Read the narrative titled “The Final Game” written by Olivia Coleman (Herald’s Young Writer of the Year for 2009). Make note of the themes, issues, characters and language devices within this text and explain how it enhances understanding of the concept of “into the world.”
Evaluate its suitability for use as an additional text making connections to J.C Burke’s, The Story of Tom Brennan. Please ensure that you that that you use quotes, examples and references to both texts.
‘The Story of Tom Brennan’ by J.C. Burke is about a young boy named Tom whose older brother Daniel was involved in a car accident, due to the cause of driving while under the influence of alcohol. As a result of the accident two of Daniel’s closest friends were killed
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These themes and issues relate to how the individual moves into the world. The insecurity of teenagers within the two texts shows how Tom Brennan and nameless boy moves into the world. As teenagers have fear within themselves it can be resulted in the fact that they could be unpopular, have family conflict and feel isolated from the community. Being unpopular is seen in ‘The Final Game’ as the nameless boy does not feel that others appreciate him as he is not part of the popular group whereas Tom Brennan was popular when he lived in Mumbilli and Coghill because people appreciated him for his efforts in football. Family conflict can also affect the way which the individual can feel a sense of fear as they want to get away from the situation but they cannot because the family is stopping them, this is evident in ‘The Final Game’ where the young boy wants to leave the country for the city as he feels that he wants to move into the world and go to university and became the sports teacher which his teachers had encouraged him to. The themes and issues which are highlighted in the two texts include; drink driving and the insecurity of teenagers which includes fear, unpopular and family conflict, these themes and issues is what shapes the individual and how they move into the …show more content…
They have similar obstacles which they both have to overcome including; alcohol, football, family conflict and the feeling of insecure. The difference between the two texts is that Tom Brennan works through his obstacles by his Uncle Brennan supporting him by teaching Tom to run his issues off. He develops a sense of self when he feels accepted with his new football team and when he falls in love with Chrissy. In the end of the novel it shows how Tom has changed within himself as he has moved in the world. When Tom and Chrissy share their special moment by the river, the water renews him just as if he was Baptised. The nameless boy, is used a technique as it represents a person’s identity was taken away from them. This shows the impulsive decisions which the nameless boy does as he was under the influence of alcohol after the football game which lead to the tragic consequence of him having a car accident which left him as a paraplegic. This broadens the understanding of the reader by demonstrating through the main characters that not all people experiences a blissful entrance into the
To conclude, through his masterful use of setting, symbolism and characterisation, Robin Jenkins portrays the horrific consequences of people’s failure to alleviate the suffering of those less fortunate. This horrific consequence is represented as Tom’s suicide at the end of the novel, which is definitely unexpected when the reader compares his initial character to the needy, despairing character he became towards the end. This results in a powerful and harrowing novel which certainly leaves a bitter taste in the reader’s mouth, forcing them to think about their own lives and what they may be doing to help others.
For example identity vs. role confusion where they didn’t have an example of parents who they will become so some of them drop out school and went into criminal things because they didn’t have their parents to tell them what is okay for them and what is not. A next step followed Intimacy vs. Isolation where some of the boys were shyer to talk to others and couldn’t open to others only to the people they really used to. The next step that was broken is Generatively vs. Stagnation where some of the boys didn’t feel like they are a part of something big they felt like they are nothing low self esteem they thought that nothing good will come out of them. And as a result of this an Ego vs. Despair is coming where as old people before we die we think about our life and how we lived. If there was something we could’ve done different what was good and what was not so. At the end as Johnny was dying he said even though I am dying I don’t regret that saved those children from the fire because they need to explore new things their life is big and
It concerns violence in the society as an essential social concept in the story that needed to be observed. The man and his boy, however, decide not harm others unless violence is required for their survival. There are many elements to this novel that mean a lot more than it appears to. As it exhibited by the author in the story, the father consciously formed his character and his response to the conflict between self and society when he talks to his son and says, “You,” he reminds the kid, “are no stranger to that feeling, the emptiness and the despair. It is that which we take arms against, is it not?” (Robinson 89). His brave is measured by different social facts such as honesty, tolerance, and optimism to express a personal value and follow an individual goal instead of the opposing with the
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
As the young boy gets older, his life begin to deteriorate. In the beginning 5- year-old boy is a normal child but earns his own money so he can enjoy his childhood activities. He plays on the hockey team and creates his own baseball and cricket team. He organizes games against other parts of town. While the other boys in the community played with slingshots and haunted neighbour’s windows, porch flowers pots, and the lights that shone near harm any animals and were considered as good mannered. As the boy gets older he begins to get into trouble by stealing and drinking, he dropped out of school even though he was topper of his class, after he spend a few days with a “better off families” during his hockey trip. But now he was stealing almost anything he could get his hands on and sell it to second hand shops and was continually getting caught. Towards the end of the story he becomes an alcoholic, and briefly reconnects with his childhood friends, before being killed in a car
By way of example, This Boy’s Life reads like the work of a writer who understands that he’s in fact “surrounded by stories” (Wolff 271). Additionally, its novelistic style and details have been altered in order to give Wolff’s memoir a fiction shape. Furthermore, much of the book was written in scenes, and dialogue which Jack felt it was due to his “good memory” (15). Not to mention that, “most of the people” Jack “lived with repeated themselves a lot” which allowed him to remember how certain characters spoke, and behaved while writing the memoir (26). Wolff’s book is entirely different from his brother’s Geoffrey’s book, which takes on a completely different view.
Life is a form of progress- from one stage to another, from one responsibility to another. Studying, getting good grades, and starting the family are common expectations of human life. In the novel Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer introduced the tragic story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless sold of his possessions and ultimately became a wanderer. He hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness for nearly 4 months. This journey to the 49th state proved fatal for him, and he lost his life while fulfilling his dream. After reading this novel, some readers admired the boy for his courage and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he was an idiot who perished out of arrogance and
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
Kelman shows how tough and relentless growing up in south London is through X-fires’ behaviour. Harrison looks up to his power and authority with jealousy, making him eager to please X-fire; however as the reader we sympathise with X-fires position of supremacy. Kelman revels to us the amount of pressure and stress X-fire is under to live up to the stereotype south London teenager through dramatic irony. When Harrison makes the bizarre observation his that his “breath smells like cigarettes and chocolate milk” it makes the reader aware how confused the youth are in their society. They are overexposed to the horrors in the street and consider this to be the normal therefore feeling huge pressure to mimic this behaviour. “Chocolate milk” is a
In Tom's case, the situation rapidly descends into an emergency and brings him near to death, which prompts him to rethink his priorities. While he dangles outside of a window, the determined businessman realizes that what he regrets most in life are “. . . the evenings he had spent away from her [his wife], working. . .” (11), when he should have spent them with the woman he loved. For Mamzelle, however, the situation comes out of nowhere, yet it turns out as a positive experience and brings happiness into her dull soul. Needy children arrive upon her doorstep and begin to teach her what it means to love, yet when the youngsters return to their family, a gaping hole forms in Mamzelle's heart as she now begins to realize how much of her life she has dwelt in loneliness and absence of emotion. Tom and Mamzelle Aurlie's separate realizations hold importance because they develop each character in different ways, therefore showing several common types of reactions under similar circumstances, as well as showing that one does not have to necessarily go through a near-death experience jump out of his or her comfort zone. Realizing that it does not always require a severe jolt in order to reconsider one's purpose on Earth creates opportunities for teenagers to reconsider their own lives, and for certain the author designed their
The nameless narrator of the novella marries her cousin, Daniel whose first wife died a year earlier. The two marry less out of love, and more out of necessity. Indeed, the narrator becomes so disillusioned with the marriage, and so keenly aware of the aura of death, also represented by the fog, which surrounds the house, that she constantly looks for ways to escape. She often goes into the woods, to bathe or commune with nature. Then, one night while they are in the city to pick up Daniel’s mother to come back to the house with them, she takes a walk where she encounters her lover. After consummating their love, the narrator returns home to Daniel and she, Daniel, and his mother go back to the house in the country. Here, the narrator is totally preoccupied with her lover. She thinks about him, writes about him, and seeks him constantly, until Daniel reveals to her that he never let her go for a walk that night in the city. The narrator returns to the city because Regina, Daniel’s sister, is in the hospital for attempting suicide while with her illicit lover. The narrator looks for the house where she and her lover slept together and cannot find it. By the end of the novel, she realizes that her ideal lover, is only imagined, and Daniel stops her from committing suicide. As a result, the narrator becomes resigned...
Many adolescents share the same complaints with the adult world as Holden. But those complaints remain in the untainted field of the rye as each individual must let go of them and plummet to their corruption, leaving all innocence behind.
In Dubliners, many themes are introduced to the readers to help understand the main focus of Dublin at the time. Characters are always placed within society and are always trying to escape the problems geared toward them. To continue, feelings of aloneness bring escape throughout things such as journeys away from the city Characters are always trying to find a way to get away from everyday life and the certain realities that are shared between everyone. People are always escaping through journeys and also through other people but are always trying to find places to be alone. In all three stories, the circumstances of Dublin at the time have individuals expressing the need to escape society and the realities of everyday life.
These adolescented had changed themselves into a better person inside the juvenile hall. The teacher Mark, had made them open thier feelings in the writings and made them express thier crime. Francisco was known for his anger issues, but he gave Mark his respect becuase he was like a father to him who actually cared for him. Most of the classmates gave their respect to Mark, but unlike Kevin Jackson, he was very unique to the other inmates. Kevin was more of thinker to why he commited murder. Towards the ending of the book, the characters were transfered to a state prison. What they learned from the juvenile detention hall, all would be forgotten. They knew they had to be tough and not show any emotions towards other inmates. Out of the four characters, only Kevin Jackson decided to write and express himself and continue to write to
...s trying to put across his message to show the children there are people less fortunate than themselves and that they should appreciate what they have, also I think he’s trying to make them understand how the poor’s lives are shut away from the rich. I found the description of the boys on the boat most effective as it’s about the children attempting to row the boat on the thick lake of dye and pollution. The sections show that education and industrial towns have moved on from the industrial revolution, education has moved forward by having a lot more schools, teachers and laws about ill treatment towards pupils. Furthermore children under the age of 13 aren’t allowed to work at all and ones over 13 have limited hours up to the age of around 15, 16 where more variety is available, also most of the pollution has gone leaving clear skies again, and machinery is safer.