma’s clothes to the salvation army, he kept one box and gave the other one. page 266 “they had familiar smell, something he would never really notice before, a Little Sister smell” the clothes of Norma that he kept behind made him feel the existence of Norma and he missed her but since it was just a cloth and not the actual Norma or his little sister, he wore them to feel like she was still there with him. page 266 ” they were like those paper dress-up doll outfits that had the FOL DOVER TABS- flat and lifeless because there was no DOLL to put them on” his little sister was not there to put on the clothes that were lying on the bed so Roy tried them on and when he looked into the mirror he was somehow able to feel her existence.
• The incident with the police man was so traumatic because the situation felt like the policeman were rapping a 8 year old child. This is because the two policemen forced Roy to put on the panties and bra, pg 271  ” let’s see them with the bra”; these show how Norma as a girl is being forced to wear under garments which shows sexual harassment.  Also in page 271, ” the SERGEANT knelt at Roy’s feet, stretching the waistband of the panties between his PROK SAUSAGE fingers ready for him to step into them” and ” i think he needs a bit of LIPSTICK” , “undid the cap and propelled the base to expose its entire pink length, rude and moist like a dog’s thing” the way the LIPSTICKS was described and the highlighted phrase about dog’s thing shows and describes the penis of the policemen and applying them on Roy’s lips in circular motion shows them rapping at the scene.  Page 272 “what do you think? too much? No SARGE, not enough. Here, let me have a go” this also indicates that the child has not just been rapped by one person but by both the policemen. Thus this incident with the policemen is so traumatic. He also relates the current situation to the accident that happened 20 years ago to page 268 “they looked like the TWO who had turned up at the house to talk about my accident…policemen” the two policemen reminded him of the police that declared the death of Norma after the accident.

Graham Rawle has been criticised for revealing the true identity of Norma so explicitly at this point in the novel.  Do you think he was right to do so?

• From my point of view, I think it was right for him to do so because Norma has been causing a lot of problems where Roy had to clean up every time and now the situation has reached to the point where Roy is prompt to give up Norma. I think Rawle made the right decision at that time revealing the true identity of Norma since people need to know how Norma’s existence was created by Roy and why he is giving up now. Also this will allow the readers to put all the pieces of informations together and understand the text more clearly.

If the police are representative of law, order and authority, what does their behaviour suggest about society’s attitudes to gender?

• Their behaviour suggests that in the society, the opposite gender (male)  has more power and control over the other gender. It also shows that they don’t really accept nor deny the fact about transgender in the society but they like making fun of them, like how Roy was forced to wear those under garments and put lipsticks all over his mouth and the policemen laughed at him.

The advertisement, “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!”

Guiding question – Discuss how the language features, both written and visual, aim to persuade readers of this advertisement to think and behave.

The Newspaper advertisement, “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!” was published in the USA in 1996 in strive of persuading male readers to buy different books that will help them in attracting women without even trying hard. The main purpose of the text is to advertise the books at the same time give teaching to the target audience on how to attract women. The advert also seeks to gain attention and at the same time, the author is trying to create relations between the advertisement and the reader by using dialogues that seems like a conversation and convinces the target audience of the benefits of buying the product that is being advertised. For example, “sounds too good to be true?”, “You see, the women of the 90s….” drawing them more into the advert. The author of the advert also uses different fonts of letters (capital, bold) for titles and other texts where the readers are drawn to and he uses women to portray different facial expressions (beautiful and cheerful, pretty and aggressive) and their attractiveness and he is trying to convey the message to the target audience that they can have the opportunity to attract those kinds of women who are pretty, smart at the same time aggressive without evening trying so hard. The advertisement shows two main texts/purpose which is to advertise the books and at the same time teaching the target audience how to attract women. They persuade the readers to purchase the books.

 The title reads “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!”  The title is all written in capital letters and in a larger font than the rest of the text in the advert. Also the use of exclamation mark at the end draws readers attention. The title establishes itself as a point of interest, big enough to read even while people are going through the rest of the newspaper or magazine. In addition to that, the middle title “Passive Man’s Guide to Seduction” with an image of a man and a woman kissing on his cheeks shows overall content of the book in the advert and again draws reader’s attention to the advert. The man’s face look innocent, gentle and shy where the woman looks so pretty and she is attached to him as she is hugging at the same time kissing him on his cheeks while he is doing nothing. This particular visual image of a passive looking man and beautiful woman gives the target audience a motive to buy the book and test them as they might think that they can have a chance to attract women. On top of that, the image has been placed in the centre to show focus and it gives the reader the sense that the book can also give the reader this sort of experience. However, if women were to read this advertisement, they might feel offended because the advert views women just as something that men need to obtain. This might lead to negative response from them. 

The advert tells the readers that most of the men try to be aggressive to attract women but often they fail and get rejected easily by attractive women, nevertheless it appeals to them that attracting women has never been easier. As we go through the advert, the advert narrows its target audience ‘men’ into “passive” and “aggressive”. This idea was mainly taken from the advert’s beginning point of women in 90s. In the advert, “Instead of attracting a women, the aggressive man is simply a turn-off” the highlighted phrase simply indirectly tells the target audience that being aggressive and cocky to attract women is the biggest mistake for them. In reality most of the men think that if they act aggressive, confident or cocky in front of women, they will gain attention from them and have them attracted to you but that doesn’t work. Women don’t like aggressive men who seek attention. However, passive men are most likely to attract women because of their passive nature. Passive people usually don’t take actions but they let things happen to them, they are shy, lacks confidence, they listen to others and normally don’t share their feelings that much. Thus, this kind of personality makes women curious about men and naturally they make the first move as they think that making the first move can make them noticeable to the passive man. On average, single men with passive personality gains more attention from women than single aggressive men. 

In the beginning of the advert, women are described as being the “aggressor” the ones who insist on being in control over men. This  particular point overlaps the idea of persuading the target audience (men) in the advert. Because of that, the author uses exaggerating words like ‘ballsy’ ‘assertive women’ of 90s to describe them in a better way. The author also provides some of the questions and statements answered in the book as dot points in the advert. The questions are short and very specific and the use of anaphora in it like ‘why’ ‘how’ ‘if’ gives the readers a glimpse of the context of the book and makes them curious about knowing the answers so that they can actually buy the book and try it. 

Towards the bottom of the advertisement, another book is being advertised which also draws attention from the readers as they both have their subtitles capitalised and in bold. The subheadings also start with “How to..” which immediately allows the readers to get the main theme of the advert and relating back to the above advert. Over again, the advert establishes relationship between the reader and the text. The advert has repetition of the word ‘you’; for example, “make shyness work for you”, “how to get women approach to you”, “do you get tongue-tied around attractive women?” which makes the reader connect his personality with the texts.  The phrase ‘tongue-tied’ literally means not being able to say anything because they are shy or nervous and this phrase shows the innate insecurities of the target audience. Also in the same sentence, the adjective ‘attractive’ gives the idea to the target audience to reflect back about the product advertised (books) which can help them to attract women. In addition to that, the advert repeatedly refers to the author of the book ‘Eric Weber’ who is a really famous author in the world (as mentioned in the advert to the readers), he is also a director, screenwriter, producer, an advertising executive and he is currently the president of the Tenafly Film Company. His achievements adds potential and credibility to the products as it appears to the readers that the books have been produced by an honoured/ well known author

In the Eric Weber’s book advertisement, two women of 1996 who look stereotypically beautiful and attractive are portrayed. They both look glamorous and have direct eye contact with the camera. The one on the left looks fresh and charming and the one on the right portrayed herself by exposing her skin more and looking sexy. Both of them shows the type of women that most of the men (target audience) hope to attract. Thus, this also promotes the products advertised as it conveniences the readers to purchase the products for their benefits.

The order coupon is one of the most important parts of the advertisement. however , it was intentionally put next to the two small adverts so that the readers pay their attention first to the advert instead of the price but at the same time, they don’t miss to check the order coupon later. The order coupon contains specific details such as the price of each book, address of the company, the discount that the purchasers will get upon purchasing all three books and it was written in bold so that readers can notice it easily and might consider buying all three of them since they can save lots of money.  Also, when they use the phrase “order today-attract women tomorrow!” it’s like as if the readers can get the product as soon as they order it; trying to show the speed of delivery but it actually says that it will take 2-3 weeks of delivery. Nevertheless the phrase makes the readers order the books as soon as they can so that they can start practising it tomorrow to attract women.

To conclude, the author’s advertisement is very effective and eye catchy. The advert shows its full aims and purposes to advertise the books which can help the readers/target audience to attract women without evening trying and it conveniences the readers to purchase the products advertised. The advert was really convincing starting from the titles, visuals to how they can order the products on discount and save money.  All the aspects in the advert were well connected to each other and thus showing a strong motive to the target audience to purchase the books advertised on how to attract women without even trying hard.

1. Present only for 10 minutes.
2. Give a brief outline and abstract of both the texts (40 lines for each text).
3. More of verbal explanation and less slides.
4. Be specific and link to the global issues and the inquiry question.
5. Do not repeat the ideas.
6. Your explanation should answer the inquiry question and global issue.
7. Show good understanding of intertextuality of both the texts. 
8. plan your presentation before talking
9. Don’t just describe, use terminology 
10. Time management (5 minutes for both the texts= 10 minutes and 5 minutes for Q and A)
11. Decide on the evidence that you want to provide for your text
12. you cannot pull out words from your texts
13. During the analysis, think beyond the box and analyse the context