Neighbourhood Representation - Peer edited version

I came across on a boat a few years ago now, dressed as a fisherman. But after a short period of time spent in a refugee centre in Thailand, I was able to move on from my past life in Vietnam, and start anew in Australia.

Having nothing more than a small bag and the clothes on my back, I moved into the well-known, Vietnamese area of Cabramatta in Sydney. The neighborhood was full of modest stores and simple restaurants, some starting out, just as I was, and others that had clearly become thriving businesses. Diminutive, old women eagerly served any customer that entered their restaurant, shouting orders to the small kitchen in the back of their buildings. Children would run and play in the street with tattered balls and skipping ropes, while wizened men with graying hair would treat the children in the stores to sweets of all kinds. Everybody worked hard in Cabramatta and many of the shops stayed open all year-round, only closing in February to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

I knew no one in my neighborhood, but as soon as I arrived in Cabramatta, it was clear that if I was to set up a life for myself, I had to be determined, and prepared to work hard - all day, every day.  But despite their strong work ethic, all my neighbors were welcoming. People in the street smiled with a knowing look in their eyes.  Everyone understood what I had encountered in order to start again, as they had, once arriving in Australia. The building I lived in was very tired and everything inside my apartment seemed to break at my touch. But the openhearted and hospitable nature of the people I was surrounded by made the stuffy, dilapidated apartment building feel like a home.

Representation:

Meg is intending too really illustrate the Vietnamese community in Australia (multiculturalism). She draws out a positive from a negative experience. Finds that the neighborhood is welcoming and full of good people, therefore portraying the neighborhood in a positive light.  

The Neighbourhood

I came across on a boat a few years ago now, dressed as a fisherman. But after a short period of time spent in a refugee centre in Thailand, I was able to move on from my past life in Vietnam, and start anew in Australia.

Having nothing more than a small bag and the clothes on my back, I moved into the well-known, Vietnamese area of Cabramatta in Sydney. The neighborhood was full of small shops and restaurants, some starting out, just as I was, and others that had clearly become thriving businesses. Everybody worked hard in Cabramatta and many of the shops stayed open all year-round, only closing in February to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

I knew no one in my neighborhood, but as soon as I arrived in Cabramatta, it was clear that if I was to set up a life for myself, I had to be determined, and prepared to work hard - all day, every day.  But despite their strong work ethic, all my neighbors were welcoming. People in the street smiled with a knowing look in their eyes.  Everyone understood what I had encountered in order to start again, as they had. The building I lived in was quite old, and everything inside my apartment seemed to break at my touch. But the openhearted and hospitable nature of the people I was surrounded by, made the dingy, old, apartment building feel like a home. 

Clancy of the Overflow and My Brilliant Career Comparison

Write a paragraph comparing the way country Australia is represented in "Clancy of the Overflow" with the way it is represented in the opening scenes of "My Brilliant Career". Provide a thesis in your topic sentence. Then refer to the texts to support your thesis. In the poem, you might mention specific words or phrases and in the film, you might mention particular shots or dialogue.

Both the poem, Clancy of The Overflow, and the film, My Brilliant Career, focus largely on the Australian outback landscape and how central this environment is to the Australian identity. However, each text presents a very different portrayal of what the outback has to offer for the Australians that live in these rural areas. The poem Clancy of The Overflow portrays Australia and Australians as wild, adventurous and friendly. Patterson uses evocative language to express the beauty and abundant life and spirit of the Australian outback. The description of the ‘sunlit plains extended’ and ‘everlasting stars’ presents Australia as a country of immense, natural beauty that offers a sense of freedom for all who live there. Patterson then continues to portray Australians as welcoming, down-to-earth people who appear to be continuously happy as they ‘ride behind [their droves] singing.’ Their droving work is further described as having ‘pleasures that the townsfolk never know.’ Despite having enjoyable, outdoor occupations, Clancy of The Overflow also portrays Australian people as unsophisticated and uneducated, to a certain extent. Patterson’s specific, grammatical error – ‘we don’t know where he are’ – suggests that Australians are somewhat backward compared to countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States of America. Despite being depicted as slightly regressive, Patterson ensures that Australians are still portrayed as displaying their well known ‘mate ship’ when, in the poem, the unknown sheerer replies to the writer of Clancy’s letter, despite not knowing the writer personally. On the other hand, the film, My Brilliant Career, focus very much on the dry and ‘red dust’ aspect of the outback environment, and the extensive hard work that accompanies one when choosing to live in these areas. The ‘rural and frontier settings’ depicted in the film also touches on the idea of the ‘Aussie battler’ – men who stuck to their, often, barren land despite depression, drought or bushfire. In the opening scenes of My Brilliant Career, the viewer is presented with images of men sweating in intense heat, as they work to herd cattle and tend to their dusty, dry farms. These particular scenes refer to the difficult life of the Australian farmer whose livelihood depends on the weather and other sources beyond his control. These farming families endure hard-work all year round, and despite what Clancy of The Overflow suggests, they very rarely have time to appreciate their surroundings and experience the freedom that such an overwhelming and immense landscape has to offer. While both exploring, in depth, the Australian landscape, the poem, Clancy of The Overflow, and the film, My Brilliant Career, present very different, but equally significant, representations of Australia. 

Foster's Advertisement - 'I Believe'

Using your notes to help you, write about 300 to 400 words analysing the representation of Australia and Australians promoted by the advertisement.

The Foster’s beer advertisement is intended to suggest that Australia, as a nation, has ‘come of age’ and is a country sufficiently sophisticated and urbanized to be a desirable tourist destination for the most discerning of travellers. The advert commences by dispelling the myth of Australians as stereotypically unsophisticated, outback, hill-billy types who own kangaroos as pets, and wear cork-bobbing hats to ward off the outback’s unrelenting plague of flies. Within the first few seconds of the advertisement, the viewer is introduced to the fact that Australia achieved nation-hood on the shores of Gallipoli and since then, has made major contributions in conflicts across the globe. Australia’s peace-keeping efforts world-wide are similarly referred to, thus leading Australian’s to ‘wear their country’s flag with pride.’ The reference to Australia as an ‘island continent’ and ‘rock’ alludes to Australia’s rather remote geographical situation as the largest island continent bounded by almost 26000 kilometers of coastline. To this ‘island continent’ have come many migrants, dating from the initial convict settlers, to the post-war, European immigrants, who brought true diversity and cross-cultural ethnicity to Australia. More recently, immigrants from the East have made their own unique contribution to broader Australian society. The egalitarian nature of Australian, crucible-like society and the lack of rigid class distinction, are powerfully represented by the passenger sitting alongside the taxi driver, rather than in the back seat of the vehicle. The comment, ‘it’s a prawn, not a shrimp,’ deliberately sets Australia apart from America, as does to the reference to playing ‘football without a helmet.’ Conversely, Australia’s uniqueness is emphasized by the quirky comment, ‘I like beetroot on my hamburger,’ turning the traditionally American icon of the hamburger into something that is uniquely Australian. In the final analysis, ‘Australia is the best address on Earth,’ encapsulates Australia’s unique features and iconic landmarks, along with the fact that Australia no longer suffers the ‘cultural cringe’ of previous decades, but rather, has achieved ‘adulthood’ in terms of its nation status. Australia has ‘earned its spurs’ by virtue of its conduct though two world wars, and today is a desirable, first-world, tourist destination for discerning travellers, offering its own distinct brand of sun, surf, beach-culture, native fauna and iconically cold beer consumed amidst care-free, easy-going Australians.

Consider the title - To Kill a Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are creatures placed upon this earth with the soul purpose of creating beautiful music. They do no harm and are a nuisance to no-one, for 'they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us,'  and it is for this reason that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the mockingbird symbolizes innocence and the sin found in accusing 'mockingbird' characters of crimes they did not commit. Thus, to kill a mocking pined is to destroy innocence
In this case, the two characters of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson could be identified as mockingbirds for, in their own ways, they are innocent but have been harmed through their contact with injustice. In Tom Robinson's case, it is very clear that he is indeed innocent of the crime he was accused, and yet he had to face the consequences of a crime he did not commit. When Tom Robinson is shot, Mr Underwood compares his death to 'the senseless slaughter of songbirds.' Boo Radley is also innocent, but in a completely different manner to Tom, and yet he is ostracized from society for reasons that are not entirely true. Even young Scout realises that hurting Boo Radlye would be like 'shootin' a mockingbird.' Both men have kind hearts and only wish help others, but are ultimately destroyed through the injustice of society - just as innocence is destroyed when a mockingbird is shot.

While the title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little literal connection to the plot, it is deeply significant, and presents, to the reader, a number of major themes that underpin the novel. The importance of moral education is explored to a great extent throughout the novel, and the symbol of the mockingbird is key in portraying this idea. The story follows the growth of Scout and Jem in particular, and much of the exploration of moral questions take place from the children's perspective. However, this theme is most powerfully examined through the relationship between Atticus and his children. Atticus is a very morally upright man and thus, devotes himself to instilling a social conscience in both Jem and Scout. Atticus uses the symbol of the mockingbird to teach the children about innocence and the sin found in destroying it. It is through Atticus's lessons, where the children place themselves 'in someone else's shoes,' that both Jem and Scout come to understand the prejudices of society and realize that some people, like Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, are just like mockingbirds, and to hurt these people would be similar to hurting a mockingbird. However, through these lessons, the children too loose their innocence and move to adulthood, as they gradually begin to develop a social conscience and understand that society is not at all as simple a they believed it to once be.

Week 4 homework - Jem's dairy entry

This morning, Atticus told Scout and I that Mrs Dubose had died only a few minutes previous. I had always thought that she was a bitter old lady that took pleasure in harassing my sister and I every time we walked past her house. She used call out things like, 'don't you say hey to me! You say good afternoon Mrs Dubose!" But it was when she called Atticus a nigger-lover that I could not hold my head any longer. But, I guess if I had kept my head, and not destroyed Mrs Dubose's garden, I would never have been able to truly understand the horrible woman that live on our street.

I did not realize when I started reading for Mrs Dubose that she was in fact a morphine addict.....but it does explain the fits she used to have while Scout and I spent the afternoon at her house. She was trying to ween herself of the drugs before she died so that she could, as Atticus says, "beholden to no one and nobody." Mrs Dubose knew that she would die if she came off the morphine, but she did it anyway. I guess a bit the same way as Atticus is going to take Tom Robinson's case even when he knows he will not win.

Atticus said he wanted me to see what real courage is....and by reading to Mrs Dubose I would understand. I used to think that courage was simply being able to point a gun and shoot well, but I reckon that maybe its not just that. I think there is more to it. People like Atticus or Mrs Dubose show real courage. They know they are licked before the even begin, but they begin anyway. Even though Atticus was the best shot in Maycomb, he is a gentleman. For he displays true courage, not the gun type, but the one where you have to sacrifice yourself if it means doing the right thing. Even though Atticus says Mrs Dubose is the bravest person he is ever met, I think he could probably giver her some competition, for my father is one of the bravest people I have ever met.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Week 3 homework

Making Boo Radley come out:

Dill makes a bet that Jem would not be able to make it past the Radley's gate - Jem eventually runs into the garden, and touches the side of the Radley house.
Boo Radley places chewing gum in the hole of the tree outside his house, along with various other objects, over a few weeks.
Jem, Scout and Dill attempt to drop a note to Boo Radley through an open window, using a fishing rod
Jem and Dill, peek through the Radley house, but see nothing as inside is dark. Half way through the delivery, a large shadow was cast across Jem, but no one came out of the house. Mr Radley then shoots at Jem, mistaking him for a prowler, when the three children are running home and Jem gets stuck on the fencing wire.
When Jem returns to retrieve his pants from the wire, they were neatly folded and mended waiting for them to be collected.
When Jem and Scout continue to find small objects placed, by Boo Radley, in the knot hole of the nearby tree, the decide to write a letter to him to thank him for the small objects.
Whilst Jem and Scout are standing in front of the Radley's place during Miss Maudie's fire, Boo Radley placed a blanket around Scout shoulders without her even knowing.

Atticus' Diary Entry:

It has indeed been an interesting, and rather eventful day. It was barley 1 this morning when I woke to find Maudie 's house a blaze. I quickly fetched the children, and rushed them outside to stand in from of the Radley's house, put of the way of the fire. I was so busy trying to salvage as much of Maudie's furniture as possible, that I did not see the children move from their position across the road. But, both Jem and Scout insist that they stay put, despite returning home with a blanket they certainly did not leave the house with earlier that morning. While I knew its was Arthur Radley, I was not entirely sure that either of the children did. However, I can now say, with a degree of certainty, that it seems as though Jem has realized that Boo Radley has come out. Perhaps he will start to realize how wrong his assumption of poor Boo were.

The children, have been acting out their ideas about the Radleys in much the same way they have previously acted out stories they had read. Unfortunately, I think they believe that the family is just a part of their fictional games. They don't see the Radleys as real people and they don't realize that their game may be hurtful to people that live behind the Radley windows. When I did catch them, I tried to stop them from tormenting the poor people, and remind them that what Mr Radley does is indeed his own business.

However, after today's events, I think that both the children, perhaps Jem more so than Scout, are starting to gain an understanding of the Radley family. But before they truly learn the lesson of respect, I will be sure to prevent the children from causing anymore trouble for the Radley family.