Activities for VCE English - Tim Winton Short Story

1. THE TURNING

2. ASH WEDNESDAY
 Tim Winton’s The Turning being with an excerpt
from TS Eliot’s ‘Ash Wednesday’:
 And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
 What kind of turnings is the poem referring to?

3. Ash Wednesday
(Cont’d)
• Ash Wednesday stands at the
beginning of of the season of Lent, a
time of self-denial, atonement and
renewed importance
• Lent is a 40 day season leading up to
Easter, symbolically reflecting Christ’s
40 days wandering the desert
• However, Winton has removed the
first and last line: “And pray to God to
have mercy upon us / May the
judgment not be too heavy upon us”
• What is the effect of secularising the
epigraph?
• Does it suggest “turning” or renewal is
universal?
• Does “hope” imply a lack of free will
or control?

4. TURNINGS
 Think about turnings in your own life. E.g., from
primary school to secondary school student
 To what extent do we leave everything behind
when we make a significant turn in our lives, and
do what extent does the past travel with us?
 Discuss in pairs

5. BIG WORLD
 Read ‘Big World’ Aloud to the class, with students taking in turn
to read aloud
 What are you immediate impressions of the story?
 Lenny sense in the desert at the end of ‘Big World’ that there is
not only more to his life than working at the cannery but more
to reality.
 Have you had experiences in nature that have made you feel
there is something beyond your sense?