Superman And Paula Brown's New Snowsuit: Character Analysis: Away By Michael Gow

1107 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: research paper on causes and effects of materialism on our lives

Discoveries are confronting and provocative and can lead us to new worlds and values. This is explored in the play, ‘Away’ by Michael Gow, set in suburban Australia during the 1960s. The play highlights the dispensability of material possessions and how it changes an individual and enable them to re-examine the disfigured attitudes and values they behold. Moreover, it also reflects how the discovery of oneself can lead to new opportunities and personal fulfilment. The related text, ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s new snowsuit, a short story written by Sylvia Plath, set in the 1955s is about the protagonist’s fantasy with superman. The story demonstrates how material possessions can manipulate people’s mind and also show how the protagonist becomes aware of the real world and realise that war is approaching. In Away, a significant character who experiences a confronting and provocative discovery is Gwen. She is very controlling and everything has to go by her plans. She is also extremely devoted to her material possessions after surviving the depression but this estranges her from the rest of the family. During the storm scene, Gwen’s materialistic attitude is exposed when she says, “the boat will be washed away” in which she neglects her personal safety. This is juxtaposed to what Jim(her husband)says, “stay …show more content…

The metaphor, “In the well of faces I saw no help” reveal protagonist’s sad and helpless emotion as no one stood up for her. The narrator starts to understand how material possessions can distort Paula’s child innocence. The evilness of material possessions is further discovered by the narrator through the simile, “blood beat in my ears like a slack drum” to emphasise the suffering from injustice. The blood refers to the accusations made by other kids and it’s causing internal pain. Consequently, the confronting discovery of the viciousness

Show More
Related

  • Figurative Language in the Poem Parsley by Rita Dove

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem demonstrates the discord that exists when people do not treat others humanely. When we discriminate based on culture or wealth, the ending is a tragic one. The author is able to combine diction, which makes violence occur in the readers mind after every stanza, with a view into both worlds in the society to demonstrate the flaws within the form of government. The author not only brings the tragedy to life, she makes it personal. The poem causes the reader to empathize with the workers and realize that they were slain for no reason other than a cultural difference and an inability to leave.

    Read More

  • The Boat, by Alistair Macleod

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.

    Read More

  • Quinceanera: The Dismissiveness Of Maturing

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Judith Ortiz Cofer’s use of diction had effectively implemented the dismissiveness behind an individual’s transition from childhood into adulthood, which had been the central meaning of the poem. Cofer’s uses a rather negative choice of wording in the first line of the poem that being, “My dolls have been put away like dead children”. As the poet decides to use the words “dead children” it brings a sense of gloominess upon the passage. Once the reader continues reading it appears that a connection can be made between the gloominess in the act of putting away the young girl’s dolls like “dead children” to her Quinceanera. Further Along the poem, the pessimism towards the act of maturing is found once again as the poet uses defeatist words such as “poison” when describing the fluids of her body that being blood. It seems that the young girl’s blood symbolizes her menstrual cycle, which effectively marks her entrance into womanhood. When describing the fluids of her body by using the word “poison” it creates a somber image of adulthood as she views her rite of passage as being toxicant. Ultimately, it seems that the poet’s use of diction provides the poem with a solemn tone which ultimately supplies the p...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Red Jumpsuit Appratus

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    In ‘Face Down”, a young woman arrives home from work and examines a bruise on her back inflicted by her abusive boyfriend. She begins to walk around her house and looks at objects she associates her boyfriend with. The young woman

    Read More

  • Helena Maria Viramontes’ The Moths

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary

    Read More

  • In The Park Analysis

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the final lines give us a better understanding of her situation, where her life has been devoured by the children. As she is nursing the youngest child, that sits staring at her feet, she murmurs into the wind the words “They have eaten me alive.” A hyperbolic statement symbolizing the entrapment she is experiencing in the depressing world of motherhood.

    Read More

  • Comparing Growing Up with Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    story with its title, as it can be seen as a childish because of the

    Read More

  • Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    A main factor in the storyline is the way the writer portrays society's attitude to poverty in the 18th century. The poor people were treated tremendously different to higher classed people. A lot of people were even living on the streets. For example, "He picked his way through the hordes of homeless children who congregated at evening, like the starlings, to look for the most sheltered niche into which they could huddle for the night." The writer uses immense detail to help the reader visualise the scene. She also uses a simile to help the reader compare the circumstances in which the children are in. This shows that the poor children had to live on the streets and fend for themselves during the 18th century. Another example involves a brief description of the city in which the poor people lived in. This is "nor when he smelt the stench of open sewers and foraging pigs, and the manure of horses and mules" This gives a clear example of the state of the city. It is unclean and rancid and the writer includes this whilst keeping to her fictional storyline.

    Read More

  • I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Analysis

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her struggles are of a flower trying to blossom in a pile of garbage. Growing up in the poor side of the southside of Chicago, Mexican music blasting early in the morning or ducking from the bullets flying in a drive-by shooting. Julia solace is found in her writing, and in her high school English class. Mr. Ingram her English teacher asks her what she wants out of life she cries “I want to go to school. I want to see the word” and “I want so many things sometimes I can’t even stand it. I feel like I’m going to explode.” But Ama doesn’t see it that way, she just tells, Julia, she is a bad daughter because she wants to leave her family. The world is not what it seems. It is filled with evil and bad people that just want to her hurt and take advantage of

    Read More

  • Guilty Six Year Old by Gary Soto

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Exploring the minds of six-year-olds can be a very interesting experience. Gary Soto narrates this story as a young boy at a time when he seems to be young and foolish. Soto does a great job of showing the contrast between right and wrong through a child’s eyes. He successfully conveys the guilt of the boy through his use of imagery, repetition and contrast. He uses these tools to get the reader into the mind of the boy so that they can explore his guilt and thoughts.

    Read More

  • Manipulation Of Comfort

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Manipulation of the human condition, by where and with who contentment and satisfaction is found, is fabricated through experiences which dictate direction and purpose. William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy, As You Like It (1611) explores individuals escaping a world poisoned by man’s inhumanity to man, to an ideal bliss where community thrives from the joyous aura circulating amongst people. Gillian Dawson’s short story, East Wind captures disconnection from place and people as a powerful driving force to find fulfilment. Further, the texts explore comfort and security spurring from the unexpected, revealing change in human nature at an instant.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In Tim Winton's 'Neighbours' By Tim Winton

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tim Wintons short story, “Neighbours” questions Australia's social discourse by exploring the transition of individuals into a new phase of life. Winton challenges society’s ignorance and cultural stereotypes by displaying a provocative new experience which has the ability to manipulate and change individuals perspectives. Society’s ignorance can be seen through the conflicting hyperbole, “good neighbours were seldom seen and never heard”, exploring the couples incomprehension of different cultures and lifestyles. The negative connotations surrounding the adverb “seldom seen” and “never heard” distort society's underlying values of love, respect and trust, consequently positioning the reader to consider the impact of new experiences in developing one's personal perspective. Moreover, Winton explores society's challenging and spurring transition into a new phase of life via the use of the emotive noun “murdering” in “their neighbours were not murdering each other, merely talking”. The noun, “murdering” juxtaposed with the positive imagery of “talking” posits the audience to society's dignity in the stereotypical context of Australia. Winton challenges the audience to question their moral truths and how a new experience can enlighten individuals to consider different cultures and perspectives. Composers manipulate the reader's perspectives through showing the transition into a new phase of life and how this has the ability to develop and individuals knowledge and

    Read More

  • The Shining

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    Early in the film , a psychologist is called in to treat the troubled child :and she calmed the mother with a statement to the effect that, “ These things come and go but they are unexplainable”. This juncture of the film is a starting point for one of the central themes of the film which is : how a fragile family unit is besieged by unusual forces both natural and supernatural which breaks and possesses and unites with the morally challenged father while the mother and the child through their innocence, love, and honesty triumph over these forces.

    Read More

  • Margot: A Fictional Narrative

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Margot stared at the monster that loomed before her, face to face with her worst fear: the cafeteria filled with people. Emphasis on people. The biggest obstacle of Margot’s day was taking the terrifying step into the madness. Heart pounding. Hands shaking. Head down. Eyes closed. One of her dirty, withered, off-white sneakers lifts off the ground...almost there...three...two… “Outta my way!” a hard shoulder slams into her and she crumbles to the floor as a group of boys push past her into the endless sea of people. She was a ghost to them, just a piece of nothingness, just an object in their way. Margot picked herself up and brushed away the single tear that had slipped out of her eye and slowly scuttled into the swarming sea. All Margot

    Read More

  • Dorian Gray Good And Evil Essay

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    ​This is a novel whose theme focusses on evil, which has been reflected in the novel’s setting, the structure of the plot, and the characters that are in the novel. The novel shows how people can be transformed from being good people who have morals and values to become evil because of the evil that is lying within them. The evil in the book is the one that has been created by different characters because of their immoral views, and has been thrust to the individuals and the people that they influence. The theme of the novel is; evil exists within every individual, and the flaws of people such as being overly ambitious bring it out.

    Read More

More about Superman And Paula Brown's New Snowsuit: Character Analysis: Away By Michael Gow

Open Document