Preview

Physical Journeys - Bruce Dawe's Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1368 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Physical Journeys - Bruce Dawe's Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am
Journeys offer challenges and insights.

How does the composer of the texts you have studied explore this concept?

Bruce Dawe’s texts Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am, convey different journeys that offer challenges and insights. Journeys can be defined as an act of travelling from one place to another. The physical journey evident in Drifters places emphasis on the fact that journeys can be forced. The text Last Seen 12:10am depicts that journeys can be inner struggle and offer challenges that bring uncertainty and fear. Hence it is evident that these two texts by Dawe demonstrate challenges and insights that travellers can have on a journey.

Bruce Dawe’s poem, Drifters, demonstrates that physical journeys are often difficult for a traveller to embark on. Leaving their home is seen as the journey in the poem, and offers many challenges to the travellers. In the line, “and the kids will yell “Truly?” and get wildly excited for no reason, and the brown kelpie pup will start dashing about”, Dawe is able to engage the reader and create an intimate atmosphere, through the use of vivid imagery and colloquial language. This paints a picture of the scene at hand and initiating a relationship between the family and the reader. These lines of Drifters express that although physical journeys offer challenges, they can also contain happiness and excitement of change.

Furthermore, Dawe’s poem, Drifters, shows there can be diverse opinions on the task of physical journey. The personas in the text continue to address the fact that physical journeys explore the concept of providing challenges and insights. This is stressed in the lines “and notice how the oldest girl is close to tears because she was happy here, and how the youngest girl is beaming because she wasn’t.” Dawe demonstrates how there can be varying attitudes towards physical journey by contrasting the two daughters opinions on the move. It shows how the oldest daughter is reluctant for change, while the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The harsh effects of modernisation in ‘Journey: The North Coast” are shown through persona’s escape on the train from Sydney to a country side. In addition, the poet is trying to illustrate the fast pace of a city life through the onomatopoeia of words ‘booms and cracks and tears the wind apart’. Grey uses strong verbs such as ‘swing out’ and ‘rattle up the sash’ to express the anxiety about leaving this one place which has detached him from home. Through the phrase ‘flees on the blue and silver paddocks’, Grey is able to present an escape from commercialised world to the natural environment. A sense of relief is depicted in the phrase ‘I rise into the mirror, rested’ through the use of first person which allows the readers to empathise with the poet’s decision. Towards the end, sharp sentences focus solemnly on poet’s perspective on commercialism which has changed his life and forced him to leave the ‘furnished room’. This is a representation of the city where after spending ‘twelve months’, the poet has reached a realisation about…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem ‘Drifters’ depicts the restless life of a transient and a rouseabout family. The poem demonstrates the destiny of the family’s existence. ‘Drifters’ is about a household who move from place to place, as the father needs to move to find work ‘notice how the oldest girl is close to tears’ shows that the hardship that the eldest sister has to go through, she realised that her nomadic lives may never change, she cannot live as a normal teenager as she is not stationed in one place long enough, to become friends with the same age as hers, she is gradually frustrated…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A journey can be described as a passage one may undergo in order to reach a destination. Journeys can be both physical and emotional. As well as this journeys can be a positive and negative experience. The notion of journey is apparent is “Beneath Clouds” by Ivan Sen, as well as in related texts “Stand By Me” by Rob Reiner and “Bushwalking” by Phillip Rush. The idea of Journey in these texts is portrayed through obstacles, various poetic and film techniques.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Texts may show us that the world of physical journeys involves unexpected detours. To what extent do the texts you have studied support this idea?…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For this assignment, the chosen poem was “Rivers/Roads” by Michael Crummey. In this poem, Crummey successfully expresses the difference between individual journey’s through subtle brevity and depth. One of the best aspects of this poem is that it moves the reader to ponder on their journey-- whether on rivers or roads. Within “Rivers/Roads”, there are no similes or metaphors; however, there is literal and figurative imagery, plus symbolism.…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Journey is a term that implies travel, which can offer up new insights, experiences, cultures and perspectives. Journeys can have positive or negative effects, as we see in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. In the novel, the writer takes us into the American outback, and we journey with the characters as they face the various challenges and barriers that arise as they attempt to achieve the ‘great American dream’ – settling down and farming their own land.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A physical journey is an act of travelling from one destination to another, which may seem like a rudimentary process at first, but are often far more intricate. Physical journeys may consist of challenges but may lead to a vast range of positive experiences to benefit the traveller. The two poems, ‘Migrants’ and ‘Drifters by Bruce Dawe and related text Journey to freedom by Hai-Van Nguyen are all successful texts which cleverly conveys the travellers journey’s resulting in a positive experience.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    AOS Journey

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages

    1. Identify ONE concept of journeys and describe examples from the text that support it…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harvie Krumpet Journey

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Everything in life can be related back to a journey - our character and ability to deal with situations will greatly influence the kind of people we will become. By studying the concept of a journey through a variety of texts, it is clear that it is the journey, not the destination that ultimately matters. The texts, Harvie Krumpet a Claymation short film by Adam Elliot, Stefania’s Dancing Slippers by Jennifer Beck and Lindy Fisher, and Tim Winton’s short story, Big World, reoccurring themes emerge with respect to life’s journeys. Among these are that a sojourner may experience lead to self-realisation and personal revelation, and sometimes, maturity.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Journeys- Bruce Dawe

    • 379 Words
    • 1 Page

    As a teenager living in an ever-changing society, a journey is bound to happen either emotionally, physically or mentally. At any point in a persons lifetime, one may go through a journey- whether that journey takes place at a certain time or place, stemmed from a decision or the journey of ones existing lifetime. No matter what or whom, journeys are bound to change us and are inevitable. They offer us development and growth as individuals as well as altering the way we think, act or talk. This can be obtained through overcoming obstacles, achieving goals, anything really that ee encounter during a journey.We often register change as something dangerous, yet we still try our futile attempts at resisting change but at the end of it all, you yourself as a human being would have changed in either a positive or negative way. Bruce Dawe's poems, "drifters" and "migrants" emphasis on the emotional aspect of physical journeys where it is tied to the attitudes towards journey (s), the compassion in the journey, overcoming obstacles and fulfilling the desire of destination. Bruce Dawe uses language techniques such as imagery, colloquialism, tone and repetition to convey and highlight some specific aspects of physical journey(s).…

    • 379 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Themes In Pleasantville

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Any Journey includes both realities and possibilities”, the three texts that we have studied in class, the film 'Pleasantville' by Gary Ross and the poems 'Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost and 'Journey to the Interior' by Margaret Atwood, support this idea as these texts include the protagonist having embarked on not only physical and interior journeys in reality but also imaginary. The journey is known to be imaginary for the audience, but for the characters of the text these journeys have led them to be in a different stage in life, not only physical but internally, evolving into different people or having what become completely different people due to these journeys.…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone encounters a journey at some point in their life, whether it is to the grocery store or life itself. There are all sorts of journeys and they occur for many reasons. Yet journeys can have many outcomes unforeseen by the journeyer. Often people change, usually for the better, along the journey they have taken. They learn how to overcome obstacles. They meet other people. They become more aware of the world around them. Many journeys are sparked by something in a person’s life, as in challenges or limitations in a society. This is how the journey of two native american women abandoned by their tribe in the harsh Alaskan wilderness started. Their need to survive powered them to continue their journey in a novel called Two Old Women by Velma Wallis. Others are longer and might not seem like a journey at all. Such as the life story of three generations of Southern women in Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons. Despite the difference of these novels, these two stories share a common theme: strong women on a journey. Journeys can vary in how they appear and how they influence the character, however in the cases of Charms for the Easy Life and Two Old Women, the characters show their strength, prove to themselves, and to…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bruce Dawe Journeys

    • 902 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Without the challenges and rewards in life’s journey we would not be able to grow and become stronger individuals. Our lives are full of journeys and what we experience during these journeys often change us. Journeys can change a person’s perspective of life by providing them with new information and ideas. We often feel like the destination is the most important thing and never take into consideration what we learn on the way. Bruce Dawe expresses this idea of change in his poems ‘migrants’ and ‘enter without so much as knocking’. Dawe showcases both a positive and negative aspect of change by using poetic techniques such as personification, alliteration, metaphor and ellipsis. Journeys can be physical, emotional and inner.…

    • 902 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout physical journeys there are many aspects contained within. These aspects are what shape and form people throughout their journey. The most notable aspect of a physical journey is overcoming the barriers and obstacles which are confronted throughout the journey. This idea is evident within the prescribed texts “Migrants”, “Last seen at 12:10am” and also thought the related text “Rising from the ashes”.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Drifters’ is a poem about one woman’s refusal to abandon hope, in spite of overwhelming hardship. The family has to move from place to place, as the father needs to move by the demand of his job. Despite Dawe’s use of causal language, if you read carefully you would be able to see the seriousness of what he is saying.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics