Marking Scheme - Examinations.ie

The Grass Is Singing (ii)
(ii) “Readers can feel both sympathy for and irritation with Mary Turner’s character.”
Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with suitable reference to the novel, The Grass
Is Singing.
Mark ex 60 by reference to the criteria for assessment using the following breakdown of marks.
P 18
C 18
L 18
M 6
60 marks A+ B C D E-
100% 60 – 51 42 33 24 23 – 0
30% 18 – 16 13 10 8 7 – 0
10% 6 – 5 4 3 3 2 – 0
Candidates are free to agree and/or disagree with this statement, but they should focus on the extent
to which they feel both sympathy for and irritation with (though not necessarily equally) Mary
Turner’s character.
Code SM +/– for sympathy for Mary Turner
Code IM +/– for irritation with Mary Turner
Possible points:
- Mary is both an oppressor and a victim who infuriates/engages the reader
- she is cursed with fatal weaknesses and overcome by poverty, misery and despair
- tormented by heat, loneliness, frustration, resentment and self-disgust
- a sensitive dreamer controlled by the men in her life
- her treatment of the native workers is particularly repugnant
- pretence of strength despite her dysfunctional relationships Etc.
20