Cheat by Allan Baillie

Cheat by Allan Baillie

1.

Themes

Themes Being judgemental

Explanation and textual evidence Explanation The short story is revolved around the theme of being judgemental. There are a few characters can be related to this theme. They might jump into conclusion too soon and it

caused misunderstanding.

Examples Lynne is one of the characters who is judgemental. After she read about the book written by William Bradburie in the library, she was filled with anger. She said that Geoff is cheating in the short story competition even though she has never read Geoff’s story before.

Another person related to the theme is Marge. She is the classmate for Geoff and Marge. When Geoff mentioned that he wanted to be a barrister or lawyer, Marge labelled him as money minded. It can be hurtful when we labelled someone.

Creative writing is not always original

Explanation A creative idea or innovation like is not always original because we will take idea and inspiration from different resources to make improvement. The same goes with story writing, the originality does not really exist because our story’s idea will come from the story that we read, our experience and our surrounding.

Example Lynne emphasised the importance of originality in the writing. When she realised that Geoff is not cheating, she was wondering whether she had read any story related to the sheepdog in flood.

As for Geoff story, although his story idea is similar to William Bradburie’s story, Mr Velos told Lynne that the story is still consider original and Geoff is not cheating.

2. Moral Values Moral Values

Honesty and courage

Perseverance

Avoid being judgemental

3. Characters

Explanation

Honesty and courage are about being brave to tell someone the truth. We must take responsibility to the mistakes that we have done.

If we are perseverance, we will not give up easily even the job is challenging or difficult. We will keep on trying until we achieve success.

We must not be judgemental because the truth might be different from what we think. If we do not know the detail of the situation, we should not make the conclusion too soon.

Examples We consider that Geoff is an honest person. After Lynne shouted at Geoff, Geoff went to Mr Velos office to confess that he might be cheating due to the similarity of his story and William Bradburie’s story.

Lynne used weeks to complete the miserable story. She spent time to draft and rewrite the story. Although in the end, she won the second place in the competition, I personally consider that it is a good result from her hard work.

After she read about the book written by William Bradburie in the library, she was filled with anger. She said that Geoff is cheating in the short story competition even though she has never read Geoff’s story before.

Lynne Webbings

Textual evidence

Ambitious

Lynne had a big dream to win the Holmes-Watkins medal in the short story competition. When the result announced, she felt really disappointed. Lynne was jealous and vengeful when Geoff won the competition. After she discovered that William Bradburie’s story was similar to Geoff’s story, she wanted to take revenge by reporting to Mr Velos so that she could win back the medal.

Jealous and vengeful

Persevering

Lynne used weeks to complete the miserable story. She spent time to draft and rewrite the story. Although in the end, she won the second place in the competition, I personally consider that it is a good result from her hard work.

Geoff Bolder

Textual evidence Geoff tried to cheer Lynne by telling her a joke. Geoff joked about how Mr Velos picked the winner by climbing up to his lovely special mahagony desk and dropped both papers, and the papers that hit the floor first wins.

Humorous Although Geoff has potential in writing, he wants to be a barrister because he says that there is more money in law. Realistic

Honest

Geoff confessed to Mr Velos that he had read a book by the American Humourist, William Bradburie three years ago.