describe and explain paragraph 11(4)

Describe an important character.
Explain how the character changes throughout the text.

An important character in Tomorrow, When the War Began, by John Marsden is Ellie. Ellie and her friends go on a trip and return home to find that a foreign group of people have invaded their country. Throughout the story Ellie and her friends find ways to survive. Ellie changes from an innocent teenager to someone who took people’s lives. She also changes from someone who is sure of herself to questioning if she is a good person or not.

Ellie is a rural teenager. She is innocent of life and has never really faced danger. Ellie is caring, a leader and smart. She is also able to think on her feet. For example when Ellie and her two friends were hiding in someone’s garden to get away from the soldiers who were shooting them with guns, Ellie blows up the lawn mower to slow down the attack. This shows Ellie was able to think quickly and react to the danger. Even though she panicked she was able to think through it and save her friends lives. This helps us understand that Ellie is an important character.

Class paragraph: Explain:
Ellie changes throughout the text from an innocent teenager to someone who takes people’s lives. At the start Ellie is just a normal teenager who describes herself as “plain old Ellie, nothing special” about her. During the novel she becomes more mature and does things to survive. She even says she has “just killed three people”. Later in the story she also blows up a bridge and accepts responsibility for her actions. This shows that Ellie has changed because she is able to accept what she has done. A normal teenager would not accept killing three people, however Ellie is forced to be more mature due to the war. If she did not accept what she had done, she would not survive and be able to help her friends. This helps us to understand that war changes people and changing from ‘normal’ to more mature helps people to survive. This helps us to see how Ellie changes throughout the novel.

Miss Allaker's paragraph: Explain:

Ellie also changes from someone who is sure of herself to questioning if she is a good person or not. At the start of the novel she is confident in her abilities and feels she knows who she is. She talks about herself as being ‘normal’ and she knows the difference between right and wrong. When she speaks about the Hermit who lived in Hell a long time ago killing his family she speaks about his actions being wrong until she found out he killed to save the from being burnt alive in a fire. After she kills the three soldiers during an attack, she no longer knows who she is. She has killed and “just as the Hermit couldn’t tell whether his actions were good or bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were.” This shows us that Ellie has changed from someone confident to someone who no longer knows if they are a “criminal” or a “hero”. She is no longer able to tell right from wrong and is conflicted about her actions. She was sure of herself at the start of the novel but by the end she isn’t so sure what she is. This helps us to understand that traumatic events can force us to change our beliefs. We are forced to face uncomfortable realities about ourselves when faced with difficult situations like Ellie was in killing people to save her friends. Ellie’s change from someone who is confident to conflicted helps us to understand this.