Australia is a very diverse and multicultural country and Australians come from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds. However, many Australians struggle with their Australian identities because they do not fit the "stereotypical Australian" description. As a result of stereotyping, Australians who are perceived as different can be alienated by their peers and even experience racism. Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem, documents her negative treatment by her classmates. Meanwhile, Ivy Tseng reveals the cultural struggles she experienced growing up. Through the use of aesthetic text features, each author reveals a contrasting experience of growing up as an Asian Australian. Pung reflects upon the exclusion she felt from her wealthy …show more content…
This is exemplified by Tseng when she creates a contrast between feelings of contempt for the Chinese lessons as a child to feelings of regret that she had not understood and valued their significance as an adult. Affect is shown in Chinese Lessons as Tseng spent the lessons "sulking and glaring" at her father. One similarity between the two memoirs is the strong regretful tone. These illustrate different struggles many young people of colour growing up in Australia face: Tseng's internalised hatred for her culture and Pung's external exclusion by her white peers. Judgement is used in Unpolished Gem to create a regretful tone while also challenging how Pung and her friends are perceived by their peers as boring and compliant: “If only they knew our lives did not revolve around study as much as theirs did— but they would never know.” This demonstrates how Pung's classmates made a snap-judgement about her without getting to know her. Regret is similarly and explicitly demonstrated through affect in Chinese Lessons: “I regret not paying closer attention… there's a sense of shame, a vague unease.” Tseng expresses remorse and a feeling of inauthenticity. Both authors struggled to make sense of conflicting parts of their identities throughout their …show more content…
In Tseng's memoir, repetition of long sentences is used to create a sense of monotony and boredom in regard to the lessons: “Eleven o'clock meant the end of video hits. Eleven o'clock meant the end of the Mandarin program on SBS radio. Eleven o'clock meant Mum washing the floors. Eleven o'clock meant Chinese lessons. Contrastingly, Pung strings together short and long clauses to engage the reader and create a rhythmic memoir, such as when she describes the moment her parents discover the reality of their children's schooling careers: “It must have hit them hard—that we were still sticking by each other, sticking with each other, and not getting out, not fitting in.” These different structures contribute to the respective writing styles of the authors. Tseng's is vaguely comedic, while Pung's is
Unpolished Gem is a thought provoking tale that explores the journey of Alice Pung from girl to woman. The memoir fluidly transitions between a series of themes and ideas, but through these a constant concept is explored; the cultural divide. Alice’s culture and background are the foundation of every decision she makes and thus, throughout the entire autobiography, the reader observes the implications of this, and often, the divide this creates. The reader perceives the social division Alice’s culture generates and the impact this has on relationships in and out of the home, and also in Alice’s ability to assimilate. Cultural divide is also apparent to the reader when comparing the expectations of Alice’s family to those of her classmates.
I, Faith Bandler, am a proud Australian. And I stand here today, amongst a young group of women who. Together, we walk the steps to achieve justice, for Indigenous, Torres Strait and South sea islander’s. This is my story. When I was born in 1918, in the small community of tumbulgum NSW, I was born a burden.
Introduction Good morning distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to the 24th annual Queensland Literary Symposium I’d like to highlight another prominent book that has captured readers with its engaging and thrilling storyline alone with significant aspects of human society and culture The story I specifically refer to is none other but the novel Jasper Jones Written by the Australian author Craig Silvery, Jasper Jones was set in the scorching summer of Western Australia in 1965.
There are a variety of ways and factors that influence how people are represented in different non-fiction and fiction texts. Indigenous Australians are usually represented in harmful disrespectful ways, but they are also represented in positive ways. There are many factors that contribute to these representations. In the year 8 fiction and non-fiction text studied in the last three terms, we have seen different representations of indigenous Australian people. The main factors contributing to these are, stereotypes, historical events, real life experiences and Two main ways Indigenous Australians can be represented in fiction and non-fiction texts are as people who are kind and friendly or people who are troublesome.
How does the discourse of whiteness impact upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ educational outcomes? Due to the white hegemony in modern society even as it continues to change, one thing that remains constant is the representation of ‘normal’ is being white. It is this hidden discourse of whiteness in society which remains invisible, yet, represents unearned power through sustained dominance and unware beneficiary of privilege. The universalisation and normalisation of whiteness as the representation of humanity is enshrined and conveyed in our curricula, television, films, museums, songs, novels, visual arts and other material culture (Moreton-Robinson, 2004). This blindness to whiteness subjects our Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Australian identity and what constitutes Australian culture are prominent ideas explored by Peter Goldsworthy’s Maestro. Throughout the novel, there is a strong sense of cynicism towards Australian culture as it is painted as ambiguous and indefinite. This is established through the analogy of Paul representing Australian society and his parents representing the British influence on Australian culture. Goldsworthy also explores the European influence on Australia through Kellar’s character. Goldsworthy’s broader message is that Australian identity is in fact quite complex and open to interpretation due how culturally diverse it is.
The third example “Husband and wife were originally birds in the same forest. When destiny determines each flies away” (p.36), Mei is saying Saoqiao is heartbroken and regretful, and even tried to commit suicide after her divorce. These three example conclude Menglong’s languages is hackneyed and low in literary because it quotes a set phrase dismissive of the true emotion between Xingge and Sanqiao. Feng Menglong’s content and method of his edification are different from traditional morality and Neo-Confucian ethics, but I’m still thinking, “The pearl Shirt Reecountered” is an interesting chapter to read because it is different from other books.
In this short story, we witness how a parent’s good intentions can ultimately lead to the destruction of their child’s motivation. The road to prodigy all began when Jing-Mei’s mother desired her to be a “Chinese Shirley Temple” (Tan). After the countless movies watched and the failed trip to the beauty school, that dream came to an end as quickly as it had started. This however, opened the door to many more tests of trial and error.
No matter what changes are made, as long as their skin colour isn’t pure white, they will never be regarded as “Australian”. This puts stress on the requirement for migrants to completely dispose of their own identity for an “Australian” identity. The fact that the protagonist claims that he or she has provided the migrants with equality is also ironic. “Learn English to Distinguish ESL from RSL”, the utilisation of assonance and internal rhyme
How effectively do the prescribed poems use language forms and feature to convey images of the Australian landscape? The beauty and significance of an Australian landscape is successfully conveyed in the poems through a variety of language forms and features. My Country by Dorothea Mackellar and Red by W.Les Russell are the medium through which poets express their feelings and love towards Australia. The poem Red by W.Les Russell reflects the Australian Indigenous spiritual, physical, social and cultural connection to Australia through flora, fauna and land.
Over these many years, many personal stories have come out about their experience being an Australian Aboriginal. Beulah Pickwick who is an Australian Aboriginal has shared her story (National). She has experienced a lot of prejudice over the years (National). Beulah grew up with an enjoyable childhood growing up by the Tweed River (National). Growing up she did not suffer much from racism besides some police harassment when was hanging out with her white friends (National).
Picture book review: Stolen girl August 2015 ‘Stolen girl’ written by Trina Saffioti and illustrated by Norma MacDonald, is a touching, emotionally stirring picture book about the tourment a young aboriginal girl experiences when she was taken away from her mother, by the Australian government. The story takes place in a children’s home and is told with the use of small bursts of detailed paragraphs and intense, colourful and melancholy illustrations. Written for 8-10 year olds, the purpose of the book represents the experiences of children who were a part of the stolen generation in the 1900s-1970s. In this time period it was government policy in Australia that each indigenous Australian child was to be removed from their families as the
Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which
By nature, shorter poems are more densely packed with cues and devices because authors cannot express their intended message over the sweeping length of a poem but rather they must be more concise and creative. A poet may write a shorter poem to juxtapose a simple surface message to a more meaningful deeper message. Thus, complexity and artistic value are unrelated to length, but rather, they are developed through masterful writing. “Good Times” by Lucille Clifton embodies the double-edged sword of complex storytelling within a short poem, as she identifies the speaker 's occasional good memories to develop an image of the speaker’s typical abject life. The short poem is crafted with patterns of repetition, for there are so few lines to fit meaningful insight into.
Final Assignment of English Literature Reading BY YANG ZONGYOU, D01 “The False Gems”by the great writer Guy de Maupassant is a miracle that draws a delicate and precise image of France in the late 19th century. Written in an objective view, woven with sarcasm, this little piece of art reflects the truth of the society and humanity in its era without any obvious rhetoric, like a real old gem that shimmers constantly and gorgeously, leaving an ample space of ambiguity for readers to ponder over and over again. “The False Gems” seems to be objective, however, on the contrary, the plot of the story itself is a barrel of irony, in which the author 's opinion and emotion lies deeply — the genuine ones are found fake, while the false ones turn out to be real; knowing everything is not always good. Mrs. Lantin 's before-and-after contrary is ironic. At the very beginning of the story, everyone is convinced that Mrs. Lantin was a virtuous woman.