Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level – Excellence in English Language and Literature
Plan:
• Right to deceive them – children might have wondered if he had fed canary – they are very young – happy ending.
• Right to deceive them second time also – they are hysterical – child who unlatched cage might be blamed.
Sample answer:
I think that George is right to deceive his children as he only tells them white lies and does so because they are very young and he simply wants to make them happy.
In the fi rst instance, George could possibly have told the children the truth but they might have blamed him for killing the canary because he had been left in charge of feeding it. They are young enough to be fooled by his rather ridiculous story of having met a man on the plane who persuaded him that fi nches were better than canaries, so they are probably too young to fully understand and accept death. At the end of the day, they are very happy with the new arrivals and think they are ‘cool’, so George’s lie leads to a happy ending.
I also think that George acts correctly on the second occasion when he tells the children that Pete has fl own back to the pet shop. When he arrives home they are hysterical and ‘long past tears and snot’, so they are clearly in no state to listen to reason. Another reason that I believe George is right is that the unnamed child who unlatched the cage may have felt terribly guilty for doing so and would possibly have been blamed by the other children. George’s brainwave brings nothing but happiness, so I feel he made the right choice.
Neither of George’s deceptions cause any harm and both delight his small children, which I think proves that what he did was for the best.
TIP
Stick to the text as much as possible. You must support your points with evidence from the
text, so keep guesswork to a minimum. A little is fi ne, but even that must be linked to the text.
