The exam-style question
This is a character analysis question, in the style of the Literature in English papers. Read it as you would in the exam, then compare your plan with the model.
Read our original extract below, which shows Amara at the start and end of a difficult year. Write an analysis tracing how the writer builds her character and shows her change. This is our own teaching passage.
Amara, Then and Now
In September, Amara apologised for everything. She apologised when others stepped on her foot, when the teacher asked a question she happened to know, even, once, when the door blew shut in a wind she had not made. She sat at the back and made herself small, as though taking up less room might make her easier to like.
She kept her best drawings folded inside her bag, where no one could judge them. By June she had stopped folding the drawings. It had begun with one, pinned to the wall by a teacher who would not take no for an answer, and the sky had not fallen.
Now Amara raised her hand before she had quite decided to; now, when someone stepped on her foot, she waited, quite calmly, for them to notice. She still spoke softly. But the softness had changed its meaning: it was no longer the sound of someone hiding, but of someone who had, at last, nothing to apologise for.
Model response: Character analysis
Analysing a character means tracing the signals a writer plants at the start and how they change by the end. Show the change; do not just describe two states.
A trial lesson can compare your child's own answer with this model on Character analysis.
Common errors we see
- Labelling the character ('shy', then 'confident') without analysis
- Describing two states but not how the change is shown
- Missing motifs and symbols the writer repeats and transforms
- Ignoring how earlier details are mirrored to mark change
- No evidence embedded to support the trait being traced
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards.
For character analysis, the objectives in play are listed below. The wording is summarised for Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475) on our qualification page.
- Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts across the three forms (drama, poetry and prose), supporting points with reference to the text.
- Analyse the ways writers use language, structure and form to shape meaning and create effects.
- Communicate an informed, sensitive personal response to literary texts.
Marks reward detailed knowledge of the character, analysis of how the writer presents them and a personal response with evidence.
Other boards word their objectives differently, but the same skills earn the marks. Your board's official syllabus gives the exact weighting.
Where to go next
Learn the method in our guide to character analysis, then try the character analysis practice tasks. You can browse every annotated model response or see how we teach this in our Literature in English tuition.
When you have written your own answer, take it to a paid one-hour trial lesson and the teacher who would continue will mark it with you.