Revision

Mr Watts

• Known as ‘Pop-Eye’ at the start of the novel

• Wears a red clown nose

• Only white man on the island

• Teaches the children after all the teachers have left on ‘the last boat’

•He introduces Matilda to Great Expectations

• He is married to Grace and their child died sending her into a deep depression

• His house is the only building that is not destroyed when the rambos come for the second time

• He plans to escape the island with Matilda

•He is beaten, shot, chopped up and fed to pigs – he is sacrificed

Matilda

• is the narrator of the story and we see everything through her eyes

•She is 13 years old at the start of the novel

•Her mother rejects the ‘white world’ but her absent father (who works in Australia for the ‘white man’) embraces it

•She is a very strong character who grows throughout the novel

•She is fascinated by Great Expectations and the character of Pip

•She escapes the island by accident after witnessing the traumatic deaths of Mr Watts and her mother

•She meets Mr Watts’ first wife and finds he is not what she thought he was

Dolores

• Matilda’s mother

• hates everything that ‘the white man’ stands for

• believes the ‘white man’ took her husband away from her and she is angry (or did her ‘strong’ personality drive him away?)

• is highly religious but is a hypocrite

•She hates Mr Watts

•She causes the village to be destroyed

• she is very proud and will NOT give in to anyone

•She sees everything in very simple and very moral (in her opinion) terms - she refuses to be questioned

•She is raped, chopped up and fed to pigs

•But in this act she redeems herself and shows great courage as she protects Matilda

Grace

• Mr Watts’ wife

•She is the reason Mr Watts came to Bougainville

• Mr Watts pulls her around on a trolley

•Was an actress who played the Queen of Sheba

•Lost a child

•Suffered with extreme grief

•We learn about her by the things she wrote on the attic walls

•Dies without much mention

Bougainville

• Is part of the Solomon Islands

•Has a tropical climate

• it is rich in copper which was mined and is a valuable resource hence the wars

• a war torn country

• Suffered two major civil wars in 1975 and 1990

• Setting for Mister Pip

Redskins

• Papua New Guinea (PNG) military force

• they were armed with military weapons; wore uniforms

• believed that Bougainville belonged to Papua New Guinea and should not be independent

•Committed many atrocities on their own people

Rebels

•Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA or Rebels)

• they had no guns and used basic weapon; no official uniform

• they believed that Bougainville should be independent from Papua New Guinea

•Committed many atrocities on their own people

•It became difficult to tell the difference between the Redskins and the Rebels.

Conflict

Loss

Education

Escape

Horror of war

Brutality

Loss of innocence

Religion

Matilda’s internal conflict

The redskins and the rambos/rebels

Mr Watts – a ‘white’ man in a ‘black’ world

Dolores and Mr Watts

Religion and education

Dolores ‘looses’ her husband to the ‘white’ man and does not want to loose her daughter too

The death of Dolores

The death of Mr Watts

The loss of possessions

The loss of their way of life

The loss of children from the village and the death of Grace and Mr Watts’ child

Loss of teachers and formal education

The impact of Great Expectations on the village and on Matilda

Education verses religion

The lack of formal education of the women that come to ‘teach’ the children in the school

The lack of understanding/education of the rebels and redskins

Grace – Matilda learns a different side to her

Matilda’s life after Bougainville

Great Expectations

The last boat

Mr Watts’ plan to escape from the island

The inability to escape – death of Dolores and Mr Watts

Matilda’s accidental escape

The children and babies that died due to the lack of treatment for malaria – they escaped the suffering (you could argue)

Death of Dolores

Death of Mr Watts

Gilbert

Black the dog

Burning of possessions

Helicopters throwing people out of them

Daniel and his grandmother

Violence and punishment

Dolores’ treatment of Matilda

Black the dog

Death of Mr Watts and Dolores

Witnessing the horror of war

Daniel and his grandmother

God verses education

Religion used for hypocrisy

Religion used as abuse

Sacrifice

Fear

Resentment

Use PEEL

P - Point – make it brief and relate to the question

E – Evidence – pick an appropriate quotation aim for 5 words or less

E – Explanation – write about the effect of language, structure or form

L – Link – link what you have said back to the question

Analyse the words the Jones uses and relate it to the question

For instance what words show feelings –identify them in your quotation and talk about the effect of individual words

Slow progressive build up – flies; dragon-flies; dogs

Matilda loses track of time as the Redskins burn her calendar

This is important as it reflects how cut off the villagers are from the outside world

First person narrative – gives us only Matilda’s viewpoint – Matilda is a witness to the truth –she ‘observes’

Jones uses a ‘blunt’ tone – it is very matter of fact and Matilda expresses no emotion nor does she pass judgement

The novel follows a chronological order

A record of the events in Matilda’s life