English Essay on changing perspectives:

[whiteballz]

G'day. i was just wondering wether anyone would like to check MYessay?
its about changing perspectives in certian texts. cheers.

(huge breaks in text show new page)

Essay response - Changing perspective


To properly understand how a change in perspective occurs, one must first understand what a perspective is, and what it does to our relationship to the world around us. Perspective is a standpoint, angle or outlook on a certain subject. Throughout life there will be many instances where a persons perspective is forced to change, wether it be brought about by a catastrophic event – such as a natural disaster – or simply having someone smile at you on the train. The following essay highlights how and why perspectives change within certain Text studies.

The Text by Wendy Orr “Peeling The Onion” follows a teenage girl’s perspective changing after she is involved in a horrific car accident. This catastrophic event uproots Anna’s (the main character) entire belief system and life perspective. The only insight as to Anna’s previous perspective is from her own and her friend’s reflection after the incident occurs. This limited information about her previous perspective limits one’s ability to fully understand the change in Anna’s life. From what the reader can gather her outlook on life was typical of any young sporty teenager, she looked forward to independence of young adulthood, only a few months away, she had just won a Karate championship the very day of the accident. She had a hopeful outlook on life; she was in love- and knew that he felt the same way. In direct contrast to these feelings, after the accident Anna is confused as to what her life will hold for her, if it holds anything at all.


“I am
Peeling like an onion –
Decaying slimy layers,
Hiding blackened mush inside.

I am
Opening like a babushka –
The painted dolls are broken;
There’s no baby left inside.

I am
Unwrapping like a present –
The papers torn and crumpled;
The gifts stolen from inside”


Wendy Orr uses three different versions of this poem as a motif for Anna’s outlook on life and her perspective to the world. Anna, in the latter part of the novel lets her boyfriend at the time of the accident go, because she realises she is holding on to what she used to have. After this event her and her mums workmate – Luke – get involved together. Feeling the way they do together allows Anna to see that she is holding on to what her life used to be. After realising she needs to change her perspective on life she goes to the local hair salon, and gets a fresh new haircut – to symbolise the birth of the new Anna Duncan.

Within the novel “Peeling The Onion” Wendy Orr introduces two characters as a couple, Anna and Hayden. Hayden was Anna’s love and the driver of the car that Anna was in for the duration of the horrific accident. The final sentence for the opening paragraph shows Annas feelings towards Hayden at the time.

“The kiss was long and fantastic, I don’t think we can say were just friends now”.

As long as Anna and Hayden are together after the accident she wished he would just kiss her, although she never tells him this. She always wonders why he doesn’t show any affection to her after the accident. On her 18th birthday when she plans to end their relationship, Hayden blurts out that he is afraid of hurting Anna again. This confirms Anna’s thoughts that he was feeling very guilty about the entire accident, and although she has a pang of grief for him, she knows she has done the right thing.
This allows her spare time to be taken up by her new best friend, Luke, her mum’s co-worker. Meeting Luke is has an enormous impact on Anna’s life – he shows her the world through peaceful calm eyes that have seen what corruption, stress and hate bring. With this knowledge learnt from Luke, Anna sees that Hayden had been going through a tough time after the accident- seeing his loved one look like a ghost in a metal body. She reminisces over the past months during the time her and Hayden’s relationship was deteriorating, and she sees that Hayden had been feeling guilty about the accident and was taking it out on himself – which made him miserable to be around. This also accounted for the reason their relationship ended.

“Don’t take your stick – you can lean on me”

This quote shows that although Hayden was miserable at himself, he made an attempt to make things better for her, even if it was because of the ulterior motive of feeling guilty. One particular way Wendy Orr involves the reader is to make things clear only when the character Anna reflects on past occurrences. Such as the reflections about Hayden after the break up. Wendy makes the reader thing about the impact Hayden had on Anna, compared to the impact Luke had on her. This juxtaposition makes the reader thoroughly involved in Anna’s emotions towards the two young men. As a reader one feels very entwined in Annas emotions at certain Key structural points throughout the novel.



Leunig reflects mankind’s unwillingness to change in his cartoon “Truth and Beauty”.
Leunig uses juxtaposition to great effect in this cartoon. An example of this is the simplistic pushbike that the character is riding compared to the complex motor vehicles being used by the masses to transport themselves to their day-to-day monotonous jobs. The vector the vehicles follows vanishes right into the city, full of lines, and bars, like a jail, keeping those souls trapped in the their 9 – 5 jobs. Many other contrasts between the trail the character is following and the highway the millions of doomed souls drive down is the size, shape, and quality of the road. The clouds above the cityscape are darkly shaded in, giving a dark feel to the city jail. All the vectors used In Leunig’s “Truth and Beauty” head into the centre of the jail; the city is an invisible trap to those that seek glory and money at the top of their game. Clawing their way to the top of the corporate traps, just to be let go at their prime- where as Leunig’s character chooses to follow the unbeaten trail to truth and beauty.

The dark hole symbolises the unknown, perhaps because not enough people have followed that path previously. Also, there is a fence around the hole, perhaps showing that to have truth and beauty there is no shortcut, that you have to go the long way around through all the trials life throws at you rather then taking the cheap way in.
The size and boldness of the “Truth and Beauty” sign on the freeway shows perhaps that modern society is superficial and all made of false advertising. We make a big deal out of “buy this and you will feel better about yourself” products, however the size of “left lane” shows that while we may make a big deal of it no one tells how to go about getting the self-satisfaction of truth and beauty. There is no end to how much we can get out of truth and beauty which is shown again by the black hole, black is also the colour of the unknown, which may contribute to the under whelming numbers that try to find truth and beauty.

Based on the observations above Lunigs views of modern life are bleak and monotonous where too many people sacrifice their youth to follow the known path of their fathers and mothers, taking what is “safe” and taking it and running with it, knowing they are never far from a known safe point in their lives. As far as his views go, there isn’t much incorrect to judge, there are no doubt many people in life who get caught up in the superficial world of product marketing and 9-5 jobs in sky scraper jails. However Lunig also shows through the significant character on the bike that there are a chosen few who venture out of their safe zones to fine true meaning and purpose to their lives. Through “Truth and Beauty” Lunig reflects onto the causal onlooker that he asks in a subtle manner for all of humanity to look beneath the surface of the calm lake that is the unknown and find what our beings really are, and discover the hidden world of “truth and beauty”

[whiteballz]

Inside Dawson’s Creek - a television drama. There is a character called Joey - Joey is a twenty-something year old woman who in this particular episode gets mugged. The episode starts of with a very strong motif, which remains a strong key point throughout the entire show. In this case the motif is a song that Joeys father used to sing to her. Joeys father is a convicted drug dealer who was never there for Joey or her sister.

“He let us down so often and in so many ways”

Joey’s initial perspective of her assailant mugger is of a highhanded approach, disbelief and denial. The director shows this in his use of camera angles. He shows the power struggle between the two in the height of the shot, and the body positioning.

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

The mugger who remains unnamed throughout this entire chapter in Joey’s life – shows his care for human life by showing that he does not wish to hurt her. However through shock Joey decides to hit him and make a break for it. After he catches up to her, He forces her to give him all her money, her phone and her jacket. Later as the director is showing her walking down the icy street alone, a silhouetted figure whistles and waves at her. Shockingly a car hits this unknown assailant. The driver of the vehicle gets scared and speeds away, leaving Joey and her mugger alone in the street. Joey calmly walks up to his person and removes her phone, money and jacket from his possession. At this time the director uses the camera angle to show the power difference. Where as before the mugger was the higher of the power and Joey was scared the angle showed him as the higher of the two. However when the car hit him, the camera angle and the power shifts accordingly - Joey is now looking down upon her mugger. When he finally regains consciousness just when she is dialling to call an ambulance, her mugger slaps the phone away and tells her no emergency vehicles are needed. This is an important scene in the episode because he threatens her with his gun again. As she walks towards her phone despite the threat of being shot by her wounded mugger – he falters and pulls the trigger, causing the gun to discharge. Although this never happens because the mugger, never loaded the gun to use in the mugging. This is important because she realises deep down he didn’t want to hurt her, just repay a debt to his wife and daughter.

This entire is all together too much for our heroine and she faints just as the police and Emergency Medical Transport unit arrive. Later in the hospital after Joey hears that her assailant is in theatre having an emergency operation – she meets his wife and daughter. The wife of her mugger is apologetic to Joey and angry at her “deadbeat” husband. When her mugger calls for Joey to be at his bedside when he is out of the theatre Joey grudgingly obliges to his wish. This scene is one of Joey opening up and talking about her father, and how he let them down “time and time again”. The mugger wants to know wether his daughter would ever forgive him, this is a direct juxtaposition to Joey and her father. Joey admits ey that she would always love her father for the one time he took her out to the park - which was the best day she had ever had. The Juxtaposition between her father and her mugger grows more apparent, her assailant asks her about the song she was singing before he walked into her life. She tells him how it goes, and as he starts singing the lyrics, Joey feels obliged to join in, as the first chorus comes to and end, the director chooses to show Joey teary eyed with sadness as her muggers life monitor fades to a flat line. The final shot in the entire episode is of her walking down the corridor of the hospital alone with the motif song playing gently in the background. The final shots angle is even with Joey’s torso, showing the sad ending to a disastrous night leaves her in a state of shock and awe. This Shot angle presents the viewer to see Joey as human and capable of solitary emotions.


*insert conclusion* (yet to be completed)


any input is helpful, cheers.

-sam

[Blue Supra]

im not readin it as my eyes will fall out (they still hurt)

ill give you an A for "assuming it ok"

[fpv_gtho]

I just finished "changing perspective", had to do about 2-3 essays on different things but i didnt read "Peeling the Onion", i got stuck with "Memory" and that has got to be the shittest book in the history of literature

[whiteballz]

peeling the onion isnt bad, its an okay read, though many many books are better for literature

[fpv_gtho]

the 6 english classes at my school had the choice of that, Memory and i think Streetwise and i think half of them took Streetwise, i think all the Standard classes. My class was the only one stuck with a book as my teacher didnt choose it like the other classes.

After skimming through that though, cant see any problems so it should be pretty good. Whats it for, just in class thing, doesnt look anything like the assigment i had to hand in last week

[whiteballz]

weve had Ages to do it.

tho me being me i havent finished yet :P though im generaly good at english so it wont be hard to write one paragraph to conclude.

[fpv_gtho]

we had 6 weeks to do 5 entries on the book, and naturally i took 5 weeks to read half the book, about 110 pages, then knocked over the rest of the book in about 3 hours over the weekend and done the 5 entries over easter....you think your lazy

[whiteballz]

lmfao you win this round!

[fpv_gtho]

dont even get me started on my design and technology assignment.....

i gotta get my arse in gear, figuratively speaking of course

[clutch-monkey]

week before easter -> 2500 word literature review on tapeworms in domestic animals: done in 3 hours before the 5pm hand in

[SlickHolden]

It's great but can you take my word for it, Afterall i did fail finger painting

[hec16]

lol to long and boring
________
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[2ndclasscitizen]

i could read that, but i couldn't be arsed, sorry

[whiteballz]

lol to long and boring

cheers for the help...