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Broken Lives Essay


            The expository text, Broken Lives by Estelle Blackburn, attempts to engage the readers with its use of narrative elements. Broken Lives tells the story of Serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, and his reign of terror around Perth. The narrative techniques of characterisation, structure, P.O.V. and setting all contribute to the way the reader; reacts, responds and interacts with the book.The characterisation is the way which the author constructs the character to encourage a particular response from the reader. Broken Lives has many characters. There are the two main characters, Eric Edgar Cooke, the serial killer, and John Button, the man wrongfully imprisoned for one of Eric Edgar Cooke's crimes. The character of John Button was created so as to provide the character of the "good guy". John Button is a 19-year old bricklayer, who is charged for the murder of his girlfriend Rosemary Anderson who had a big future ahead of him. This is done to create a more personal feel to the character; it makes it feel to the reader that this character was actually a "real" person.The characterisation of John Button is always portraying him as the innocent one, it is safe to assume that the novel clearly takes his side in stating his innocence. John Button was created in order to have a character that the reader feels sorry for. As we know that John is innocent the author encourages the reader to enter a level of engagement with the text in which we begin to question, "How did he get into prison? And " Why wasn't he given a fair trial?".
             The character of Eric Edgar Cooke is immediately recognized as the "bad guy" of the text. Eric Edgar Cooke is a murderous serial killer and is the other main character that is juxtaposed to John Button. Eric Edgar Cooke had a rough childhood and was constantly abused by his father this was believed to be what led him to create the threatening grip over Perth and all its residents.


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