Common Module
What is 'The Crucible' an allegory for?
Lawson wrote during this decade, when the bush legend and Australian nationalism were taking shape before Federation.
1890's
The Truman Show is a critique of this type of entertainment, which blurs the line between real life and performance.
Reality television (voyeuristic media)
What term describes a writer's attitude or feeling towards a subject, often reflective or conversational in a discursive piece?
Tone
What is a simile?
This technique compares two things using "like" or "as."
Explain what McCarthyism is
McCarthyism is the political practice of making public accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.
It is named after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led a major anti-communist campaign in the United States during the Second Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s.
This weekly magazine championed a distinctly Australian voice and published Lawson and Paterson.
The Bulletin
The name "Christof" invites this reading of the director's role in Truman's world.
A god (creator) figure
"Can we really afford to ignore this?" is an example of this persuasive technique.
Rhetorical Question
What is alliteration?
This is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words.
What is a Crucible?
Literal Container: A cup or bowl made of clay, ceramic, or graphite. It holds ore or metal. It can handle extreme heat without melting. Workers use it in labs or metal shops to melt solids into liquids.
Severe Test or Trial: A very difficult and painful experience. It tests a person's strength or character. For example, intense military training is often called a crucible.
This value, central to Lawson's bush ethos, is the loyalty and solidarity between working men.
Mateship/cameraderia
The film questions the ethics of consumerism through this technique, as characters slip products into everyday dialogue.
Product placement (commodification of life)
Aristotle's three modes of persuasion are logos, pathos and this one, which appeals to the speaker's credibility.
Ethos
What is anaphora?
This is the repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive sentences or clauses.
When Hale tests Proctor on the Ten Commandments in Act 2, which commandment does Proctor forget, the very one he has broken?
Adultery ("Thou shalt not commit adultery"). Elizabeth has to prompt him.
Lawson's characters often display this quality, enduring isolation and hardship with little reward, shaping what it means to be "Australian".
resilience (stoicism, endurance)
Jeremy Bentham designed a prison in which a central tower lets guards observe every inmate without the inmates knowing when they are being watched. What is this design called, and which location in The Truman Show does it parallel?
The Panopticon. It parallels Christof's control room in the artificial "moon", which overlooks all of Seahaven. Because Truman can never tell when he is being watched, he behaves as though he always is.
Imaginative writing often begins in the middle of the action rather than at the start of events. What is this narrative technique called?
In medias res
What is a tricolon (rule of three)?
This is a group of three related words, phrases or clauses, often used for rhythm and emphasis.
A character like John Proctor, who is both a flawed sinner and a moral hero, perfectly embodies this key syllabus term for something that contradicts itself.
Paradox, anomaly, inconsistency
Mateship is central to Lawson's bush ethos, yet "The Union Buries Its Dead" complicates it. What is the narrator's tone, and how does it expose the gap between the ideal of mateship and how the mourners actually behave?
The tone is detached, dry and ironic, with understated black humour. The narrator reports the funeral flatly: the dead man is an unknown stranger, few people attend, and the mourners are more concerned with the weather and the pub than with the man. The union performs the ritual of solidarity, but the sentiment behind it is thin, so the text questions whether mateship is genuine or just a social convention.
The film shows us on-screen audiences watching Truman, such as the bar patrons and the woman in the bath, who mirror us as the real audience watching the film. What term describes this technique of embedding a work or image within itself?
Mise en abyme
Discursive writing often opens with a personal story to draw the reader in. What is this technique called?
Anecdote
What is dramatic irony?
This is when the audience knows something a character doesn't, as in Truman's unawareness of his world.