Everybody frightened of something/different fears Combine into one paragraph

Transcription

1 This is just to give you a bit of an idea about topic sentences, linking sentences, quoting, referring to language devices and writing a conclusion. Is it the best essay ever no but it has some good things in it and gives you an idea of structure. First couple of paragraphs are too long for most people in an Outcome situation but I wanted to cover a range of possible points we have touched on about in class in an Outcome essay, you would narrow things down to the best one or two examples to demonstrate your point. Sorry I didn t get to paragraph 4 and 5 but you can think of what you d write there yourself, given the structure and content of the other paragraphs. Hope it helps in some way. I m not scared is both the title of Niccolo Amminiti s novel and a phrase repeated throughout the text. What does Ammaniti show about the nature of fear? Everybody frightened of something/different fears Combine into one paragraph Source of fear o powerlessness : Barbara wants acceptance, Teresa fear safety of her children, fears being caught, fears standing up to husband (patriarchal society), Pino poverty, failure as father (patriarchial society), fear of being caught,, Michele monsters, reality of evil, that his father is a cruel person. Reactions to fear / the way fear shows itself o physical effect (Michele, vivid descriptions, short, staccato sentences) o hiding from it / denial (Pino avoiding Michele s questions, Teresa saying things will be alright, adults locked indoors, wheat hiding town) o aggression / anger (adults arguing. intense heat) Debilitating effect of fear (Teresa = emotional breakdown) Fear can make people do immoral things (Pino = involvement in the kidnapping) Fear can and should be confronted (Michele = faces his fears, rational, logical, moral) Introduction

2 I m not scared is both the title of Niccolo Amminiti s novel and a phrase repeated throughout the text. The irony is that most of the characters in the text are in fact shown to be scared of something. Set in a small southern Italian hamlet called Acqua Traverse, the novel recounts a frightening summer of events experienced by Michele Amitrano as a nine year old boy. Michele uncovers the kidnapping of a child named Filippo, committed by the adults of his town, and this event becomes the catalyst of the many fears presented in the text. Through this story, Ammaniti demonstrates that fear is often derived from a sense of powerlessness and shows how destructive it can be if it is not faced. He shows and that while people may not be able to escape being frightened, fear can and must be confronted. The powerful and incapacitating nature of fear is demonstrated through a number of key characters. Body Paragraph 1 Everybody frightened and Source of fear (make this into the topic sentence) o powerlessness (Barbara wants acceptance, Teresa patriarchial society, Pino patriarchial society, Michele reality that his father is a cruel person) Through a number of characters, Ammaniti shows that people are frightened of many different things and that fear often stems from a sense of powerlessness. Firstly there is Barbara Mura who is scared of being left on her own and her desire for acceptance sees her forced to face humiliating forfeits by the boys she desperately wants to fit in with. Although she protests she clearly feels powerless against them, given the threat that if she does not do the forfeits she is not allowed to play with them. The powerlessness experienced by Barbra is somewhat driven by the patriarchal society in which the story is set where the boys in the group regard themselves as more powerful than her and are therefore able to inflict and sustain her fear. This context also influences the fears of other characters in the novel such as Pino whose involvement in the kidnapping of Filippo can be seen to be driven by the family s poverty and his fear that he is not fulfilling his duties as a husband and father. This pressure on Pino is reflected in Michele s recollection that... if papa kept working so hard, soon we wouldn t be poor any longer, we would be well off... He was doing it for us. Feeling out of control and disempowered also drives the fear both Pino and Teresa develop, of being caught for the kidnapping, a fear that intensifies as their guilt unravels and their plan falls apart. As a result of the kidnapping, Teresa is afraid for the safety of her own children. This grows from her realisation that she cannot protect her children from everything and because she is not empowered to undo their wrongs by standing up to her husband and the other men involved. The idea of powerlessness as a source of fear is also shown through Michele who has to face the reality that it is not monsters (he) should be afraid of but men. When he discovers Filippo, and that his father is responsible for his captivity, he is frightened of what the people he trusted are capable of and the possibility of suffering the same cruelty. Unable

3 to rationalise or comprehend how his father could be so evil, Michele understandably feels powerless against the cruelty he is witnessing, shown in questions such as Why did they put him give him back...? Michele becomes very fearful of who his father is, expressed most strongly by his realisation that Papa was the Bogeyman. For Michele, his worst nightmares and childish fears of witches, ogres and monsters have become a reality and he cannot comprehend how to confront fear that is no longer imagined but is real. Through these and other characters, Amminiti shows that fear is within everyone. He shows that it emerges when people feel they do not have the power to deal with the challenges confronting them and in this exploration of fear he demonstrates the ways it fear is played out. Body Paragraph 2 Reactions to fear / the way fear shows itself (make this into the topic sentence) o physical effect (Michele, vivid descriptions, short, staccato sentences) o hiding from it / denial (Pino avoiding Michele s questions, Teresa saying things will be alright, adults locked indoors, wheat hiding town) o agitation/aggression / anger (adults arguring - intense heat) Through the characters and literary devices used in the text, Ammaniti demonstrates how fear typically shows itself and the way people react to feeling frightened. In the first instance, vivid descriptions of the physical impact of fear are given by Amminiti. For example, while Michele often tells himself I m not scared, it is evident this is simply a self-talk strategy because he recollects the physical sensations of fear such as holding his breath, his legs feeling wobbly, his brain screaming, terror growing inside of him and that fear gripped (his) testicles. These descriptions, coupled with Amminiti s crafting of short, staccato sentences at times of intense fear in the text depict the physical effects, panic and irrationality that fear creates in people. Further to the physical sensation of fear, Amminiti shows that people often respond to fear by trying to hide from or deny it. This irony is reflected by the novel s title I m Not Scared. Evidence of hiding fear is found in the way Pino avoids answering Michele s questions about what he does in the north, his relationship with Sergio, and why he took Filippo. At one point, Pino responds to his sons questions saying I m very busy at the moment you must just do as you are told, avoiding any further interrogation from Michele that might force him to admit the truth of the events that frightened him. Likewise, Teresa tries to hide from her fears by reassuring her children that It ll soon be all better, without being willing to share with them what is wrong in the first place because she does not want to acknowledge the things that are causing her fear. This hiding from and denying fear is symbolised by Amminiti in his constant reference to the adults of the town always being indoors, suggestive that they are not simply hiding from the heat of summer but more figuratively hiding from their fears. It is also symbolised by the motif of wheat in the text.

4 The town is lost in the wheat as though the wheat is cloaking or hiding the town, which could be seen to represent the adults hiding their fears. Further connected to this is that the harvesting of the wheat in the text corresponds with the time in plot where the adults fears are being exposed. As their fears come to light, another aspect of the nature of fear is revealed which is its tendency to exhibit as anger and aggression... (unfinished two more sentences maybe for examples/explanation) As the fears experienced by the characters in the text grow, and their reactions become more intense, Ammaniti goeson to illustrate the destructiveness of fear when it is not confronted. Body Paragraph 3 Debilitating effect of fear (Teresa = anger at her children, doesn t have tea rady for them, complete emotional breakdown) Through Teresa Amatrano, the debilitating effect fear can have if it is not faced is clearly shown. At the start of the novel Teresa is depicted as a strong, poised, competent mother always...on her feet. Cooking. Cleaning. Washing, and taking care of her family. However, as Teresa s fear of being caught for the kidnapping and not being able to protect her children grows, things start to fall apart. This begins to be shown in her increasing anger towards Michele. It starts as yelling and screaming at him when he is late home and escalates to her smacking and slapping him as her fear swings out of control. She is described as being...at her wits end, and this is further evident in the descriptions of her increasingly tired and weary look. Her brink of dysfunction is symbolised when very unusually she is not at home with her children s food ready for dinner. While she tells her children that everything will soon better, Teresa does nothing to make this the case. She tells the children they are too small and don t understand what is happening but she clearly does understand the significance of the events affecting them. She knows the kidnapping is wrong yet does nothing about it. Her guilt for this and her subsequent fear of what has become of her and her family consumes her. As the fears that grip her become more overwhelming, she is less able to contain her emotions and by the end of the novel Michelle observes his mother sitting in the corner crying, and repeating with her hand over her mouth, Quiet! Be quiet! The destructive nature of fear when it is not faced is clearly depicted through. Her inability to confront her fear and do what she knows is right leads her to a complete emotional breakdown, an end also met by her husband Pino. Body Paragraph 4

5 Body Paragraph 5 Conclusion The nature of fear is extensively explored by Nicollo Amminiti in I m Not Scared. Despite many of the characters claiming that they are in fact not scared, fear is central to the text and is shown to affect everyone. Through this novel, Amminiti shows that people are scared of many different things and that lack of power is a key cause of fear. He shows how fear reveals itself and people s tendency to try and mask their fears. Perhaps his most significant insights into fear is its power to destroy people and their morality if it is not confronted as is shown in the fate of Teresa and Pino Amatrano. If there is any lesson however that should be taken away from this text, it is that given by Michele, a young boy whose courage and humanity shows that fear can be overcome, and a person s morality and integrity strengthened by having the fortitude to do so.