English

Attention Parents of Year 11s

JASPER JONES and MONTANA 1948

Students in Year 11 English are currently studying the novel Montana 1948, by Larry Watson and the film, Jasper Jones, which is based on the novel of the same name, written by Craig Silvey.

Students need to know both these texts thoroughly so that they can write a comparative essay for their school assessed coursework (SAC), which is coming up very soon.

The English staff at Wanganui are always interested in inviting parents to discuss the texts their children are studying. Of course, it is much more helpful if you have also read or viewed the texts, so you are strongly encouraged to do that. Any parent involvement in this way is worthwhile.

Why do we study these texts?

With fictional texts of any merit there is a lot to be learned about human relationships, in particular, and these two texts are no exception. It is a chance for students to experience aspects of life that perhaps they may not have come across, to empathise with or to criticise the actions and behaviours of some characters, and also perhaps to discuss with other students, and their teachers, aspects of morality – what is the right thing to do under the given circumstances?

In Montana 1948, the protagonist, David Hayden is faced with a moral dilemma his father, Wes has, as sheriff – Should Wes arrest his brother, (and David’s uncle), Frank, a respected doctor and member of a prominent family in the town of Bentrock, Montana, when he has sexually assaulted many Indian women, and murdered one of them, Marie Little Soldier? On the surface it would seem an easy choice, but there are many factors to consider, such as family honour, and its ultimate upshot is that David’s family was forced to leave the town forever and David can only bring himself to write about those events some 40 years later.

Similarly, in Jasper Jones, Charlie Bucktin faces the dilemma of whether he should help Jasper Jones, reputed to be a troublemaker in the town. As Charlie says at the start of the film, “Everyone in town said that he was dangerous”, but Charlie was intrigued and wanted to find out more about him. He finds out that the true story is very different, but he finds himself helping to hide the dead body of Jasper’s girlfriend, Laura Wishart. Along the way Charlie finds a girlfriend of his own, has to endure his parent’s breakup, and generally finds out that life is more complicated than he expected.

Both these texts present issues and ideas that can be related to in some form or another, and that promote discussion of some issues, which are important, but which might not otherwise arise if these texts had not been studied.

So please, if you can, ask your Year 11 student about these texts – what they found interesting, confronting, perplexing or difficult to explain – which characters they could identify with, or empathise with, and which characters they found morally repulsive and why! Even asking about the texts on a simple level will signal your interest and encourage further engagement.

Phil Oakes on behalf of the English staff at Wanganui.