1

TSL 3102 Mei 2013

SECTION A
(60 marks)
Answer all questions
Question 1 : Short Story ( 40 marks)
Read the extract from The Journey by Catherine Lim and answer the questions that follow.




5




10




15




20




25




30




35




40



The three elderly women asked if they could come and Richard wrote back.
Please do. I want to see all of you again. They came. They avoided the sight of
Mabel, and she, on her part, fretted. They brought a certain herbal mixture which they
said was good for him, but Mabel put her foot down and said, No. Richards under
the best medical treatment here. The doctors will not tolerate any traditional ulu care.
Grandmother told her two daughters, privately, that she would have liked to spit in
Mabels face but had refrained from doing do, as it would have upset Richard. He was
not in a condition to be upset. The three women stayed out of her way entirely; they
are separately, and Mabel took the children away to her sisters as frequently as she
could. She appealed to her husband with tears in her eyes, darling, Im not trying to
be nasty to your folks, but it hurts me badly when I see them foisting their nonsense
upon you, and you in this condition too. I want you to have none but the best; you
deserve it darling. Let me take care of you.
He had said wearily, Mabel, leave them alone. He wanted to add, They bring
some comfort to me, but had remained silent after that.
They went home after some time, Grandmother embittered and angry, the two
others silent and mad, and he felt a pang, but her let them go, and Mabel is less
fretful.
He suffered. There was no pain as yet but he suffered. He looked at his
magnificent house (which a few days before a crew of men and women from the
Television Department had arrived to film a documentary which was to be called
Lovely Homes. Mabel had invited them over a month before, before they had heard
of the sad development. He looked at this lovely home of his, and he suffered keenly.
Everything about him gave him pain, for he had worked so hard to get all these, and
now they were dust and ashes in his mouth. He was still going to his office; he
thought he might as well continue working, as sitting at home would be unbearable.
Mabel had been consulting one specialist after another. One evening, she came
home with excited look on her face and announced that she had found a specialist
the best cancer specialist in the world based in New York. His chances of recovery
under this specialist would be much increased. The expense would be of course
enormous but what was money? She was prepared to sell the shares, her jewellery.
Richard said, Im a doomed man. Im not going to make any journey to New
York.
Mabel was sad, Its no use, she told her sister. I cant make him go to that
specialist I told you about. I wonder what I can do to make him agree to make that
journey?
Richard dozed off a great deal. He thought of his boyhood in his small ulu village.
He thought of the time when he was ill and lay on prickly coconut fibre-stuffed
mattress with the camber-pot nearby. He remembered how he had felt very ill and had
to vomit, but the stuff couldnt come out. He agonised for a few minutes, making great
retching noises in his throat, and he remembered his mother and aunt coming in. His
mothers hands were still wet from her washing and she wiped them quickly on her
dress and came to him. She held him downward movements with her fingers. His aunt
2


45




50




55




60




65
stood by, talking in low tones and then exclaiming happily when at last the vomit came
out, and he lay back on the pillow, soothed. He remembered that his grandmother
made him a brew, a black bitter drink which she said was most effective went drunk in
moonlight. He was sleeping when she gently picked him up from his bed and carried
him outside, where the moonlight was streaming upon the house in a wonderful glow
of warmth and peace, and made sure his face was touched by moonlight as he drank
the brew. His grandmother tried to distract him from bitterness by telling him a story
about a moon goddess. He remembered it was a silly story, but it had the effect of
calming him and allowing him to finish the brew.
In one of the dreams, Mabel was there as his grandmother carried him into the
moonlight to drink his medicine. She tried to snatch away the bowl of brew from her
hands, shouting What nonsense! What nonsense! Grandmother resisted, and in the
ensuing struggle, the drink spilt all over him and stained him black. Mables face was
hidden from him, and it was then that he woke up.
He told Mable that he was going to make the journey for his recovery. He would go
by train, and his mother, grandmother and aunt would meet him at the terminus and
take him home. He was going home when Mabel understood she shrieked in agony.
How can you be going back to that rotten little ulu village? Who will take care of you?
What medical facilities could possibly exist there? How could she go to see him, with
the business to see to and the children to care of and the household affairs to
manage? Mabel collapsed in tears, hurt beyond expression, struck to the depths of
her soul.How could he think of such a thing? Was he sure that didnt he want to

But he said, Im making my journey home. Im going home.

The Journey by Catherine Lim

a i Discuss the conflicts between Mabel and her in-laws. Provide evidence from
the extract to support your answer.
[5 marks]
ii Discuss the relationship between Richard and his family
[5 marks]
b In the extract, the writer has revealed the prevailing elements of Asian culture. Using
the Cultural Approach, analyse the different aspects of Asian culture as revealed by
the writer. Support your answer with relevant evidence.
[15 marks]
c Using any other appropriate literary theory, analyse the extract provided.
Substantiate your answer with relevant pieces evidence from the extract.
[15 marks]




3

Question 2: Poetry (20 marks)








5





10





15

A Late Walk

When I got up through the mowing filed,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words.

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth,
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

Robert Frost

a i State the form of the poem.
[1 mark]
ii Identify the tone of the poem.
[1 mark]
iii Identify the rhyme scheme in stanza 1 of the poem
[1 mark]
iv Identify an example of the following in the given poem.

Literary Devices Example
Personification
Simile
Alliteration

[3 marks]
4

v Identify and explain one literary device used in the lines below:
The whirl of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds... (line 6 7)

Literary device: _________________________________________________

Explanation:

[4 marks]

b i Discuss the theme of the poem. Substantiate with relevant evidence.
Theme:
Explanation:
[5 marks]
ii Discuss how the poet uses nature to express the mood of the persona.
Substantiate with relevant evidence
[5 marks]

SECTION B
(40 marks)
Answer two questions.
1. Literature exemplifies life. It conveys messages in which readers are able to relate theor
own personal experiences.
Based on a play studied in this course, to what extend do you think the playwright has
been successful in conveying the theme in the play? Provide evidence to support your
answer.

[20 marks]

2. One of literatures greatest merits is its universality. It does not deal with a certain society
or a particular community but with society as a whole.
Discuss the statement above. Substantiate your answer by relating to subject matter and
theme from the novel you have studied in this course. Provide evidence to support your
answer.

[20 marks]





5

TSL 3102 November 2013
SECTION A
(60 marks)
Answer all questions
Question 1 : Short Story ( 40 marks)
Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.






5




10




15





20




25




30





35




40
When the results appeared in the morning papers, Rakesh scanned them barefoot
and in his pajamas, at the garden gate, then went up the steps to the verandah
where his father sat sipping his morning tea and bowed down to touch his feet.

A first division, son? asked his father, beaming, reaching for the papers.
At the top of the list, papa, Rakesh murmured, as if awed. First in the country.

Bedlam broke loose then. The family whooped and danced. The whole day long
visitors streamed into the small yellow house at the end of the road to congratulate
the parents of this Wunderkind, to slap Rakesh on the back and fill the house and
garden with the sound and colours of the festival. There were garlands and halwa,
party clothes and gifts (enough fountain pens to last years, even a watch or two),
nerves and temper and joy, all in a multicoloured whirl of pride and great shinning
vistas newly opened: Rakesh was the first son in the family to receive an education,
so much had been sacrificed in order to send him to school and then medical
college, and at last the fruit of their sacrifice had arrived, golden and glorious.

To everyone who came to him to say, Mubarak, Varmaji, your son has brought you
glory, the father said, Yes, and do you know what is the first thing he did when he
saw the results this morning? He came and touched my feet. He bowed down and
touched my feet. This moved many of the women in the crown so much that they
were seen to raise the end of their saris and dab at their tears while the men
reached out for the betel-leaves and sweetmeats that were offered around on the
trays and shook their heads in wonder and approval of such exemplary filial
behaviour. One does not often see such behaviour in sons anymore, they all
agreed, a little envious perhaps, Leaving the house, some of the women said,
sniffing, At least on such occasion they might have served pure ghee sweets, and
some of the men said, Dont you think old Varma was giving himself airs? He
neednt think we dont remember that he comes from the vegetable market himself,
his father used to sell vegetable, and he has never seen the inside of a school. But
there was more envy than rancour in their voices and it was, of course, inevitable
not every son in that shabby little colony at the edge of the city was destined to
shine as Rakesh shone, and who knew better than the parents themselves?

And that was only the beginning, the first step in a great sweeping ascent to the
radiant heights of fame and fortune. The thesis he wrote for his M.D brought Rakesh
still greater glory, if only in select medical circles. He won a scholarship. He went to
the USA (that was what his father learnt to call it and taught the whole family to say
not America, which was what the ignorant neighbours called it, but, with a grand
familiarity, the USA) where he pursued his career in the most prestigious of all
hospitals and won encomiums from his American colleagues which were relayed to
his admiring and glowing family. What was more, he came back, he actually
returned to that small yellow house in the once-new but increasingly shabby colony,
6





45





50




55
right at the end of the road where the rubbish vans tipped out their stinking contents
for pigs to nose in and rag-pickers to build their shacks on, all steaming and
smoking just outside the neat wire fences and well tendered garden. To this Rakesh
returned and the first thing he did on entering the house was to slip out of the
embraces of his sisters and brothers and bowed down and touched his fathers feet.

As for his mother, she gloated chiefly over the strange facts that he had not married
in America, had not brought home a foreign wife as all her neighbours had warned
her he would, for wasnt that what all Indian boys went abroad for? Instead he
agreed, almost without argument, to marry a girl she picked out for him in her own
village, the daughter of a childhood friend, a plump an uneducated girls, it was true
but so old-fashioned, so placid, so complaisant that she slipped into the household
and settled in like a charm, seemingly too lazy and too good-natured to even try and
make Rakesh leave home and set up independently, as any other girl might have
done. What was more, she was pretty really pretty, in a plump, pudding way that
only gave way to fat soft, spreading fat, like warm wax after the birth of their first
baby, a son, and then what did it matter?

A Devoted Son by Anita Desai

a i Discuss the relationship between Rakesh and his parents
[5 marks]

ii What does the narrator mean by ...at last the fruits of their sacrifice had
arrived, golden and glorious, ? (line 15)

[5 marks]

b Cultural elements are clearly evident in the way the family members behave in the
given extract above. Elaborate Cultural Approach. Justify your answer with specific
evidence from the extract.
[15 marks]

c Analyse the extract using another literary approach. Justify your answer with specific
evidence from the extract.
[15 marks]














7

Question 2: Poetry (20 marks)







5





10





15




20





25
The Traveller

for i only a traveller finding my own way
among the streets of your new town,
i have other places to go to.
i shall someday work out a map of this city
and traverse it on foot, someday.
for i am only a traveller, and cannot stray longer
where there is no home.

take my love while you can, take my hatred,
take my weathered hand if you will,
for i shall have no home here,
among the dull buildings
where the heart cannot stay.
for i am only a traveller
on my way, to somewhere further than here.

this is the city that broke my heart,
that stole my feelings from me;
this is the city that took away my love,
that told me i must go away.
i must go somewhere.
somewhere, where that can know me;
can recognise that i am a man.

some nights when the city asleep
ill walk out quietly along your cruel streets
through the suburban edge and into the dawn forests.
somewhere, perhaps near where the sun rises,
i can sit down,
and sometimes perhaps, i can tell myself,
here i am a man.

Muhammad Hj Salleh

a i State the form of the poem
[1 mark]

ii Identify two lines in stanza one which rhyme.
[1 mark]

iii Why is i used instead of I to refer to the persona?

[2 marks]





8

iv Provide two examples of the following literary devices from the poem
Literary
Devices

Personification I

II

Imagery I

II


[4 marks]

v Briefly explain the lines below from stanza 3
this is the city that took away my love,
That told me i must go away (line 17 18)

[2 marks]

b i Identify and explain the tone of the poem

[2 marks]

ii Identify and explain one theme in the poem

Theme:

Explanation:

[4 marks]

c Do you sympathise with the persona? Justify your answer with examples from the
poem.


[4 marks]












9

SECTION B
(40 marks)
Answer all questions.
1. Identify one theme and discuss how it is portrayed through the actions of the
characters in the novel you have studied in this course. Provide evidence to support
your answer.

[20 marks]

2. Identify one theme in a play that you have explored in your course. Provide
evidence to support your answer.

[ 20 marks]