Tomorrow+when+the+War+Began

="Tomorrow When the War Began" by John Marsden= (Note the speech marks and capital letters for the title. Make sure you get the right number of m's and r's in tomorrow. Remember the author's name!)



Read more about the "Tomorrow" series on Wikipedia. If you like John Marsden's books, check out discussions and fan fiction at The Tomorrow Forums page or read a transcript of an interview with John Marsden.

**Analysis questions**

**Character profiles**

**Setting**

**Plot**

Literary allusions
When the group are discussing the planes the day after they hear them, Kevin mentions "Z for Zachariah". This is a novel by Robert C. O'Brien about a teenage girl who survives a nuclear war because she's sheltered in a hidden valley, and has to survive without adult help and protection. Look at the context (p. 40) and explain why Marsden uses this allusion.

When Ellie and Lee discover the Hermit's hut, Marsden describes it as old and decayed (p. 188). An allusion he uses to reinforce this is the "cobwebs... hanging like Miss Havisham's hair." Miss Havisham was a character from Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations". Find out who she is to discover why Marsden uses this allusion.

In the Hermit's hut, Ellie finds a copy of "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad (p. 189). This novel tells the story of the main character's journey up the Congo river into the "darkness" of Africa. A main theme in the novel is the "struggle between good and evil (light and darkness), not so much between people as in every major character 's soul." (Wikipedia). Why did Marsden choose this as the only book in the Hermit's hut?

On page 74 there is a quote, "Look on my works ye mighty and despair." This is from the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Read the full poem and explain the significance of the quote.

Author's purpose
John Marsden has said about his novel, "I wanted to remind readers that labels can be so misleading." This relates to the campsite being labelled as "Hell", and also the way Homer was labelled. John Marsden goes on to say "We get tricked by words into not seeing the reality of something." These comments help us to understand his purpose in writing the novel; they relate to the ideas of appearance and reality, good and evil. You can use these quotes to reinforce the ideas in your essay and help you to achieve an Excellence grade.