Journeys.

‘The Journey’ is a popular theme in texts.

Explain why this theme is so popular and how journeys have been presented in the texts you have studied.

In your answer, refer to your TWO prescribed texts, ONE text from the prescribed stimulus booklet, Journeys, and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing.


The five texts are:
1. The China Coin by Allen Baillie
2. Whose Life Is It Anyway by Brian Clark
3. Box The Pony by Leah Purcell and Scott Rankin
4. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
5. Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

Gordon Livingstone, author of Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, mentioned in his book, “Life’s two most important questions are “Why?” and “Why not?” The trick is knowing which to ask.” Journey, may it be physical, emotional or imaginative, has the ability to convey information, knowledge and shape our thinking and viewpoints on the things around us and our lives, our biggest and most important journey of all. It is through reading these journeys, be it fictional or non-fictional, tragedy or joyous, that we start to have the idea of how to address the two tricky questions of “Why?” and “Why not?” in our lives.

The China Coin by Allen Baillie is present to us in the form of a physical journey of a widow, Joan Waters, and her daughter, Leah Waters, into China, a land quite alien to them in terms of people, culture and language. Through the journey into China in search of their ancestry, both of them experiences the social discrimination happening in China, not only the discrimination of foreigners by the locals, but the unfair treatment of the local with “connections” to those without, and the prejudice of the government to the educated. These bias actions can be seen throughout Leah and Joan’s Journey in China. The mother and daughter could have been cheated of their money if not for Joan’s knowledge on how the illegal money changers con their victims. In China, people with “connection” enjoy a more... [continues]

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