Actual 2026 AQA A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7717/2B Paper 2B Question Paper + Mark Scheme

Actual 2026 AQA A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7717/2B Paper 2B Question Paper + Mark Scheme

Section A
Answer the question in this section.
0 1 Explore the significance of the elements of political and social protest writing in this
extract.
Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways the author
has shaped meanings.
[25 marks]
The Wall, by John Lanchester, was published in 2019. It is a dystopian novel set in the
near future. A wall has been built around Britain, partly to protect it from the effects of
climate change and partly to stop illegal immigrants (Others) arriving by sea. Kavanagh,
the narrator in the novel, is a Defender on the wall and has just been moved to a northern
outpost where conditions are especially harsh. Hifa is his girlfriend.
A few days into that first tour up north, who should come for a visit but our old friend
the blond baby politician, dispenser of intelligence briefings, platitudes and medals. He
arrived on an afternoon of clammy, close-clinging mist, a very unpleasant day to be on
the Wall. It was lucky that the north was quieter, because this was good weather for
Others. Our shift gathered in the briefing room, which was the same as every other
briefing room, except the maps were different. I found, sitting in front of him as he stood
at the podium, that my instinctive dislike had subsided a little. That might be because he
had been involved in giving me a medal, which was pretty pathetic, really; but there we
were. Also, maybe, I was getting a glimpse of how a person made it into the elite, and
starting to see that it was possible – not easy, but possible. A very good record on the
Wall, followed by a record of proven success at college, a Breeder, a young person on an
upward trajectory; that was the kind of man for whom elites would budge up and make
room. The kind of outsider/insider they needed. I was taking more of an interest in him
and seeing him more as an object of study than of simple loathing.
‘Hello and welcome,’ he started, as if he were our gracious host, the man in charge of
the far north. ‘We know each other of old, some of us, and some of us are new
colleagues. Welcome. Well done! You are all members of the best defence force in the
world, the best trained and the best staffed and the best prepared!’
I realised it was his standard speech and tuned out. He would have to give it twice,
since this was a normal tour on the Wall, not a training camp; once for us, once for the
other shift. What must it be like, to go around the country talking to Defenders and the
public, to not be part of their lives but talking to them about their lives, to be up there in
the plane? A metaphorical plane in the case of this man, but still. To give orders while
you were pretending just to be chatting, to boss people about by asking them if they
would kindly do something for you . . . Help, of course, there would be lots and lots of
Help, cooking Help and cleaning Help and Help to look after the children if you had them,
and driving Help and gardening Help for your big house with its self-sufficient food supply
(just in case), repair and maintenance Help and odd-job Help, electrical Help and painting
and decorating Help . . .
Now the speech had turned and he was repeating the warnings he had given at
training – which, to be fair, had turned out to be true – about how there were more Others
coming and they were more desperate. He also repeated the warnings about how the
Others were suspected to have secret networks of support, secret sympathisers, hidden
in the general population. They were thought to have new ways of getting away from the