Pride and Prejudice

Chapter Questions

Chapters 1 & 2

1.     What is the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet? How does Austen convey the tone Mr. Bennet uses with his wife?

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is husband and wife. Austen conveys the tone Mr. Bennet uses with his wife as, “…a sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice….” (p.7).

2.     Why is Mrs. Bennet so interested in the young man’s arrival?

Mrs. Bennet is so interested in the young man’s arrival, in this case Mr. Bingley’s arrival, is because she wants him to marry one of her daughters. As Mrs. Bennet had heard that Mr. Bingley is a man of good fortune, Mrs. Bennet wishes for one of her daughters to become his wife so they could share his fortune.

Chapters 3 - 6

1.     Despite Bingley’s appearance as a most eligible bachelor, what is revealed about his family, his age, and his inexperience?

Despite Bingley’s appearance as a most eligible bachelor, it is revealed that Bingley is not only young and has never dated anyone before but his family also has a large fortune and is very wealthy.

2.     How is Elizabeth’s fun at Darcy’s expense different from his own behaviour toward her and her friends and family?

Whilst Elizabeth is an easy going and carefree woman, Darcy’s behaviour is stiff, which makes him socially awkward towards Elizabeth and her friends and family. The difference between Darcy and Elizabeth is how Elizabeth is easy to get along with who often pleases the people around her, where Darcy is seems to be continually giving offense and is quite unapproachable.

3.     Do you agree with Mrs. Lucas’s distinction between pride and vanity and her conclusion that Darcy has a right to feel proud?

I agree with Mrs. Lucas’s distinction between pride and vanity and her conclusion that Darcy has a right to feel proud because she explains that pride often has an excuse for it. Miss Lucas also elaborates on the fact that Darcy was, “…a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour…” (p.21). She basically explains that it was expected for an individual to hold such pride when they have everything they deserve to be proud of. Thus I also agree that Darcy has the right to feel proud.

4.     Why might Miss Bingley be eager to criticise the Bennet girls and their mother? How does she indirectly draw attention to the differences Darcy and Elizabeth’s families?

Miss Bingley would be eager to criticise the Bennet girls and their mother because she does not want Darcy to take interest in any of the girls as she wishes to marry Darcy herself. She indirectly draws attention to the differences between Darcy and Elizabeth’s families by ranting about the ball and the difference in their social class, “You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many evenings in this manner – in such society….” (p.27). Miss Bingley also talks about how vain the Bennet family is. “…the insipidity and yet the noise; the nothingness and yet the self importance of all these people!” (p.27).

5.     What is revealed about the characters of Mary and Elizabeth by their piano performance?

Whilst Mary’s piano skills were much higher than Elizabeth, Elizabeth, “….had been listened to with much more pleasure…” (p.16). Whereas Mary, “…had neither genius nor taste… [where] it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner, which would have injured a higher degree of excellence than she had reached.” (p.25).

6.     What effect does Elizabeth’s teasing have on Darcy? Is Elizabeth intentionally trying to provoke Darcy’s attention? Note his continued attraction, despite her “inferiority.”

Elizabeth’s teasing had attracted Darcy unintentionally. Although Elizabeth was described as having, “…hardly a good feature in her face…” (p.24) Darcy discovered how Elizabeth’s eyes were actually somehow mesmerizing to him, then began to notice more of her playful, easy going personality and her light and pleasing figure. From these new observations, Darcy became more attracted towards Elizabeth and began to wish to know more about her. 

Mates

  How important are friendships to these characters?

Friendships are extremely important for the Aditi and Wei as they were both lonely and constantly bullied. They had to face bullying every day at school and with no one to support them or to express their feelings to. Both of them had to tolerate the bullying and keep their feelings to themselves, which would have made it extremely difficult for them to cope on a daily basis. Hence, after becoming friends, Aditi and Wei managed to pull it through at school and regain happiness, living a normal life of a child.  If they had not made any friends due to Barry West’s bullying, it would most likely have led to depression.

2.     Different expectations of friends and enemies are revealed in these stories. What are they and how do they contribute to the character’s understandings of relationships with their peers?

An unexpected situation for Barry West, the bully, would be having Aditi to stand up to him by bashing a rock against his head as she was always in a weak position against Barry. From Wei’s point of view, his unexpected situation was having Aditi defending him from getting beaten up by Barry. The different expectation that Barry received allowed him to understand that Aditi wasn’t afraid to stand up to him anymore and that she wasn’t such an easy victim anymore. For Wei, he understood the moment that Aditi rescued him that they were going to be friends.

3.     What are the attitudes, values and beliefs of your character?

Although Aditi was the victim of constant bullying, she’s described as to be screaming and yelling back at the kids who call her names. This shows that she isn’t as timid as would describe a stereotypical victim of bullying. Her attitude is quite strong and she values the friendship she forms with Wei, as she understands what Wei had been through and can empathise with him. She believes that you should never let yourself get bullied and you should stand up for yourself and others against those who choose to pick on you.

4.     What type of journey does your character go on? Pick one line from the story that tells you this.

Aditi goes on an inner journey as she mentions, “At night we would sit on scrappy vinyl-covered chairs in a bar...and…rant about how we hated homogeneity and longed for difference.” This shows that despite Aditi and Wei’s being racially discriminated by Barry as only a couple of young kids, they have gone on an inner journey, overcoming the fact that they were bullied for simply having a different cultural background. They didn’t allow this to grow hatred for their identity and they know that all races are equal. The fact that Aditi mentions that they rant about how they hated homogeneity, in other words, uniformity, proves that she knows they are all equal and that being different, as in being an individual self, is very significant her and her friends. 

Battlers Homework

Pigs From Home

Hop Dac

11. Hop Dac would have felt very humiliated to have been involved with the killing of the pig when he was only thirteen or fourteen years old. Perhaps Hop Dac only started to realise how significant the sacrifice of a pig’s life was that night he was involved with the slaughter because he finally witnesses how much pain a pig has to go through when being killed, merely for the sake of party good. Hence he honours pigs rather than despise them. In addition, he sees how desperately pigs are after food when he witnesses a sow biting off a duck’s bottom, leaving the duck’s guts to fall out everywhere. He would probably have come to realise that although pigs  may seem greedy, always pushing the other animals to get to food first, they are their farm’s biggest animals, hence would need the most food. Seeing how the sow was so desperate to survive by eating the duck’s bottom would have completely took Hop Dac by surprise. This story proves that you do need to lower yourself if you work at menial tasks in order to help your family. In this instance, Hop Dac had to help his dad slaughter the pig. This says that those who do not take “any job” in order to work do not understand the need to make a living and to survive.

22. The text gives me a brutal, heart-wrenching image of all the animals getting killed for food. This includes the pig getting slaughtered and the bush pigeons getting bashed up till they die. You have to accept the harsh fact that in order to belong and thrive in a new land, you have to understand that there are things in life that people have to pursue even if they do not wish so, such as killing animals for food.

33. 

  Challenges:

-Feeding the animals every day

-Helping dad slaughter pig

Emotions:

-Surprise when seeing the sow eating part of the live duck

-Pain when witness the slaughter of the pig

-Fear that the girls they sit with on the bus would find out his family does such things like this

Hop Dac goes on trying because he knows that’s just the way his family operates to obtain food, which is also a party of Vietnam tradition. He knows that, “ …any good Vietnamese family was a self-sustaining one. “

4   4.  Physical journey is being represented in this story. Physical journey is presented when Hop Dac moves from his Geraldton in Western Australia to the other side of the country, Footscray.

   5. Hop Dac has a poor attitude towards pigs and believes, later on in the story, that you should never turn your back on it as pigs are just like the ocean. He thinks this way once he witnesses the sow eating a part of the duck, which surprised him as he always thought they were vegetarians. He would have believed pigs were just lazy and greedy animals at first, but realised they would do anything, such as becoming a cannibal, in order to survive. Hop Dac would have realised that pigs are much more powerful  than what he thought of them before.

Pioneers Homework

Choose 1 Story from the Pioneers section and answer the questions below. You must indicate which section you have chosen.

‘The Beat of a Different Drum’ - Simon Tong

1.    Do the second generation of migrants have an easier time than the first?

In a way, the second generation of migrants does have an easier time than the first because racism has toned down significantly over the years. However, the second generation still has a tough time trying to master English and adapting to the Western society if their parents has never experienced living in a foreign country before. For example, Simon doesn't have parents who are good with English, hence he has difficulty facing school homework or learning how to have a proper conversation with others when he can only self teach at the age of fourteen. Therefore the second generation of migrants would only have an easier time than the first if their parents were knowledgeable and experienced with the foreign society.

2. Why do the pioneers choose to come to Australia? Do you think that their reasons are always clear, even to them?

Simon and his parents chose to come to Australia because they did not want to take part in the Cultural Revolution in China. I don’t think their reasons are always clear because Simon’s mother herself does not know enough English to be able to safely travel and stay in Australia. This is evident when his mother doesn’t understand the pilot announcing that the passengers’ luggage would be transferred to Melbourne. Even though Simon was there to assist his mother, he was unsure of his own English skills and this made the situation extremely risky. Hence, if Simon and his family can’t even understand English properly it makes it very risky for them to live in Australia, let alone schooling.

3.    How do the pioneers’ lives change when they come to Australia?

Simon’s life changes when he gets bullied and harassed at school with racist comments. At Hong Kong, he was able to socialise with his friends, read books at the public library and perform as an average student at school. This all changes when he moves to Christian Brothers’ school as he has lost his dignity and identity and does not feel like he belongs anywhere. However, he eventually manages to befriend a boy and begins to accept the Australian society better, having hope by making a friend who is patient with him and who also helps him improve his English along the way.

4.    What elements do they choose to bring with them when they migrate? And which do they reject? Why?

-Not stated in the story-

5.    What tricks do the pioneers learn to assist them in belonging to Australian culture?

Simon discovered that “soap operas were excellent hearing aids” and that he was able to concentrate on colloquial dialogues. This enabled him to formulate sentences thus plan for basic conversations with other people. At the end of the story, Simon’s biggest discovery is that  music helped him form a stronger relationship with English by letting him learn the grammar and vocabulary more easily. 

Letter to Younger Self - Sky High Activity

   Write a letter to your younger self à speaking to yourself about the event from the Sky-High activity giving them advice on choices and decisions

To: My Younger Self

75 Brighton Parade

Rivage Royale

Southport

4215

How you doing little one. I know all your toys are your best friends and you’re certain that no matter what happens in the future, you’ll always be together. But I think it’s best that you know now that things are never ‘forever’. This doesn’t mean just toys though. This also means everything in general, like your likes and dislikes will always change and you should learn to accept that. Change is just a part of life and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But if you choose to be stubborn now and believe firmly that everything will stay wonderful and perfect forever, you will just get hurt even deeper in the future when you look back into your past. As your older self, I’ve learned the hard way that life isn’t afraid to surprise you and you need to be prepared for whatever that comes your way. You need to be open to the idea of growing up, which means no more talking to toys and no more ‘best friends forever’. I mean, I’m not trying to destroy childhood. It’s okay to think that some things are forever but I’m warning you that don’t go overboard with it. Well, my point has been made. I hope you take in this advice and continue living a great life.

Yours Sincerely,

Your Older Self