Sample Answer: First Year Examination

Write about an important event in the novel.

The novel that I studied was ‘Dear Mr Kilmer’ by Anne Schraff. The event that I find the
most important is when the Schermers’ tavern was vandalised. There are three reasons why I
think that this event is important.

The first reason is because some Turtle Lake people were being unfair to the Schermers.
They vandalized the Schermers tavern. They painted “Dirty Huns” all over the walls. They said
that the Schermers were Huns. Some Turtle Lake people believed that Huns were a barbaric
clan originated from Germany. They said that the Schermers were unpatriotic because they
spoke German and served Hun food at their tavern while a war was going on against Germany.

Secondly, I Richard’s classmates were being unkind to the Schermers after the
Schermers’s tavern was vandalised. Mrs Hansen brought a card to express regret for what had
happened Mrs Hansen asked her class to sign the card. The troublemakers like Abner, Harry,
Blanche and Peggy refused to sign the card. They warned other classmates not to sign the card.
The boys were afraid Abner and Harry would hit them. The girls worry that popular girls like
Peggy and Blanche would not speak to them. However, Richard was the only student who
signed the sympathy card for Hannah Schermer. After school, Richard took the card from Mrs
Hansen. He wanted to give the card to Hannah. Hannah accepted the card reluctantly. Later,
Hannah apologised to Richard for being rude. This was the beginning of their friendship.

The third reason why I think that this event is important is because it shows to the
reader that the people in Turtle Lake are mostly prejudice. They showed their awful
discrimination to the Schemers family just because they were originated from Germany. The
sentiment of prejudice had grown wildly due to the war and the Schermers family had become
the victim for their hatred and malice. However, this event also showed that there are good
people in the community who act based on trust and justice, just like Richard. So in real life, we
cannot make generalization based on the whole community based our judgment must be based
on the action of an individual.

In conclusion, the event where the Schermers was being mistreated infuriated me. I
truly believed that discrimination was unjust.