Source G Is an Extract Taken from a Novel. Is It Reliable as Evidence

Source G is an extract taken from a Novel. Is it reliable as evidence

about evacuees?

Explain your answer using Source G and knowledge from your studies.

The first factor to support its unreliability is that as a Novel the

characters and story are fiction. However, through research it is

known that the writer Nina Bawden was evacuated in 1939 at the age of

14. Therefore, all events, emotions and surroundings have come from

personal experience and are reflected in the Novel. Therefore, the

books content must be reliable. However, the characters are works of

fiction and from the short extract, we know very little about the

characters previous lives and through what circumstances they arrived

here.

Nevertheless, when understanding and considering the word Novel, it is

assumed that the story may stray away from the facts, as to accumulate

more readers. However, it is moreover understood that the book is

there for the younger generation to understand and conceive what it

would be like to be in that situation. The book would not meander away

from the true heart and emotions of the true story of evacuation. On

the other hand, the story is written by only one woman and therefore

the source is only looking at evacuation from one perspective.

Another factor affecting the reliability is that she wrote the book in

1973, 34 years since she had been evacuated. Emotions and facts could

have become vague over that long period and the way she wrote could

have reflected the sorrowful or morose experiences during evacuation.

The context of the source can also indicate whether the source is

reliable. From previous studies, it is known that there