The Castle Essay - Global Village

Globalisation has become a fashionable term used for numerous years amongst humanities and social sciences. Usage of this term has been driven by an academic fascination with the world as an increasingly interconnected place, in which localized forms of culture have become increasingly subject to homogenizing global influences (Maguire, J)

Tim Winton, the composer of ‘Neighbours’ has a perplexed and distressing tone as he suggests to the reader, the significance of multiculturalism and diversity within Australia. Winton also expresses the different cultures and nationalities, by emphasising the variety of characteristics within each ethnicity. One example of this is ‘The Macedonian family shouted, ranted, screamed’. This tells the reader what sort

Craig Silvey engages us with Jasper Jones in order to convey a certain moral message in hope to make us stop and think. No one in this novel is truly accepted into the community, which tells me as the responder, that in order for this society to succeed differences need to be tossed aside. Jasper Jones is a credible recollection of the injustice, racism and social exclusion that exists in the Australian society. It also tackles growing up, first love, family unity, and a sense of belonging in a community.

Perceptions are pervasive in society and can prompt lethal repercussions. These include relationship breakup, privation of belonging and obviates progression. The film ‘Bran Nue Dae’ explores perceptions such as alcoholic, on drugs, unhygienic, destitute, belonging nowhere and a nuisance to society that associate with indigenous Australians. Albeit some of these statements are true, this is NOT the case for all. Believe it or not, there are people in society that have escaped from these circle of perceptions and have been able to live a ‘typical’ life. It is as a result of this, to never make perceptions true or reality.

Charlie articulates how he “never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel… (if) they’re in a barrel, you’ve already caught them… they can’t escape... why bring guns into it?” Silvey’s use of characterisation and first person point of view portrays Charlie’s realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards ‘the other’. The “fish” is symbolic of Charlie and how he is different to the people of Corrigan; who are like vultures – constantly seeking the chance to attack those that are considered the ‘minority’. Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu, is a gifted and committed cricket player who persistently tries to get himself in the local team, however, due to his Vietnamese background, “he’s ruthlessly bullied and belted about by the boys at school.” The emotive imagery and alliteration of “bullied” and “belted” further depict Charlie’s internal conflict in addition to his realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards the peripheral of society. The use of emotive imagery positions readers to realise the extent to which powerful words can have; causing readers to recognise how crude and harrowing humankind can be towards the marginalised. Thus, Silvey effectively conveys to the reader how the indigenous race were isolated from ‘white Australian’ society; how intelligent individuals were ostracised; and, how groups of people with racially different backgrounds were isolated from mainstream Australian society.

The notion of the contemporary indigenous identity and the impact of these notions are both explored in texts that have been studied. Ivan Sen’s 2002 film ‘Beneath Clouds’ focuses on the stereotypical behaviours of Indigenous Australians highlighting Lina and Vaughn’s journey. This also signifies the status and place of the Australian identity today. Through the use of visual techniques and stereotypes the ideas that the Indigenous are uneducated, involved in crime and the stereotypical portrayal of white people are all explored. Similarly the notion of urban and rural life is represented in Kennith Slessor’s ‘William Street’ and ‘Country Towns’.

Australian landscapes have long been used to place fear and anxiety in the Anglo-Australian’s psyche. This anxiety and the requirement for Indigenous peoples to negotiate white ideals is reflected in current Australian literature and cinematic identities. This essay will discuss the critical arguments of what makes the chosen texts Australian literature. This discussion will be restricted to the critiques of the film Lantana directed by Ray Lawrence and the novel Biten’ Back written by Vivienne Cleven. The will firstly look at the use of landscape as a crime scene and how this links to the anxieties caused by the doctrine of terra nullius and the perceived threats from an introduced species. It will then look at the Australian fear of a different ‘other’ followed then by a discussion around masculinity and the need for Indigenous people to negotiate white ideals. The essay will argue that Australian literature and film reflect a nation that still has anxieties about the true sovereignty of the land and assert that Indigenous people have a requirement to fit in with white ideals.

Could the dysfunction of the Walls family have fostered the extraordinary resilience and strength of the three older siblings through a collaborative set of rites of passage? One could argue that the unusual and destructive behavior of the parents forced the children into a unique collection of rites of passage that resulted in surprisingly resilient and successful adults. In moving back to Welch, Virginia, the children lost what minimal sense of security they may have enjoyed while living in their grandmother’s home in Arizona. The culture and climate (both socially and environmentally) along with an increased awareness of their poverty resulted in a significant loss of identity. As they learned new social and survival skills in this

Blue collar Kerrigan home, is filled with love as well as pride for their modest lifestyle, but their happiness is threatened when developers attempt the compulsory acquisition of their house to expand the neighbouring Melbourne Airport. 3 high view crescent, Coolaroo – not aesthetically pleasing ‘eyesore’ opening shot shows sense of pride (satire) Despite all this, sweet-natured family patriarch Darryl (Michael Caton) believes that he lives in the lap of luxury. Blissfully unaware of his family’s lack of style or sophistication, he busies himself by driving a tow truck, racing greyhounds and constantly adding tacky renovations to the house. Kerrigan clan shares and supports his enthusiasm in every way. Though he has no wish to sell,

An example of which is demonstrated by the brutalization of Jasper by said authorities after the disappearance of Laura Wishart vindicated by no credible evidence other than the men’s bigotry and suspicion. Jasper has no legitimate recourse to salvage or redeem his name due to the presumptions made upon his character, other than the finite redemption of his prowess in sporting and its significance as social capital in Corrigan. Jasper, disinterested in refuting the prejudiced conceptions of Corrigan’s citizens transcends their manufactured typecast of an aboriginal person through determination to improve his own situation by leaving Corrigan despite the bigoted impressions embossed on Jasper’s character regardless of his intentions or actions. Thereby, employing Jasper’s character, and, more eminently, Corrigan’s condemnation of him, Silvey explores racial bigotry as a device of social exclusion and the repercussions of which on an individual, in Jasper’s case, transcendence through initial hardships of discrimination and resultant

To the locals, a gunshot meant nothing more than dinner or killing a pest on a local farm, but to a Warranjimbi man, the sound of the white man’s gun was a reminder of our place on this land. It was the sound of death, the sound of misery and the sound of torture. The sound of the white man’s gun echoed across two centuries of injustice and suffering. “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free” The sound of the gunshot was the sound of the Stolen Generation.

Huxley's work, Brave New World, is a book about a society that is in the future. This book contains many strange things that are generally unheard of today. Yet we see that some of the ideas that are presented in this book were already present in the 20th century. The idea of having one superior race of people can easily be seen as something that Hitler was trying to accomplish during the Holocaust. Huxley presents the society in his book as being a greater civilization. A totalitarian type of leadership is also presented in his book. According to him, this would be the best and most effective type of government. Hitler also thought that a totalitarian government was best. We see several similarities between Hitler's Germany and Huxley's

Aldous Huxley wisely inserts many instances of distortion to the elements in Brave New World to successfully caution the world about its growing interest in technology.

The end of the Cold War brought about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, paving the way for an unprecedented new paradigm – one characterised by the end of hostilities between the two dominant ideologies: Soviet communism and American liberal capitalism. This dominant new paradigm encouraged the homogenisation of ideas, in the form of exchanging ethos and values along former cultural, ideological and geographical divides. As such, this integration of world societies has earned the title ‘globalisation’, forcing the global community to appear so united as to warrant the metaphor of a global village. (Note: This paragraph pains me to read – I will eventually re-write it.)

The theory of globalization today is a field of intensive debate as the efforts towards defining globalization most often highlight its individual aspects. According to Held and McGrew (1999), “globalisation is an idea whose time has come, yet it lacks precise definition”. Despite the ambiguity of the term “globalisation,” the use of the term, according to Held and McGrew, reflects increased interconnectedness in political, economic and cultural matters across the world creating a shared social space. Given this inter-connectedness, globalisation may be defined as: “a process which embodies a transformation in the spatial organisation of social relations and