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Author Topic: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread  (Read 15762 times)

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ssarahj

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Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« on: September 16, 2016, 10:56:24 am »
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This is the place to ask all your burning questions about Michael Gow's play Away. Many of the 2017 HSC classes, both Standard and Advanced, will be starting to read and study this prescribed text for AOS Discovery in the coming weeks, so feel free to come here to bounce ideas around, discuss quotes, analysis and get advice on connecting related texts.

I studied Away for Discovery and saw a stage production of it this year and absolutely loved it, so I'm keen to help out where I can  :)
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2016, 11:25:13 am »
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This is the place to ask all your burning questions about Michael Gow's play Away. Many of the 2017 HSC classes, both Standard and Advanced, will be starting to read and study this prescribed text for AOS Discovery in the coming weeks, so feel free to come here to bounce ideas around, discuss quotes, analysis and get advice on connecting related texts.

I studied Away for Discovery and saw a stage production of it this year and absolutely loved it, so I'm keen to help out where I can  :)

I'll start off (even though I haven't read the book yet)

What are some of the aspects of discovery explored in the play?

What are some good related texts (e.g. Is Joseph Conrad's heart of Darkness a suitable related text, or is a text like looking for Alibrandi)?

ssarahj

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2016, 07:25:03 pm »
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I'll start off (even though I haven't read the book yet)

What are some of the aspects of discovery explored in the play?

What are some good related texts (e.g. Is Joseph Conrad's heart of Darkness a suitable related text, or is a text like looking for Alibrandi)?

Hopefully the aspects of discovery will be very obvious to you once you've actually read the play. But just to show you a few examples, each discovery is very much centred around each character's journey and their relationships:
- Gwen = discovers the importance of family relationships over materialism
- Coral = discovers her ability to continue life without her son
- Tom = acts as a catalyst for other character's discoveries/healing and comes to terms with his own mortality

In terms of related texts for discovery there is a huge variety to choose from and Away is not difficult to connect with. Its often easier to pick a text that you like and actually want to write about, and then you do a brainstorm to see if you can connect your ideas from your prescribed text insightfully with your related text to form a solid thesis.
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2016, 09:25:08 pm »
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Hopefully the aspects of discovery will be very obvious to you once you've actually read the play. But just to show you a few examples, each discovery is very much centred around each character's journey and their relationships:
- Gwen = discovers the importance of family relationships over materialism
- Coral = discovers her ability to continue life without her son
- Tom = acts as a catalyst for other character's discoveries/healing and comes to terms with his own mortality

In terms of related texts for discovery there is a huge variety to choose from and Away is not difficult to connect with. Its often easier to pick a text that you like and actually want to write about, and then you do a brainstorm to see if you can connect your ideas from your prescribed text insightfully with your related text to form a solid thesis.

Is it neccessary to know their change when they had "self discovered" something?

Also what related text did you so Ssarahj?

ssarahj

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2016, 09:41:08 pm »
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Is it neccessary to know their change when they had "self discovered" something?

Also what related text did you so Ssarahj?

In short, yes. You can't write about a character's self-discovery insightfully without showing a full understanding of their situation before and after the discovery.

My related text was the film Mao's Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford.
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2016, 10:42:02 am »
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In short, yes. You can't write about a character's self-discovery insightfully without showing a full understanding of their situation before and after the discovery.

My related text was the film Mao's Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford.

So could you say something like this: discoveries lead to change in others. In Away by Michael Gow _________________________________________. (further expand on what happens in Away) ____________________. This has been demonstrated in the use of _____________, (explain the technique). (relate back to thesis statement)
Now we do same thing but for related text

What aspects of discovery was there in Mao's last Dancer? I was thinking of doing a related text about going on a journey and having a self discovery which leads to change-similar to Away by Michael Gow

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2016, 11:02:04 am »
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So could you say something like this: discoveries lead to change in others. In Away by Michael Gow _________________________________________. (further expand on what happens in Away) ____________________. This has been demonstrated in the use of _____________, (explain the technique). (relate back to thesis statement)
Now we do same thing but for related text

Yep something like that.

What aspects of discovery was there in Mao's last Dancer? I was thinking of doing a related text about going on a journey and having a self discovery which leads to change-similar to Away by Michael Gow

In Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin (the main character) experiences discoveries related to his moving from China to America as well as developing as a dancer.

For related texts, pick something you actually like! There's about a hundred resources with related text suggestions online, so find a couple you enjoy and then see if they connect to Away.
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EmileeSmith

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2016, 11:22:03 am »
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 how many characters from Away should we talk about in the essay?

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2016, 11:49:37 am »
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Yep something like that.

In Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin (the main character) experiences discoveries related to his moving from China to America as well as developing as a dancer.

For related texts, pick something you actually like! There's about a hundred resources with related text suggestions online, so find a couple you enjoy and then see if they connect to Away.

I think this matches perfectly with Away. Have you read looking for Alibrandi Ssarahj?

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2016, 04:26:58 pm »
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how many characters from Away should we talk about in the essay?

This really depends on your ideas and which character/s fits the best. I'd probably recommend to talk about a minimum of 3 characters in depth e.g. Gwen, Coral and Tom. Every character in Away is worthy of mentioning so your essay can be made a lot stronger by even just name dropping other characters names or having a sentence here and there, e.g. when talking about Coral you might also mention Roy.

The main thing is that you want to show a depth of knowledge about the whole play, so talking about 1 or 2 characters can often be limiting.

I think this matches perfectly with Away. Have you read looking for Alibrandi Ssarahj?

No I haven't actually, I've read a bit about it over the years but have never gotten around to actually reading it  ::) I've heard it can be a strong related text!
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2016, 06:10:56 pm »
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This really depends on your ideas and which character/s fits the best. I'd probably recommend to talk about a minimum of 3 characters in depth e.g. Gwen, Coral and Tom. Every character in Away is worthy of mentioning so your essay can be made a lot stronger by even just name dropping other characters names or having a sentence here and there, e.g. when talking about Coral you might also mention Roy.

The main thing is that you want to show a depth of knowledge about the whole play, so talking about 1 or 2 characters can often be limiting.

No I haven't actually, I've read a bit about it over the years but have never gotten around to actually reading it  ::) I've heard it can be a strong related text!

I think it's more about how you explain the discoveries mentioned and their impacts on the character rather than the character

Oh great, maybe I could use it as my related text. I don't think there is a sort of "physical journey" though, which kinda makes it hard for me to pick the right related text

What about the road not taken by robert frost (I don't think there are any discoveries in there but I know that there is a change)?

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2016, 07:39:39 pm »
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(I don't think there are any discoveries in there but I know that there is a change)?

For a Discovery essay, probably pick a related text that you think is about discovery.
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2016, 08:54:02 am »
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I think it's more about how you explain the discoveries mentioned and their impacts on the character rather than the character

Oh great, maybe I could use it as my related text. I don't think there is a sort of "physical journey" though, which kinda makes it hard for me to pick the right related text

What about the road not taken by robert frost (I don't think there are any discoveries in there but I know that there is a change)?

If there's no discoveries in a text, there is absolutely no way it can be used effectively for AOS Discovery. Its really as simple as that. I'd suggest actually reading Away, your prescribed text and getting an excellent understanding of it before worrying about related texts.
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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2016, 04:31:34 pm »
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what other themes can I talk about for Away apart from the obvious ones

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Re: Michael Gow's 'Away' Question/Discussion Thread
« Reply #14 on: September 19, 2016, 04:35:37 pm »
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Unfortunately, I may not be doing Away by Michael Gow for school because every class is doing a different text and for yr 12, they're rearranging the classes