yr13_ia_2007_buckley_d

=Analysis (500-650 words)=

- Importance Of Investigation In Historical Context: The importance of this investigation within a historical context is the establishment of whether often overlooked sources such as humorous adolescent novels could actually be considered valuable historical recollections. The themes addressed in //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// are extremely relevant to the Thatcher era, and help to portray the working-class’ reactions to the obstacles facing the United Kingdom’s social and economic stability.

However it is equally important to address the extent to which the themes in the novel have been distorted through exaggeration or self-censorship on Townsend’s part. It is undoubtedly true that historians are more adequately qualified to analyse, interpret and convey historical periods such as the Thatcher era factually; it is however interesting to note that novelists such as Sue Townsend are potentially more capable of conveying the beginning of the Thatcher era strictly from the working-class’ psychological point of view.


 * [This needs tightening up. Paragraph 1 should outline how the novel in particular gives us a point of view on a very important period of history (etc) which we need to assess to determine whether Mole and his family reflect popular attitudes / perceptions or - for comic effect - they are completely out of touch; the second paragraph shouls outline how novels in general arguably provide a fruitful line of historical investigation, if it can be determined that they can be "trusted" in a historical sense. You get the idea, I hope...]**

- Materialism

//The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// references abundant consumerism and materialism: Adrian is astonished by the number of possessions his best friend Nigel’s family own, and Townsend conveys his envy through his bitter recollection: “Without knowing it I have been living in poverty for the past fourteen years. […] Nigel’s father has worked like a slave to create a modern environment for //his// family. Perhaps if //my// father had built a Formica cocktail bar in the corner of //our// lounge my mother would still be living with us.” (p62) Townsend portrays Nigel’s family as the Thatcherite consumerist cliché, repeatedly insisting on their spending: “Nigel’s mother is a spendthrift. They are always getting letters about having their electricity cut off and all because Nigel’s mother buys a pair of high heels every week.” (p26) Townsend contrasts Adrian’s Christmas present, a “dictionary” to Nigel’s “new bike […]. It has got a water bottle, a milometer, a speedometer, a yellow saddle, and very thin racing wheels. It’s wasted on Nigel. He only goes to the shops and back on it.” (p9) Townsend’s portrayal of Nigel’s family is adequate in many respects, as the extremely modern and expensive possessions reflect an obsession with joining an elite known as the //nouveau riche//, or the “new rich”. The portrayal is equally adequate as the dichotomy between the rich and the poor was a characteristic of Thatcher’s rule; according to //Postwar - A History Of Europe Since 1945// by Tony Judt, economical Thatcherised Britain “[…] as a //society// […] suffered meltdown, with catastrophic long-term consequences. […] Thatcher did serious harm to the fabric of British public life. Citizens were transmuted into shareholders, or ‘stakeholders’, their relationship to one another and to the collectivity measured in assets and claims rather than in services or obligations.” (p543)

- The Falklands War

//The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// references the Falklands War, fought in 1982 between Great Britain and Argentina. The conflict’s cause was the long-disputed sovereignty over the Falklands Islands. Sue Townsend cynically portrays a careless attitude towards the conflict through Adrian’s father: “10 a.m. Woke my father up to tell him Argentina has invaded the Falklands. He shot out of bed because he thought the Falklands lay off the coast of Scotland. When I pointed out that they were eight thousand miles away he got back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.” (p189) Although this attitude characterises Adrian’s father, it is not reflective of the entire British population: the conflict vociferously contributed to Thatcher’s re-election in June 1983, as she is widely believed to have led the United Kingdom to victory and Argentina’s surrender; a wave of patriotic support swept the opposing candidates afar: “Buoyed by her recent victory in the Falklands War, in which she had established a party monopoly upon ‘patriotism’ and displayed once again her unusual taste for confrontation, Mrs. Thatcher won the election of June 1983.” - (A History Of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt, p546)

- Unemployment

//The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// references unemployment when Principal Scruton claims that “somebody had entered his office and drawn a moustache on Margaret Thatcher and written ‘three million unemployed’ in her cleavage” as an act of vandalism. Townsend’s reference to the amount of citizens unemployed is adequate in the sense that the unemployed figures astronomically rose after Thatcher applied both the Indirect Taxation and the 15% increase on Value Added Tax policies. Unemployment reached an official figure of 3.6 million in 1982, though the criteria used to define who was employed or not was highly altered, allowing some to estimate that unemployment figures rose to 5 million.

- Feminism //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// references feminism through Adrian’s mother, Pauline Mole. She finds her feminist views to parallel those of Germaine Greer rather than those of Thatcher. Townsend references Greer whilst Pauline develops a will for activism and feminist uprising: “My mother is reading //The Female Eunuch//, by Germaine Greer. […] it is the sort of book that changes your life.” Townsend portrays Adrian and his father as victims of Pauline’s new attachment to feminism: “My mother has gone to a woman’s workshop on assertiveness training. Men aren’t allowed. […] my mother came home and started bossing us around. She said […] ‘Things are going to be different around here’ and things like that.” The Mole household is in turmoil after she uses it as headquarters; Adrian states that: “My mother is holding her woman’s rights meetings in our lounge. […] They are not a bit ladylike.” In terms of feminism during the Thatcher era, an outbreak of feminist feelings reached all women under the first female Prime Minister. Thatcher herself stated that “the women of this country have never had a Prime Minister who knew the things that they knew, never, never. And the things that we know are very different from what men know.” However, Helen Wilkinson’s “The Thatcher Legacy” in //On The Move: Feminism For A New Generation// claims that “many feminists have found it difficult to embrace Margaret Thatcher and what she came to represent. Indeed it has become the conventional wisdom within some intellectual circles to portray her as positively anti-feminist.”

You need to reach a brief conclusion at the end of each section rather than just summarising what the main evidence / interpretations are.**
 * Apart from the Diary itself, you only refer to (a) The Judt book and (b) Wilkinson. This is not enough. You need reference to at least 2-3 more sources (quotes from Thatcher's own memoirs seem the obvious line of enquiry!!!)