Critical Analysis of Looking for Alibrandi (Kate Woods) and Swashbuckler (James Moloney)
Imagine, you are a 12-year-old boy, just about to make the transition from primary to high school, and your father is dying from cancer. Would you want to face the dragon or run away…?
In everyone’s lives, there are challenges that alter peoples view on themselves and their world. This may or may not have positive outcomes, for one or two of the people involved, but we must all understand the consequences, whether good or bad, of changing perspectives. Josephine as a character in Kate Woods’ film “Looking for Alibrandi” highlights the ups and downs of being a teenage girl in turmoil, trying to find her own way in a community where she “doesn’t belong”, to find a positive outcome in what she feels is a world not made for people like her, especially with her Father trying to participate in her life again, when she has never really known him by anything other than name. Similarly, in James Moloney’s short story “Swashbuckler”, after the protagonist, Anton’s father has cancer and he is fearful of “the dragon“ and refuses to visit his father, but towards the end of the story his friend makes him realise that his dad is not the dragon, the cancer is, and Anton’s father is the prince trapped in his cave, so Anton finally agrees to see his father in hospital, and watches him “wither away” In both of these texts, a range of visual and language techniques are used to present these changes in perspective to their audiences successfully.
A change in perspective can be tough, but there is always some small light at the end of the tunnel. For Josie, her change in perspective towards her father, Michael Andretti, has a positive impact, as this changing relationship allows her to grow in her understanding of herself and her cultural identity. This change allows Josie to grow and mature, and realise that her father was not the monster she created him as when she was growing up, and display to the viewer how much she really needed her father in her life so she felt complete.
In everyone’s lives, there are challenges that alter peoples view on themselves and their world. This may or may not have positive outcomes, for one or two of the people involved, but we must all understand the consequences, whether good or bad, of changing perspectives. Josephine as a character in Kate Woods’ film “Looking for Alibrandi” highlights the ups and downs of being a teenage girl in turmoil, trying to find her own way in a community where she “doesn’t belong”, to find a positive outcome in what she feels is a world not made for people like her, especially with her Father trying to participate in her life again, when she has never really known him by anything other than name. Similarly, in James Moloney’s short story “Swashbuckler”, after the protagonist, Anton’s father has cancer and he is fearful of “the dragon“ and refuses to visit his father, but towards the end of the story his friend makes him realise that his dad is not the dragon, the cancer is, and Anton’s father is the prince trapped in his cave, so Anton finally agrees to see his father in hospital, and watches him “wither away” In both of these texts, a range of visual and language techniques are used to present these changes in perspective to their audiences successfully.
A change in perspective can be tough, but there is always some small light at the end of the tunnel. For Josie, her change in perspective towards her father, Michael Andretti, has a positive impact, as this changing relationship allows her to grow in her understanding of herself and her cultural identity. This change allows Josie to grow and mature, and realise that her father was not the monster she created him as when she was growing up, and display to the viewer how much she really needed her father in her life so she felt complete.