AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025: Question 5

Question 05

Explore the significance of the struggle for identity in this extract.

Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Boyd shapes

meanings.

[25 marks]

Possible content:

Please refer to pages 4 to 7.

AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Focus might be on:

• the World War II time period – the action taking place on the Home Front in London at the height of

the Blitz, just before the beginning of the Modern Times synchronic time period

• the fact that Eva’s wartime experience fighting for the freedom of others has now become a

desperate personal struggle to assume a new identity

• Eva’s struggle for personal freedom and a new identity as analogous to that of the countries

attempting to achieve autonomy and self-determination on a global scale; possibly the idea that it

is easier to focus on the fate of one individual rather than millions

• issues of gender, power, nationality and class, given Eva’s original Russian birth and background,

and her assumption of the stolen identity of an English girl; the contrasting names ‘Eva

Delectorskaya’ and ‘Sally Fairchild’ may be seen as significant, with Sally’s name perhaps seen as

suggesting a fresh start; reference may be made to the future Cold War, which will further separate

Eva from her country of origin

• the difficult moral choices Eva has to make in order to achieve her personal freedom and a new

identity, eg lying to her landlady Mrs Dangerfield and the police; stealing the identity of a dead girl

tragically killed along with the rest of her family; apparently planning to pick up a man in a club who

may be able to protect her

• how Boyd uses Eva’s theft of Sally’s identity to suggest how unstable and at risk individual freedom

can be within society as a whole; the fact that Eva willingly inflicts a minor injury on herself in order

to pass as having survived the air raid that in fact killed Sally Fairchild and her entire family; the

idea that freedom for some may be based upon disaster for others

• etc.

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• ideas about representations of the struggle for identity as seen in modern literature

• etc.

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

literary texts are written and received

Focus might be on:

• ideas about how representations of the struggle for identity may be seen to have an impact upon

the ways in which issues key to the context of Modern Times such as class, gender, race, culture

and national identity are received and understood

• etc.

AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts

Focus might be on:

• Boyd’s decision to focalise the events through Eva’s point of view while retaining a third-person

stance

• elements typical of the genre of the spy thriller or escape/adventure story

• the cool factual tone used to describe horrific and tragic events; the listing of the five dead

Fairchilds

• use of verisimilitude to add a sense of authenticity; use of specific numbers of the dead and

missing; use of specific locations eg Deptford, Battersea, Rotherhithe, Victoria Station, Whitehall,

the Chelsea Arts Club etc

• aspects of Boyd’s structure, eg Eva’s various journeys to establish her new identity

• the garish description of the bombed-out ruins of Carlisle House; the ‘fuming moonscape’, ‘hills’

and ‘teetering cliffs’ of dereliction

• the symbolism of Eva burning her passport in order to assume a new identity; the symbolic

difference between her old and assumed names

• The persistent threat of Romer and the hints of their former close relationship; his ‘perverse

pleasure in her skills at evasion’

• the way in which Eva behaves in stereotypically ‘feminine’ ways such as weeping and feigning

concussion in order to elicit sympathy; her cleverness in fooling the authorities – the police, the

Home Office etc

• how Boyd’s word choices and syntax within the narrative description suggests the 1940s wartime

context and setting – eg the ‘eligible’ young men she hunts down at various night clubs

• 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.

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

authorial methods.