The composers of the texts that I have studied in the Area of Study have very effectively represented that have challenged our thinking and broadened our understanding of our own world. We have learnt that a physical journey is not only a movement from one place to another, it can provide inner and emotional growth. Through the study of Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle, the stimulus text, Journeys over Land and Sea, as well as the film Seven Years in Tibet by Jean-Jacques Arnaud, our thinking about the concept of journeys have been challenged as well as our understanding of our own world has been broadened.
Peter Skrzynecki in his poem Crossing the Red Sea describes the journey of immigrants from their homeland to Australia. He effectively describes the painfulness of their journey through several references to the colour red, ‘blood-rimmed horizon’, ‘red banners’. He shows how painful it is for these immigrants to leave their family and friends after the war ‘now four years dead’. Skrzynecki’s use of biblical allusions is used to convey the hope, and expectations the immigrants feel in relation to their new life. Their journey is compared to the journey of the Israelites, who crossed the Red Sea to travel to the ‘Promised Land’. Skzrynecki also alludes to Lazarus, a man who was raised to new life by Jesus. Therefore Skzrynecki challenges our own thinking by showing us that although the immigrants are hopeful about their new life, their emotions about this journey are mixed. Some people still feel that they are carrying out ‘the finalities of surrender’ by undertaking this voyage to an unknown land.
The stimulus texts Journeys over Land and Sea challenges our own thinking and broadens our understanding of our own world by showing us that a physical journey, while full of adventure and excitement, has a great intellectual worth. The use of grand statements and a luculent tone in the first paragraph convinces us of the excitement of the journey,...