TASK:
Context - The Lessons Life Teaches Us
Focus text/poems - Sometimes Gladness
'First Corinthians at the Crossroads'
'Miss Mac'
'Then'
'Bedroom Conversations'
Beyond the set text influence: Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The connections I can see between 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are that they both deal with the idea of female expectations of themselves. They also are a commentary on the pressures society place on people in terms of stereotypes and how they can lead to a person feeling as lesser. In terms of 'the lessons life life teaches us', both texts imply that predominantly, our societies and cultures teach us to value youth and beauty above anything else. In 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' the female narrator explores a turning point in her life as she changes her hair from 'blonde' to 'brunette'. The idea that it is 'all over' for her as she makes this change suggests she is resigned to the fact that she is aging and her 'lips ... [have] tasted their last Tango'. In this poem Dawe expresses the idea that women are pigeonholed by a society that denotes a woman of a certain age is not viewed as desirable or worthwhile, she must 'an everlasting...dusk...confront'. Confrontingly, he outlines that this type of judgement can even take place based on the colour of a woman's hair! Granny O'Grimm is very much in agreeance with this outlook on society. The hurt and anger she feels at being treated as redundant is clear as she lays a curse to send them to their death as they fall asleep, a reflection of her feelings that they have written her off as well as dead just because she is old.
'Miss Mac' discusses the inevitably of being forgotten with age. The opening lines of the poem declare, 'In order to be forgotten, it's not necessary to do much, except watch the wrinkles gather'. The links between 'Miss Mac' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are obvious. They both put forward the premise that the roles and activities for elderly in society are limited. 'Miss Mac' approaches the idea from a resigned position with a tone of sadness,
'Then' - As you age society loses respect for you. Even though this is wrong, this is the way it is.
'Bedroom Conversations' - Intertextuality is at work in this poem, it references the fairytale Snow White. The vanity of youth is highlighted in this piece of poetry, with the young girls in the poem completely focussed on their looks. Dawe makes it clear that vanity such as this is making people and our society ugly. It is the same idea as O'Rourke, the director of Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, is presenting in her re-interpretation of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.
Some literary devices that I can see at work in the poetry and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are:
Intertextuality - Biblical and fairy tale references are used in some of the texts
Anaphora - 'Then' uses anaphora by opening each stanza with the phrase, 'When you are older...'
Repetition - 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty each employ repitition.
Juxtaposition - Juxtaposition of old and young is used in each of the poems and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty'.
Further beyond the set text inspiration:
We Own The Night by 'The Wanted' also explores ideas, themes and topics that relate to age and expectations society has for people and how they should behave depending upon their age. The song and its film clip challenge the notion that age renders you useless, redundant and forgotten in the world. It aligns young and old alongside each other in celebration, welcome of the prescence of everyone. The lesson this text puts forward strongly is the idea of seizing the day - 'carpe diem', and that you can make the choice to subvert stereotypical roles that it can feel like society has been put in place to rule and regulate your life dependent on looks, age, etc.
A writing idea/s for this Context and Focus text:
A piece that could work for this Context, focus and is obviously inspired by ideas beyond the set text would be -
- Consider the Context, a focus text poem/s and short film and identify connections they share in ideas, themes and topics.
- Analyse all texts under review for literary devices they use, are there any techniques shared by the texts?
- Develop Context writing ideas using the Context, texts and your thinking about and analysis of them to inspire you.
Context - The Lessons Life Teaches Us
Focus text/poems - Sometimes Gladness
'First Corinthians at the Crossroads'
'Miss Mac'
'Then'
'Bedroom Conversations'
Beyond the set text influence: Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The connections I can see between 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are that they both deal with the idea of female expectations of themselves. They also are a commentary on the pressures society place on people in terms of stereotypes and how they can lead to a person feeling as lesser. In terms of 'the lessons life life teaches us', both texts imply that predominantly, our societies and cultures teach us to value youth and beauty above anything else. In 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' the female narrator explores a turning point in her life as she changes her hair from 'blonde' to 'brunette'. The idea that it is 'all over' for her as she makes this change suggests she is resigned to the fact that she is aging and her 'lips ... [have] tasted their last Tango'. In this poem Dawe expresses the idea that women are pigeonholed by a society that denotes a woman of a certain age is not viewed as desirable or worthwhile, she must 'an everlasting...dusk...confront'. Confrontingly, he outlines that this type of judgement can even take place based on the colour of a woman's hair! Granny O'Grimm is very much in agreeance with this outlook on society. The hurt and anger she feels at being treated as redundant is clear as she lays a curse to send them to their death as they fall asleep, a reflection of her feelings that they have written her off as well as dead just because she is old.
'Miss Mac' discusses the inevitably of being forgotten with age. The opening lines of the poem declare, 'In order to be forgotten, it's not necessary to do much, except watch the wrinkles gather'. The links between 'Miss Mac' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are obvious. They both put forward the premise that the roles and activities for elderly in society are limited. 'Miss Mac' approaches the idea from a resigned position with a tone of sadness,
'Then' - As you age society loses respect for you. Even though this is wrong, this is the way it is.
'Bedroom Conversations' - Intertextuality is at work in this poem, it references the fairytale Snow White. The vanity of youth is highlighted in this piece of poetry, with the young girls in the poem completely focussed on their looks. Dawe makes it clear that vanity such as this is making people and our society ugly. It is the same idea as O'Rourke, the director of Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, is presenting in her re-interpretation of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.
Some literary devices that I can see at work in the poetry and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty are:
Intertextuality - Biblical and fairy tale references are used in some of the texts
Anaphora - 'Then' uses anaphora by opening each stanza with the phrase, 'When you are older...'
Repetition - 'First Corinthians at the Crossroads' and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty each employ repitition.
Juxtaposition - Juxtaposition of old and young is used in each of the poems and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty'.
Further beyond the set text inspiration:
We Own The Night by 'The Wanted' also explores ideas, themes and topics that relate to age and expectations society has for people and how they should behave depending upon their age. The song and its film clip challenge the notion that age renders you useless, redundant and forgotten in the world. It aligns young and old alongside each other in celebration, welcome of the prescence of everyone. The lesson this text puts forward strongly is the idea of seizing the day - 'carpe diem', and that you can make the choice to subvert stereotypical roles that it can feel like society has been put in place to rule and regulate your life dependent on looks, age, etc.
A writing idea/s for this Context and Focus text:
A piece that could work for this Context, focus and is obviously inspired by ideas beyond the set text would be -
An expository e-zine article that explores whether the expectations Western popular culture perpetuates are truly ostracising to certain demographics, especially the elderly and females. It will feature a visual that uses juxtaposition, just as the majority of the influencing texts do. In this case, the image of Barbie compared with a real woman will be how juxtaposition is employed. Though the discussion will be looking at all aspects of the topic, there will be a slight incorporation of opinion as I will outline my viewpoint at the end of the article, after I have explored the topic in depth.
The visual that will accompany the article:
No comments:
Post a Comment