Representation Of John Button And Eric Cooke example essay topic

Broken Lives written by Estelle Blackburn is an expository text, which through research has presented that nineteen year old John Button was wrongfully convicted of killing his seventeen year old girlfriend Rosemary Anderson in a hit and run. I believe through my reading of Broken Lives that the key factor of expository texts is to explore awkward questions deeply and critically. In this case who was guilty of killing Rosemary Anderson in a hit and run, John Button or Eric Edgar Cooke, and the effect of Cooke's crimes and murders had on people. John Button was a loving, caring, active and an innocent man. John's relationship with girlfriend Rosemary Anderson was strong. They planed to get married and Rosemary's family accepted John for who he was and was already thinking of him as a son in law.

"She was all he could think of: he was in love and was still consumed by the beautiful night at the Skyline Drive-in". John was caring and always thoughtful of other living things. "John was upset when he saw the first kangaroo die from Colin's shot... He was too soft hearted to shoot". As a child and teenager John loved to keep active by attending ballroom dancing which he was in love with. Button was innocent of killing Rosemary, but fierce police questioning and the police failing to investigate the case thoroughly lead to his imprisonment.

There was little physical evidence to prove John's guilt. .".. looking for blood, flesh or human hair which was likely if the car had hit a human being. There was none". Through John Button's representation of being a loving, caring, active man and through a flawed police investigation, Estelle Blackburn has convinced me as the reader of John Button's innocence of killing Rosemary Anderson. Eric Cooke was traumatized by the abuse and rejection of his alcoholic father as a child.

"Domestic violence was a way of life in the Cooke home. Eric was left alone and neglected because his father's loathing and abuse". Eric was born with deformities and considered himself as a freak, this being one of the reasons behind his hatred to everyone. Through the graphic detail of his nightly prowls and murders we not only dislike Cooke but also blame him for the murder of Rosemary Anderson.

"He raised the hatchet and brought it down with all his strength... He raised the hatchet again and chopped into Brewer ferociously, twelve to thirteen times". Cooke confessed to killing Rosemary on the day of his execution, saying John Button was innocent. From Eric Cooke's childhood of abuse and neglect, his deformities and his nightly prowls and murders presented in Broken Lives. Blackburn has explored Cooke deeply and critically and presents him as being guilty of killing Rosemary Anderson. Cooke's disgusting and disturbing crimes affected many people in the small town of Perth in the nineteen fifties.

The books title 'Broken Lives's ymbolizes the live which were lost or broken through Cooke's acts of evil. I believe that the most broken life presented in the text was that of John Button's. John Button and Rosemary's family had to deal with losing a loved one being killed in a hit and run. Button also had to deal with being wrongfully convicted and having to stay in jail for ten years of hard labor. Other families of Cooke's murders would have also been affected in a huge way emotionally and physically. Through the other crimes which Cooke committed and the effect it had on various people this strengthens Blackburn's belief in Cooke's guilt of running down and killing Rosemary Anderson.

Broken Lives is one argument that begs to be heard, and has been. Through the representation of John Button and Eric Cooke, their upbringing as a child and the evidence towards Rosemary's Death. Estelle Blackburn has successfully encouraged readers to adopt her views of John Button being innocent and Eric Cooke being guilty of killing Rosemary Anderson. Hence, the key function of an expository text is to explore questions deeply and critically..