Raw by Scott MonkNovel Study: Challenge and Endurance

Learning Object by Michelle Merritt

• As you read the text, consider how it links to our Area of Study. What challenges do the characters in the novel face? How are these dealt with? Do they have the endurance to keep going?

“Raw” By Scott Monk

• Challenge and Endurance: A Challenge is something that requires great mental and/or physical effort to be completed successfully; testing a person’s ability, faith and understanding, and oftentimes, also their endurance to keep going even when the challenge becomes difficult, unpleasant, or even painful.

Area of Study:

Title

Plot Summary

Setting

Characters

Literary Devices

Themes

“Raw” By Scott Monk• Analysing the title of the

Novel; something that is raw, is in its natural state and may be imperfect or lacking experience and/or understanding. Raw also implies that something may be unprotected and susceptible to hurt.

‘Raw’ follows the story of Brett Dalton, a teenager with an attitude who has chosen to succumb to peer pressure and live outside the law. After being ‘picked-up’ for various minor offences, Brett finds himself at the mercy of a tough judge who sends him to The farm in the home of rehabilitating him. The story follows Brett’s life on the farm and whether or not the experience has the power to ‘change’ him.

Plot …

Mungindi

The Farm

The Setting…

Brett Arrives In Mungindi• “a country town split in half by

the Queensland-New South wales border” (Page 3)

• “He (Brett) didn’t know where he was and didn’t want to…he realised one unknown town was as unknown as the rest” (Page 2)

• He got his first look at Mungindi about two-thirty. It was worse than he expected … His life was to be sucked out of him just like the town’s had” (Page 5)

Brett Arrives On The Farm• “It sounded like a pushover. Just Old

McDonald and a couple of geese … it aimed to turn troublemakers like himself into model citizens. As if”. (Page 3)

• “There wasn’t anything worth pinching” (page 12) about Sam and Mary’s house.

• “Brett was allowed to help himself to anything on the table” (Page 12)

• “No-hopers like this one will never get a job because …” (Page 20) police officer about Brett.

• “Sam. He was the enemy” (Page 20)• Sam on The Farm; “This isn’t a

detention centre … It’s more of a halfway house for young guys like you” (Page 25)

Brett Dalton•Protagonist. He has been sent to a detention centre on The Farm, for committing various crimes. “Raw” follows Brett’s life and the changes that he undergoes during this period.

Frog – Robert Scully• Is the youngest of the boys on The Farm, he is 12, “only a tadpole”Pg12. Frog is bullied by the bigger boys and when Brett comes to the Farm he seeks his friendship; looking up to Brett. Brett becomes a ‘big brother’ figure to Frog. Frog even asks Brett to teach him to fight.

Sam •Sam runs The Farm. He and his wife Mary have created a ‘halfway’ house for trouble boys. You can see that Sam cares for the boys that are sent to him. Sam does his best to befriend/guide Brett; however, in the beginning this is not welcomed as Brett sees Sam ‘as the enemy’.

Josh•Antagonist. Josh is a young aboriginal boy who has been on The Farm the longest and is now working on the Farm as a farmhand. Brett and Josh get off to a rocky start in the beginning, but soon realise they have a number of things in common and develop a mutual respect for one another.

Characters …

Form

Features

Context

Register

StructureShapes meaning

FORM• What form does this text take?

• “Raw” is a novel and is structured as such.

FEATURES• What language features are used to create meaning in this text?

CONTEXT• What is/was

happening in the world when this text was composed?

• Historical/Cultural/Social

REGISTER• Does Monk use

different types of language to convey meaning throughout the text?

STRUCTURE• How has Monk

structured the text to create meaning?

• Why do you think he made these choices?

SHAPES MEANING• Through the

choice of form, structure and language features Monk shapes meaning.

Composer: The person or persons who create something. Scott Monk is the author of this text, or the composer.

Point-of-View: We all read a text from our own personal point-of-view. Mental state, age, cultures, socio-economic status and wealth can all effect/alter perspectives.

Responder: you are responding to what you read/view etc. You are not just passive.

Useful Vocabulary:

How Meaning is Made …Meaning is made

when the responder (you)

comes to an understanding of

texts.

How Meaning is Made …Authors/

composers use a variety of

techniques to convey this

meaning to their audience

How Meaning is Made …It is important to be

able to identify techniques used by

the author and equally as important to be able to discuss

their effect.

Literary DevicesThese are the tools that an author uses to tell their story:

CharacterisationSymbolism and MotifThemesNarration

Characterisation in Raw by Scott Monk

Protagonist• Brett is the Protagonist of the “Raw”.• We know this because we come to understand

the novel and life on The Farm through Brett’s feelings, his experiences and the interactions he has with others.

Activity: Using Brett’s feelings, his experiences and the interactions he has with others, comment on what life on The Farm would be like.

Freedom of Choice

Respect for Power/Authori

tyNaivety: Forced to mature

Improve Familial

Relationships

Themes…

Consider the feelings of

others

Facing the Consequences

Self Awareness:

Rethink worldview

Freedom of Choice• Raw is about choice. It is the

choices that Brett has made that has led to his incarceration.

• Brett is sent to The Farm for a three month period. The novel tells us that Brett doesn’t come from an abusive family and he also doesn’t undergo a ‘radical transformation’. Brett is a regular teenager, he has made a few bad choices, and has succumb to peer pressure. He has the opportunity to change his life.

• “Just remember, Brett: only you can change your life.” (page 86) Sam to Brett. And on Page 340, Brett reflects on this comment again.

• “He was free and happy and wanted to start a new life on his terms. Not the court’s. Not his family’s. Not Sam’s. But on his term’s.” (page 88)

Respect for Power and Authority• The police show their power by arresting

and incarcerating Brett. Constable’s Gallagher and Nelson show their authority and power over Brett on the drive to Mungindi: Their short tempers and description of Brett as a “no-hoper” (page 14) are examples of this

• On the Farm, Sam and Mary show their authority by way of mutual respect; however, Brett finds this challenging at first. “To Brett, Sam was everything he resented here. The more he tried to change him, the more Brett would resist. Brett wasn’t going to follow any rules or become the man’s buddy like all the other losers. He was happy with who he was and the way he lived. He’d beat the system before it beat him. In the end Brett would win.” (page 57)

• Brett believed that power and authority limited his freedom and would do anything to rebel; towards the end of the novel, Brett could see that people could use power to show love, respect and that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Naivety: Forced to MatureDespite his ‘tough’ exterior, Brett seems to have a naïve view of the world. His inexperience, poor judgment and lack of knowledge have led him to the Farm. Whilst there however; Brett begins to become more aware of the world around him.• “he was allowed to roam free! …

What kind of a detention centre was this?” (page 37)

• “Brett felt real fear” (page 76)• “He was scared of what would

happen to him now that he had no money, and scared that something worse could have happened last night … He was spooking himself” (page 98)

Improve Familial Relationships:• Mary – “Do you have parents Brett? ‘Yer,

two. They split up a couple years ago but sorted things through recently. They’re good people but they can’t handle this one” Police officer Gallagher (Page 13)

• “Dreaming of home, Brett started to think about his parents … They were good people and the only ones who’d stuck by him.” (Page 41)

• “Nice parents you have Caitlyn (conversation between Brett, Caitlyn and her father) ”…“We’re better than yours, I reckon” came the response from Caitlyn’s father. “What are they ? Alcoholic dole bludgers too?”(Page 228)

• “Brett realised how lucky he was having normal parents. Parents who shouted at him and had gone through a tough time, but good people nonetheless.” (Page 307)

Brett begins to consider the feelings of others:• Over time, Brett starts to reconsider his

relationships.• Despite the obvious care and

compassion Sam shows for the boys in his care, Brett still sees him as the enemy.

• He and Josh first get off on the wrong foot. To Brett, Josh is an extension of the Farm, Sam’s boy, later, Brett comes to realise Josh’s story and to feel compassion for him.

• Even in matters of the heart, Brett begins to change. He begins to see his former relationship with Rebecca as a negative part of his life. He is ready to move on to something better, someone like Caitlyn.

Facing the consequences of his actions.• Brett lived his life not worried about

the future. At sixteen his thoughts were about smoking, drinking, stealing, he didn’t like school and the constraints that it put on his life. He wanted complete freedom, even if that meant impeding on the freedoms of others through his choices. When arrested for break and enter, Brett is angry at the police, ‘pigs’, he is then upset at his parents sitting speechless in the courthouse and he develops an initial disdain for Sam and being stuck on the Farm – Brett struggles to realise, all of these things are happening as a result of his actions. His behaviour has consequences.

Self Awareness: Re-think Worldview.• Brett begins to realise that he needs to

change. His relationship with Josh allows him to reflect on himself. Brett comes to appreciate how Josh has changed his own life (pg.288) and in turn can see what he needs to work on. Josh says; “you think everything I say … has another meaning... It’s like you want the whole world to hate you...It’s like you can’t stand letting people get too close to you.” (pg 289)

• Initially Brett is angered by this, later though he says, “I did take it personally. I needed to…I’ve been blaming everyone but myself.” (pg. 296)

• “A lot of people would say that he’d failed when he did get back to Sydney, that he was a loser. But they’d be wrong. He was a young and he was going to start again.”

Narration in Raw by Scott Monk

Third Person• “Raw” is written using a third-person narrative style. • The language indicators that show us this are the use

of pronouns like, “he”, “she”, “they” etc. • Third-person narration means that the novel is not

written from one person’s perspective, or point of view.Activity: Why do you think Monk chose to use this narrative style? As the responder to this text, do you see any advantage in using Third-person narration?

Language TechniquesThese are the tools that an author uses to tell their story.

IronySymbolismImagerySound

Literary Devices: Irony

Irony occurs when we are able to see the difference between reality and appearance.

In “Raw” we see an example of ‘situational irony’. Brett is a thief; however, when he becomes the victim he is forced to reconsider his past actions.

Literary Devices: Symbolism

Symbolism occurs when some aspect of the story, like a person, object, or location, actually represents something else.

In “Raw” the weather can be seen to symbolise, or reflect the way that Brett is feeling or some kind of inner struggle.When Brett first arrives on the Farm (pg 9) a bolt of sunlight flashes him in the eyes.

Literary Devices: ImageryAuthors use imagery to emhasise an idea or when they present an idea that essentially stands for something else. Symbolism and Figurative Language are devices used to create imagery. “I was raped” on hearing this admission from Josh, “He (Brett) was shivering, but not because of the cold wind”

Literary Devices: SoundAuthors use sounds to convey meaning and heighten emotion and feeling. Monk uses Onomatopoeia; the technique where the word itself imitates the sound.

“BOOM! BOOM! … Josh thinks he can ride Paterson’s brumby” (Page 30) This is where we are introduced to Josh for the first time, he recklessly bounds into Brett’s life.“The Mustang rocked … but the engine just rrr-rrr-rrred and died” (Page 98) Brett hitchhiking.

It is important to identify the technique and to also be able to

say why it is used, and the effect on the

responder (you).

Writing an Analytical Essay

QUESTION

• Essay titles come in two types, the specific and the general.

• Write your selected question or thesis statement at the start of your essay

INTRODUCTION• Say how you intend to approach the question,

define terms, outline the points you intend to elaborate on in the order you plan to tackle them

MAIN BODY• take each point you have outlined in the

introduction and discuss it using evidence from the text and quotes as support.

CONCLUSION• This single paragraph pulls together the parts of

your argument in a summary, do not include new information here

Writing an Analytical Essay

STAGE 1

Analyse the question. Define key terms and ideas and rewrite these in your own words to ensure that you understand.

STAGE 2

Outline, in point form, the main ideas for each paragraph. This means your introduction, main body and conclusion

STAGE 3

Begin writing. Ensure that each paragraph has a topic sentence, clear argument and that this is supported with evidence.

STAGE 4

Proof read your essay and let it sit for a while – you may find errors later. Submit it for drafting prior to the due date.