Year+11+Response+to+Text+essays

1.3 (NOVEL) In the novel __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time__ by Mark Haddon an important relationship existed between the protagonist, Chris and his teacher aide Siobhan. I found this relationship complex and interesting because of Siobhan's figurative symbolism as a teacher, her initial involvement in Chris' rites of passage and the links this relationship had to the themes of communication and journey.

Haddon used the character of Siobhan as an irreplaceable guide and mentor for his autistic protagonist Chris. As Chris is only a teenager, her role is vital as she is Chris' lifeline, supporting him and helping him to understand other people and how to interact. Their relationship is long and stable as Chris recounts "eight years ago when I met Siobhan". This relationship is important because as readers we can relate with having a role model in our life, this therefore causing the reader to gain a better understanding of Chris, and Siobhan as a symbol for understanding as well as support.

On the other hand Siobhan's involvement with Chris initiates the plot and demands us to see the bigger picture. Siobhan instructs Chris to write a book that is "something that I would want to read" as told by Chris. Through skillfully crafted foreshadowing we see Siobhan's intention; she knew this task would help Chris develop but only the reader can interpret the major consequences this will have; especially when Chris finds some letters with writing that he "only knew three people who did circles above their i's" one of them "was mother" even though "mother is dead". A foreshadowing event that catapults Chris to run away and find his mother.

Haddon creates Siobhan as a catalyst for the theme of communication. She is very understanding towards CHris and gets him to draw "little pictures" of faces to "show what it means", including a happy face for happy, a frown for sad and so on. Small but significant examples that develop Chris' understanding of humans and in turn develop our empathy towards others.

Through Siobhan and Chris' relationship we learn the lessons Siobhan teaches Chris as well as our own personal lessons. Siobhan's support causes us to acknowledge other's support in our own lives. When Siobhan initiates Chris' rites of passage (by writing the book) we quickly learn to interpret Haddon's foreshadowing techniques which can be applied in real life.

Excellence

**1.2 Produce Formal Writing: Excellence exemplar**

Aotearoa is fast becoming an unhealthy nation due to the amount of television being watched. The damaging noise levels some elder persons listen to the television, the people portrayed on the television and false or misleading advertising, are all contributing to New Zealands level of health steadily decreasing.

New Zealand Hearing Association has recently declared that, children under the age of ten are becoming more prone to deafness, due to the noise level of their surroundings. The average ten year old can cope up to ninety decibels of sound, before real damage is caused to the hearing. On the average television this is at approximately at volume fifteen. There is a television in more than one third of households in New Zealand, and of those about one half is lower than the ninety decibel limit. Hearing a programme that much louder isn’t going to make it that much better considering the children of New Zealand’s hearing is at stake due to the television.

Underweight models, actresses and stars are a common occurance on the television today. Is it any wonder the New Zealand trend to be underweight or anorexic is increasing every year? The television and media are the main cause and inspiration to those who are insecure about their weight to become so, as they are reaching for a dream of being as ‘happy’ and ‘rich’ as some off the celebrities, such as Nicole Richie.

McDonald’s is one of the biggest advertisers in the world spending over $1.4 billion a year on advertising, generally aiming at children. The television is the main source of their expenditure, on television commercials aimed at getting children to want to eat McDonald’s food. With unhealthy food commercials aimed at children of New Zealand, the childhood obesity rate has suddenly climbed. Also, obesity is now the second biggest preventable disease, leading to death, in the world, next to smoking. It is said to become first in 2010. New Zealand is subjected to commercials of an unhealthy nature everyday and should not suffer them any longer considering the damage they do.

Television is commonly known as an educational device, used in some schools and at home to teach children the values of life, through screenplay. Films like ‘Titanic’, ‘Monster’s Inc.’ and ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ all teach values such as courage, love and humour while film like ‘The Terminator’, ‘NARC’ and ‘Blade’ show the importance of not doing drugs, playing with guns and talking to strangers. On television education can be an enjoyable experience compared to taking notes, but in too large amounts, television can corrupt the brain and teach the opposite skills such as ‘Save the Last Dance’, that being a gangster, on the streets, protecting your ‘corener’ would be fun.

Consequently, the television is bad for the health of New Zealand, due to it’s misuse and creating fake situations into a reality. It manipulates the mind, making the veiwer consider their values abnormal in the face of the onslaught of misleading guidelines such as to be rich you must be thin.

Please note that this has been typed with the errors left in. It has well thought out ideas, few minor lapses in technical accuracy and a convincing style. The student has maintained a high level of formality throughout.