Year 10 Writing Portfolio (English)

For my English Portfolio, I am adding my favourite writing work that I've accomplished this year. My work is getting better
over time and I'm improving due to using different techniques that I've learned. Hopefully, you enjoy my writing.

April 12th - The Melting Mystery
In a black atramentous pit underneath the city, the most elusive and existential mystery waits patiently to be uncovered. A mystery that stole 189 thinking, breathing men from us, and one that the government does its best to ignore.

The timing was more important than anyone anticipated. The ground split in World War I, and in WWII, the blood, pain, fire, and death fed a slumbering force deep below the surface, threatening to wake it up. The countries were only just starting to breathe when the Korean War began. Rage is especially a delicacy. When that thing sent up a shudder, just the briefest twitch of excitement, it brought the walls down, sucking in the earth, filling the hole, and dragging men down into its depths. For these poor souls, though, this was just the beginning…

“Iceberg Ahead!” the Captain of the phenomenal titanic shrieks. ‘Turn the ship,’ he shouts in a troubled tone. Unable to comprehend the words from the Cap, Jack retains the vessel proceeding straight forwards towards the iceberg. “Cap, Look up!”, says Weather. The smoky shaded grey clouds start enclosing the vessel immediately; the clouds start swishing around in an orderly group like a tornado, revealing a pit in the heart of the earth. The titanic proceeds to get dragged away from the iceberg, and into the pit. Whilst getting absorbed in the core of the earth, the rubble and dirt enclosed the only opening possible to escape, they were trapped!

“Christ Almighty...” groans Captain, and though his ears are ringing like hell, he can still hear the rumble of tunnels collapsing in the distance. He coughs, spitting out the rock and dirt, and opens his eyes. He can’t see a thing. His face and body are pressed against a jagged, rocky ground, with rubble weighing him down. But as the ringing fades, he begins to hear the screaming. And crying. And the yelling. “Stop...” he says, unable to think. “STOP!”

Nobody listens. He rests for another moment before gathering whatever strength’s remain, he pushes himself up, shrugging off the broken support. He turns around and sits up, but his ankle is still held down by some heavy chunks of rock. “Cap!” a voice shouts through the noise. “Cap, are you still alive?” “Weathers?” He looks up towards the source. “Hold on, I’m coming!” With a few hard tugs, he wrenches his foot free, nearly breaking his ankle in the process. Maybe he already did. He places weight on it, and a burst of pain shoots up his leg, bringing him down to the ground just as he was getting up, “My leg’s screwed real bad, Cap!” Weathers yell, but the Captain finds it too difficult to respond. He feels around for his lantern, but only finds more rubble, and a... gooey, unpleasant substance. He touches his head, feeling blood leaking. All he wants to do is sleep, but he knows he won’t wake up. He tries to push himself up once more. The strength isn’t there, and he rolls onto his back as an alien slowly creeps up onto him, dragging him down, out of awareness and into extinction. “What…” is all he can mumble as time becomes meaningless.

A few minutes or hours later, the warm glow of a steaming lantern pulls him back. He’s being dragged over the painful ground and propped up against an uncomfortable wood wall. The screams and cries have reduced to sobs and murmurs. Slowly, he lifts his head and opens his eyes. Sorrow, all around him. Only a handful are still breathing, surrounded by the remnants of their workers and their coworkers. A pair of grey dull, bare feet stick out from a pile of rocks and debris, the corpses having been lightly covered. A single lantern light surrounds the group’s faces. “I mean, God knows how many feet down with every path caved in,” says Ethan with a terrified look on his face. “Nobody will ever reach us in time. We have no food, barely any water, and…” He trails off when he notices the captain staring at him. “Where’s Weather’s?” They shift uncomfortably, with Ethan glancing at the pair of dead feet. “Oh, God…” “He bled out,” says Arthur, “There was nothing we could do.” Captain hangs his head for a moment, sighing deeply. “Well, we must do something.” “I’m all ears.” Ethan crosses his arms. “‘Cause I can’t imagine a scenario where we last more than a week.”

The captain claps his hands. “Is there anyone else still alive?” “Who knows? We’re separated, and now isolated, in our little pocket under a mile of earth.” They lookup. The two surviving supports that appear to be ruined and old are the only two things keeping the earth from coming down on their heads. “You’re right, it’s grim.” The captain opens a pouch in his vest, holding a silver flask. “We’d better have a drink.” As the scorched drink warms his innards, something whispers in the back corner of his mind. A deep, rumbling noise; he struggles to hear it, and it grows louder. It’s a voice. Similarly alien in texture, he rotates and shifts until he finally understands its words… ”I CAN HELP”

August 17th- Year 10 Close viewing assessment

In this Scene, Peekay and Gideon were scampering through Alexandria. Tracking shots were used efficaciously. For exemplification, the director John Avildsen utilized a prestigious tracking shot whilst Peekay and Gideon were jogging, Showing the viewers that they were advancing to Johannesburg. The director did this to identify a lot of little details within the scene and to transport the viewer into the scene. The director also used this shot to show the action unfolding. This technique created an impact by informing me about the struggles of apartheid and how it impacted South Africa deeply, by showing the mistreatment and hectorous acts that the Europeans were doing to the South Africans. This aspect can be contrasted with the setting because it exhibits what's occurring in the background (Alexandria), whilst the tracking shot is in motion. In the “Waterfall & The Concert” Scene, The director utilized the Music astonishingly. The director applied a placidic tone in the music with the waterfall after Peekay and Gideon went for a run, displaying a sign of hope for the education of Johannesburg and showing that Peekay will be the one to help the Afrikaners, I know this because the powerful medicine man named Inkosi-Inkosikazi was the one to cure Peekay with the waterfall, as the waterfall symbolizes courage, faith, and hope. The director showed Peekay drinking from the racially divided fountains as a non-white. The director did this to lead into the waterfall scene where the music began to play, the music played was “mother Africa” which is a peaceful and hopeful song. This scene informed me about the true power of Peekay and showed me personally that Peekay’s quote “A waterfall begins from only one drop of water, Look what comes from that” is such a powerful saying. This aspect can be juxtaposed with the scene where Inkosi-Inkosikazi visited Peekay inside of his dreams and said “I must take you back to your dreams so that you can jump the three waterfalls and cross the river, without falling into the rushing torrent. If you can do this, then the unfortunate business of the night water will be over.” Showing Peekay’s original fear of the night water ending, and him getting cured by conquering that fear.

The director provided strengthful music from the novel “The power of one” by Bryce Courtenay, this music was utilized by the South Afrikaners in the concert scene. The director used music in the concert scene, not to please the commissioner and guests but to state and display that the Europeans are afraid. The music was also harnessed to show the emotions of the Afrikaners and how the song helped them become brave. This technique created an impact by showing me that the South Afrikaners are brave and spoke from their heart when they began to sing the song in front of the commissioner and the prison guards. Geel Peit informed Bormann of the meaning of the song “They run this way. They run that way. They are confused. They are afraid. You are cowards”

November 9th- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

In the short text “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber (the author) has portrayed the main character, Walter Mitty as a man having a secret world of his own where he transforms to a character who commands a lot of respect for his abilities, the portrayal of this characters in Walter’s head seems to suggest that these characters are straight out of a movie scene where the characters has a moment where in the face of disaster or almost certain doom he stands out and creates a moment of inspiration for the others characters within the scene that makes them have hope and almost certainly gain  of belief at a chance of survival. The portrayal of Walter Mitty as a hero in each of the scenes in his secret world is my most memorable part of the whole story. Throughout the different scenes from the hyperplane to the courthouse to the firing squad it is the portrayal of Mitty as a person who faces death or impossible outcomes without fear and utmost confidence, whilst in reality he’s bored and life seems meaningless and dull.

In the opening of the story, we are treated to the first scene of Walter’s secret world where we are shown Walter is a commander of a naval hyperplane. In the scene, the plane is coming up to face a hurricane, and Walter at that moment orders the crew to adjust the plane so that it can move at a higher speed. In doing so the crew is able to get the plane through the crew but it is through the thinking and experience of Walter that they are able to survive. It is also evident that the crew has belief in Walter as they say “the old man will get us through.” “The old man ain’t afraid of hell”.

In this scene Walter is a renowned doctor and surgeon who commands great respect from his peers with the great accomplishment on their own, this is evident by how impressed doctor Pritchard-Mitford is when he talks about the book authored by doctor Mitty on streptothricosis, when Walter walks into the hospital he is met by one of the doctors who seems to be frustrated by the complexity of the patient's problem and how it is still near impossible for three of the best specialist doctors to solve the problem with the added wait of the patient being a close friend of the president. In the operating room, the anesthesia machine has a problem but Mitty’s quick thinking helps fix the machine. This idea was memorable to me because Mitty used the knowledge that he had never learned before to fix an operating machine to save a patient's life, this meant he could do the same thing in real life using his knowledge and experience from his imagination. The news that is brought to one of the other doctors of an emerging problem makes him doubt his abilities and ask Mitty to step in. Mitty oozes confidence and steps into the scene to rescue the terrified doctor, this gave me a sense of hope and opened my eyes to all of the possibilities and good deeds that Mitty could achieve inside of his dreams.

Mitty’s dreams carry on but this time he is in the midst of war Walter, who is the captain in this scene, takes the brave decision of flying a bomber alone even though realistically a bomber is handled by two people, one who flies the plane and one who fires the bombs. Mitty even at the sight of almost certain defeat and the ultimate penalty of death does not fledge but takes a shot of brandy and even with the field receiving heavy bombing he knows he has to get ammunition into the bomber before he can fly out. Mitty’s imagination continues dramatically, giving me a sense of fearful emotions for Mitty and his situation. Even after warnings from his sergeant that there was no way he could make it the whole 40 kilometers to the ammunition storage he picks up his rifle and gets ready to go in. This scene reminds me of what WWII would’ve looked like in 1939, due to the fighter planes and the battlefield trauma, this makes me realize that he is really bored in real life and is using his imagination for interesting things to benefit his depressing reality.

In conclusion, the story closes with Mitty’s final imagination of him standing in front of a firing squad, imagining himself smoking a cigarette, this makes me imagine that he is smoking it to relax before he goes back into the real world, he smokes it just before he faces his doom and portraying himself as a man who stood by his principles until the very end. He cuts a confident figure even though he is losing his life in his imagination. Mitty is erect and motionless, showing that he laughs at the enemy’s face even at the peak of death and shows no fear of what is to come. In comparison to his real life, his confidence between realities are utterly different. We can understand that he is a more confident and outgoing person in his imagination but when he is inside the real world, he lives like a coward and shows struggle and despair. This is memorable to me because it really contrasts the two different realities. The short story confronts the dull life of Mitty and shows us that his imagination was the answer to his delight.