The extract question
You should aim to write around one side on the extract, and you should use about ten quotes, which you discuss within your response. The extract covers assessment objectives AO1 and AO2.
AO1
Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.
AO2
Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.
As you can see, you are being asked to give your own opinion about the text; build a discussion and quote directly – as well as talk about the way the writer has used language and form to create particular effects.
The question
Higher tier
Read the extract then answer the following question. How does Nick Hornby present the relationship between Marcus and Ellie at this point in the novel?
Foundation tier
Read the extract then answer the following question. What are your thoughts and feelings about Marcus and Ellie here? Give reasons for what you say, and remember to support your answer with words and phrases from the extract.)
- make sure that you focus just on this extract
- you are being asked to find examples to support your discussion of the way that Nick Hornby presents Marcus and Ellie in this extract
The extract
They didn’t talk on the train at first; every now and again Ellie would give a small sob, or threaten to press the emergency stop button, or threaten to do things to the people who looked at her when she swore or swigged from her bottle of vodka. Marcus felt exhausted. It was now perfectly clear to him that, even though he thought Ellie was great, and even though he was always pleased to see her at school, and even though she was funny and pretty and clever, he didn’t want her to be his girlfriend. She just wasn’t the right sort of person for him. He really needed to be with someone quieter, someone who liked reading and computer games, and Ellie needed to be with someone who liked drinking vodka and swearing in front of people and threatening to stop trains.
His mum had explained to him once (perhaps when she was going out with Roger, who wasn’t like her at all) that sometimes people needed opposites, and Marcus could see how that might work: if you thought about it, right at this moment Ellie needed someone who was going to stop her from pressing the button more than she needed someone who loved pressing buttons, because if she was with someone who loved pressing buttons, they would have pressed it by now and they’d be on their way to prison. The trouble with this theory, though, was that actually it wasn’t an awful lot of fun being the opposite of Ellie. It had been fun sometimes – at school, where Ellie’s … Ellieness could be contained. But out in the world it was no fun at all. It was frightening and embarrassing.
Why does it matter so much?
he asked her quietly. I mean, I know you like his records and everything, and I know it’s sad because of Frances Bean, but—
I loved him.
You didn’t know him.
Of course I knew him. I listened to him sing every single day. I wear him every single day. The things he sings about, that’s him. I know him better than I know you. He understood me.
He understood you?
How did that work? How did someone you had never met understand you?
He knew what I felt, and he sang about it.
Marcus tried to remember some of the words to the songs on the Nirvana record that Will had given him for Christmas. He had only ever been able to hear little bits: I feel stupid and contagious.
A mosquito.
I don’t have a gun.
None of it meant anything to him.
So what were you feeling?
Angry.
What about?
Nothing. Just... life.
Making a start
First of all, you need to think about the following points:
- What is happening in this extract which reveals the relationship between Marcus and Ellie?
- Which words and phrases are effective in demonstrating their relationship?
