Blood On The Tracks is an extract taken from an article in Metro Magazine. It is targeted at an intellectual audience hence it offers valuable insights into meaning in media-based texts. This article investigates the notion of the road metaphor being a major element in any type of journey.
The text opens in an analytical tone; “the road metaphor is significant in many ways”, an authoritative statement which presents the subject of the article. The sophisticated style of writing and the use of critical language allows the reader to engage in the text as the composer explores the notion road metaphor.
The first paragraph demonstrates the significance of the road metaphor describing a road as something which “cuts across…nature and culture”, and “enabling a way”. This positive tone challenges the responder’s imagination and in doing so allows the responder to portray the road metaphor positively. By describing a dilemma as “a life as a crossroad”, the composer is able to through the use of imagination to make a metaphorical connection between life and a road, reinforcing its significance.
In the second paragraph, the composer cites examples of the significance of the road metaphor in a long list of genres and example texts, demonstrating the extent to which the road metaphor is significant in various texts throughout time. Describing it as “embedded within…ourselves” and having “paved the way”, the composer reinforces to the responder her perception of the road metaphor as a powerful motif.
The Essay on Road Widening Of Daang Maharlika
INTRODUCTION Philippine transportation in the early years of 1900 is depending largely on trails, waterways, earth roads, rail roads and partialy graveled roads. Proper roads or highways in those times were merely a dream for Filipinos. The development of roadways in our country was merely initiated by the time that the Americans stayed in our mother land. The popular Macadam road type which ...
It is followed by an analysis of Beneath Clouds; an Australian film that the composer perhaps feels is undervalued, debating the notion that it appears to be “a deceptively simple narrative”. Describing it as “hardly groundbreaking in terms of style or approach”, she then points out that it “nonetheless manages to blaze its own trail within Australian cinema”. The word “blaze” connotes speed, and reflects the composer’s personal opinion of it. The metaphorical journey is then explained, describing the characters as “travellers heading for the borders of their respective identities”. Through this the responders begin to use their imagination to absorb the context and claims made by the reviewer.
The Town Where Time Stands Still
This short extract of The Town Where Time Stands Still by Geok Lim relates well to the concept of journey. It uses formal and complex language to discuss the motivations behind travelling.
Lim believes that a combined motive of the search for the genii loci, that is the ultimate psychological and spiritual experience which can be experienced through an imaginative journey, and a motive of profit and pleasure drives the traveler to explore and discover. The experience of the “genii loci” occurs when the traveler is moved by an experience. The composer gives an indication that ones journey can be either a physical, inner or imaginative.
This extract uses powerful language to interest the reader. “Humans hope to be moved rather than to move” is a simple phrase, which is extremely powerful. This quote thrills the responder as he or she begins to use their capacity of their imagination to grasp the central message of this quote. The final sentence is perhaps the strongest “They seek an external geography that will act on their internal psychology like an irresistible force, so that they will return to the place from which they came blessed and altered”. This begins to challenge the imagination of the responder as one begins to make sense of it.
This excerpt of The Town Where Time Stands Still uses powerful language to describe the motivations of travelers. It contains simple yet powerful language which undoubtedly moves the responder.
Michael Leunig, in his calendar of 2003, represents the journeys that most people experience in every day life. He explores the ups and downs of life, and depicts how ordinary people can perform extraordinary tasks through the utilization of their imagination, and a willingness to believe that each and every day has the potential to open up new possibilities and opportunities.
The Essay on English Imaginative Journeys Journey Responder Concept
imaginative journeys is not only a concept, it's the foundation of creativity and the mechanism of ingenuity. It transports us to parallel dimensions of fantasy, imagination, speculation and inspiration. Imaginative journeys shape and broaden our understanding of the world and ourselves. Two texts which clearly depict the notion of Imaginative journeys is "Daffodils" by Williams wordsworth and " ...
The journey in the cartoon is represented through a series of vignettes. Five of the vignettes begin with “The journey”, while the sixth begins with “And so the various journeys continue”. This allows for the narrative structure, which includes relatively long and highly descriptive sentences to develop and therefore clearly define the journey being undertaken.
Leunig creates the idea of the journey through a day in the life of his signature character “Mr Curly”. In the first vignette, the bed in the visual is symbolic of the safety and security of his home. Once this security has been removed, Mr Curly must embark on the journey of life. He goes on the serious and erratic journey from the dog to the desk. The desk is representative of the real world and issues such as responsibility and employment.
It is in vignette four, where Mr Curly chooses to opt out of the confines of real life, and escape to a world that is limited only by his capacity to imagine. His daydream is pleasant, winding and mysterious and can potentially take him along with the responders to any place he desires. The “finale” vignette is the “triumphant” coda of the journey and is representative of all imaginative journeys. Mr Curly can return home to the security of his bed, and can dream of better places and better times.
Leunig uses visual techniques such as facial expressions, colour and unsophisticated font to represent the journey in the cartoon.
The facial expressions allow the responder to imagine how Mr Curly is feeling as he moves through his day. Thus the facial features are much like a portal for the responders into the imaginative journey of Mr Curly. He looks concerned and unsure in the beginning, and goes through feelings of hope and pleasure, worry and frustration, delight, puzzlement and finally contentment. These feelings are clearly represented by Leunig through the detailed facial expressions and gestures of his character. The questionable nature of the colours in the cartoon represents the uncertainties of life. Mr Curly’s facial colour is obviously darker as he faces the difficult, serious and erratic task of his day at the office.
The Essay on Journey for Truth: The Life of Sojourner
The contribution of the life, philosophy, and activism of Sojourner Truth was that she was effective in preaching to the community as a freedom fighter, abolitionist, and feminist. Representing many classes of people in Antebellum United States, she was able to illuminate for others the hardships and desires of black people, the poor and oppressed, and women. As slaves, blacks had no personal ...
The unsophisticated and childlike font displayed in the text of the cartoon is typical of the Leunig cartoons. It is his signature font that reinforces that he is a normal person living in the same society as the responder. This allows the audience to relate to the messages in the cartoon. The font is also used as a contrast to the highly sophisticated language in the text. Leunig uses the words such as erratic, dispiriting and triumphant in order to distinguish between normal life experiences and places where dreams and imagination are captured and embraced.
The heroic journey that Mr Curly experiences in this cartoon was created by Leunig to demonstrate the need and the thrill of the power of imagination. Leunig explores that through the imagination the prospects of daily life which is a physical situation can be transformed to one which is only bound by the limits of one’s imagination. Through the various techniques employed in the text, his purpose of entertaining and encouraging the responder to realise the potential of imagination is successfully achieved. Leunig examines the journey of one’s life and exhibits the demand of new expectations and experiences which arise only as a consequence of one encountering an imaginative journey.
