Slave, La Prisonniere, Child of Tibet

The final TY Extended Essay we'll be posting before term ends is by Gina Mirow, who chose an unusual subject, Child Exploitation, as seen in three books - La Prisonniere, by Malika Oufkir, Slave by Mende Nazer, and Child of Tibet, by Soname Yangchen, about which Gina writes :-

it is an inspiring autobiography, set against the beautiful background of a turbulent Tibet, we learn about a different culture and way of life and witness how one woman's indomitable spirit sustains her through desperate circumstances, heartache, international singing success and, at last, reunion with her lost family. This is by far the best-written book out of the three, but I found that the plot of the story didn’t combine well with the way that the story was written. The author wrote the story very descriptively however describing setting and visual presentations more than sentimental ones. Since the plot was so dramatic, it often seemed to lack effort in the emotional parts of the book. This is mainly the reason why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the other two; probably because I was expecting something so drastically different. Nevertheless, I learned a lot about the Chinese occupation and the setting of Tibet and India.

Read the full essay by Gina here.

Camus, Tartt, du Maurier

Our third TY Extended Essay features a very unusual mix of books. Kate Haslett writes about her project :-

The themes I have chosen to study for my extended literary essay are, crime, guilt and conscience, and I have entitled it, ‘Crime and Punishment’. I chose this title as I wanted to explore the morality and virtue of the different characters in my three chosen novels. The three novels I have chosen to write on are The Outsider by Albert Camus, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Although seemingly different they all share one underlying common ground - the main characters are each guilty of a secret crime, whether it be a crime of passion, or a cold blooded murder and they will all have to deal with the consequences and gravity of their situation.

Kate's full essay is here. The Daphne du Maurier site is here.

Fowles, Shreve, Yen Mah

The second in our series of excellent Transition Year Extended Essays comes from Jessica Dean, whose essay was on 'Dysfunctional Relationships' in three books - Adeline Yen Mah's Falling Leaves, Anita Shreve's Resistance, and John Fowles's classic chilling masterpiece The Collector, about which Jessica writes :-

I found The Collector the most interesting to read, as it was written from both Clegg’s and then Miranda’s point of view. The way John Fowles wrote when he was doing Clegg was particularly brilliant. The fact that the novel is split into the diaries of both Clegg and Miranda gives you two different perspectives on each character. The character of Clegg was written excellently; Fowles captured every minor but vital detail that passed through Clegg’s thoughts, interpreting and portraying his mentality very accurately. Miranda’s diary is also a great insight into understanding his ways, as Clegg’s version of events are usually distorted by the way he interprets things. Miranda’s diary gives another perspective of him, showing us how monstrous he does eventually become.

Here is Jessica's full Extended Essay.

Plath, Morrison, Banks

Before the end of term, we'll be posting some of the fine work done by IV formers in their Transition Year Extended Essay projects. The first of these is an outstanding essay by Fiona Boyd, which has received a (rare) Commendation. She writes :-

The books I have decided to write my Extended Esssay on are And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison, a memoir of his father’s life, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the semi-autobiographical tale of a young girl's breakdown and Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks, a realistic and intriguing book about one boy's journey into adulthood.

I chose these books, based on the recommendations of my English teacher, with the intention of basing my essay around the theme of 'Relationships'. However, after reading the books I couldn’t draw together enough material to write solely about relationships so I began to look for other options. First I weighed up the books’ similarities, then their differences, then their strengths and finally their weaknesses and I formed a conclusive decision in my head. All three books were different in terms of social order (class), era and gender. This meant that the themes common in the three books, such as issues with their fathers, were written from three very different angles and so quite difficult to base a whole 3,000-minimum essay on. However all three did have one thing in common - changes. And so this became my theme.

Eventually Fiona found 3000 words too restricting a target : here is her full essay.