Speech: Journey representations through texts and visual image

Essay by eolayCollege, UndergraduateA, March 2004

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From the area of study on journeys, several texts evidently provide and present ideas, concepts and themes on journeys. A journey can be considered a physical movement from one place to another, but there are much deeper meanings conveyed in a journey. This can be seen in two of the Peter Skrzynecki's poems in the core text 'Immigrant Chronicles'. The poems 'Crossing the Red Sea' and 'Feliks Skzrynecki' significantly convey the meaning of journeys. The poems with an internet article titled 'Journeys: A Cycle of Sacred Time' and a journey related photograph influentially demonstrate how there is more to a journey than just physical movement. All these texts convey to the responder the many themes and concepts associated with journeys which at first sight seem physical, but actually also emotionally and spiritually affect the protagonist of the journey.

In Peter Skrzynecki's 'Crossing the Red Sea' the poem tells us about the post-war immigrants leaving on board a ship sailing towards Australia.

The poem catches the immigrant experience at a point between two worlds. The depiction of the great physical journey that these immigrants are taking also lets the responder see the inner journey involved for the immigrants.

The techniques used in 'Crossing the Red Sea' help to convey its meaning of journeys to the responder. The biblical allusion in the title is appropriate to the Israelis being led out of repression in Egypt by Moses through the Red Sea, to the Promised Land. For the immigrants they are leaving war torn Europe to Australia, their land of promise. For the Israelis it was a journey of liberation from slavery and oppression. Similarly, the immigrants are escaping post-war tyranny in hope for a better future. Another bit of biblical allusion mentions some of...