Significant Connections

Significant Connections

Character

Sometimes it’s not the person who changes it’s then either changing the mask they wear or taking it off altogether, This speech is going to be about the illusion of identity and how 4 texts are able to connect together with the same kind of illusion. In many texts the main character pretends to be someone they’re not, the people around this character begin to believe their false identity too. The texts I will be focusing on today are: The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald (Novel) In this novel everyone believes that Gatsby is a Great powerful and rich man and he is able to lie his way through to truth to keep this lifestyle intact, Easy A (Film) In the film Olive Penderghast tell a lie about losing her virginity and everyone believes this rumour once its spread around her whole school, though this is a bad image for her to have she plays it off and starts to live up to this lie, The LandLady (Short Story) When Mr Weaver first meets the LandLady he sees her as a kind and generous old lady but slowly he realises she not quite as nice as he once thought but the LandLady is very good at avoiding questions that will reveal her true identity. Finally, I’m going to be talking about a short story called False Identity (Short Story) it’s about a lady who commits a crime but she’s been planning her new identity so she doesn’t get caught for a very long time, she goes into great detail in the hope that people won’t see through her new self.

The Great Gatsby is about a man called Jay Gatsby, throughout the novel Jay is constantly adapting his lifestyle for a married lady named Daisy Buchanan, He started off in a poor family but once he met daisy during the war in 1917 he was determined to have her as his own. Jay inherited a large amount of money after a family he was very close too died after this he started to rebuild his life to the finest detail, Gats revolved every decision he made around Daisy, One example of this was buying a house directly across the bay from her. His neighbour Nick Carraway becomes relatively close to Jay and begins to observe his behaviour. When Nick asks Gatsby about his family he states “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West — all dead now” Nick says that Jay says this ‘automatically’ which makes it seem like he has rehearsed the line… making it seem almost fake. The reader becomes aware of Jays obsessed with Daisy Buchanan but as the novel progresses the illusion jay has built up for daisy begins to crumble. After all the years Gats has perfected his lifestyle we see his true identity. Furthermore, another thing that backs up Jay’s fake stories is the fact that no one really knows anything about jay.. at all… some don’t even believe he exists. The reader realises from this novel that someone people go to great extents to impress someone but its difficult to keep the illusion intact when becoming close to people around you as eventually, the truth will slip out.

The reader realises from this novel that someone people go to great extents to impress someone but its difficult to keep the illusion intact when becoming close to people around you as eventually, the truth will slip out. Jay has been spending so much time trying to change himself for the one girl he loves but when she doesn’t love him back he becomes agitated letting is true intentions out

Easy A is about a young adult called Olive Penderghast… At the beginning of the film Olive lies to her best friend about losing her virginity, little does she know someone overheard this conversations resulting in the lie/rumour spreading around the whole school, initially Olive isn’t very happy about everyone knowing the lie that she told, Yet after she is called many names and judged but most people at her school she decided to live up to the rumour, Boys begin to pay her to lie about sexual activities they have done with Olive. Adding to this Olive changes her whole appearance too by purchasing and wearing things that most people would say is too revealing to wear at school but Olive is determined to continue on with this person she has embraced. After a while Olive realises that many of the boys in her school are lying to their friends about olive and that’s getting her into lots of tricky situations, she becomes to dislike the image she is portraying and wants to try a get out of the rumour that has been growing for many weeks if not months. Struggling to make people believe that the rumour is not true she realises she has begun to like a boy called Todd. Todd is willing to help her out of the situation she is in… From this movie we as the viewer realise that a rumour can be spread quickly and taken many different ways it gets to the point where the person whom this is targetted towards begins to believe it to a point where they decide to act the way others perceive them but once you box yourself in the illusion it is hard to escape as you have dug yourself a hole too deep to get out of and you have to rely on those around you to believe you and not the rumour.

From this movie we as the viewer realise that a rumour can be spread quickly and taken many different ways it gets to the point where the person whom this is targetted towards begins to believe it to a point where they decide to act the way others perceive them but once you box yourself in the illusion it is hard to escape as you have dug yourself a hole too deep to get out of and you have to rely on those around you to believe you and not the rumour.

The Land Lady written by Roald Dahl is a short story about an older lady who has a few sinister secrets which he hides upstairs in her B&B, A man named Billy Weaver is looking for a place to stay, whilst wandering down the street he notices a sign in a window saying ‘Bed and Breakfast’ peering through the window he sees a burning fire with a small dog sitting beside. Knocking on the door an innocent looking older lady answers it and offers him a room to say and of course, he accepts. After a while, Billy becomes suspicious of the Landlady and with only 2 people staying at the B&B in the past 3 years he began to question her and what she said. The Landlady claims that the 2 guests, Gregory Temple and Christopher Mulhollin have never left the house and live on the third floor together. Next Mr Weaver notices a realistic stuffed parrot in the corner of the room later coming to realise the dog that he saw laying by the fire was in fact stuffed too. He further says “it must be a difficult thing to do” with the landlady replying “not at all, I stuff all of my pets when they pass away.” Billy is still trying to make sense of all of this when he takes a sup out of his tea with tastes like Bitter Almonds. It is said that poison tastes like bitter almond so as the reader we because quite suspicious of the Landladys intentions. The short story finally ends of Billy exclaiming that there haven’t been any guest there in the past 2-3 years with the landlady replying “no dear…. only you.”

As the reader we are able to see the Landlady become more suspicious as the story continues, this shows the reader that people can be very good at hiding their true intentions when needed. The LandLady avoided all of the questions Billy Weaver asked but also a few giveaways slipped out when trying to conversate with him such as the 2 guest have never left. Though we don’t find out what happens to Billy as the reader we complete the story ourselves and personally I think the story ends with Billy getting stuffed like the animals and as I assume the other guests. But the landlady secret will only last so long because eventually her true intentions will be revealed

False Identity is a short story about a lady who has murdered a man whom she calls her ‘target’. Once she shoots the man she flees the scene where she then runs into an elevator to change her whole appearance in a matter of minutes. The lady who now calls herself Sharyn Smith has conjured up a whole story in the hope not to get caught by the police. Within the story, Mrs Smith has gone into great detail which she believes will not fail. not only the story but her whole appearance has changed too from her hear to her facial mannerisms. Sharyn became so focused on this story that it just looped over in her head, making sure she didn’t forget a single detail. The story ends with her evacuating the building and getting into a car in which she drives away and states ‘another successful mission complete’

From the story, the reader gathers that this lady is a spy but it is not clear what her aim is. Right at the beginning, she kills a man by shooting a single bullet that ‘buried itself in the targets handsome face.’ immediately after this that lady who was disguised as a man now identifies as Sharyn Smith. This tells us that she has been planning for this to happen for a very long time. she has had the time to create a new personality for herself and is determined that no one finds out about the crime she committed. This is significant as it proves people can lie about themselves to get themselves out of difficult situations. They become so focused on their ‘story’ that it’s all they think about, they almost unintentionally become the person themselves because of this unhealthy obsession

In conclusion, it doesn’t matter what the person’s intentions are. Everyone has had their own illusion but it usually gets revealed or the find reality within it all. But some people are that absorbed in trying to be someone else that they don’t realise how serious it has become. Some people live out their illusions for their whole life without thinking otherwise about it but some peoples illusion crumbles before their very eyes and they see through the filter of reality as everything they have spent time perfecting vanishes into nothingness.

In the Great Gatsby we learn about the lifestyle he created for his love of Daisy Buchanan but when he realises she no longer loves him he attempts to patch up the mistakes he has made with no real luck. In Easy A we learn that some people begin to dislike the illusion they have created for themselves very much but when they try to go back to their normal life people become too attached to the fake person who they were that they don’t believe their true identity. In the landlady, we learn that people will protect their secrets and true intentions to the best of their ability and though people might be a bit suspicious of what they say, they continue to lie or avoid their way out if it. Finally, in False identity, we learn that some peoples illusions take minutes to create where others take days to months and even sometimes years.

Though we are not, all the same, we all have our own illusions but its whether you decide to let them go or maybe they crumble before you without real choice or will you live them out until the very end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I like your introduction you have explained what the texts are about so that is good for the reader to know. I think you may need to work on bullet point 6 a wee bit as you go on and obviously finish. Other than that just give it a good proof read as there are a few mistakes.

Good start your introduction is well structured and I like how everything is clearly introduced however, it seems like you haven’t finished but when you keep doing it develop the connection between the stories a bit further and keep the punctuation well used then it would be good as. Cheers Albie, it was a pleasure.

A comma after “changes” in the opening statement makes the punchline make more sense, also take out “then”. Change the digit “4” into the word “four”. one “I’m” is misspelled. The plot explanation doesn’t need to be in the introduction but can be used for the start of each body paragraph. First sentence of the Great Gatsby paragraph doesn’t make sense… named* Jay and Daisy needs a capital letter. Full Stop instead of comma after Daisy Buchanan. Structure and ideas are good but mainly spelling and punctuation errors such as to* Gatz* one* Jay’s* You need two quotes in each paragraph to back up your points.

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