What insights have you gained about change from "Saving Francasca" using reference also to Robert Grey's "North Coast Town"

Title: Saving Francesca

Date: 2003

Author: Melina Marchetta

Publisher: Penguin Books Australia

The novel "Saving Francesca" by Melina Marchetta takes place over the middle two terms of the year Francesca Spinelli is in Year 11. She is at a new school, St Sebastian's, a boys school that has just started accepting girls. As well as this her mother becomes seriously depressed and her family begins to fall apart. Identity, friendship and family are the novel's focus themes and through the development of these themes concepts about change can be identified. The change that occurs in the novel Saving Francesca can be divided into two clear sections. The first, most obvious, change is the physical change of Francesca moving from the middle school to the senior school. This means a new school environment, new friends and new responsibilities. However, it is the emotional and mental changes that occur in her life and the lives of her family/ friends as a result of this physical change and her mother's depression that reveals major concepts about change.

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The forced change of moving school illustrates that change is an inevitable and necessary part of the process of maturing. Through the problems in her family due to her mother's depression it can be identified that change reveals the true character of people. It also highlights the importance of change for appreciation of the old. Her mother's depression and the problems associated with it also show the ripple effect of change or in other words the dynamic nature of it. These concepts of change can also be identified in Robert Gray's poems 'North Coast Town.'

The dominant concept about change in Saving Francesca is the idea that change reveals the true character of people. During the period of her mothers depression her family is...