All I Ever Wanted

Significant experiences in peoples lives provide opportunities for growth and development.   This statement exemplifies the concept of into the world where individuals follow the instinctive drive to travel different pathways whereby transition into new experiences shapes knowledge, attitudes and beliefs.   This concept explores a central idea of character development as individuals are provided with growth and development through experiences.   Into the world however can be further broken down into the central themes of relationships, identity in self and conflict, whereby through effective language features and visual effects, into the world is conveyed.   This concept of into the world is evident in The Story of Tom Brennan by J C Burke and the related texts of Tales From Outer Suburbia and The Red Tree by Shaun Tan.

Relationships is a central governing theme throughout the text where individuals attempt to make connections as they follow their instinctive drive for growth and development.   For example Tom says “we had to take two cars ….. I was the sucker who had to go with the grandmother”.   Through the use of first person narration and the itemising of his grandmother as merely an object, this explores the relationship as artificial, conveyed through the eyes of Tom Brennan.

In contrast, however later in the novel Tom says “Gran’s gallery of saints were watching over us tonight, they were probably smiling, they may have even been thinking, what a nice family.”   This quote of figurative language provided by personification explores the transition in relationship whereby through experiences his attitude, knowledge and beliefs are shaped proving to be enriching to character development, providing growth.

Similarly, in the related text Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, transition in relationships is effectively conveyed through lighting and colour palette.   Through the contrast of opaque mellow colours to vibrant strong colours comprised with bright...