Question 3 (Edexcel GCSE English Language): Model Answers

Answer:

The writer uses a range of language and structural techniques to engage the reader. In this extract, Ratushinskaya uses present tense to engage the reader and draw them into the action. Although the events she records happened in the past, present-tense verbs like 'striding' and 'turning' make the reader feel as if the action is happening now, and may encourage them to engage more strongly with Ratushinskaya's memoir. When Ratushinskaya asks the reader to 'Try to pick out' items to take with them to a prison camp, she uses imperatives to try to get the reader thinking about what they would do in the situation she found herself in. The ellipsis in the first paragraph followed by the exclamation 'Hold it!' in the second paragraph serves to cut off the reader's train of thought and draw their interest back to the text.

The string of short sentences and questions as Ratushinskaya imagines what her readers might think about bringing serve to increase the pace of the text. Ratushinskaya engages the reader with rhetorical questions like 'And why are you packing those red socks? Do you want to find yourself on report for them, the way Lagle Parek, later to join us in the Small Zone, did in 1985, and forfeit a meeting with a relative?' to make the experience feel more personal as she gives a short anecdote and directly addresses the reader as 'you' to make the text feel conversational. The repetition of the personal pronoun 'you' continues throughout the rest of the text, and Ratushinskaya uses relaxed, colloquial language like 'my readers', and 'nearest and dearest' to sustain this conversational tone and encourage consistent engagement with her memoir.

As the main focus of the text is the small space in which belongings can be stored within the prison camp, Ratushinskaya attempts to interest the reader in this space by emphasising its measurements when she recalls that the lockers have 'two shelves and one drawer' and are only 'thirty by thirty by seventy centimetres'. These details encourage the reader to picture the space as they attempt to work out what they might put inside their locker if they were in Ratushinskaya's situation. Adjectives like 'tight', 'barest', and 'treacherous' convey the lack of space and freedom the prisoners were allowed, and may encourage the reader to sympathise with Ratushinskaya as she is limited to the 'barest essentials' and forced to obey harsh rules or face a 'report' and potentially 'forfeit a meeting with a relative'. Her sense of isolation as she is away from family and friends is reinforced when she notes that in the camp, you are separated from 'your nearest and dearest (whom you won't see for years to come)'. Here, the use of parentheses separates Ratushinskaya's thought about not seeing her family from the rest of the text, reflecting the isolation she felt within the prison and encouraging the reader to sympathise with her plight.

Ratushinskaya's language of control makes her text even more interesting as she presents Natasha as a pitiable victim. Natasha's lack of power in the inspection is shown through the use of her forename in contrast to the use of the guard's surname 'Podust'. This differential in identification demonstrates the lack of respect Natasha is shown in contrast to the guard. The use of names is complemented by the modal verb 'must', which serves to further emphasise Natasha's complete powerlessness as prison authorities tell her what she 'must' do with her belongings. This is interesting for the reader as it creates a power differential between the guard and the prisoners that is likely to lead to tension as the prisoners attempt to break the rules and 'try secreting a few more things' away from the guards.