Hey, in my assignment, I am creating a speech in an essay form discussing how Away by Michael Gow and Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney.
Question: Critically analyse how one of these statements are explored in your prescribed text and another text of your own choosing.
Statement: Discoveries can be confronting for an individual and act as a catalyst for a meaningful transformative experience.
Time limit: 4 Minutes
The speech is not complete yet, I still need to add an Integrated paragraph and a conclusion
Discovery is the process of uncovering knowledge and experiences. These discoveries can be sudden, unexpected, or a rediscovery, and often these discoveries act as a catalyst for a change in character. This is explicitly shown in the text Away by Michael Gow where the couple Roy and Coral inevitably transforms themselves into completely different people after they discover the death of their son. This is also mirrored in Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney where the writer experiences the confronting death of his younger brother which unravels unseen character traits from his family.
Unfortunate discoveries allow for individuals to undergo psychological and emotional trauma. This notion is explored in Act 2 Scene 3 of the play Away, when the audience were first introduced to Roy and Coral during the midst of their argument, Roy is seen to be emotionally distressed revealing his inability to cope with Coral’s mental issues. The simile in the quote “I can’t go on turning up at school functions if you’re gonna behave like a ghost”, emphasises Roy’s frustration towards Coral as he discovers that he could no longer go out in public with her, due to her negative mental change after the discovery of the death of her son. This catastrophic encounter has caused her to completely transform into perplexed individual, deeply affecting her relationship with Roy. The description of Coral being a ghost is also a metaphor for their decaying relationship as it’s unstable and fading. This is an extremely confronting experience for Roy as he’s desperately trying to repair their relationship, rediscovering his love for Coral. This is also mirrored in Act 3 Scene 3 during Rick and Corals interaction on the rooftop, where Coral’s mental issues are highlighted in this scene when she mistakes Rick as her dead son as seen in the quote “You’re still alive. You’re still alive and talking and laughing”. The repetition of you’re still alive indicates Coral’s failure of being able to look past the death of her son, which acts as the catalyst of her change in personality and behaviour. Roy and Coral indefinitely shows how a confronting discovery can negatively transform people mentally, leading to various experiences. Similar ideas are shared in the poem Mid-Term Break.
The poem Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney, explores the writer’s first experience of death and his discovery of how it affects his family. In the first stanza of the poem “I sat all morning in the college sickbay, Counting bells knelling classes to a close”, the poet replaces the word ringing for knelling, which is more appropriate in describing the ringing of bells in a funeral, this foreshadows the unfortunate revelation of his brother’s death when he gets home from school. It’s also further foreshadowed through the symbolism of being in a sickbay, which is a strong metaphor for injury, illness or death. Heaney’s discovery of his brother’s death occurs In stanza two, after the writer was suddenly picked up by his neighbour from school, He was shocked to find that when he came home that his little brother has passed away from a car accident. The idiom of “I met my father crying, he had always taken funerals in his stride” suggests that his father was usually able to accept deaths and move on, however through this traumatizing experience, his father was seen crying through the tragic discovery of a deadly accident involving his son. The death of the writer’s brother leads to the writer discovering a side of his father he has never seen before, this shows how unexpected discoveries can lead to dramatic changes.
Question: Critically analyse how one of these statements are explored in your prescribed text and another text of your own choosing.
Statement: Discoveries can be confronting for an individual and act as a catalyst for a meaningful transformative experience.
Time limit: 4 Minutes
The speech is not complete yet, I still need to add an Integrated paragraph and a conclusion
Discovery is the process of uncovering knowledge and experiences. These discoveries can be sudden, unexpected, or a rediscovery, and often these discoveries act as a catalyst for a change in character. This is explicitly shown in the text Away by Michael Gow where the couple Roy and Coral inevitably transforms themselves into completely different people after they discover the death of their son. This is also mirrored in Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney where the writer experiences the confronting death of his younger brother which unravels unseen character traits from his family.
Unfortunate discoveries allow for individuals to undergo psychological and emotional trauma. This notion is explored in Act 2 Scene 3 of the play Away, when the audience were first introduced to Roy and Coral during the midst of their argument, Roy is seen to be emotionally distressed revealing his inability to cope with Coral’s mental issues. The simile in the quote “I can’t go on turning up at school functions if you’re gonna behave like a ghost”, emphasises Roy’s frustration towards Coral as he discovers that he could no longer go out in public with her, due to her negative mental change after the discovery of the death of her son. This catastrophic encounter has caused her to completely transform into perplexed individual, deeply affecting her relationship with Roy. The description of Coral being a ghost is also a metaphor for their decaying relationship as it’s unstable and fading. This is an extremely confronting experience for Roy as he’s desperately trying to repair their relationship, rediscovering his love for Coral. This is also mirrored in Act 3 Scene 3 during Rick and Corals interaction on the rooftop, where Coral’s mental issues are highlighted in this scene when she mistakes Rick as her dead son as seen in the quote “You’re still alive. You’re still alive and talking and laughing”. The repetition of you’re still alive indicates Coral’s failure of being able to look past the death of her son, which acts as the catalyst of her change in personality and behaviour. Roy and Coral indefinitely shows how a confronting discovery can negatively transform people mentally, leading to various experiences. Similar ideas are shared in the poem Mid-Term Break.
The poem Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney, explores the writer’s first experience of death and his discovery of how it affects his family. In the first stanza of the poem “I sat all morning in the college sickbay, Counting bells knelling classes to a close”, the poet replaces the word ringing for knelling, which is more appropriate in describing the ringing of bells in a funeral, this foreshadows the unfortunate revelation of his brother’s death when he gets home from school. It’s also further foreshadowed through the symbolism of being in a sickbay, which is a strong metaphor for injury, illness or death. Heaney’s discovery of his brother’s death occurs In stanza two, after the writer was suddenly picked up by his neighbour from school, He was shocked to find that when he came home that his little brother has passed away from a car accident. The idiom of “I met my father crying, he had always taken funerals in his stride” suggests that his father was usually able to accept deaths and move on, however through this traumatizing experience, his father was seen crying through the tragic discovery of a deadly accident involving his son. The death of the writer’s brother leads to the writer discovering a side of his father he has never seen before, this shows how unexpected discoveries can lead to dramatic changes.
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