Cheat by Allan Baillie
1. Themes
Explanation and textual
Themes evidence
Being judgemental Explanation
The short story is revolved
around the theme of being
judgemental. There are a few
characters can be related to
this theme. They might jump
into conclusion too soon and it
caused misunderstanding.
Examples
Lynne is one of the characters
who is judgemental. After she
read about the book written by
William Bradburie in the library,
she was filled with anger. She
said that Geoff is cheating in
the short story competition
even though she has never read
Geoffs story before.
Another person related to the
theme is Marge. She is the
classmate for Geoff and Marge.
When Geoff mentioned that he
wanted to be a barrister or
lawyer, Marge labelled him as
money minded. It can be hurtful
when we labelled someone.
Creative writing is not Explanation
always original A creative idea or innovation
like is not always original
because we will take idea and
inspiration from different
resources to make
improvement. The same goes
with story writing, the
originality does not really exist
because our storys idea will
come from the story that we
read, our experience and our
surrounding.
Example
Lynne emphasised the
importance of originality in the
writing. When she realised that
Geoff is not cheating, she was
wondering whether she had
read any story related to the
sheepdog in flood.
As for Geoff story, although his
story idea is similar to William
Bradburies story, Mr Velos told
Lynne that the story is still
consider original and Geoff is
not cheating.
2. Moral Values
Moral Values Explanation Examples
We consider that
Geoff is an honest
person. After Lynne
shouted at Geoff,
Geoff went to Mr
Velos office to
confess that he
Honesty and
might be cheating
courage are about
due to the
being brave to tell
similarity of his
someone the truth.
story and William
We must take
Bradburies story.
responsibility to the
Honesty and mistakes that we
courage have done.
Lynne used weeks
to complete the
miserable story.
She spent time to
draft and rewrite
the story. Although
in the end, she won
If we are
the second place in
perseverance, we
the competition, I
will not give up
personally consider
easily even the job
that it is a good
is challenging or
result from her
difficult. We will
hard work.
keep on trying until
we achieve
Perseverance success.
After she read
about the book
We must not be written by William
judgemental Bradburie in the
because the truth library, she was
might be different filled with anger.
from what we think. She said that Geoff
If we do not know is cheating in the
the detail of the short story
situation, we should competition even
not make the though she has
Avoid being conclusion too never read Geoffs
judgemental soon. story before.
3. Characters
Lynne Webbings Textual evidence
Lynne had a big dream to win
the Holmes-Watkins medal in
the short story competition.
When the result announced,
Ambitious she felt really disappointed.
Lynne was jealous and
vengeful when Geoff won the
competition. After she
discovered that William
Bradburies story was similar to
Geoffs story, she wanted to
take revenge by reporting to
Mr Velos so that she could win
back the medal.
Jealous and vengeful
Lynne used weeks to complete
the miserable story. She spent
time to draft and rewrite the
story. Although in the end, she
won the second place in the
competition, I personally
consider that it is a good result
Persevering from her hard work.
Geoff Bolder Textual evidence
Geoff tried to cheer Lynne by
telling her a joke. Geoff joked
about how Mr Velos picked the
winner by climbing up to his
lovely special mahagony desk
and dropped both papers, and
the papers that hit the floor
first wins.
Humorous
Although Geoff has potential in
writing, he wants to be a
barrister because he says that
there is more money in law.
Realistic
Geoff confessed to Mr Velos
that he had read a book by the
American Humourist, William
Honest Bradburie three years ago.
