Throughout ‘Address Unknown’, Taylor manipulates linguistic and literary features to craft language, structure and form in the more personal and intimate letter form.
The extract in question proceeds a rather desperate letter from Max, demanding Martin to help Griselle and respond with positive news, hence creating a highly dramatic point of tension in the epistolary. Martin opens the letter with the salutation “Heil Hitler”, which not only contrasts greatly from the warm addresses at the beginning of the novella, but also confirms a clipped shift in tone, with this blunt exclamatory statement. Consequently this greeting, combined with the military and Germanic headed notepaper, symbolizes immediate unity with the Nazis and, hence, an anti-semitic view. Taylor tries to engender sympathy (with the readers) for Max with Martin’s omission of hedging, in the form of a blunt, monosyllabic response (“your sister is dead” and elliptical digressions (“house very active – Elsa...”), which aims to recreate the scene of the murder and heighten the vivid imagery. Furthermore, Martin attempts to justify himself for his selfish actions by protesting he has a patriotic duty (“of course as a German...”) and juxtaposing the “Jewish body” with “the pure young German men” to accentuate his change of perspective on the Jewish race. Taylor further captures the voice of Martin by including direct speech and the vivid present tense (“I tell her”) in order to strengthen the authenticity of his narrative as well as using this stark ‘story telling’ to represent Martin’s disregard for Max’s feelings. Moreover, the author employs a number of the pronouns ‘she’ and parenthesis (“she was always a brave girl”) to further shift the blame from him. Despite the misleading glimmer of hope Martin provides when “She runs...toward the trees”, he extinguishes this at once with a terse conjunction ‘but’ and evocative use of the modal verb ‘must’, to suggest he’s not entirely confident of what happened. In general, by deciding to do nothing for Griselle, this represents Martin’s complete metamorphoses from a friend of a Jew to a resolute Nazi.
This view of Jews is alluded to in earlier letters as the influence of propaganda (and, in turn, a new audience) dictates Martin’s change in language and tone. For example, he emulates Hitler’s rhetoric with a speech-like address in August 1933 with repeated use of the personal pronoun ‘I’, hackneyed metaphoric euphimisms denouncing the Jewish race (“does the surgeon spare the corner?”) and unity of language, with language from the semantic field of waves (“swept along by a current”).
The significance of this episode in terms of Max’s change in purpose, tone and style is illustrated in the correspondance alluded to in the rest of the novella. Naturally, the reader draws comparisons to the warm, affectionate relationship outlined from the outset with compassionate terms of address (“My dear Martin”), exchange of nostalgic anecdotes (“of Spatzle, ah! of Spatzle”) and informal register (“How I envy you!”). On the contrary, following Martin’s blunt response, Max composes four unreplied letters, all deliberately structured in such a way that the ever present censors in Germany begin to suspect Martin’s correspondence with a Jew.
The series of coded messages are all open to interpretation but the extract in question evidently forces Max to act in revenge by writing in the imperative (“don’t”), a plethora of specific dates and numbers (“20 by 90”) and the use of the personal pronoun ‘our’ to suggest that this is part of a cultish group. This is further elaborated on in further letters with references to ‘Jewish names’ (“Uncle Solomon”), a more urgent and grammatically simple constructions (“Good news!”) and the employment of enjambment in the telegram of January 2nd 1934 to improve Max’s authenticity. Furthermore, graphologically, the headed notepaper changes from the opening section of the novel, omitting the prefix “Schulse” which symbolizes the demise in relations.
When Martin responds with a desperate letter in February 1934, requesting forgiveness, Max’s subsequent responses (both inhabiting the same cryptic style) illustrate to the reader his cruel attitude on the events of Germany, seeking revenge against Hitler’s regime. Structurally, Taylor crafts the last letters to be shorter in length, which imitates a clipped sense of momentum to the dramatic climax and accelerates the plot. It is the shift from the leisurely, bonhomie tone of the early letters to the cruel detachment at the climax which heightens the pathos for the readers.

Commentary
Question 6: Address Unknown
A coherent and well organised response which initially focuses clearly on the extract and then moves smoothly into the whole novella. The candidate sets the extract in context and demonstrates confident knowledge of the whole text. The discussion of generic letter writing conventions is skilfully embedded in the analysis of the literary and linguistic features. A range of linguistic techniques are explored with consideration of their effects eg, creating dramatic tension around the murder of Griselle. There is some sophisticated reflection on how Taylor uses specific techniques to present the character of Martin and to encourage reader sympathy for Max. The second bullet point is clearly addressed, with discussion of how Taylor changes the structure of the letters and creates shifts in tone to reveal the changing nature of the relationship between Max and Martin.
The candidate has covered a substantial amount of material.
AO1= Band 4
A02= Band 5