In Text 1, the author uses plot structure through the use of flashback to suggest that
perseverance pays off.
Before the flashback the reader is told that Rami, the protagonist, is the team captain who has
just led his school team to victory by winning the season. Rami lifts the “symbol of victory” ,
the match cup over his head. Additionally, his “ecstatic schoolmates” chant his name in glory
“Ra-mi! Ra-mi!” showing he is hailed a hero of the school, even though when he first came
to the school he didn’t know anyone.
However, despite being the victor in the text, Rami remembers how strange and weird he felt
when first coming to his new school. The narrator explains that everything about the new
school “was alien to him.” The use of the word “alien” suggests to readers that he was a
migrant to Australia and new to his school as he had come from another country. He found
wearing “trousers that were long” and “new shiny black lace-up shoes” very different and
“unfamiliar” to anything he had ever worn before. The lexical choice of “unfamiliar”
reinforces the idea that he was new and “alien” to Australia and in an environment that was
completely foreign to him. Text 1 also describes how he even “jumped in surprise at the
high-pitched sound” of the school “bell” and realized that the other students spoke a language
that he “couldn’t understand.” Clearly, the author has used reverie (flashback) to juxtapose
how different Rami was when first arriving in Australia to the he is now the school hero.
Finally, the narrative ends back on the winning sports field after “the victory lap” of Rami’s
team. Despite being the winning team’s captain, it is a “relief” when Rami gives the cup to
the principal as his main focus is actually on realizing how much his perseverance at being
new to both Australia and the school has paid off. Amongst all the excitement of winning the
season, Rami “looked into the cheering cround” in an attempt to find “the small figure of his
mother.” Rami’s mother is the one person who had also migrated to Australia and who really
understood what a hard journey it had been for Rami to become the school hero. She showed
her support of him from across the stadium “waving the school flag.” The author’s use of
flashback clearly suggests to readers that Rami’s perseverance in Australia and at school
really paid off as he is not the school sporting hero.
Linking/transitionary words for flow
Flashback = reverie = in the past
Juxtaposition = contrast/comparing for the explicit purpose of making a point
Structure – the way the text has been constructed/put togther.
