Personal and Cultural Expression

Personal and Cultural Expression

YEAR 10 ENGLISH

Independent Reading Task

Tran Hoang

The world Emily Bronte knew was in an isolated village of Yorkshire that is surrounded by the moors which are muddy and rocky marshes accompanied with severe atmospheric tumult. However with her imagination, Bronte was able to romanticise these bleak moors around Wuthering Heights and its “pure, bracing ventilation” (p1) by using it to symbolise how the love between Catherine and Heathcliff is like a tempest.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

This novel explores the creativity aspect of the Global Context as Bronte have imaginatively constructed Catherine Earnshaw as a complex and intriguing character in conflict who is challenged by the duality of her personality. In her youth, Catherine was impetuous and haughty, a girl defiant to authority and pledged to “grow up as rude as savages” (p47). She also loved garnering attention as

“She was never so happy as when we were all scolding at her at once” (p43). Moreover, a part of her is composed of Heathcliff’s unkempt ruffian side. However, as Cathy experiences such “invariable courtesy” (p69) from the refined Linton, she develops a sense of shame for her “rough side” (p69) and adopts a double character which reflects Edgar Linton’s noble cordiality. The exposure to luxury asserts Catherine's narcissistic and materialistic side and she began to treat Heathcliff condescendingly and dismiss his troubles as if they were “of scarcely any consequence to her” (p70). Due to the duality of her personality, Cathy has a vague comprehension of her feelings which led to her marriage crisis with Edgar as she realises the affections she bored for him were based merely on physical attraction. Contrastingly, her love for Heathcliff is a reunion of souls ; it is “the eternal rocks” (p86) which cannot be changed with time, unlike “the foliage” (p86)—her affections for Edgar. This great character development links back to the Global Context as it reveals the complexity of the human nature as well as how feelings are discovered.

Emily Bronte

Bronte also explores the Global Context’s appreciation of the aesthetics by diverting her great appreciation for moors in Catherine and Heathcliff. She also implemented her belief that the natural world allows one to live “more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, chance and frivolous external things” (p 61). This is evidenced as Bronte constructs an imagery of the two civilised children, Isabella and Edgar, fighting and crying over a puppy inside the refined Grange whilst the two ruffian children, Catherine and Heathcliff, outside in the moors are inseparable. Thus, Bronte is encouraging the appreciation of rural aesthetics as the natural world inspires intimacy, wildness and deep introspection.

Wuthering Heights is a dark and violent tale of vengeance, torture and passion between two contrasting abodes on the moors.

A motif implemented in Wuthering Heights is the existence of souls and spectres, which reflects the popular belief of England in the 19th century and the Global Context aspect of culture and beliefs. It is first used when Catherine confides to Nelly that “Whatever souls are made of, [Heathcliff’s] and [her’s] are the same” (p84) and that she “is Heathcliff” (p86). Thus, after Catherine’s early death—Heathcliff became delirious as his “soul is in the grave” (p170). However as ghosts haunts their murderers, Heathcliff was disturbed “day and night, through eighteen years, incessantly, remorselessly” (p304) by Catherine. Consequently, Heathcliff is in a situation that only in death could he be extricated. Cleverly, Bronte foreshadows that Heathcliff “attained [his] heaven” (p353) of being reunited with Catherine as a ghost when he died with “one hand that rested on the sill” (p354). Hence, this link back to the Global Context of feelings as the love between Heathcliff and Catherine transcend the divide between life and death.

The theme of nature of the Global Context is also utilised in Wuthering Heights as Catherine went against her true self. Her marriage to Edgar is a betrayal to Heathcliff, which is a betrayal to herself.

Living in Thrushcross Grange with Edgar physically separates Catherine from Heathcliff and her natural affinity to be wild and carefree in the moors. Thus, Catherine have deprived herself of her source of vitality and the dire consequence of her being without Heathcliff is death as she “cannot live without [her] life…her soul” (p177).

Thy Lam

At the start of her autobiography, Pung emphasizes that an individual’s capability to discover and express such ideas and values are not always diminished by cultural barriers or inabilities. This is evident as the author retells her memories of the suburb in the Western World where she grew up with her family and would be constantly “…surrounded by brown faces.” (p3) Despite the great difference between the ethnicities within her community, Pung’s father, an immigrant from Thailand, discovers that there more ways than one to express his opinions with the public. Even though not all “…parties…spick da Ingrish velly good…” (p1), Yuan Pung found that he could convey his desires through “…much hand-gesticulating and furrowing of brow...” (p1) Through these series of events, Pung intends to explore the concept of being proficient of personal expression in spite of language barriers; that there are other ways an individual can voice their needs without having to speak fluent English, or any language in that matter.

UNPOLISHED GEM

by Alice Pung

The Pung family reflects the Global Context because they find ways of personally and culturally expressing themselves despite their language barriers and difference in ethnicities. Pung wants to convey that an individual is still capable of being accepted within a community by sharing their ideas and values rather than changing and adapting to ones that are not their own. The author also shows that a person’s beliefs and opinions is greatly influenced by their lifestyle and experiences; which means that their point-of-views can be different from others depending on their encounters with the subject in the past. Through her novel Alice Pung effectively portrays the Global Context through the story of her life as she and her family overcome difficulties in order to find ways of expressing their ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs, and values.

Alice Pung’s novel, ‘Unpolished Gem’ explores the ways in which an individual personally and culturally expresses themselves and the factors that can cause these expressions to differ between each person. The novel is Pung’s memoir from childhood to her early stages of adulthood; throughout the course of her life, she and her family experiences hardships with situations related to their beliefs and culture. As the Pungs overcome obstacles that prevent them from expressing their own personal and cultural identity, they learn that change is not always the key to acceptance; that they are still able to belong in a diverse and multi-cultural society while embracing their own ideas and values.

The author also demonstrates that ideas and values are, to a great extent, shaped by past experiences and cultural background. This thought is particularly evident in Part 1, when Grandma Po “…beseech[es] the Lord Buddha to bless St Vincent and his find fraternity for… such finery.” (p7) The general Australian society usually considers clothes from the St. Vincent de Paul Society as mostly inefficient and worthless. However, Pung depicts that her family is eternally grateful for the little that they receive after moving from the economically-struggling regions of China. This concept reflects the Global Context as the author’s views contradict those in their local community and is influenced by the Pung’s previous lifestyle of poverty before arriving in Australia. This aspect is further stressed by Pung through the sheer amazement that her family faces when confronted with new ideas; they are shocked by “…so many things about this… country [that] are… taken-for-granted...” (p9) Simple prospects that are often considered insignificant to many readers are seen in high regards through the Pung family’s eyes. An example of this is shown when Grandma Po becomes overwhelmed by the idea of having traffic lights that signal cars to give way to pedestrians; “The little Green Man was an eternal symbol of government… to serve and protect… no one walks like they have to hide.” (pp8-9) This contrasts with her previous life in China, where everyone has to give way to vehicles or risk being hit-and-run over. Pung effectively shows that common aspects that are often seen as of little worth to a majority of people can be seen from an entirely different point-of-view in the eyes of other people under different circumstances.

Thanya Pavalaksanawat

The author portrays that the Pung family’s appreciation for the aesthetic is also based on existing ideas and beliefs. The Pungs live in the dull and desolate suburb of Footscray in Melbourne, which “…reeks of the putrid smell of if-it-can-even-be-called garbage littered here, there and everywhere…” (p17) Despite the poor state of their environment, they are more than content to be living where there is freedom and opportunity; “...it doesn’t really matter that these footpaths are not lined with gold…” (p2). Alice Pung continues to demonstrate that many concepts that, are seen as valueless, can be a great deal more meaningful for those who have been deprived of opportunities in the past. The Pungs had faced many difficulties in order to gain citizenship in Australia, such as having to “…travel… through three [whole]… countries by foot…” (p10). Even with their hazardless journey that was certainly no small feat, considering all near-death experiences, “…nothing could prepare them for… escalators.” (p10) These escalators that people rarely take a second glance at, is a concept that the Pungs find astoundingly unbelievable, knowing that their home in China had lacked modern technology. Through such events when the Pungs would be faced with new ideas, the author aims to express that an individual’s values can differ from those of another depending on their current knowledge and experiences; “Every journey is one small step for Australians, but one giant leap for the Wah-sers.” (p10)

Tolkien creates a very mysterious world for readers, leading them to explore and express their ideas and feelings about The Hobbit. Tolkien writes a “… story… long…” (p9) before humans existed. Tolkien links his ideas to his influences of mythology, magic and legends. Tolkien creates a fantasy world where human-like and non- human-like creatures exist, like hobbits, dwarves, wizards, goblins, dragons, wolves and many more. Tolkien uses his creativity throughout the novel to engage readers, allowing them to express their ideas of the fantasy world that Tolkien writes about. When Tolkien describes “... one stream… black and strong… [which] carries enchantment…”(p166), and from this the author allows readers to see how he creates the fantasy- like world. In response to Tolkien’s novel, readers encounter heroism, and that impossible things that can occur and to have good overshadow evil, seen where “victory has been assured…” (p349) for the good. Therefore, Tolkien creates a fantasy-like world and based on the theme of heroism where good will always win, leading readers to express their ideas and feelings towards the novel.

THE HOBBIT

J.R.R. Tolkien

The author creates a fantasy-like world full of dangerous creatures and places where Bilbo Baggins is reluctant to go on a journey, but this adventure will change him psychologically. Bilbo is a hobbit who is scared and unenthusiastic but gradually turns into a confident, brave hobbit.

Tolkien has written The Hobbit to show his personal and cultural expression towards the evils of the world and how going out of one’s comfort can affect a person personally.

Tolkien promotes beliefs and values within the novel, allowing readers to understand the author’s intentions. As the novel follows the theme of heroism, good always out shadows the evil. The Hobbit aims to be seen as a parable of World War 1, where in the end good will always win. Though the theme is based on heroism it is not always the typical almighty, handsome and strong man that defeats the evil it can be anyone. Through this book, Tolkien wants readers to understand that, though Bilbo “… looks more like a grocer than a burglar…” (p31) and is small and has “… no magic about [him]…” (p12). Bilbo Baggins still ends up being the hero of the book, Baggins ends up helping the dwarves and everyone be reunited again in the end of the book. In response to this readers come to understand that no matter what a person looks like, they have the power to change the world around them in a good way and knowing that good will always defeat the evils of the world. Hence, it can be seen that Tolkien tries to allow readers to understand the Global Context, Personal and Cultural expression because of the beliefs and values of the novel.

Tolkien wants readers to explore how they express their ideas and feelings towards Bilbo’s journey. The Hobbit is about a journey, but not only is it a physical journey it is an emotional journey for Bilbo. Throughout the book, Bilbo is thrown into many uncomfortable situations that he thought he would never do. First Bilbo is quite hesitant about going onto a journey where “…he couldn’t bear it any longer…” (p30) and the thought of “… never returning…” (p30) made him want to “…shriek…” (p30) However, by the end of the book readers come to understand that this journey actually benefitted him, allowing him to experience things out of his comfort zone. Readers then come to understand that Bilbo has grown a lot from this journey where he has “… courage… and wisdom…” (p346) just from moving out of his comfort zone. Tolkien tries to tell readers about his feelings and ideas of how people can grow to become a better person, when they are not in their comfort zone. Moving out of one’s comfort zone allows people to experience new things and to mentally challenge themselves to add more qualities to one’s self, as this will help them contribute good things to the world. Therefore, Tolkien wants readers to understand that taking risks will put you on an emotional journey and add more qualities to one’s self.

Nhi Nguyen

Cather Avery is “really active in the [Simon Snow] fandom” (pg43) and uses her own creativity to write fan fiction about Baz and Simon from the book series. Through her fan fiction stories, she expresses her ideas, feelings, culture, beliefs and values and uploads it to “Fanfixx.net” (pg45) to enjoy with not only herself and her family and friends, but with many others around the world.

FANGIRL

Rainbow Rowell

Through the novel Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell showed the audience that through our past experiences, relationships and interests, we can discover our ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values. We can express these aspects through our creativity and imagination and reflect, extend and enjoy it. Rowell has showed this through Cather Avery’s love for fan fiction writing and how her life has affected her creativity.

During the story, Cath signed up to a Fiction Writing class at university. However she soon found out that it was entirely different to fan fiction writing. She found herself switching from doing her fiction writing homework to her fan fiction writing was like “realising she’d been driving in the wrong gear” (pg205). Cather found herself questioning her own fan fiction writing compared to the fiction writing she was meant to do in her Fiction Writing class. She often found herself in many situations where she disagreed with the teacher. For Cath, she did not “want to make up [her] own characters” (pg331) but to “pour [herself] into a world [she] loves and understand”.

Amy Lu

Rainbow Rowell has explored the ways in which we discover and express our ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values through her novel Fangirl. Her novel also explores the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity as well as our appreciation of the aesthetic through her story of Cather (Cath) Avery.

• The sisters’ struggle during their transition from adolescence to adulthood stems mainly from a woman’s role in society during the 19th century: to be “prim as a China Aster…and…stay home and knit” (p6). In this novel, Alcott primarily highlights four different ways to deal with this situation. This can be linked back to the Global Context as Alcott describes the ways women express themselves and their beliefs in such a restrictive culture.

• The sisters are influenced by their parents, learning to discover and express their values and beliefs through their parents’ teachings, particularly Mrs March who “must try to practise all the virtues [she] would have [her] little girls possess”. It is through their parents that the sisters develop their good qualities which will allow them to persevere in a society that lacks gender equality and is focussed on “pretty things” (p63).

To Cath, her fan fiction stories are “not just stories” (pg126) but her entire soul poured into creating the words to form fan fiction. However many problems arise through the novel that gets in the way of Cather’s fanfiction writing – which Cather learns how to deal with. Many times through the book, the problems would be too much for her to handle and this reflected on Cather’s creativity and imagination. She often stayed up all night “to get lost in the World of Mages and stay lost” (pg98). Cath also realised that her interest in fan fiction writing was simply “to be somewhere else” (pg23), away from her problems. Between her family problems and college problems, Cather also had a deadline to finish her fan fiction story about Baz and Simon before the last book in the Simon Snow series came out.

Cather also has a twin sister named Wren and before they went to college, they did everything together as a pair. Yet once they’ve arrived to college, Wren changed and she decided to leave the pair and experience college by herself – attending parties and "getting high" (pg28) . Wren’s unhealthy decisions led her to extreme situations as she ended up in a hospital from too much alcohol. This affected Cath’s creativity as her distress for her sister got in the way of her writing.

LITTLE WOMEN

• Meg, the oldest of the sisters, initially longs for a luxurious life and “[sighs] to be rich” (p148). She faces conflicts with her immature desires for luxury items, allowing herself to be lured by her richer peers into “[dressing]…up” (p161), not realising “how rich she was in blessings which alone can make life happy” (p63). However, Meg succumbs to the constraints of a woman’s role in society by marrying young and being a dutiful wife by “[trying] to look deeply interested” (p698) in her husband’s interests and being a “model housekeeper” (p478). Alcott surprises the reader by highlighting Meg’s set of values instilled in her by her parents through her marriage of a poor man that she deeply loves. However, Meg’s vanity also makes a few appearances throughout their marriage, provoked by the profligate lifestyle of Meg’s friend, Sallie Moffat. In order to accommodate Meg’s lavish tastes, her husband denies himself of necessities. This display shocks Meg, helping her to learn to “love her husband better for his poverty” (p498), overcoming her vanity to reach a sense of fulfilment despite their economic problems.

Louisa May Alcott

• Little Women follows the journey of the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth as they grow up in 19th century America and are constrained by its expectations of women.

• Alcott also highlights the clash of English and American culture when the March sisters and Laurie enjoy a day with the Vaughns from England. Their first encounter is clustered with observations and comparisons; Meg is relieved to see English Kate “dressed with a simplicity which American girls” (p219) should imitate despite her “standoff-don’t-touch-me air” (p219). After Fred Vaughn slyly manipulates the game Jo declares “[they] don’t cheat in America” (p222) whereas Fred believes “Yankees are a deal the most tricky” (p222). However their patriotism leads to a divide, particularly snide remarks about Meg’s occupation, hurting her pride and degrading her.

• Alcott explores another option of dealing with the restrictive role of a woman in 19th century America: to conform to its standards like Beth March. Beth exemplifies the ideal woman in America as she is demure and a “housewifely little creature” (p66). Her subservient nature and duty to her family is perceived by Alcott as weaker than her sisters as she passes away. By choosing to conform to society’s beliefs, Beth regrets “[doing] so little” (p733-4) with her life, perhaps reflecting the secret sorrows of so many women in the 19th century who felt it was their duty to be a caring wife.

• Jo is considered as an unconventional woman at the time because she is outspoken and displays socially unacceptable, un-ladylike behaviour. Alcott explores the idea of rebelling and breaking the status quo through Jo’s behaviour. Jo is a woman of independence and initially attempts to break free of the social standards regarding women by using profanity and refusing to “turn [her] hair up” (p5). She slowly loses her individuality by “[writing] no more sensational stories” (p626), “[carrying] herself with ease” (p437) and losing her “sharp tongue” (p437); she has gradually matured into the ideal woman of the 19th century. Jo has now lost her professional occupation as a writer and by marrying Professor Bhaer, she replaces her fiery independence with domestic duties. Alcott highlights the impracticality of Jo’s approach to the filial expectations of a woman through Jo’s transition to a devoted wife; conforming to society’s expectations is inevitable.