Today’s essay is a Level One response to the short texts “Big Brother, Little Sister” by Witi Ihimaera and “Friendly Persuasion” by David Hill. It was written in exam conditions.
Describe the main idea or purpose in EACH of the texts you have studied. Explain why the idea or purpose helped you remember the texts.
In these short stories “Big Brother Little Sister” by Witi Ihimaera and “Friendly Persuasion” by David Hill the main purpose of the stories is to highlight the effects of bad parenting and the effects it has on the children.
In “Big Brother Little Sister”, Hema and Janey’s mum is a weak natured person and isn’t a very good parent. She leaves the children at home by themselves when she goes out with her boyfriend and so Hema must look after his little sister by himself. Hema has grown up to be responsible and caring and looks after both his mother and Janey at times.
At one stage, during the story, Hema and Janey run away from home because they both have had enough of their mum’s boyfriend and believe she would be happier without them. On the way to the train station they face many challenges which illustrate how, because of his mother’s bad parenting, Hema acts responsibly and courageously to protect his sister. When they find they can’t get to where they want to go from the train station, Hema realises that he loves his mum too much to leave her by herself as he is sure one day her boyfriend will.
In “Friendly Persuasion”, Alan who is the main character of the story also has bad parents who have grown up allowing him to persuade them into everything that he wants. Because of this he has been expelled or his parents “have been persuaded that his unique talents maybe better used somewhere else”. Another result of this bad parenting is that he gets in trouble at school for not doing work and because of his good looks causes trouble with the girls.
In the end the final result of Alan’s bad upbringing is he is once again expelled and sent home where he is grounded, but because of his parents “soft hand” towards Alan he persuades them that he is repentant enough to be allowed out for an evening alone in his mini. Because of his irresponsibility and persuasiveness he ends up dying when his mini goes off a cliff.
In both of these stories, the purpose has helped me to remember them so well because the results of the same problem are so strikingly different. Bad parenting is a problem throughout New Zealand and even throughout the world, but these two stories show that a similar problem can have completely different outcomes.