Rene Gow's The Road Not Taken

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The challenges faced on journeys cause travellers to learn more about themselves and the world around them. The truth of this concept is shown through the effective use of language, structure and theme in Gow’s play Away, Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert’s film Shackleton, and Winter’s feature article “Survival of the Fittest.” The structure of Away is critical to the meaning conveyed to the responder in two ways. The first way is the central storm that brings all the three families together and is a catalyst for change. The challenge Gwen faces is that all of her possessions have been literally and symbolically washed away by the storm. This is a challenge for her as she has had the view that possessions are everything, and that…show more content…
She accepts that there is life in death and recovers. This is shown to the other characters through the play-within-a-play technique used by Gow of “Stranger on the Shore.” So the challenges that Coral faces such as her son’s death and the process of the journey of healing has allowed her to learn much more about herself and the world around her. Furthermore, Gow uses Shakespearian allusions to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Tom is compared with the Shakespearean character of Puck. One particular quote from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is “I’ll be an auditor, an actor too perhaps if I see chance”. This is exactly what Tom does, he is the audience, he stands back and watches the people around him and how they are dealing with his death, but also when he gets the chance he will act to help the peole around him. This is a great example of how this concept of a journey is represented in Away. Tom faces the challenge of his imminent death and how he should deal with it. He also faces the challenge of dealing with others around him before he dies. Two further points of how Gow represents the concept of a journey and how he
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