Physical journey

Essay by hiddenagendaHigh School, 12th gradeA+, November 2006

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"Journeys often lead to a greater sense of self and understanding of the world".

Journeys are processes whereby travellers undergo inner growth, changes of perspective, and overcome challenges and obstacles. These changes ultimately result in the travellers gaining a greater sense of self, and a broadened understanding of the world.

Aspects of physical journeys and the aforementioned changes that they initiate are reflected through a range of visual and literary techniques in Peter Skrzynecki's poems - "Crossing the Red Sea" and "Immigrants at Central Station, 1951", an extract of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows", and Mee Ping Leung's installation, "Memorise the Future".

In "Crossing the Red Sea", the journey becomes a purification process which allows the migrants to face the horrors from the Second World War. At the opening of the poem, we are introduced to the migrants as " landscape of milk-white flesh".

The emotional purgation that the journey initiates for the migrants grants them a greater sense of self and understanding of the world. The title of the work, "Crossing the Red Sea", suggests that the journey that the migrants are making is one of danger yet liberation - just as the Israelites made the perilous journey across the Red Sea to escape slavery, the immigrants are making their journey to leave behind their war-torn country, and to escape persecution and oppression. In "Immigrants at Central Station, 1951", vivid visual and aural imagery is used to portray the migrants' journey as one of discomfort, humiliation and uncertainty. Firstly, the paradoxical title of the work, "Memorise the Future" suggests that a journey both delves into the past - the realm of "memory", and also progresses onwards into the "future". In the extract from "The Wind in the Willows", differing perspectives...