Hi tsch ! I'm sorry you're not feeling great about the text response essay. Let me put your mind at ease - no one expects you to come up with original analysis in a VCE English SAC/exam situation!
There's absolutely no need to panic if you feel you can't analyse a passage specifically - this is NOT a requirement of VCE English/EAL (but it is part of Literature) so don't get yourself in a twist over this! Instead, I suggest you read all the notes you can about your text - Litcharts, Sparknotes, study guides - all these are great for improving your understanding of the text. As you improve your understanding, you'll be better equipped to think about the text and tackle thematic questions about it.
A great exercise is to use essay prompts to get you to think analytically about the text. Take a prompt about a theme that you're unfamiliar with, and then go through all your notes and materials to look at 1) what do your notes say about that theme/idea, and 2) how you can put together a response to that prompt based on what your notes have said, and finally 3) see if you can apply some of these ideas to other events/scenes/quotes from the text.
I hope that helps! We regularly post things on our social media so you might find that helpful too 🙂
