How to Compare and Contrast
- In IB English Paper 2, the ultimate goal is not just analysis, but comparative analysis.
- The best essays evaluate how two texts treat ideas similarly and differently across several dimensions:
- Technique:
“While Orwell uses imagery of surveillance (‘The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously’), Atwood employs symbolism (‘The red of the Handmaids is not their colour, but the Republic’s’) to evoke authoritarian control.”
- Theme:
“Both Orwell and Atwood explore the theme of state control, but while Orwell focuses on the manipulation of truth, Atwood centres on the regulation of the body.”
- Characterisation:
“Orwell’s Winston is portrayed as a passive resister whose rebellion stems from a need for truth, while Atwood’s Offred is more hesitant, shaped by her attachment to memory and identity.”
- Purpose:
“Both authors critique totalitarianism, but Orwell’s warning is aimed at political indoctrination through propaganda, while Atwood’s is directed at theocratic oppression rooted in gender politics.”
- Effect:
“Orwell leaves readers with a sense of crushing despair through Winston’s reprogramming. Atwood instead leaves us with ambiguity, inviting readers to question the boundaries of resistance and hope.”
- Context:
“Orwell, writing post-WWII amid fears of fascism and Stalinism, constructs a society obsessed with control and censorship, while Atwood, writing during the rise of the New Right in the 1980s, reacts against the rollback of women’s rights.”
- Technique:
From Basic to Advanced Comparative Analysis
Basic Comparison
“Orwell and Atwood both portray dystopian societies.”
- This is technically accurate, but vague and underdeveloped.
Step 1: Add Technique
“Orwell uses newspeak and telescreens, while Atwood uses colour symbolism and ritual to construct dystopian control.”
- Now we’re pointing to how the dystopias are built.
Step 2: Add Purpose
“Through these techniques, both authors criticise authoritarian regimes that dehumanise individuals and suppress personal autonomy.”
- We now have technique + purpose.
Step 3: Add Theme and Characterisation
“Both writers reveal the human cost of oppression: Orwell through Winston’s gradual loss of self (‘2 + 2 = 5’), and Atwood through Offred’s fragmented identity and longing for her daughter.”
- We’ve now added theme + character.
Step 4: Add Effect and Context
“Orwell’s bleak ending reflects his post-war cynicism about totalitarianism, while Atwood’s unresolved conclusion mirrors Cold War-era anxieties about the fragility of rights, especially for women. The effect on readers is starkly different: Orwell leaves us hollow, Atwood leaves us unsettled.”
- Now we’ve hit all six dimensions and used them in combination.
Worked Example: Step-by-Step Improvement
Example
- Let’s walk through the same idea evolving from weak to strong:
- Weak:
“Orwell and Atwood both use main characters to explore resistance.”
- Better:
“Both Orwell and Atwood use the characterisation of Winston and Offred to explore how resistance can take quiet, internal forms.”
- Stronger:
“Through third-person limited narration, Orwell captures Winston’s internal rebellion, while Atwood uses Offred’s fragmented first-person voice to mirror her emotional survival. In both cases, the characters’ resistance is shaped by fear and memory.”
- Excellent:
“Through distinctive narrative techniques, Orwell’s clinical third-person and Atwood’s fractured first-person, both authors present resistance as rooted in the internal psyche. Winston’s love for Julia and Offred’s secret thoughts function as personal rebellions against totalitarian erasure. However, Orwell’s dystopia is absolute and ends in submission, whereas Atwood’s leaves space for ambiguity and potential subversion. These different effects reflect the authors’ distinct historical contexts: Orwell’s post-war pessimism and Atwood’s Cold War feminism.”
Why This Works
- Advanced comparative analysis doesn’t just name similarities and differences.
- It explains how the authors’ techniques, contexts, and goals shape their approaches and what effect that has on the reader.
Tip
- To go from good to great:
- Stack multiple dimensions (technique + theme + effect)
- Compare directionally (how one text does something differently than the other, not just “both do it”)
- Always link back to the purpose and message
Context in Paper 2
- Context matters, in fact, it’s required. But what do we actually mean by “context”?
- Context refers to the social, political, historical, cultural, or even personal background that shaped the writer’s motives, perspectives, and messages.
- For example, some authors respond to cultural displacement or political repression, while others, like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, write to challenge dominant narratives and reclaim silenced histories.
How to Weave in Context
Here are two reliable points in your analysis where contextual understanding can be easily and effectively integrated:
1. When analyzing effect on the audience
- Different audiences respond differently based on their time, place, and values.
- If you’re commenting on the effect of a technique, character, or theme, you should ask: “Why might this have resonated with this audience at the time?”
- Then, go a step further: compare the responses across the texts.
Example
“Although The God of Small Things (1997) was published decades after Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), both novels confronted gender roles within conservative societies. Brontë’s Victorian readers may have viewed Jane’s resistance as radical, while Roy’s postcolonial Indian audience may have seen Ammu’s defiance as a tragic inevitability within a rigid caste and patriarchal system. Despite the temporal and cultural divide, both texts stirred discomfort by challenging the moral norms of their day.”
- Here, context helps explain the differing responses and deepens your comparative insight.
2. When analyzing the writer’s purpose
- The best analysis ties back to why the writer crafted the text in the first place, and that purpose is almost always rooted in context.
- Don’t assume the author was writing about the time period of the story.
- For instance, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Gois set in a fictional dystopia, but he wasn’t writing about clone rights, he was reflecting on how society values human life, especially in a world increasingly shaped by science and commodification.
Example
- First Text Context:
“Through the sterile and emotionally restrained narrative voice in Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro critiques how modern societies quietly dehumanise individuals in the name of progress. Written in post-industrial Britain, the novel reflects growing concerns in the late 20th century about bioethics, memory, and institutional neglect.”
- Now compare:
“In contrast, in A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini writes from a place of cultural recovery. His portrayal of women’s endurance under the Taliban was not simply to depict suffering but to bring visibility to Afghan voices erased from the global narrative. Both writers use personal storytelling to comment on systemic injustice, though Ishiguro critiques bureaucratic coldness in developed societies, Hosseini confronts the brutality of overt oppression.”
- Here, purpose + context + contrast work together to sharpen the analysis.
Summary: Practical Reminders
- Don’t list historical facts: show how they matter to the story, message, or audience.
- Link context to effect and purpose: that’s where it has the most impact.
- Compare how different audiences and cultural moments shape meaning.
- Think about why the text was written: not just what it’s about.
