English Speech: Away and To Kill a Mockingbird

Hi, teacher and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking about how a journey can have positive and negative impact on an individual. Journeys are not just limited to the process of physically travelling as an emotional journey can be seen in self-exploration and imaginative journeys can occur to transport an individual from reality into an unreal world. Michael Gow’s play script of Away, relates to the challenges, goals and discoveries which are achieved by the characters Tom, Coral and Gwen as they endure physical, emotional and imaginative journeys, whilst the film To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan in 1962 utilises the innocence of childhood to convey three personal journeys as demonstrated through characterisation and cinematic techniques.
Physical journey become the catalyst to emotional and imaginative journeys, as demonstrated in the opening of Away, where Tom played the character ‘Puck’ performing the final speech of a Shakespeareans play called “A Midsummer Nights Dream”. Throughout A Midsummer Nights Dream Tom promises to restore amends if the audience applauds, Tom also does the same thing throughout Away. This is a technique of Meta-play where a play is used within a play. This imaginative journey to the Shakespearean character of ‘Puck’ making amends parallels with Tom’s role in aiding other characters in their emotional journey. Before any other types of journey can occur, the process of physical journey was first occurred as three families are going on summer holidays. It was established throughout the dialogue between Tom and Meg, where Tom asked “you going away tomorrow?’ ‘Where are you going?’. Coral’s emotional journey throughout the play was how her son’s death had led to breakdown and her unstable mental illness of pain that she was trapped in the past such as a quote that was made by her husband Roy about her behaviour ‘like a ghost’ ‘ignoring people’. Her final emotional journey was represented metaphorically throughout