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“DISCOVERIES CAN BE CONFRONTING AND PROVOCATIVE”
Every discovery shares the common facet of initial confrontation which challenges and transform one’s preconceived beliefs. Yet, if one’s personal context shapes a reluctant attitude towards change, the evolution of discovery, becomes limited to a significantly lesser scope. Despite this, these experiences have the power to be far-reaching and transformative, for broader society; able to question the individual’s rejection of discovery by challenging it from different perspectives. Thus, stimulating the onlooking audience to undergo a journey for themselves, evident in Ivan O’Mahoney’s documentary-drama Go Back To Where You Came From (2008) as well as Tim Winton’s short story The Turning (2004).
An individual relies on preconceived understandings to interpret confrontation. Human perceptivity only begins in environments and personal contexts that stimulate new experiences to impel discovery. Hence, the biggest hurdle and dictator along one’s process of discovery is oneself. Within Go Back, O’Mahoney assures the viewer of Raquel’s close-mindedness and sheltered knowledge, with the narration telling the audience she ‘left school at fourteen’. O’Mahoney incorporates an excerpt of an interview with Raquel, in which she admits, “I guess I am a bit racist – I just don’t like Africans”. Within her confession O’Mahoney continues the scene after she is finished talking, including her long pause after the statement, indicating to the viewer a contention behind her controversial words. This foreshadows Raquel’s continued apprehension to change when Maisara tells her defiant recount of her sister’s rape, Raquel is positioned as the salient image in the centre of the frame completely still with her mouth open in shock. However, this emotional provocation is later juxtaposed and discredited with a close-up, future tense line, “I’m not going to have African friends, it’s just not the way…”. Raquel’s tense manifests her stubbornness, unwilling to allow herself true transformation by confrontation. Towards the end of the series, however, Raquel finally allows herself to leave behind initial biases to genuinely observe the conditions of the Kakuma Refugee Camp in far North-West Kenya. She says she makes a ‘big shift’, transfiguring her beliefs. With feelings of sympathy, Raquel demonstrates a renewed understanding of the importance of observation without prejudice through personification in the lines, “I think people should give people a chance”. Yet as of her unwelcomed feelings towards personal transformation she refuses the opportunity to further her discovery in the indirect interview, “this is really emotional… I’d like to go home actually”, her specific word-choice of ‘emotional’ exhibits the way in which Raquel would rather be oblivious than further emotionally confronted or challenged. Thus, Raquel’s personal context and strong beliefs limit the alteration of her discovery, regardless of the poignant, challenging scenes O’Mahoney deliberately orchestrates.
Likewise, a persona may deeply require discovery but are reluctant to change, attributing confronting distress and despair to other elements of life. Tim Winton’s short story ‘The Turning’, exhibits this perplexing process through the portrayal of main character Raelene. Winton captures the individuals exhaustion, implying a deep yearning for change through symbolism within the line, “Raelene couldn’t stand being in the caravan another bloody minute”, with the caravan as a manifestation of Raelene’s dreary life. As well as this, Winton cleverly uses colloquial language throughout this short story, characterising Raelene as a stereotypical ‘bogan’, paralleling a context similar to that of Raquel in Go Back. Winton elucidates the protagonists’ neglectful treatment of her children as well as her abusive husband. This is exhibited when Raelene reflects upon the distasteful behaviour of her own family with a decisive pause in the line, “Raelene did not hold it against them – it was only natural”. This line indicates a distinct recognition of wrongdoing but quickly subdues due to her perceived notions of family life. It is not until Winton’s secondary character Sherry, challenges this through stark contrast, “[She] watched Sherry closely, saw the attention she lavished on the girls, how she always had her hands on them”, the loving connotations of ‘lavished’ implies the maternal nature of Sherry towards her children. The beautiful juxtaposition of Sherry, a motherly figure with a loving husband against her own husband and negligent parenting illustrate the deep flaw of her life. Winton captures this discovery through the metaphor, “She wanted [the love that Sherry] had, that special something… she bawled quietly and the effort to keep silent hurt worse than a beating”. Raelene considers the idea of transformation but expresses an unchangeable view of her husband and children in the lines, “She was too scared to leave him… she was really frightened of being alone. The girls’d never be enough for her. She needed a bloke.” Winton emphasises the hollow love Raelene has for her children despite what Sherry has taught her. Raelene deters her discovery, and rather than transforming her bleak family life, she decides on an opposing reason as to the confrontation Sherry ignites, shown through the rhetorical question, “I mean, I wondered what made you different, what it was you had. It’s religion isn’t it?”, attributing her sadness to lack of faith. Thus, Raelene makes a complex but incomplete intellectual discovery of understanding her husband’s grotesque ways and her own neglectful care of her children, but fails to transform. Instead, she embarks on a spiritual discovery with her newfound love for Jesus after seeing what it had done for Sherry. Winton successfully captures the way in which personal context can overrule images of confrontation and exposure to challenging ideas.
However, one’s discovery can be viewed by many, and while initial partaker may be stubborn towards the confrontation of discovery, an onlooker may undergo a transformation for themselves. Both O’Mahoney and Winton manipulate their audiences to be challenged when characters are disinclined to discover. In Go Back, Raquel dominates the screens, as a result of her provocative comments, creating a shock for the audience, most notably during the immigration raids in Malaysia. O’Mahoney uses non-diegetic fast, dramatic music intertwined with refugee’s screams to establish a tense environment for the audience, evoking feelings of distress and terror. Migrants are shown in fast passed transitions, with close-ups of both men women and children, to humanise the refugees and conjure deep audience empathy. Raquel’s non-diegetic narration states “They should be doing this in Australia”, heard over the distressing visual of an armed officer and audible cries of a baby. Her casual tone contrasts the chaotic events unfolding in front of the audience, implying Raquel’s little sense of empathy, thus, depicting her views as ‘ignorant’ and ‘heartless’. O’Mahoney’s strategic manipulation of Raquel challenges audiences who once shared these same views to transform and alter their preconceived notion of migrants in fear of potentially looking uneducated and emotionless. Moreover, Raelene in ‘The Turning’ is positioned to mirror to the audience the thought of a ‘shit mother’, forcing an audience discovery to care for the children when she herself does not. Winton writes this short story in third person, rather than first, to create a space between the audience and Raelene, allowing the reader the ability to scrutinise the character and see her flaws much objectively. Within ‘The Turning’ the names of ‘the girls’ are never said, expressing the way in which Raelene barely considers her children; yet Winton personifies them to the reading audience to create deep empathy in the lines, “Each of them sat in a cubicle swinging their legs, [Raelene] tried to light a little joint she’d been saving”. Winton’s clever use of imagery illustrates a confronting scene of innocent girls that have to endure the neglect of an uncaring mother. Thus, both composers O’Mahoney and Winton manipulate and confront their audience to discover through a stubborn persona.
Overall, one’s personal context has the power to evade confrontation and limit one’s discovery. Yet, when viewed from a broader audience from differing perspectives the confrontation is able to be interpreted in a new light and thus has the power to transform society rather than the individual. Therefore, challenging and confronting scenes are necessary to discover, but they themselves do not dictate the discovery, but rather trigger the initial thoughts needed in order to make a discovery allowing a persona to evolve.
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Topic: English Advanced AOS: Discovery Essay (Read 1053 times)