Identity

“Identity is both concrete and elusive”.
Evaluate this statement in light of your studies.
In your response make reference to your prescribed text and two related texts.

The concept of identity is very much the concept of humanness. Although there are aspects of identity that are relatively deliberate, conscious and inert, much of our identity is contradictory, elusive and subconscious. Identity is both concrete and elusive because these elements are also the very nature of our humanity. The constructual elements of texts such as Away by Michael Gow, A Journey With John Doyle – a feature article by Linda Van Nunen,   Sky High – a narrative by Hannah Robert, and the film American Beauty…Look Closer (ABLC) directed by Sam Mendes all reveal the miasmic interplay of the conscious and the subconscious in identity.
Away is an iconically Australian play set in a time of significant social and political change. The question of an “Australian Identity” was a crucial aspect of the emerging national psyche. Moreover, the play can be interpreted as a personified Australia of coexisting opposites. Gow recreates the mood of the time and gives the Australia in the play a certain ambiguous personality. The readily identifiable stereotypes and archetypes in the cast are used to great effect to highlight the subconscious contradictions in Gow’s Australia. The experiences of the young, hopeful, reactionary, boomer generation (Tom and Meg) contrast with the older, conservative, establishmentarian Australia (Gwen, Coral Roy and Vic). Identity is often contradictory. Away is an Australia with simultaneously contradictions. Conservative yet progressive, anxious yet secure. Moreover, it is significant that Gow shows us these polar opposites coexisting in sympathetic characters such as Tom and Coral. It is this same type of contradiction that Linda Van Nunen highlights in her interview with John Doyle. The feature article exposes the identity conundrum that is John Doyle - aka...