What do you find so memorable about Wharton's portrayal of life in Starkfield? Support your ideas with details from the novel.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [25] There are, of course, two Starkfields separated by 25 years during which time modern amenities have reached the community.
2. [25] However, life there is always tough and there is the wry comment that it is essentially a place to escape from.
3. [25] Frome's tragedy is not the only one in the town and most struggle to make a living, sometimes perhaps because there is hardly an excess of imagination in the inhabitants.
4. [25] The Eady's, for instance, do well.
5. [25] The detail of the hardness of life is something which we should expect from any answer deserving of reasonable reward.
6. [25] The events of the novel are acted out almost entirely in the New England winter which serves as a suitably unforgiving background.
7. [25] However, it is also beautiful and life can have its good moments as well.
8. [25] Besides conducting an argument with wide-ranging detail, possibly the better candidates will show themselves by being alert to the few scenes where the joyous possibilities of life rise to the surface.
9. [25] Refer to the band descriptors in arriving at your mark.