AOS- physical journeys in reference to Feliks Skrzyneki with two peices of related material

Essay by kirstin89High School, 12th grade October 2006

download word file, 6 pages 5.0 2 reviews

Journeys are the adventures which form the underlying basis of one's life. A deeper understanding of journeys can be found through Peter Skrzynecki's Crossing the Red Sea and Feliks Skrzynecki from his anthology Immigrant chronicle, also through the Board of Studies text Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, the article Born into Bondage by journalist Paul Raffaele and the movie advertisement for "The Constant Gardener" directed by Fernando Meirelles.

A physical journey will inevitably impact upon those who travel it. Crossing the Red Sea tells of history and memories of Polish migrants on their voyage to Australia. The poem has provided evidence as to how a physical journey has impacted on Skrzynecki through his migrant experiences. The journey by sea had left the migrants with diverse emotions and attitudes, relieved they are fortunate enough to escape their dangerous past and oppressors, but also anxious as to enter a new country they know little of.

Physical journeys have life changing potential which is discovered when Skrzynecki biblically infers Moses leading the Jews out of oppression in Egypt through the "Promised Land of Canaan", in the same way the Europeans fled their homes in war-torn Europe to partake in a voyage across the Red Sea to the new "Promised Land" of Australia. Skrzynecki evokes the sense of poor conditions, which creates a physical comparison of the long period of their travels between nations. He effectively conveys the past sufferings, and misery the migrants have endured through "sunken eyes" and "the red banners", these memories are still valid in their minds. "Caves" and "shackles" metaphorically suggest emotional hardships, and emphasises the darkness and emptiness of their lives. "Mountains and green rivers" are used as symbols of life in which there is hope that the migrants can better their lives...