Using as a Mentor Text (Voice and Impact) (VCE SSCE English): Revision Notes
Using as a Mentor Text (Voice and Impact)
Meyne Wyatt's City of Gold monologue serves as a powerful model for VCE students learning to craft protest writing that doesn't just persuade but demands action. This explosive performance piece—which went viral with millions of views and sparked national conversation—demonstrates how authentic cultural voice combined with precise rhetorical techniques can transform personal exhaustion into collective indictment. Understanding how Wyatt constructs voice and creates impact will help you fulfil VCE rubric requirements for purposeful engagement through emotional rawness and structural escalation.
Why City of Gold works as a mentor text
Wyatt's monologue achieves something crucial for protest writing: it implicates the audience directly. Rather than simply making arguments or appealing to logic, the piece forces listeners to confront their own complicity in systemic injustice. This is achieved through a visceral, accusatory voice that channels authentic cultural rage whilst maintaining rhetorical precision. The monologue demands what Wyatt calls white discomfort as moral progress—making audiences feel uncomfortable becomes part of the ethical work.
Key Elements Working Together:
The piece's impact stems from several techniques operating simultaneously:
- Vernacular authenticity (using genuine Noongar-Australian slang)
- Anaphoric lists that build unbearable weight
- Direct confrontation using second-person 'you'
- Rooftop physicality that literally invades audience space
When combined, these techniques create a monologue that engages purposefully whilst maintaining emotional intensity throughout.
Core voice elements to emulate
Vernacular authenticity
Wyatt grounds his protest in lived Blackness by using authentic Noongar-Australian language. Terms like 'whinging', 'brother boy', and 'Murries' reject polished, formal rhetoric in favour of the everyday language of his community. This isn't about being crude for shock value—it's about refusing to translate or soften cultural identity for mainstream comfort.
The voice code-switches seamlessly between different registers. In one moment, Wyatt delivers street fury: 'Come suck my blood!' In the next, he shifts to analytical precision: 'You can be OK; I have to be exceptional.' This code-switching demonstrates linguistic range whilst maintaining authenticity. The lesson for VCE students is clear: own your cultural dialect fully. Your writing gains authenticity marks from hybrid voices that blend registers, not from mimicking formal Standard English throughout.
Key Technique: Write Vernacular First
Write your first draft in the vernacular (everyday language) of your community or subject, then layer in rhetorical devices like anaphora and antithesis. Don't start with formal language and try to make it sound authentic—that process rarely works.
Direct 'you' implication
Throughout the monologue, Wyatt uses relentless second-person address to turn the audience into defendants. Phrases like 'That's your privilege. You get to ask that' don't allow listeners to remain comfortable observers—they become implicated in the issues being discussed. The voice's power lies in this inescapable personalisation.
Compare this to other protest texts: where Emmeline Pankhurst flatters her audience to win them over, and Robert Harrison implies audience responsibility subtly, Wyatt forces direct complicity. A phrase like 'You scroll past deaths' makes readers confront their own passive role in injustice. This technique is particularly effective for modern issues where individual complacency contributes to systemic problems.
Application Example: Transforming Abstract to Personal
Instead of writing 'Society ignores Indigenous deaths in custody', write 'You voted No—what part then? My dead brother's justice? My sister's rage? My niece's future?'
The shift to 'you' creates immediate, uncomfortable engagement that forces readers to confront their own complicity rather than observing from a safe distance.
Emotional escalation
Wyatt's voice follows a deliberate emotional arc: sarcasm → exhaustion → defiance. The monologue begins with mocking triplets ('What part? My foot? My arm? My leg?'), moves through slumping exhaustion ('It's exhausting'), and builds to roaring defiance ('Silence is violence'). This progression mirrors the experience of fatigue that comes from constant protest, whilst ultimately refusing to surrender.
The cadence—the rhythm and flow of the language—mirrors these emotional shifts. Rising inflections accompany lists, whispers convey weariness, and the climactic tricolon arrives as a bellow. For VCE students crafting written monologues, performance annotation becomes essential. Mark your text with directions like '[voice cracks here]' or '[fist-clench pause]' to indicate how the emotional intensity should build.
Structure Tip: Map Your Emotional Journey
Identify where your piece moves from one emotional register to another before you begin writing detailed sections. Ensure each section has distinct vocal qualities that guide the reader through your escalating intensity.
Impact techniques to replicate
Anaphoric accumulation
Anaphora refers to repetition at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. Wyatt uses this device to build unbearable emotional weight. The phrase 'More than once. More than twice. More than once, twice on any one day' creates impact through repetition's rhythm. Each iteration feels heavier than the last, protesting the dismissal of systemic issues as 'isolated incidents'.
You can emulate this technique by naming specific examples repeatedly. For instance, when discussing Indigenous deaths in custody: 'Curti once. Tujimirrangku twice. Voice referendum thrice.' Each name adds to the accumulating evidence that these aren't exceptions but patterns. The rhythm itself becomes part of the argument—the sheer weight of repetition makes denial impossible.
Impact Mechanism: Sustained Discomfort
Anaphora works by making audiences sit with discomfort longer than they'd like. Rather than mentioning an issue once and moving on, repetition forces sustained attention and prevents dismissal.
Rhetorical triplets and tricolon
A triplet is a group of three parallel elements, whilst tricolon specifically refers to three parallel phrases used for persuasive effect. Wyatt deploys both strategically. His sarcastic triplet—'My foot? My arm? My leg?'—dismantles illogical questions through mockery. The structure itself reveals absurdity: if you can't understand which 'part' of a person matters, you're not really engaging with their humanity.
The climactic tricolon arrives as rally cry: 'Silence is violence. Complacency is complicity. I don't want to sit down.' These three parallel statements build like a protest chant, with each clause reinforcing and intensifying the call to action. This technique echoes Black Lives Matter chants and other movement language, creating collective energy even in solo performance.
VCE Application: Name Your Devices
When analysing your own work, name the device explicitly: 'Wyatt's tricolon indicts systemic failure; here, my triplet skewers political hypocrisy.' This metalanguage demonstrates sophisticated understanding of rhetorical construction.
Physical-vocal synergy
Although this is a written revision note, understanding Wyatt's physical performance is crucial because it shows how voice and body work together to create impact. Wyatt performs from a rooftop perch, uses pointing gestures directly at audience members, and mime-throws a spear. This multi-modal approach—combining voice, gesture, and spatial positioning—amplifies the message.
For written monologues, you can indicate this through annotation. Include directions like 'I stomp forward during lists, invading your space' or '[gesture as if pointing at each audience member]'. This demonstrates awareness that protest writing often functions as performance text, not just static words on a page.
Multi-Modal Power
Even if your final piece is written, thinking about how it would be performed forces you to consider rhythm, pacing, and physicality—all of which improve the text itself.
Applying techniques to modern protest monologues
Understanding these techniques means little without seeing how to adapt them to contemporary Australian issues. Here are three worked examples showing how Wyatt's methods apply to current protest contexts.
Example 1: Custody Deaths 2026
Using Wyatt's sarcastic triplet structure: 'You voted No—what part then? My dead brother's justice? My sister's rage? My niece's future?' This mirrors Wyatt's 'What part?' repetition whilst making it specific to the Voice referendum outcome and its ongoing consequences.
Applying his referencing of cultural figures: 'Booed in 2015, bashed in 2026' creates a timeline that shows how racism against Adam Goodes prefigured ongoing violence. The parallel structure implies systemic continuity.
Deploying tricolon: 'Scroll is violence. Like is complicity. Silence kills our kids.' This transforms Wyatt's 'Silence is violence' structure whilst addressing contemporary social media activism (or lack thereof).
Example 2: Climate Injustice (Indigenous Lens)
Vernacular "you" structure: 'You get bushfire holidays; we get Black Summer funerals. Your wines fine; our Country burns. Exceptional activists? Nah—you want quiet Uncle Micks.' This uses parallel contrasts to highlight how climate impacts are experienced differently, whilst the final sentence employs Wyatt's code-switching between standard and vernacular English.
Rooftop annotation: 'I point at your McMansions whilst mobs burn' indicates the physical gesture that would accompany this line, creating spatial relationship between speaker and audience.
Example 3: Voice Referendum Post-Mortem
Wordplay on language: 'You get "moved on"; we got moved out—Stolen Generations style' plays on police language for removing protesters versus the historical forced removal of Indigenous children, showing how language masks violence.
Vernacular outrage: '"Part" citizen? Suck my sovereignty blood!' directly echoes Wyatt's phrase 'Come suck my blood' whilst addressing the Voice referendum's question of constitutional recognition.
Tokenism critique: 'Yes campaign box-tickers, not treaty-makers' uses anaphoric structure (implied 'They were...') to distinguish performative allyship from substantive change.
Step-by-step crafting guide
Step 1: Voice Calibration
Begin by writing your first draft entirely in cultural vernacular—the everyday language authentic to your perspective or subject. Don't censor yourself or reach for formal language yet. Write as you would speak when angry, exhausted, or impassioned. Only after completing this raw version should you layer in rhetorical devices like anaphora, antithesis, and tricolon.
Test your work aloud. Does it scan rhythmically? Can you maintain the emotional intensity whilst speaking it? If phrases feel clunky or artificial when spoken, revise them. Protest writing should sound natural even when employing sophisticated rhetoric.
Step 2: Audience Implication
Review each paragraph and ensure you've included at least one direct 'you' accusation. Make readers squirm by forcing them to confront their own role. Transform abstract statements into personal challenges. Instead of 'Suburban areas remain safe whilst regional communities suffer', write 'Your suburb safe; my Kalgoorlie riots.'
This step often reveals weak sections. If you struggle to implicate the audience directly, ask yourself: who benefits from the status quo? Who remains comfortable whilst others suffer? Direct your 'you' statements at that group.
Step 3: Escalation Blueprint
Map your emotional journey before writing detailed sections. A typical structure might be:
- Sarcastic hook (first paragraph): Draw audience in with biting humour
- Grievance lists (middle section): Build weight through anaphoric accumulation
- Pivot figure (Goodes/Curti/specific example): Ground abstract issues in particular stories
- Exhaustion bridge (penultimate section): Show the cost of constant protest
- Tricolon climax (final section): Rally to defiant action
Time your performance at 3-4 minutes when read aloud. This forces concision and maintains intensity throughout.
Step 4: Performance Annotation
Bracket instructions for volume, gesture, and pacing throughout your text. For example:
'[whisper] It's exhausting... [pause, make eye contact] ...but you don't see that. [rising volume] You scroll past. You like posts. [roar] SILENCE IS VIOLENCE!'
These annotations serve dual purposes. They guide potential performance, but more importantly for written assessment, they demonstrate your sophisticated understanding of how voice operates multimodally.
Step 5: Metalanguage Integration
Strengthen your piece by explicitly naming the techniques you're deploying and explaining their purpose. Include analytical sentences like: 'Wyatt's anaphora exhausts via accumulation; here, death lists indict your scroll-past apathy.'
This metalinguistic awareness—talking about language itself—shows examiners you're making deliberate rhetorical choices rather than accidentally employing techniques. It's the difference between writing instinctively and crafting strategically.
Technique comparison table
The following table maps Wyatt's original techniques to modern adaptations, showing how each creates impact and connects to VCE rubric criteria:
| Wyatt Technique | Modern Adaptation | Impact Mechanism | VCE Rubric Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vernacular 'you' | 'You scroll deaths' | Forces complicity | Engage directly |
| Anaphoric lists | 'Curti once. Voice twice' | Cumulative weight | Layered intensity |
| Sarcastic triplets | 'Part citizen? Part justice?' | Dismantles denial | Rhetorical precision |
| Tricolon climax | 'Scroll=violence. Like=complicity' | Rallies action | Cathartic resolve |
| Gestural rooftop | '[I stomp forward]' | Spatial invasion | Multi-modal power |
Practice drills for mastery
Developing Wyatt-style voice and impact requires active practice beyond simply reading examples. Try these focused drills:
Voice Transplant Drill
Take one of Wyatt's sections—say, the Adam Goodes reference—and rewrite it for a different issue. For climate justice: 'Kid spray-paints Adani—teach him? Nah, they charge him!' This exercise helps you understand the underlying structure rather than just memorising surface features.
Escalation Timer Drill
Read your monologue aloud and time it for exactly four minutes. Mark where emotional swell points occur and where accusatory pauses land. This physical practice reveals whether your written escalation actually builds vocally or stays flat.
Audience Swap Drill
Rewrite your 'you' statements for two different audiences—say, policymakers versus Generation Z peers. Track how the implication shifts. Policymakers might hear 'You legislate our deaths', whilst peers hear 'You scroll past our deaths'. Both implicate, but differently.
Peer Impact Test
Read your draft to classmates and literally ask them: 'Did you squirm? Where?' Score their discomfort level honestly. If audiences remain comfortable, your implication needs strengthening. Protest writing should create productive discomfort that motivates change.
Exam advice for crafting and creating texts
Scaffold Your Adaptation Explicitly
For VCE assessment, 800-1000 word monologues should scaffold explicitly. Don't assume examiners will recognise subtle influence—name it directly. Write sentences like: 'Wyatt's rooftop cascade—moving from sarcastic retort to tricolon climax—shapes my structure as I indict deaths in custody.' This demonstrates conscious adaptation of mentor texts.
Embed at least four direct quotes from Wyatt's piece with explicit explanation of what they inspired in your work. For example: 'His phrase "more than once, twice on any one day" demonstrates how repetition accumulates outrage. I adapt this structure to custody deaths: "Curti once. Tujimirrangku twice. Voice referendum thrice," making denial impossible through sheer weight.'
Oral rehearsal is essential, even for written submissions. Practice performing your piece repeatedly, noting where your voice naturally rises with fury or cracks with exhaustion. Add gestural annotations based on these organic responses. Examiners can detect inauthenticity—they know when voice has been tested aloud versus only existing on paper.
Top marks require seamless adaptation to contemporary context. The Voice referendum "No" vote in 2023 and its ongoing impacts provide rich material: 'You ticked box, we bury kids' connects voting behaviour directly to consequences. Use British English spelling consistently (privilege, not privilege; exceptionalism, not exceptionalism) as required for VCE.
Comparative Positioning
Explicitly contrast Wyatt's approach with other protest texts you've studied. Note how Wyatt implicates viscerally where Pankhurst persuades logically and Vonnegut warns wittily. This comparative metalanguage demonstrates sophisticated understanding of different protest modes and their specific strengths. Voice mastery means knowing which approach suits which context and audience.
Key Points to Remember:
-
Vernacular grounds authenticity: Write in cultural dialect first, add rhetoric second. Code-switch between registers to show linguistic range whilst maintaining genuine voice.
-
Direct 'you' forces complicity: Every paragraph should include audience implication. Transform abstract issues into personal accusations that make readers confront their own role.
-
Escalation creates catharsis: Map your emotional arc from sarcasm through exhaustion to defiance. Use performance annotation to guide vocal intensity and physical gesture.
-
Anaphora and tricolon build unbearable weight: Repetition isn't redundant—it's the mechanism of impact. Each iteration compounds emotional pressure until denial becomes impossible.
-
Name your techniques explicitly: VCE rewards metalinguistic awareness. State clearly how you've adapted Wyatt's methods and why specific techniques create specific effects. Examiners need to see conscious craft, not just instinctive writing.