AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2A), June 2025: Question 6

25 marks · Hard difficulty · Extended Response

Compare the significance of team spirit and shared values in two texts from the First World War and its aftermath, using one drama text and one prose text with at least one written post-2000.

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Question

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06 Compare the significance of team spirit and shared values in two other texts you have

studied.

Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts

you are comparing.

You must use one drama text and one prose text in your response, at least one of which

must be a text written post-2000.

[25 marks]

Mark scheme

Show the mark scheme

Question 06

Compare the significance of team spirit and shared values in two other texts you have studied.

Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts you are

comparing.

You must use one drama text and one prose text in your response, at least one of which must be a

text written post-2000.

[25 marks]

Possible content:

Please refer to pages 4 to 7.

AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Focus might be on:

• team spirit’ and ‘shared values’ equally or one might be prioritised

• the debate around team spirit and shared values through the consideration of ideas and attitudes

such as military morale, patriotism and group loyalty as presented in their two texts

• the extent to which the contrasting genres of the two texts affect the ways in which team spirit and

share values are presented

• etc.

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• connections of similarity and/or difference at the level of subject matter/genre/attitudes and/or

methods

• links to the shared historicist content of literature of WW1 and its aftermath

• etc.

AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which

literary texts are written and received

Focus might be on:

• the differing experiences of team spirit and shared values from different times both in the duration

of the war and its aftermath

• how the presentation of team spirit and shared values may vary at different times

• how attitudes towards team spirit and shared values might change over time

• how team spirit and shared values can be considered from differing perspectives such as the

home-front and the front-line

• how team spirit and shared values might be viewed and experienced differently because of age,

gender, class and culture

• etc.

AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts

Focus might be on:

• the varying presentations of team spirit and shared values 23

• the ways in which varying forms of characterisation present team spirit and shared values

• dramatic methods such as: explicit structural devices; dramatic irony; stage directions; indirect

ways of communicating the writers’ messages and ideas; naturalistic and other styles of

representing character, incident and narrative

• poetic methods such as: types of verse form; explicit and implicit structural features; use of tropes

for rhetorical effect; use of aural devices for rhetorical effect; elliptical use of language

• etc.

AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated

concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression

• quality of argument

• organisation of ideas

• use of appropriate concepts and terminology

• technical accuracy

• comparing texts.

Accept any valid interpretations, any valid comments on contexts and any valid discussion of

authorial methods.

Option 2

Section A: Drama Set Text

How to answer it

AQA A-Level English Literature A • Paper 2: WW1 and its Aftermath

Question 06: Comparing "Team Spirit and Shared Values" (25 Marks)

What This Question Tests

This synoptic comparative essay tests your ability to synthesize two core set texts across genres under the historicist lens of First World War literature:

Rubric Compliance: Explicitly pairing exactly one drama text and one prose text, where at least one was published post-2000.
AO1 (Argument & Structure): Sustained, analytical, and logically sequenced comparative argument addressing both "team spirit" and "shared values".
AO2 (Authorial Methods): Close technical comparison of how dramatists (staging, dialogue, dramatic irony) and prose writers (narrative voice, focalisation, internal monologue) craft meaning.
AO3 (Contextual Influence): Historicist understanding of military cohesion, public school ethos, class divides, home-front vs trench mentalities, and how retrospective post-2000 writing reimagines early 20th-century values.
AO4 & AO5 (Connections & Debate): Seamless inter-textual linking and engagement with critical debates (e.g. whether solidarity empowers survival or serves as an oppressive instrument of slaughter).

1. Text Selection & Rubric Rules

Avoiding the instant rubric penalty

🧠 Qualifying Text Pairings

You must select 1 Drama + 1 Prose text. At least one must be written after 2000. Ideal pairings include:

Option A: Journey’s End (R.C. Sherriff, 1928 – Drama) + A Long Long Way (Sebastian Barry, 2005 – Prose, Post-2000)
Option B: The Accrington Pals (Peter Whelan, 1982 – Drama) + The Lie (Helen Dunmore, 2014 – Prose, Post-2000)
Option C: My Boy Jack (David Haig, 1997 – Drama) + Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks, 1993 – Prose) ❌ DISQUALIFIED: neither is post-2000!

❌ Disastrous Rubric Errors

Ignoring the Post-2000 Condition: Writing on Journey’s End (1928) and Regeneration (1991) caps your mark significantly because neither text satisfies the date requirement.
Genre Duplication: Comparing two novels (e.g., Barry and Barker) or two plays (e.g., Sherriff and Whelan).
Treating the Prompt as Singular: Only discussing "camaraderie" while entirely ignoring "shared values" (e.g. duty, imperial honour, religious belief, political dissent).

2. Deconstructing "Team Spirit" and "Shared Values"

Generating an AO5 debate from the title

💡 "Team Spirit" (The Camaraderie Paradox)

Survival Mechanism: Mutual dependence protects soldiers from psychological collapse (e.g., Osborne and Stanhope’s paternal dynamic; Barry's Royal Dublin Fusiliers huddling together).
Manufactured Coercion: "Team spirit" weaponised by military hierarchy through public school sporting metaphors ("play the game") to ensure men go over the top into machine-gun fire without mutiny.
Home-Front Exclusivity: Camaraderie alienates civilians who cannot fathom the shared trauma, creating an unbridgeable gulf between soldiers and home.

💡 "Shared Values" (Consensus vs Fracturing)

Imperial & National Ideology: Uncritical acceptance of King, Empire, and masculine stoicism at the outbreak of war.
Class Friction: The illusion of equality in shared mud versus rigid rank preservation (e.g., Trotter's lower-middle-class isolation among public school officers in Journey's End).
The Post-2000 Lens: Modern writers often foreground ideological disillusionment, showing how national shared values crumble under industrialized butchery and post-colonial reality (e.g., Barry highlighting Irish nationalist friction within the British Army).

3. Authorial Methods: Drama vs Prose

How form shapes meaning (AO2) across texts

🎭 Drama Methods (e.g., Sherriff / Whelan)

Claustrophobic Staging: Single underground dug-out sets physicalise the inescapable pressure of collective survival.
Subtext & Pauses: Stiff-upper-lip dialogue, awkward silences, and polite domestic banalities reveal suppressed terror and loyalty.
Ensemble Cast & Proxemics: Physical groupings on stage contrast solitary breakdowns with formal military solidarity.
Dramatic Irony: Audiences witness characters leaning on collective optimism right before a devastating artillery raid.

📖 Prose Methods (e.g., Barry / Dunmore)

Free Indirect Discourse: Fluctuates between broad squad loyalty and terrified internal isolation.
Visceral Sensory Imagery: Mud, stench, and dismemberment test the abstract romantic illusions of "shared values".
Non-Linear / Reflective Structure: Post-2000 retrospective temporal shifts expose the lasting damage wrought by misplaced collective loyalty.
Motifs & Symbols: Shared items (letters, shared rations, folk songs) stand in as fragile embodiments of community.

4. Grade-A Comparative Structure (AO1 / AO2 / AO3 / AO4 / AO5)

Exemplar Paragraph: Sherriff (Journey's End) vs Barry (A Long Long Way)

✅ Band 5 / Top-Band Exemplar Response

Both Sherriff and Barry present team spirit not merely as an uplifting virtue, but as a psychologically claustrophobic necessity engineered to withstand horrific attrition. In Journey’s End, Sherriff utilizes the physical confines of the dugout set to force mutual dependency among the officers. This camaraderie is staged through ritualistic domestic dialogue—such as Trotter and Osborne discussing gardening and "apricot jam"—which acts as an emotional bulwark against the exterior violence of St. Quentin. However, Sherriff subtly exposes the artificiality of these shared public-school values when Stanhope bitterly confesses to relying on whisky to sustain his role as leader, exposing how group cohesion demands the suppression of genuine trauma. Similarly, in A Long Long Way, Barry’s post-2000 retrospective narrative interrogates the fragility of shared military identity, yet does so through the acute lens of Irish cultural fracture. Writing through free indirect discourse, Barry depicts Willie Dunne’s squad seeking solace in shared singing and collective slang, describing them as bound by an "indivisible kinship" in the face of mustard gas. Yet, while Sherriff presents shared values as enduring despite individual collapse, Barry’s contemporary historicist vantage reveals how colonial divisions violently dissolve this brotherhood during the 1916 Easter Rising, leaving Willie ostracised both by his English comrades and his nationalist countrymen. Thus, while Sherriff dramatises team spirit as the soldier’s final sanctuary within naturalistic theatre, Barry’s expansive prose reveals how macro-political loyalties inevitably shatter the micro-community of the trenches.

📐 Step-by-Step Anatomy of a High-Scoring Paragraph

Step 1: Integrated Conceptual Thesis: Connect both texts immediately in sentence one, stating an overarching argument regarding both "team spirit" and "shared values".
Step 2: Drama Focus (Text 1): Analyze specific dramatic methods (staging, props, subtext, spoken dialogue) linked to context (trench conditions, class system).
Step 3: Direct Connective Pivot: Use comparative discourse markers ("Similarly", "Conversely", "While Sherriff confines...", "In contrast, Barry expands...") rather than writing two separate mini-essays.
Step 4: Prose Focus (Text 2): Analyze prose methods (narrative voice, syntactic rhythm, retrospective framing) with direct quotations.
Step 5: Post-2000 / AO3 & AO5 Synthesis: Conclude by discussing how the authors' historical context and generic constraints alter the reader's critical reception of "shared values".

5. Examiner Insights & Final Checklist

❌ Why Students Lose Marks

Feature-Spotting without Effect: Pointing out stage directions or similes without explaining how they construct the theme of solidarity.
Unequal Weighting (Lopsided Essay): Spending 70% of the essay on the drama text and rushing the post-2000 prose text in the final 5 minutes.
Ignoring Genre Differences: Analyzing a play as if it were a novel by forgetting that plays are written for theatrical performance, lighting, and an audience.
Treating Context as Historical "Bolt-on": Dumping facts about the Battle of the Somme without tying them directly to authorial purpose.

✅ What Distinguishes Band 5 (Top Marks)

Nuanced Definition of Prompt Words: Differentiating between genuine, organic brotherhood (team spirit) and imposed, ideological dogmas (shared values).
Continuous Comparative Weaving: Comparing texts back-and-forth within paragraphs instead of writing isolated text-by-text blocks.
Critical Appreciation of the Post-2000 Perspective: Acknowledging why a 21st-century author might be more critical of nationalism or more inclusive of marginalized voices than a 1920s veteran.

Examiner Summary: Total: 25 marks. Marked across AO1 (5), AO2 (5), AO3 (5), AO4 (5), and AO5 (5). An even, integrated approach covering both texts and both concepts is required for Band 5.

Topics

WW1 and its aftermath · Regeneration · Birdsong · Oh! What a Lovely War · Journey’s End · The Return of the Soldier · All Quiet on the Western Front · Strange Meeting · A Farewell to Arms · Goodbye to All That · A Long, Long Way · The First Casualty · Life Class · The Accrington Pals · Blackadder Goes Forth · My Boy Jack · The Wipers Times

Question and mark scheme from the AQA A-Level English Literature A examination, Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2A), June 2025. QuestionVault is an independent revision resource; questions remain the copyright of the awarding body.