Well, this is what I submitted to the teachers
I wonder what you people think of this :
Essay : "The Journey is more important than the arrival"
If an arrival is a result of a journey, then it would be fair to say that changing perspectives must result in a different view or attitude. Changing perspectives are presented as a journey in the novel "Looking For Alibrandi", by Melina Marchetta. But, the journey mentioned is a never-ending journey, as change is a inevitable part of life, as how Josie realised, in the end of the novel, that she had the strength to undergo a lot more changes in her life. The poems "The Door" by Miroslav Holub, "My father began as a god" by Ian Mudie gives more insights about changing perspectives as a journey, while the story "Sky High" by Hannah Robert expresses the ways time changes perceptions towards various things.
"Looking for Alibrandi" presents different shifts of perceptions towards people and issues related to Josie, from her point of view. The way she reconsidered her views on many people allows her to change her perspectives on them, and results in a new perception, such as her shift of perspective on Nonna, Jacob Coote, and many others that are related to her. She was also able to change her perspectives on different issues, such as her attitude to life, sex, and change itself.
Changing perspective was presented as a journey that can be gradual, or sudden due to a catalyst of change. An example of this would be Josie's gradual reconsideration of her perspective on Nonna, and the way her perspectives suddenly shifts after she discovers the truth that Nonna had an affair with an Australian man, and later comes to an understanding with Nonna ("She hadn't stuck to rules and regulations" - Josie). In many ways this is also similar to the way Josie had a sudden change of perception when Michael rescued her from a lawsuit, and how her perspectives continued to shift slowly to accept Michael more and more, and slowly adopting the normal perspective of a father from a daughter ("I love him double to what I did maybe a month ago yet I see his faults now too" - Josie).
Sometimes changing perspectives can be prevented from happening, because there are invisible barriers preventing one to view a different perspective. Only by overcoming these barriers one can change their perspectives and perception towards different people and various issues. This is shown as how Josie changed her attitude to life and her perception of poison Ivy (Ivy Lloyd).
In the beginning, Josie have always competed viciously against poison Ivy at school, both in academic and scholar performance, and have always thought of Ivy as someone who is very hostile to her. She therefore had never had the chance to talk with Ivy in a friendly way. Josie also had a bad attitude to responsibility, as seen when she left the walk-a-thon group she was supervising after being influenced by her friends. She was unable to see that her responsibility is important, because her conscience and view of the idea of "responsibility".
But after the event of John Barton's death, the two of them discovered a similarity between themselves, and were able to see each other in a totally different perspective ("She wasn't Poison Ivy any more. She was just Ivy"). After Sister Louise gave a very emotional lecture of "trust and responsibility" and the truth of her captainship and her popularity, Josie had completely changed her perspectives towards the idea of "responsibility". The idea about the invisible barriers of changing perspectives is also presented in the poem "The Door" by Miroslav Holub, where the barriers are pictured as something that can be overcome (the door), and that one always have the option to open it.
During Josie's final year at school, she experienced a multitude of events that led her to change her perspectives, catalysts of change, one might call. Often, these events were emotional, that Josie had to endure hardships during these times, which as an example can be seen from Josie's uncertain times when she broke up with Jacob, only to learn that she will be with him again ("I will be with Jacob Coote again" - Josie). The fiasco at St Martha's walk-a-thon left Josie feeling deeply guilty about her actions, but through this event, she learned a lot about the issue of "responsibility".
So why must one often endure such hardships, whenever such "catalyst of change" happens? The answer would be simple, it is that people learn from mistakes. People are naturally hesitant on admitting their mistakes, even to themselves, and by reflecting back on their mistakes and past perceptions, one can develop a new attitude, more suitable to carry on with their lives, as how Josie did in the day she reflected back on the year, written on the last chapter of the book. It is the ability, to reflect on the journey, that is needed for one to cope with the inevitability of change in life.
The poem "Sky High" gives further example of how people often realises their changing perspectives when they reflect back on the past perceptions. Here, the writer retells the story of her change of perception of the backyard, back to the childhood times when her grandfather came to stay, until the time she has grown up. Hannah Robert described her backyard from a child's point of view, as she used child-like exaggeration and metaphors on the objects within, including the washing line, in which she liked to swing herself on. Combined with the uses of alliteration and personification, the backyard were given a lively image ("silver skeletal arms", "struggling sapling", "its boughs stretch out to me beseechingly").
But, at the last paragraph, Hannah has changed her perspectives towards the washing line ("It is an older, more age-warped washing line I reach up to now"), and realised that the washing line can't support her anymore, as "there are too many things tying (her) to the ground", which are adult responsibilities. The "inclination is still there", as she indicated, "a small pilot light burning somewhere inside". By looking back at her past, she has realised that she had changed through time.
The issue of change due to time is further represented in the poem "My father began as a god", by Ian Mudie. Changing perspective was presented as a journey of continuous change, as the speaker of the poem expressed his different and changing perceptions towards his father from the point where he was small to the time his father died. At the beginning, "God" was used as a hyperbole of his father, and the father's greatness from Ian's point of view was further amplified using the biblical illusion ("as if brought down from sinai") to describe his father's undisputable orders.
But the repetition "shrank" was used in the 3rd stanza, where the writer expresses the growth of the insignificance within his father, dismissing him as a "foolish small old man with outmoded views of life and morality". At the 4th stanza, Ian's perspective on his father changes again, that as he grows older he finds that his father is generous and honest. At the final stanza, the writer learns that he is not the only one to experience such change of perspective, that many other people have shared the same perceptions ("one more of all the little men"). The writer shows the constantly changing perspectives, that he experiences throughout his life.
With all the materials covering different ideas of change, a conclusion can be drawn about viewing change as a journal, which is that it never ends, as change is an inevitable part of life. Each of Josie's changing perspectives are inevitable, and she learned that there will be more changing perspective she will have to experience, and that she'll keep learning truths until she dies. It seems apparent now, that one's journey of change would never stop until one's ultimate arrival, which is death itself.
This is the practice essay, not the same theme as the real one, but it's rather similar. I gave this in last week, and I want to know if she'd give the same critics as you people would
.
Is it hard to memorise 2000 words essays?
