Summary Of The Poems 'Then And Now' By Cathy Freeman

‘Crossing boundaries is essential for reaching one’s full potential’
To fulfill ones full capability he or she needs to cross boundaries such as emotional,
physical or cultural, to achieve their goals in life. Not all boundaries crossed are positive,
some are also negative but if they are never crossed, an individual cannot reach their full
potential. Cathy Freeman in the autobiography born to run crosses many boundaries as a
runner to reach her full potential and achieve her goals. Also in the poem “then and now”
by Cathy walker as she crosses many boundaries throughout her life transition, while she
sees her home destroyed but does not reach her full potential.
Cathy Freeman crosses several physical boundaries to reaches her full potential

as
Australia’s first aboriginal runner and an Olympic gold winner. Cathy overcame all the
obstacles in her way and achieved all her goals she also proved many people wrong who
thought aboriginals couldn't do it. Cathy physically crosses the line at the 2000 Olympics
representing Australia and all the Indigenous Australians. Winning the olympics was a
dream since she was a little girl as quoted in the autobiography “winning the olympics was
my dream since i was ten years old” This mentions that this was a fantasy come true for
her, that she worked extremely hard for. As well as the use of textuality a picture of her
doing a victory lap with the Australian and Aboriginal flag after winning the olympics, this
shows us how proud she was and overjoyed with her achievement. After all the physical
boundaries she crosses such as hard work and training, mental pressure she succeeds in
reaching her full potential.
To reach her full potential Cathy crosses numerous emotional boundaries. Overcoming
emotional boundaries was essential for Cathy to progress and fulfill her potential. One
major obstacle was her sister's disability, and then her death. Cathy struggled with both
situations trying to adapt to changes in her life. Her sister Ann-marie was disabled and
could not walk or talk. Her sister motivated to do better. An example of this is presented in
the text: ‘It’s time to go, Catherine. Come on! ‘mum, i don’t want to go she said ‘I don’t
want to do this any more’ Cathy had no strength for training, she wanted to play with her
friends, but her mum reminded her of Anne-marie ‘ you’ve got two good arms and two
good legs, go out there and use them’ Cathy got up and never complained again. The use
of emotive language is to engage the audience, show the strong feelings Cathy was
feeling and dialogue to give a perspective of the characters.

When Cathy was sixteen,
after winning the Commonwealth games her sister passed away instead of Cathy grieving
she said ‘as i stood at the grave with my family i suddenly knew what i had to do, i had to
run for Anne-Marie’ Cathy promised herself that she would run every race for her. Those
obstacles she crossed helped her reach her full potential.
Cathy crosses a major cultural boundary as the first athlete to carry an Aboriginal flag in
her victory lap. By doing this she attempted to fill the gap between Australian culture and
Aboriginal. She wanted people to be aware of the achievements of aboriginal people. she
was proud of her culture and wanted people to see it. When Cathy was young she
experienced many situations of racism, when she was ten she won 4 gold medals but
never got them and instead they weir given to the second white girl this was mentioned in
this dialogue ‘So come on, then’ ‘where are your medals?’ ‘i didn’t get any just certificates’
this dialogue coveys the racism that was present to stop aboriginal people from achieving
their personal best. The more she raced the more people were un happy about her
winning and made bad comment, ‘Ew, yuck you eat witchery grubs’ the purpose

of
descriptive language is to evoke a feeling, create an image and to capture a feeling.
Cultural boundaries did not stop Cathy from reaching her full potential, ‘i decided not to let
it bother me’ Cathy Freeman said this because she was a very straight forward andeasygoing person as well as she did not care what people thought of her this helped her
overcome the boundaries and achieve her goal.

Some boundaries are crossed dramatically but he or she does not reach their full potential
and example of this is ‘Then and Now’ a poem by Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonucal she
was an Australian poet, her work conveys the aspects of Australian experience her poems
mainly focus on her own perspective of perspective of the culture and beliefs of the both the
Indigenous people and white Australians, the racial discrimination that the Aborigines suffered.
Oodgeroo uses language and poetic techniques such as onomatopoeia, metaphor and
repetition, to portray these aspect. She crosses emotional boundaries losing her identity and
learning to adopt to a foreign culture an example of Irony in the poem ‘ One time our dark
children played, their where the rail way yards are now’ this show two contrasting things that
are opsite her old life and new life. She also physically/geographically changes her house and
town to something she’s unfamiliar with, she uses imagery to show her the physical boundary
she crossed ‘laughing as they hunt and swim, my dreams are shuttered by rushing cars. The
use of imagery is to make the reader imagine what is happening. Oodgeroo

uses
juxtaposition to show the cultural boundary she over came ‘i see no more tribe of old as i walk
alone in the teeming town’ She feeling alone that she was ripped away from her culture and
tribe. She crosses all those boundaries but does not reach her full potential as she want’s to
go back to her old life.
Both the Autobiography and poem cross many boundaries such as emotional, cultural and
physical. Both face racism for being aboriginal but one of them reaches her goal, although
Cathy Walker does not. This was essential for them to become who they are.
In summary to my essay Crossing boundaries is important to reach an individual’s full
potential. This is seen in the autobiography Born to run and the poem ‘Then and now’ as
they over come obstacles to achieve their personal best, although in the poem ’then and
now’ she does not reach her full potential. Crossing boundaries is crucial to strive and
achieve an individuals personal best.