essay TGA Pain and Recovery Flashcards
Joan London’s novel ‘The Golden Age’ explores the core aspects of life and the…
Joan London’s novel ‘The Golden Age’ explores the core aspects of life and the circumstances surrounding it. To some extent, the text suggests that despite struggles and limitations, ‘The Golden Age’ is ultimately a positive novel about love and recovery.
London seems to advocate the tenacity of human nature by exploring how each character…
London seems to advocate the tenacity of human nature by exploring how each character undergoes a radical change of self-discovery as they understand more about the world and the hardships that come with it.
This understanding of the new world emerges in…
This understanding of the new world emerges in the characters interactions with each other at the ‘Golden Age’ and also with the aspects of poetry,
which in turn, force them to be…
which in turn, force them to be conscious of the pivotal elements that make up an individual’s happiness and wellbeing.
London approaches the characters self-discovery by asserting their knowledge and experiences with…
London approaches the characters self-discovery by asserting their knowledge and experiences with the hardships that come with the old world and the new.
Throughout the text’s narrative, there is a harsh contrast between the European and Australian landscape, which is exemplified through Frank and his family’s experience with both lifestyles.
Frank, a Jew, spends the early years of his childhood in Budapest, …
Frank, a Jew, spends the early years of his childhood in Budapest, “Staying quiet” as a matter of “life or death” during the midst of WW2.
Frank is forced “survive in cellars and ceilings” as a way of hiding from “mounting forces” of persecution, and to avoid being “hunted down”, he is separated from his mother Ida.
London depicts change through Frank and his experience with war.
Frank’s descent into an “old darkness” sees his…
Frank’s descent into an “old darkness” sees his childhood home being no unspoiled paradise after all. This, as a result, causes Frank to lose his innocence before his eventual experiences with polio.
Frank’s experiences however allowed him to “look after himself” at the Golden Age while also viewing himself as “shrewd” which demonstrates how the war has shaped him into a quick thinking and mature character.
Surviving and overcoming their interaction in Budapest demonstrates…
Surviving and overcoming their interaction in Budapest demonstrates a major struggle for the Gold family considering they had “left their family and friends” who “had survived the war “.
Although Budapest is destroyed, the Gold family chooses to remember the “Nostalgia” that came from that lifestyle.
In that comparison, Perth is a vastly different landscape from Budapest.
Franks father ‘Meyer’ for instance contemplates the differences between his…
Franks father ‘Meyer’ for instance contemplates the differences between his hometown, claiming she was “the love of his life”, compared to that with Perth, a “country girl” that he’d been “forced to take as a wife”.
When roaming through Perth’s streets however, Meyer begins to find a certain beauty in the new world, rendering a more positive and optimistic victim of war and immigration.
It isn’t for Meyer so much a struggle as it is a “gentle yielding” to what stood before him; wide generous streets, beaches and his son Frank
The Golden Age centre acts as a catalyst that allows the characters to…
The Golden Age centre acts as a catalyst that allows the characters to recover and rehabilitate from their own personal difficulties.
London approaches the characters external restrictions as a way to allude towards the internal freedom that the golden age provides.
The centre acts as a “natural quarantine” whose rooms are “spacious” and where…
The centre acts as a “natural quarantine” whose rooms are “spacious” and where the children are “surrounded by faces shining with hope”.
Not only does the Golden Age centre become a place of hope, but also helps many of the children find their “vocation” in life whether it be Frank’s conviction that he is a poet, Ida’s devotion to the piano, or Sister Penny’s almost preternatural facility as a nurse.
This sense of vocation gives characters a degree of…
This sense of vocation gives characters a degree of distance and liberty from those around them, while also facilitating and improving their closest relationships.
This is particularly evident with Ida’s renewed dedication to the piano and how it rehabilitates her tense relationship with her son.
Frank frequently seeks to detach himself…
Frank frequently seeks to detach himself from her influence, even saying that her “reverence for music was theatrical and deliberate”.
Still, when he sees her play, Frank notices “her strength, and vast determination,” and is moved in spite of himself.
Poetry in the golden age is also developed as a…
Poetry in the golden age is also developed as a key tool for the main characters to express their isolation and alienation.
Sullivan, a patient at the IDB, acts as the “role of teacher” to impress Frank, with his spirited and poetic attitude towards life.
Sullivan’s articulation that “poetry lives in the oldest part of us”…
Sullivan’s articulation that “poetry lives in the oldest part of us” assist Frank in withstanding and escaping the worst aspects of the debilitating disease of polio. Frank’s last extended poem ‘On My Last Day on Earth’ symbolises his attitude to life and death and suggests that a person suffering from a terminal sickness, often feels the urgency and the brevity of life more acutely than others.
