Cheat! by Allan Baillie (Notes)

We found that a lot of readers are looking for the notes on themes, moral values and characters for this short story. It is quite difficult to find resources. Here we will share with you the notes.

1. Themes

Themes	Explanation and textual evidence
Being judgemental	Explanation The short story is revolved around the theme of being judgemental. There are a few characters can be related to this theme. They might jump into conclusion too soon and it caused misunderstanding.   Examples Lynne is one of the characters who is judgemental. After she read about the book written by William Bradburie in the library, she was filled with anger. She said that Geoff is cheating in the short story competition even though she has never read Geoff’s story before.   Another person related to the theme is Marge. She is the classmate for Geoff and Marge. When Geoff mentioned that he wanted to be a barrister or lawyer, Marge labelled him as money minded. It can be hurtful when we labelled someone.
Creative writing is not always original	Explanation A creative idea or innovation like is not always original because we will take idea and inspiration from different resources to make improvement. The same goes with story writing, the originality does not really exist because our story’s idea will come from the story that we read, our experience and our surrounding.   Example Lynne emphasised the importance of originality in the writing. When she realised that Geoff is not cheating, she was wondering whether she had read any story related to the sheepdog in flood.   As for Geoff story, although his story idea is similar to William Bradburie’s story, Mr Velos told Lynne that the story is still consider original and Geoff is not cheating.

2. Moral Values

Moral Values	Explanation	Examples
Honesty and courage	Honesty and courage are about being brave to tell someone the truth. We must take responsibility to the mistakes that we have done.	We consider that Geoff is an honest person. After Lynne shouted at Geoff, Geoff went to Mr Velos office to confess that he might be cheating due to the similarity of his story and William Bradburie’s story.
Perseverance	If we are perseverance, we will not give up easily even the job is challenging or difficult. We will keep on trying until we achieve success.	Lynne used weeks to complete the miserable story. She spent time to draft and rewrite the story. Although in the end, she won the second place in the competition, I personally consider that it is a good result from her hard work.
Avoid being judgemental	We must not be judgemental because the truth might be different from what we think. If we do not know the detail of the situation, we should not make the conclusion too soon.	After she read about the book written by William Bradburie in the library, she was filled with anger. She said that Geoff is cheating in the short story competition even though she has never read Geoff’s story before.

3. Characters

Lynne Webbings	Textual evidence
Ambitious	Lynne had a big dream to win the Holmes-Watkins medal in the short story competition. When the result announced, she felt really disappointed.
Jealous and vengeful	Lynne was jealous and vengeful when Geoff won the competition. After she discovered that William Bradburie’s story was similar to Geoff’s story, she wanted to take revenge by reporting to Mr Velos so that she could win back the medal.
Persevering	Lynne used weeks to complete the miserable story. She spent time to draft and rewrite the story. Although in the end, she won the second place in the competition, I personally consider that it is a good result from her hard work.

Geoff Bolder	Textual evidence
Humorous	Geoff tried to cheer Lynne by telling her a joke. Geoff joked about how Mr Velos picked the winner by climbing up to his lovely special mahagony desk and dropped both papers, and the papers that hit the floor first wins.
Realistic	Although Geoff has potential in writing, he wants to be a barrister because he says that there is more money in law.
Honest	Geoff confessed to Mr Velos that he had read a book by the American Humourist, William Bradburie three years ago.