Preview

Summary Of Away By Michael Gow

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
511 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Away By Michael Gow
Analysis of away

The play away by Michael Gow is a story of three Australian families going on holidays. It is set in the summer of 1967-68 during Christmas and the New Year. There are many sub-themes in away such as death/loss, change, moving on with life, and forgiveness.

The theme of death/ loss is displayed when we find out about Roy and Corals son who was killed in Vietnam. Coral constantly brings up the theme when she says, “I’ll be silent on all controversial topics. Will that do? I wont bring up anything worrying. Death, war, loss-.” This theme is carried over to Tom when we find out about his terminal illness when he has a conversation with Meg and says, “ So how bout it? Help me. I’m going to get sick again and I wont get better. Your parents won’t find out.” Even when Harry is talking to Jim death reveals itself throughout the duration of the conversation. The actual title has a hidden message of death. Away: passing away.
…show more content…
This scene between tom and coral also shows change or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    An understanding of humanity and existence, is gained through personal discoveries and the experiences that lead one there. The Australian play ‘Away’, written by Michael Gow in 1986, utilises a 1967 setting and the characters preparation for, and the events from, their summer holidays to highlight the significance of personal discoveries.. The American film published in 1989 and directed by Australian Peter Weir, ‘Dead Poets Society’, both contrasts and relates to ‘Away’ as it explores an all boys preparatory school, in 1959. During this time there was a pressure on families to be untarnished, and understanding this ideology can improve familial relationships. People around an individual have the power to shape these discoveries. Those discoveries…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Away Michael Gow Analysis

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gow emphasises the strong influence that the setting can have by placing the characters in a number of typical Australian holiday places, and having the play set during the holiday season. The beach, Caravan Park and the luxury hotel on the gold coast depict the importance of the Australian values and idea of spending time with family during the hot Christmas season at popular Australian destinations.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “To discover is to gain sight or knowledge of something.” How have ideas about discovery been shown in Away and The Book Thief…

    • 939 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Demise, quietus, and death- all meaning the end of the life of a person or organism. In today's society, death is most commonly associated with grief, mourning, depression, and also suffering . In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World we are exposed to simple and passive responses to death based on the views and feelings of the chemically created humans in the new world. While the people in today's society will react with sadness and pain watching their loved ones taking their last breathes on a hospital bed, the characters in this book react with little to no emotions or feelings. Death is simply a powerhouse for phosphoric gases- a scientific use.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It shows how death changed the characters Thomas and Andy and how their perspective of life changed drastically for them. If nobody died in these stories there would basically be no story at all, you would be left with the sad remains with no suspense or any emotion at all. These deaths's clearly have changed their thoughts on life differently they still have very similar outlooks on the deaths. So in the end, Thomas and Andy share the common theme of death because they both are shocked by death, someone had committed suicide and lastly they both witness a death or…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Michael Gow effectively encapsulates a range of inter relating themes to allow the plot to have a strong sense of meaning. Gow’s realistic approach to the universal themes allow the audience to connect with the story as they are all relevant with current societal issues. These issues pertain to dysfunctional family structure and struggles. Most characters face one or many issues throughout the novel ranging from: grief and loss, to the healing power of nature to overcome obstacles within a journey, to the power of a journey to find one’s identity. Away is worthy of study as these universal themes are all explored in depth, giving an insight of life and issues pertaining to the 1960s to 1970’s (when the…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Perhaps the most obvious resolution in the play is Tom’s illness. We are left knowing that he has finally accepted his illness and its consequences. Gow finishes the play with Tom reading a passage from King Lear; “while we unburden’d crawl toward death.” I believe that Gow does this purposely to show the growth of Tom throughout the play. This is because Tom also opens the play and again he is quoting a famous Shakespeare play. However this time he is Puck from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’. This shows that the events that occur in the play have made Tom wise and more knowledgeable. Perhaps it is the storm which causes Tom to become more mature. In Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ the characters runaway to the forest to restore society. In ‘Away’ the three families travel to the coast for Christmas and similar to Shakespeare, society is turned upside down (the storm) and then the normal balance is resolved. Perhaps this is what allows Tom to accept his illness.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gone is a fantasy horror novel written by Michael Grant. Published in 2008, the novel’s plot echoes that of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, in the sense of it revolving around isolated children, the will to power and the corruption it causes. When everyone over the age of fourteen vanishes, Sam Temple is unwillingly made responsible of forming a surviving society and protecting it from the supernatural mysteries that surround the town of Perdido Beach. Additionally, he has to worry about the threats of imminent conflict and murder coming from the neighbouring town of Coates led by his twin, Caine. On the subject of conflict, it is definitely one of the strengths of Gone along with Grant’s characterization. Despite the tough responsibilities…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Death" is known as the fifth theme of existentialism. Death is the final end of existence, thus death is a motivating factor in life. Everyone has a natural fear of death, but we should overcome hat fear, live life to the fullest. Let death happen because it is inevitable.…

    • 265 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The writers in the movie “Meet Joe Black” exposed this theme by not making us feel sad about death. When you watch this movie, you don’t cry, you understand that Joe has to leave and Bill Parish is going to die. Just like Bill said “There is nothing for sure in life but death and taxes.” By the way that the writers present the movie, you understand that everything comes to an end just as the ultimate theme states.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Life and Death Overtakes

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Death is a dreaded word. It is a word that many people would not want to talk about. Death is considered a morbid word and many would not find this as an engaging topic. According to Patricelli (2007), “[d]eath remains a great mystery, one of the central issues with which religion and philosophy and science have wrestled since the beginning of human history. Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines”. There are also people that have negative connotations about death, rendering life even meaningless because of it. Death appears to render life meaningless for many people because they feel that there is no point in developing character or increasing knowledge if our progress is ultimately going to be thwarted by death (Augustine, 2000). But the author contends that there is a point in developing character and increasing knowledge before death overtakes us: to provide peace of mind and intellectual satisfaction to our lives and to the lives of those we care about for their own sake because pursuing these goals enriches our lives. From the fact that death is inevitable it does not follow that nothing we do matters now. On the contrary, our lives matter a great deal to us. If they did not, we would not find the idea of our own death so distressing--it wouldn't matter that our lives will come to an end. The fact that we're all eventually going to die has no relevance to whether our activities are worthwhile in the here and now: For an ill patient in a hospital a doctor's efforts to alleviate pain certainly does matter despite the fact that 'in the end' both the doctor and the patient will be dead (Augustine).…

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When someone mentions the word death, it brings up different feelings in us depending on the experiences we have had with it.…

    • 973 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is the eternal end of the natural functions that define a living organism. Death is something that can bring great effect on living beings in the world. The novel, A Scientific Romance written by Ronald Wright, depicts death having a great impact on existence in various forms. The main character, David Lambert experiences some forms of death and their overall impact on existence, through the destruction of Earth, diminishing education system, and the loss of loved ones.…

    • 1413 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stokely Carmichael focuses on not only black power but the internal logic of why he was giving it. The internal logic of poor and rich, non-violence and violence, black and white, freedom and integration, and moral and political. Poor and rich is the basis of social hierarchies. Social hierarchies is merely the power or privilege that attaches to you by your social position or status. It is applicable to all of society which characterizes the culture of the United States. Poverty is poorness which is defined by what it does not include, having money, rather than what it does include. Stokely Carmichael begins in his speech with poor instead of rich and then defines it by what it is not, “A man is poor for one reason and one reason only- he does not have money. If you want to get rid of poverty, you give people money.” It’s a clear way to rid of poverty, exactly how he stated “you give people money,” (Carmichael).…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Away By Michael Gow Essay

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Introduction Thesis – In the novel Away by Michael Gow all the characters have the desire to win and this can be interpreted as making the right choices for a good life. These attitudes to life can be seen through the characters Gwen, Harry, Vic and Tom.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics