Viewing Log: Australia (2008)

How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

In the beginning, it was about 3 different people with different aim of journey. First it was Lady Sarah Ashley who travelled from London down to Australia to sell her property Faraway Downs. Then it was Drover who was Sarah’s husband helper and he is a drover who does not work with anyone so one can hire or fire him. Last was Nullah who was an aboriginal child, his aim was simple, and that was to go for walkabout to become a man. 3 of them were never related until Sarah arrived at Darwin and she met Drover and later on, Nullah. In the end, they led the same journey of taking the cattle across the desert to Darwin to sell to the Army.

When people share the same aim of journey, they tend to stay together. As a result, Sarah started to fall in love with Drover as they came across different kinds of life obstacles. Nullah, on the other who had lost his mother has found motherly love and care from Sarah. Throughout the whole journey, the relationship between 3 of them had changed from complete strangers to beloved family members.

What is the main issue of the text?

There are 2 main issues been reflected through the text. First it was the assimilation policy for indigenous Australians in northern territory that forces the aboriginal children to be taken away from their families and were placed in mission to phase out their culture. They were to service the white society in the future. Because of that, the aborigines were been looked down on and discriminated by the white society.

The other topic was about the consequences of war. The story sets in around the time of World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army struck on Darwin, a city in the northern area of Australia. The movie shows how the Japanese army mercilessly bombed the whole Darwin into ashes even the holy missions were the first to be invaded. Many people died. This shows that war brings only despair, not peace.

What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?

In the story, I dislike Neil Fletcher the most. Being the main antagonist in the story, Neil was an extremely cunning man. First, he interfered the drive of cattle by Sarah by lighting flame around the bush that caused a stampede. This led the cattle running towards the cliff. Then he cut off a safe place by igniting another fire. Out of a sudden, Flynn’s horse broke a leg and he was thrown down. In the end, Flynn was trampled and died.

In addition, Fletcher killed Sarah husband using a glass tipped arrow in order to frame King George for the murder because glass tipped arrow was known to be found with King George. Besides that, he killed Carney by purposely pushing him into a river with alligators and Carney was eaten by them. His objective was to take over the whole Carney Cattle Corporation.

How does the text develop your understanding to the world?

The text highlights war and discrimination. It let us know that war brings only despair and destruction of human kind. From the movie, we could see all the buildings in Darwin were bombarded and reduced to ash. Thousands of innocent lives were killed during the war. Therefore, it is wiser for nation politicians to solve international problems through diplomacy and not bloodshed.

Next is the discrimination of races. In the movie, Nullah was been caught by the authority in northern Australia because of an assimilation policy. The policy forced the aboriginal children to be taken away from their families and send to missions where they were taught to provide services to the white society in the future. As a human being, we should treat everyone equally regardless of their races, skins and cultures because we are all God’s creation. Continuity of discrimination will only cause hatred among people and we should stop that as far as we could.

Reading Log: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint

How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

The story started with the author travelling alone. When he had an accident in the Sahara Dessert, he met the little prince. The little prince told him about his own journey on how he finally came to the Earth after visiting some of the planets. Thus, the text is mainly focusing around the adventure of the little prince.

What is the main issue in the text?

The story centered on how the thoughts of a child differ from that of the grown-ups. The grown-ups like to talk about things that are more realistic (eg: power, wealth, appearance). On the contrary, children are more likely to appreciate the true beauty of nature (eg: stars, flowers and volcanoes) which the grown-ups normally would not care about. In addition, grown-ups prefer stuff like geography, arithmetic and history (subjects that require memorizing skills) while children favor things like drawing and painting (subjects that need creativity). In brief, there is often conflict between grown-ups and children because both parties carrying a different point of view.

What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?

I admire the little prince the most. He has many good characteristic. Firstly, he never gives up asking the same question again and again until he gets a satisfying answer. For example, when he asked the fox what is mean by “tame”, he asked for 3 times until the fox finally explained to him. Other than that, he likes to care for the nature. He devoted his love and care towards the flowers and volcanoes. For example, a flower he took care of, which is the one and only, he works out everything according to the flower’s needs, watering it, protecting it from drought with screen and put it under a glass dome when the weather is cold. Last but not least, he is an adventurous and brave boy. He travelled across seven planets all by his own. Besides, he also dares to speak up his mind to oppose the thoughts and views of the adults.

How does the text develop your understanding to the world?

In the world of grown-ups, everything has to be related with realistic. They do not have time to think about abstract stuff which they cannot see with their naked eyes. As mentioned by the author in the text, ‘But eyes are blind. One must look with the heart’, adults are blindfolded by power, wealth, figures, egoism. They keep on searching for these things to feed their endless demand which in the end, they always do not satisfy with the result and often trapped within these traps set by them.

Children think simpler. Because their mind are not polluted by various external factor, they do not have unlimited demand. They can achieve satisfaction over a little thing such as watching the stars. They are not constricted to think creatively so they could let their imagination run wild by looking at something. Thus, they establish different perspectives from a thing, perhaps the views that no other adults could see with flat thinking.

However, as we grow up, we started to see things differently from what we saw when we were kids. The cruelty of society we learned after becoming adult will start to affect our original thinking of how the world is like and should be. Without having a good sense of realization and firm mentality, we will slowly turned into the adult that have the same thinking as mentioned just now. Therefore, we should establish our own principle and follow it and do not let the negative external factors influence our purest heart.

Author: Antoine de Saint

Reading Log: Boy: Tales of Childhood

How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

The text is mainly about the childhood life of the author himself, Roald Dahl. It compiles some interesting event that happened throughout his life ranging from 1 years old to 20 years old. It could be say as a journey as a kid because it reflects the common events that almost all kid will go through during their school life.

Being a kid of course, we tend to be rebellious. Roald and his friends made fun of Mrs. Pratchett whom they dislike by putting a dead mouse in a sweet jar. As a result, Mrs. Pratchett went to their school and complained to their headmaster. Roald and his friends were then received cane punishment by the headmaster.

At St Peter’s, which is a boarding school, Roald like many other kids was homesick. He even tried to pretend to be sick and wanted to be send back home. Every night when sleeping, he would face in the direction to his home to ease his homesickness.

In addition, Roald also faced a hard time at school. Captain Hardcastle who was his Latin teacher was a very strict man. There’s an incident where he accused Roald for cheating during prep but in truth, Roald never cheat, he just asked his friend to borrow him a nib. In the end, Roald received Stripe and caning. During his time at Repton Public School, he was bullied by the Boazers by been instructed to do all the things the Boazers ordered them to.

What is the main issue in the text?

The story revolves around the school life of Roald Dahl. As can be seen from the text, school practices body punishment. There are total of 3 canning event happened in the text!! First, was the punishment Roald got for making fun of Mrs. Pratchett. Second, was a false accusation made by Captain Hardcastle towards Roald for cheating and Roald received cane for that. Lastly, was a vivid canning scene which Roald witnessed in Repton Public School.

In addition, in school, the grown-ups (headmaster, teachers, prefects, matron) always overwhelm the students. For example, Boazers, the prefects in Repton can asked their junior to do whatever they want them to do and they cannot refuse to do it. If they did not do as exactly what the Boazers asked them to do, the Boazers had the authority to send them to the headmaster for punishment. Often, there’s always discrimination happened on the juniors.

Other than that, there was a case of teacher being unkind to student. For example, Captain Hardcastle, who likes to pick out a student’s mistake and use it as reason to punish them. Roald was caught by Captain Hardcastle when he is talking to his friend who actually was asking to borrow a nib from his friend, Captain Hardcastle without further investigation, boldly accused Roald for cheating. The headmaster too, although Roald had try to tell the truth to him, he refused to listen and investigate the actual incident. Instead, he caned Roald.

What quality do you admire in a character?

In my opinion, Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg who is the mother of Roald Dahl portrayed several good qualities in the text. Roald refer her mother as Mama in the text. Mama was very concern about her children’s education. She was determined to send her children to English schools as it was her husband’s wish before he died. For example, when she found out that Roald has been punished physically, she felt frustrated and went to find the headmaster to complain. After this incident, Mama was even more determined to send Roald to an English school.

Besides, Mama was a very calm person. During Roald’s Christmas holiday, his 21-year-old ancient half sister brought him and other family member including Mama using her newly bought motor car. Unfortunately, they met an accident and Roald’s nose was cut. He was bleeding seriously. All of them were shocked and panicked, except Mama. She remained calm and asked her daughter to fetch them to nearest surgeon.

In addition, Mama took up the great responsibility of taking care for the whole family after her husband died of pneumonia. Even though there are so many children to be taken care of, she tried her best to let none of them being left out in the family. For example, Mama arranged all the things for their whole family when they were going on to the summer vacation trip.

How does the text develop your understanding of the world?

As can be seen from the text, in school, grown-ups (headmaster, teachers) overwhelmed the children (students). For example, headmaster in Repton Public School did not listen to Roald’s explanation of being accused by Captain Hardcastle for cheating and investigate further of what actually happened, instead, he trusted the teacher’s word blindly.

This happens in our everyday life too!! Teacher’s words are always the right one and the student’s are always wrong, even though the teachers make mistake when judging, they still considered as the right one. In order to produce fair and just treatment towards the students, the authority should spend time investigate the whole incident instead of just listening to one side only.

Author: Roald Dahl.