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Alice to Prague Text

In the extract from 'Alice to Prague', Tanya Heaslip uses narrative and language features such as characterisation, diction, and modality to portray the character 'Dad' as a dominant and powerful figure. The title 'The Boss' and descriptors like 'Hard, determined and stoic' evoke respect, while the dismissive nature of his commands instills a sense of fear. This complex portrayal allows readers to form personal impressions of 'Dad', highlighting his strictness and the children's yearning for his approval.

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17 views

Alice to Prague Text

In the extract from 'Alice to Prague', Tanya Heaslip uses narrative and language features such as characterisation, diction, and modality to portray the character 'Dad' as a dominant and powerful figure. The title 'The Boss' and descriptors like 'Hard, determined and stoic' evoke respect, while the dismissive nature of his commands instills a sense of fear. This complex portrayal allows readers to form personal impressions of 'Dad', highlighting his strictness and the children's yearning for his approval.

Uploaded by

kevin.luu2022
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Explain how narrative and/or language features helped you

respond to one of the characters in the extract.

The following is an extract from the 2019 novel Alice to Prague by


Australian author, Tanya Heaslip. The novel’s protagonist is a young,
outback girl.

Central Australia, 1972

Out of the inland sky roared the sun. It flattened the land with its intensity
and turned the horizon into lines of mirages that shimmered along the
distant foothills. Above those silver illusions a range of hills rose abruptly,
curves of purple smudged with dark valleys and rocky outcrops. Below,
where the red earth had once cracked and heaved, it now collapsed into
ancient and misshapen forms as though exhausted. It was an ancient
place woven with Aboriginal stories, hundred of miles emptiness, largely
untouched by Europeans.

And in that particular spot nowhere, on a Tuesday afternoon in November


1972, a group of stockmen, including three children, drove several
hundred cattle from the scrublands of the north towards the mirage-
dotted hills of the south.

I was one of those children. My skewbald horse Sandy and I were on the
tail of the mob. The air was red with thick, choking dust, the smell of
sweat and the powdery taste of dirt.

One the western wing of the mob rode my nine-year-old sister; on the
eastern wing rode my younger brother Brett, eight years old, his freckly
face dwarfed by a hat pulled low over his ears. We were three small, tough
and wiry. We were little men, doing big men’s work, and we knew no other
way. But there was always a rush of happiness if Dad ever acknowledged
we’d done a job as well as any man. Praise from Dad was rare and we
gave our all for those tidbits.

Everyone called Dad ‘The Boss’. Hard, determined and stoic, he walked
fast and rode fast, stockwhip looped over his shoulder, boots crunching
over the ground, stock hat pushed low over his eyes. Whatever he said
went. One of his many mottos was: ‘There is no such word as can’t’.

In class analysis practice:

In the extract from 2019 novel ‘Alice to Prague’, the author, Tanya Heaslip
employs generic narrative and various language features of modality,
characterisation and diction to construct the character ‘Dad’, yielding a
response of respect and instilling a slight sense of fear from me.

The text refers to the character Dad as ‘The Boss’, the diction ‘Boss’ has
connotations with positions of powers and strength, the inclusive
language of ‘everyone’ called Dad ‘Boss’, makes it clear that everyone
acknowledges his traits and beliefs. My response to this is one of respect
due to the vast recognition he receives evident from the given title.
Following this renaming is an instance of rule of 3, ‘Hard, determined and
stoic’, these high modality adjectives evoke a response of reverent within
me, constructing and providing depth to the character ‘Dad’. Tanya
Heaslips, choice of a unique sentence structure, which is always direct and
to the point provides pace and ups the emotion found in the extract.
Paired in synergy, is multiple instances of repetition ‘He walked fast-
Whatever he said went’’ gives the character a more complex dominant,
presence in the extract. By incorporating high modality language in the
short phrase ‘What ever he said went’, feels dismissive and powerful and
as a reader it constructs a stern, harsh, strict character, and my response
shifts from a sense of reverent to one of fear for his superiority in the
extract. During this introduction to the character ‘Dad’, we aren’t given a
description of any physical appearance, which allows my response to be
constructed based on personal impressions and my context, ‘Boots
crunching over the ground, stock hat pushed low over his eyes, produces
a visual of a tall, strong individual, that once seems dismissive and
powerful through the symbol of the eyes. Eye contact is considered a
sense of respect, however in this case, it seems the character ‘Dad’ is
superior and ignores the reader, producing once again a response of fear
from me due to his presence his ability to ignore others. Including his own
children who yearn for his approval and attention. The inclusion of the
techniques of modality, characterisation and usage of diction, Tanya
Heaslip employs effectively constructs the character ‘Dad’ as a dominant,
powerful individual, and from this context evokes an initial response of
respect, which shifts to a slight sense of fear from me nearing the end of
the extract through his underlying reactions and traits.

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