"How do texts facilitate the discovery of challenges to widely-held assumptions and

beliefs about the human experience?

In your response, make detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least ONE other
related text of your choosing.
Texts present and enable the audience to gain insight into a viewpoint that stands in contrast
to societal ideas and attitudes and causes them see the benefits of an alternate human
experience. The works of Australian poet Robert Gray do this through the voice of personas
coming from a place of alienation such as in Journey: The North Coast which involves the
spiritual revelations of an outsider while travelling through an Australian landscape. The
persona in The Meatworks is confronted by the moral corruption of industrial slaughter,
relating to Grays personal connection to Buddhist philosophy of non-violence. Our
expectations of human experience are also questioned in John Currans Australian film
Tracks (2013) which details the 3000 kilometer journey of a woman through the Australian
desert on foot in the search for self-discovery. Both composers challenge our assumptions
about common human understandings by allowing us to discover new aspects about the
human relationship to nature, the process of human contemplation and human morality.
Texts challenge widely-held beliefs about the importance of our connections to the
environment over the man-made world by allowing the reader to discover its potential to
enrich the human experience. The persona in Robert Grays Journey: The North Coast
discovers the sense of relief and freedom the natural world can bring in contrast to the stress
of modern life while on a train travelling through an Australian landscape. The confined train
the persona is in signifies the constraining nature of civilization. The light imagery of its
shadow represents the personas past consisting of a busy city life, which flees.like a
bird. The simile utilizes birds as a symbol for freedom, demonstrating the release the
persona experiences whilst their thoughts escape the train and encounter the blue and
silver paddocks. The colour imagery conveys the wonder and thus spiritual release the
persona gains from escaping to the natural world and leaving civilization behind. The reader
is compelled to experience this realization with the persona, and causing them to more
deeply consider the value of the natural world. The Meatworks similarly deals with the
understanding of the importance of human connections to the environment by depicting the
personas alienation from the man-made industrial world. The poems criticism of the
process of industrial slaughter relates to Grays engagement with Buddhist philosophy
valuing the lives of other species equally to humans and allows the reader to discover the
ethical failures of humankind. The machinery at the meatworks involves a chomping bloody
mouth and a greasy stick shaped into a penis. The yonic and phallic imagery holds shock
value by assaulting the reader with grotesque images which they then associate with the
industrial world. The personas disturbance and alienation caused by the slaughter process
is extended to the reader, forcing them to consider the decisions and actions of actions of
mankind critically. The persona escapes to the beach and the icy ledges of the surf. The
enjambment draws attention to the natural imagery of the surf and its cleansing power.
The reader feels the natural worlds ability to provide a release from the confronting and
unpleasant aspects of man-made environments. Thus, by illustrating the negative qualities
of the civilization and enabling the responder to discover the importance of human reliance
on the natural world texts challenge the way we so often neglect this part of the human
experience.

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We often neglect the value of contemplation and solitude and by demonstrating how this can
lead to revelations about ourselves texts allow the reader to appreciate its worth. Grays
Journey: The North Coast illustrates how time away from the busyness of modern social life
by travelling through the country produces an unexpected apotheosis in the persona. After
looking out the train window the persona is reminded of their past domestic life when they
seeone of those bright crockery days/from so much I recall. The metonymy of crockery
stands in for the common connotations of the personas past spent on the North Coast. The
emotional onslaught of these memories leads to the persona seeing the train compartment
strewn with flakes of light. The light imagery creates a joyous and celebratory tone
underscoring the personas emotional rediscovery of their past and the more peaceful and
subdued way in which they will now lead their life. This epiphany was provoked by the
personas time alone in the train, compelling the responder to experience the value of time
for contemplation. John Currans film Tracks similarly depicts the importance of
introspection when a Robyn Davidson decides to embark on a solo trek across the
Australian desert despite other peoples accusations of her foolishness or insanity. The
films high angle establishing shots of her slight figure contrasted with the vastness of the
desert landscape engrosses the viewer in the atmosphere of seclusion and serenity. It is in
this state of solitude that she undergoes a rediscovery of her past memories demonstrated
by the narrative flashbacks to her as a young girl running in a wide open paddock and
training her dog. The soft lighting and calm music create an atmosphere of peace and
contentment, highlighting her joyful realization of the things that are important to her such as
a quiet, modest life and contact with nature. The reader is driven to acknowledge the
importance of contemplation in solitude for discovering our sense of self and purpose. Both
texts facilitate the discovery of the value of introspection to the human experience by
challenging our assumptions that solitude is dull and uneventful.
By uncovering the confronting truth of how people can neglect morality, texts defy our
general assumptions of what people are capable of. The Meatworks questions societys
acceptance of the process of industrial slaughter by showing the ethical consequences of
human greed on animals. The persona working at the meatworks is disturbed that outside
the pigs fear/made them mount one another. The alliteration and enjambment of fear
draws attention to the frenzied state of the pigs and so appeals to the readers sympathy for
the pigs. We are positioned to see the actions of mankind in a critical light, paralleling to
Grays appreciation of Buddhist philosophy of non-violence which extends to other species.
The persona determines that working with meat is for the frail green money, the colour
imagery representing the greed and moral corruption humanity engages in for its own gain.
Influenced by the alienation of the persona, the reader discovers a new way of seeing the
actions of mankind which is critical of but unsurprised by the ethical failing that people will
commit. Currans Tracks also investigates human moral limits but it is the character of
Robyn who surprises herself with her discovery of her ability to inflict violence. She
becomes scared that the camels which she relies on for her journey may have escaped and
upon finding them she beats them with a stick out anger. A close up shot of her crying face
accompanied by sounds of the camel roaring in pain and solemn non-diegetic music
simultaneously demonstrate her emotional shift as a she is confronted by her surprising
inner cruelty. Therefore, texts challenge conceptions of general human benevolence by
enabling the reader to discover the moral faults people are capable of.

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By providing insight into aspects often neglected from common understanding of the human
condition texts challenge our assumptions and the reader discovers the significance of these
new aspects. The poetry of Robert Gray including The Meatworks and Journey: the North
Coast reveal to the audience the value of human relationships to nature and, along with
John Currans film Tracks, of solitude and contemplation as opposed to our usual esteeming
of modern life and civilization, as well as the confronting sacrifices to our understanding of
ethics to we can make. By discovering the significance or impact of what we overlook the
responder forms a new perspective on the world and human experience.

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