Knowledge Organiser: Trash What the exam will look like?

A character analysis of a character of your choice from the

Literary novel and an unseen analysis
Heritage: Human Experience: Genre:
Contemporary Injustice Teen fiction AO1- Knowledge and understanding
teen fiction AO2- Language analysis
AO3- Context

Context – Trash was written by Andy Mulligan and was published in 2010. Plot Summary
Andy Mulligan – The Phillipines and Stormy We are immediately introduced to the protagonist at the beginning of chapter 1. Raphael Fernandez is a "trash or dumpsite boy." Along
Andy is a prolific author writing radio plays and screenplays with his friend, Gardo, Raphael rummages through the Behala dumpsite every day, hoping to find treasures to sell. On a good day,
Mountain Raphael may make two hundred pesos. It's the only way he can survive in his poverty-stricken town. Both Raphael and Gardo are
as well as prose-fiction. He has won The Guardian Children's - Set in a developing country (similar fourteen years old.
Fiction prize, and been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie
Medal. His books have been translated into thirty-two
to the Philippines), loosely based on One day, the boys find a small leather bag that turns their lives upside down. The bag contains a wallet, a folded-up map of the city, a
upon a real dumpsite “Smokey Mountain” in Manila, key, eleven hundred pesos, a few old papers, photos, and an ID card. Raphael gives five hundred pesos to Gardo and keeps six hundred
languages. Andy worked as a theatre director initially, before for himself. When they look at the ID card, they see that it belongs to a man named Jose Angelico. From the card, they learn that Jose is
travels in Asia prompted him to retrain as a teacher. He has the capital of the Philippines. thirty-three years old, unmarried, employed as a houseboy, and lives in Green Hills. The key has the number 101 on both sides. More
taught English and drama in India, Brazil, Vietnam, the -Smokey Mountain took up 71.6 acres of land. importantly, there are photos of Jose and a little girl, presumably his daughter, inside the envelope.
Philippines and the UK. He now lives in England, and is -On the border of the site is Manilla’s main slaughter Soon, the police come looking for the bag, but Raphael lies to them about his discovery. His aunt becomes uneasy about his lies and begs
writing full time. Andy travels widely, visiting schools around house. him to turn the bag over to the police. For his part, Raphael decides against doing so and leaves the next day with Gardo. Both boys
the world. His new children's book is at the editing stage, and decide to take the bag and its contents (minus the money) to a friend (Rat) for safekeeping.
- For 40 years the dumpsite had been the principal For a hundred pesos, Rat agrees to take Gardo and Raphael to Central Station: there's a locker outside of Platform Four, which the key
he is engaged in a wide range of research projects and rubbish tip for all Manila’s metropolitan rubbish. will open.
commissions. The boys eventually make their way to the station. After unlocking the right locker, Rat retrieves a brown envelope. Inside is a letter with
an address. The name above the address is Gabriel Olondriz. Meanwhile, the address is Prisoner 746229, Cell Block 34K, South Wing, Colva
Characters: Prison. There is also a slip with numbers in the envelope.
Raphael Raphael is a fourteen year old dumpsite boy who lives in Behala. He is very proud of being a trash boy. He is a very As the story progresses, Father Julliard is introduced. He is the sixty-three-year-old administrator of the Pascal Aguila Mission School. As an
administrator, his main goal is to educate dump-site children like Gardo, Raphael, and Rat. However, he often experiences little success in
important member of his family as well as the community as a whole because he is strong and determined. Raphael wants to
getting them to attend school.
accomplish things in his life and is willing to work hard to be successful.
Meanwhile, Raphael and his two side-kicks trick Father Julliard into letting them use one of the school computers. This is how they discover
Gardo Gardo is another strong character. He is like a brother to Raphael and proves this by sticking to his side. Gardo is very information about Jose Angelico and Gabriel Olondriz.
caring and shows this many times when he helps Raphael. Accordingly, Jose Angelico was arrested for robbing Senator Zapanta of six million dollars. Before he was arrested, Jose discarded the
leather bag. As for Gabriel Olondriz, he is the father of Dante Jerome; Jerome was the man who adopted Jose when the latter was a child.
Rat Father Julliard is in charge of the Pascal Aguila Mission School. He wants to encourage the dumpsite children to attend For his part, Jose wrote to Gabriel Olondriz to entrust his eight-year-old daughter (Pia Dante) to his safekeeping. Sadly, Jose is deceased:
school but this is a difficult task. he was tortured to death during a police interrogation. Before he died, Jose tried to make provisions for Pia Dante.
Meanwhile, Raphael is later arrested and interrogated. During his interrogation, he is physically assaulted. The attacks are terrible, but the
Father Julliard Father Julliard is in charge of the Pascal Aguila Mission School. He wants to encourage the dumpsite children to police eventually let Raphael go.
attend school but this is a difficult task. From Gabriel Olondriz, the boys learn that the numbers on the slip of paper are a type of Bible code. Raphael, Rat, and Gardo eventually
crack the code and are led to the Angelico family grave site in the city's cemetery. There, the boys are stumped, until Pia reveals herself
nearby. When the boys question Pia, she tells them that she has been waiting at the cemetery for her father, Jose, for about a week.
Eventually, the boys notice that one of the graves has Pia's name on it. The story ends on a happy note, however. The boys open Pia's
"grave" and find the six million dollars in there. With the money, the children (Raphael, Gardo, Rat, and Pia) make a new life for
themselves in Sampalo, Rat's childhood village.

Themes – A theme is an idea or message that runs throughout a text. Bowler’s Language Devices
Corruption – Corruption is another major theme in the book. The police and politicians work for the wealthy rather than for the well- ‘I had expected cells, but all I saw was cages. They were on my left and right, and they were the type of cages you
being of the people. Of course, there are people who genuinely want to help. For example, there are charity workers who actually want to Visual Imagery
might put lions and tigers in, in an old-fashioned zoo.’
help the kids and use their limited resources to do so. There are family members who are willing to stretch their resources to include another
mouth. Ultimately, though, the gap between the poverty the children experience and the wealth of the elite is the basis of the corruption.
The wealthy want to maintain the status quo that lets them do whatever they want from theft to murder. Similes ‘Voice like a megaphone’

Poverty – The contrast between the three dumpsite boys and the wealthy people that live in the same area is startling. They have to sort
literal trash to find enough money to scrape by while the wealthy dine on delicacies and live in palatial estates. Two of the dumpsite boys Declarative ‘Jun – no longer Rat’
live with extended family who can barely afford to keep them. One of the dumpsite boys, Rat, has no family at all; instead, he lives alone in
a slum and derives his nickname from the rodents that occupy his space. These are young boys who don't have a lot of other options to pull
themselves out of poverty. It's clear that the wealthy elite could make a real difference for them—and yet they choose not to. Rhetorical
‘Running for your life two times in one day?’
question

Waste – Waste is another theme in the novel. One of the dumpsite boys says that you can climb the mountains of trash for days without
reaching the top. They—and many others—spend time scouring the refuse to find something to subsist on. The extreme amount of trash is
another way to show just how much goes to waste when there are so many who are in need. Even little scraps of plastic from other people
can help the boys make enough money to fill their bellies—and yet it's still dumped into the trash.