Throughout Gary Crew’s novel, ‘Strange Objects’, the author suggests that history’s repetitious nature, racism and the supernatural can only lead to situations in which many complications occur. Strange Objects represents these issues in a number of imaginative ways, such as paralleling factual events with fictional events. Gary Crew is Australia’s most awarded author for children and young adults. His novel, Strange Objects, has also won some accolades, due to its engaging nature, such as Winner of the Australian Children’s Book Council, Book of the Year for Older Readers and the 1991 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Gary Crew highlights history’s repetitive nature by combining fictional and factual elements together in Strange Objects. …show more content…
• Jan Pelgrom and Steven Messenger’s crazed fascination with the ring • How ultimately, nothing is resolved in both Steven Messenger’s perspective and Wouter Loos’ • Wouter Loos and Nigel Kratzman bearing resemblances to each other (in their personalities and …show more content…
The golden ring is the main subject of the supernatural happenings amidst Strange Objects. This object is often compared to the ring within J.R.R Tolkien’s books, The Lord of the Rings, and Gary Crew detested that within an interview, where he also openly stated that “The ring means zip.” Some claim, however, that the ring symbolizes “dreams coming true and an escape from reality”. Another object of interest is the vacancy sign, which undeniably symbolizes that something unpleasant is going to occur soon. As it flashes, a sense of unease can be felt by the reader if they have discovered this connection. This novel allows the reader to gain many different point of views from narrators within the 34 items in the book. Strange Objects depicts a variety of issues in a perceptive manner, promptly delivering Steven Messenger’s and other characters’ mental states, their character traits and the links between them. In Strange Objects it is clear to see that this novel deserves the awards that it has won, as it is a novel that has an effective way of combining different elements, summoning discussion and analysis of the many aspects within it, and engaging the audience by doing
The compassionate novel Deadly Unna?, written by Phillip Gwynne, creates vivid characters and depicts race discourses experienced by Gary Black (also known as Blacky) in a fictitious South Australian coastal community. The novel portrays a typical coastal town of the 1970s and is set mainly in the Port: the local Pub, the Black family home and the jetty, where the local children play. The story explores the racism between the Nungas (the indigenous population who live at the Point) and the Gooynas (the white population who live at the Port). As Blacky is from the Port, he only begins to develop awareness of the racism around him as a result of his friendship with Dumby Red, a Nunga football player, and consequently stops making racist jokes and comments. Analysis of racist ideas in the town, the marginalisation of the Nunga community, Blacky’s changing beliefs and how it influences and empowers him to respond to the death of Dumby Red, reveals that Gwynne encourages the reader to reject the racist values, attitudes and beliefs of Blacky’s community.
...eeps through the pages as Odd relays his thoughts for the book. This gives us a glimpse at Odd and the influences in his life. While not all of them are listed here, the ones that are, play a pivotal role in his life; something he seems to become more and more aware as this story goes on. It’s as if Koontz is trying to tell us a little about ourselves, that while we have known influences like our family, there are many more out there that help shape us into the beings that we are. Humans are a product of influences, but since no one human is influenced by exactly the same things then how are we to know what others want, need or feel. This story is a beautiful adaptation of that very concept with a little bit of mystical tossed in to keep it and the story interesting.
perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.
The central figures in these three works are all undoubtedly flawed, each one in a very different way. They may have responded to their positions in life, or the circumstances in which they find themselves may have brought out traits that already existed. Whichever applies to each individual, or the peculiar combination of the two that is specific to them, it effects the outcome of their lives. Their reaction to these defects, and the control or lack of it that they apply to these qualities, is also central to the narrative that drives these texts. The exploration of the characters of these men and their particular idiosyncrasies is the thread that runs throughout all of the works.
In today’s world, words, phrases, and commonly known sayings have been altered into an abomination of societies issues and thoughts. Some of earth’s most natural pieces have been used to represent some of today’s most popular brands and technology, such as the apple and Macintosh. Like A. E. Waite said, “The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs.” A common occurrence of symbols are demonstrated by Suzanne Collins which signify references predominant in Greek and Roman mythology and deliver deeper meaning to the characters and their role in the novel The Hunger Games.
Even though there are the loving instances, there are also times where you the reader are asking yourself; ‘Is this the right thing that’s happening?’ Another factor that this book holds is that it draws you in with it’s confusion. Everything makes sense, but yet in other words, it doesn't. This book is an emotional train wreck, and when and if you do read this I recommend you have tissues somewhere near by. Optional Reading for Recap on the story For the readers out there who haven’t had the privilege of reading this book, let’s take a moment to recap and spill the beans on this unbelievably amazing piece of literature.
Although the book has many stories to tell, all with something in common but yet with a different feature, the point of the book was to not only educate the world about these situations but to also give us real scenarios that we all can relate to in some sort of fashion. This book is about the human mind and the abstractness of our visions and memories. Everything affects us physically and mentally. We all share a common feature; we are all simply human with simple human minds.
...at could these five pieces of literature possibly have in common?’ The answer to this question is very simple, these pieces of literature each possess symbolic colors that represent something different. Yellow wallpaper represents a deteriorating mind, a shabby, black box represents a gruesome, sacrificial death, green is the physical representation of power and wealth in society, a mixture of blue and yellow represents the confusion of a clear sky with dead grass and ‘Blue Roses’ and Blue Mountain represent the longing someone feels for something they can never have. Perhaps a paining is not the only symbol for the universe. Perhaps every piece of literature is related to each other in such a way that by reading each piece of literature, one can connect the different symbols an author chooses to use and recognize the complex harmony that binds the literature world.
The novel, presented as a series of disjointed, possibly problematic, narrative frames, attempts to draw attention to this fact. "...no word exists alone, and the reason for choosing each word had to be explained with a stor...
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
In this book review I represent and analyze the three themes I found the most significant in the novel.
The entire basis of this book deals with communicating from both character to character, and narrator to reader, on a very high cerebral level. Because of this analytic quality of the book, the most important events also take place on such a high level. In fact, the major theme of the novel, that of the narrator searching for his past self, as well as the cognitive change between the "...
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park were published at either end of the twentieth century, a period which witnessed the creation of the modern picturebook for children. They are both extremely prestigious examples of picturebooks of their type, the one very traditional, the other surrealist and postmodern. The definition of ‘picturebook’ used here is Bader’s: ‘an art form [which] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page’ (Bader, quoted in Montgomery, 2009, p. 211). In contrast with a simple illustrated book, the picturebook can use all of the technology available to it to produce an indistinguishable whole, the meaning and value of which is dependent on the interplay between all or any of these aspects. Moebius’s claim that they can ‘portray the intangible and invisible[…], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words’ is particularly relevant to these two works. Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key.
... This book deals with the past and present, and it is also about reality that suggests an impressive reflection of what we might learn about each other. At the end of the story the narrator made an unexpected conclusion, by having those experiences that show up in his own personal thoughts. The personal nature is one reason that the book’s ending holds such important meaning. For the reader, the story is illustrated in the way that the text deals with the themes that are very close to some of the people in this world.
Strange News from another Star is found to be a story which contains numerous symbols which in many cases contain some important, abstract information. Symbolism is something which is very difficult to explain due to the fact that not everyone sees the so mentioned symbol. They don’t quite see it as you, because no two minds are the same, which implies the fact that they don’t react equally to something which must be internally interpreted as it is not present as mere information. On this essay I will try to back up with concise words, why I believe that something is representing something abstract, as well as with information from the author. One of the first symbols that we may find, is actually the star. A star is known as a gaseous sphere, which with nuclear fusion and fission may actually give out huge amounts of energy. Obviously a star is a inhospitable place, so I believe that the star actually represents a planet or a country. The flowers, which have a very important part in the plot of the book are a symbol as well. They, have always, as least as far as I know, had a special message. A message of love, tranquillity, joy and they represent the harmony of nature itself. In the first stage of the book, we may see how a problem, the earthquake, has made the people in the star loose a vast amount of flowers. They lost some of the tranquillity and joy that had invaded their lives.