AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2A), June 2025: Question 15

AO1: Coherent, perceptive thesis and critical register AO2: Close analysis of narrative form, sensory imagery, and structural shifts AO3: Contextual weight of 1 July 1916 and late-20th-century historical retrospection AO5: Exploration of alternative critical debates and thematic dualities

📐 Argument Architecture: 4-Pillar Essay Plan (AO1 & AO5)

1. Pillar 1 (The Pre-War Palimpsest): Examine the Somme in 1910 as an idyllic river landscape charged with latent violence. Faulks uses proleptic irony (e.g., Stephen’s boat journeys with Isabelle, the claustrophobia of the Azaire household) to establish a baseline of physical sensuality before industrial warfare destroys the human body.
2. Pillar 2 (The Carnage of 1 July 1916): Analyse the visceral representation of zero-hour. Faulks focuses on bodily vulnerability against mechanical force (bullets shredding flesh, men hung on wire). Contrast Stephen’s unnatural, dispassionate survival with the complete psychological unraveling of characters like Weir and Horrocks.
3. Pillar 3 (The Subversion of Meaning & Faith): The Somme as an apocalyptic void. It is not merely a military disaster, but an ontological shock where language, Christian providence (Horrocks' crucifix), and traditional narrative forms fail to capture the scale of loss.
4. Pillar 4 (Post-War Amnesia & Memorialisation): Elizabeth Benson’s late-20th-century journey through the Somme landscape. Contrast the sterile, imposing architecture of Lutyens' Thiepval memorial—which "ruptures" and "overpowers" the landscape—with Elizabeth’s visceral shock at discovering the sheer magnitude of forgotten names.

✅ Model Analysis: High-Level Textual Evidence (AO2 Focus)

• Juxtaposition of Nature & Mechanisation: Faulks notes that on the morning of 1 July, "a lark began to sing" just before the barrage lifted. Birdsong serves as an indifferent counterpoint to human catastrophe, highlighting that nature outlasts war while human constructs implode.
• Graphic Presentation of Combat: The prose shifts from lyrical interiority to stark, detached reportage: soldiers are "cut into pieces", limbs hang from barbed wire like macabre fruit. This stylistic shift forces the reader to confront the physical horror stripped of romantic or patriotic euphemism.
• Thiepval & Erasure: When Elizabeth arrives, the Somme is peaceful farmland, but the Thiepval memorial exposes the buried trauma. Faulks emphasises the physical weight of names carved into stone, illustrating how the Somme persists not as living memory, but as an open wound beneath modern Europe.

❌ Common Pitfalls & Examiner Warnings

• Ignoring the multi-period structure: Focusing solely on the battle scenes in Part 2 and ignoring 1910 or Elizabeth's modern narrative in the 1970s caps AO2 and AO5 marks. The Somme's significance lies in its temporal transformation.
• Treating the novel as historical fact: Remember that Faulks is a late-20th-century novelist writing retrospective fiction. Do not write a history essay about General Haig; focus strictly on authorial craft and how Faulks creates emotional and thematic meaning.
• "Feature-spotting" without effect: Stating that Faulks uses alliteration or onomatopoeia without explaining how it enhances the reader's confrontation with mortality or trauma will limit you to Level 3.

Examiner Commentary on Top-Band (Band 5) Performance: Top-band candidates recognised that the Somme functions simultaneously as a physical geography, a psychological site of trauma, and a cultural monument. They successfully contrasted the idyllic pastoralism of pre-war France with the mechanised, subterranean abattoir of Part 2, and concluded with perceptive evaluations of Elizabeth’s modern encounter at Thiepval, explicitly debating whether Faulks views memorialisation as an act of genuine healing or an inadequate gesture in the face of absolute loss.