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May 2011 Paper 1 Texts 3b and 4b

What happens after death? What is dying? Where do people go after they have passed away? These are some of the most complicated questions that human existence has opened. Particularly children who are new to their life have a hard time realizing and accepting the finite nature of life. It is this theme which both passages deal with – exactly how to dealwith the sensitive topic of death in front of children. Text 3 is an excerpt from the novel “Believe Me” by Patricia Pearson. It was released in 2005. Text 4 on the other hand is a guide or statement of advice on “Explaining Death in a Child’s Terms”, published by the Nemours Foundation/Kids Heath between 1995 and 2005. Both passages differ in their purpose, tone, organization and outcomes, whilestill addressing a similar theme.
Text 3 and 4 share the theme of searching for child-appropriate answers regarding death. In text 3, a boy Lester has asked his mother “how do people get to heave, do they walk?” He also wants to know whether “they float in the lake?” These absurd questions highlight the child-like thinking of younger people. They are “literal” learners as text 4 suggests,meaning that they perceive the world in basic and concrete terms. Both texts are certain of the one thing that it is impossible to answer questions regarding the afterlife of death. Text 3’s speaker says that she doesn’t “think they walk to heaven.” This shows that she doesn’t really know any more than her son does. Text 4 supports this idea by stating that “you may not have all of the answers.”However, still the approach both texts take is significantly different.
Text 3 and 4 have different approaches and purposes. While in text 3, the mother simply feels as though she has to answer her son’s questions even though she has no idea how to do so, text 4 actually makes an attempt to lok for the psychologically best way to comfort and convince children that life is finite and death is a naturalprocess. Text 3 admits that “I haven’t got the faintest idea on how people to go heaven” and “I am simply unaware.” Text 4 takes the approach of giving other parents advice on how to deal with their children’s questions. Unlike text 3, which gives little encouragement to solve the issue, text 4 suggests that “calmly reiterat[ing] that the person has died and can’t come back” is a good approach. Italso warns parents of using “euphemisms, such as telling kids that the loved one ‘went away’…”, seeing that this may scare children to some extent. The purposes of both texts are appropriate to the speaker’s position and type of text. While text 3 is a novel, in which the writer simply tries to explain her feelings and the true occurrences, including her difficulty to answer the questions, text 4is an actual advice article, thereby being well suited to perform its purpose of advising parents on how to deal with the situation.
The organization and progression is a further aspect that causes the texts to differ. Text 3 seems somewhat hectic, thoughts (lines 7 to 14) are intermixed with Lester’s questions (6,22,24) and stumbling attempts at coming up with an answer (line 17,23). Text 4 onthe other hand is well-structured, following through lines of argument fully and advising to remain calm, as when it says that “as frustrating as this can be, continue to calmly reiterate that the person has died and can’t come back.” The organization of the texts reveals that deal may or may not be a sensitive topic depending on the way it is thought through. Furthermore the first lines of bothtexts indicate the direction that they will take and how the theme will be addressed, similar to a thesis statement. Text 3 unsure and hectic, therefore it begins with the appropriate contradiction: “Lately, I’ve been thinking about death. Actually I haven’t.” Text 4 on the other hand is keen to calm parents, the prime audience, down. It begins by saying: “Be honest with kids and encourage...