In her Transition Year Extended Essay this year, Ciara Dempsey gained a distinction for her writing on 'The Consequences of Love', comparing two novels - Arthur Golden's Memoirs of A Geisha and George Orwell's 1984 - and two plays: Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Ciara writes:
"I hoped that with these stories I would be able to view as many different kinds of love as possible, to give me a better amount to compare, which I guess should have made it easier. The reason I chose this topic is really quite simple, I thought it would be easy. Unfortunately for me I found that not to be the case. That’s not to say that the topic has to be hard, but I know I personally found it difficult to write anything for it. However, in the end I hope it has all come together to be enjoyable for you to read."
Read the full essay here.
The first Transition Year Extended Essay we are posting from this year's work is by Seyilogo Braithwaite (for which she received a Distinction) and is on the subject of racism in three novels - Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Seyilogo writes:
The topic for my extended essay is racism. What led me to this topic is the trivial amount of racism I have encountered while abroad. I remember reading these books and thinking to myself how far society has progressed since the times these books were set. As a young black woman in a white country, I have only experienced racism twice which upset me at the time but reading these books has made me realise that my experiences are nothing compared to those of coloured people in the past. The theme I have chosen shows how three different authors portray the common theme of racism which I found very fascinating.
Read her full essay here.
