Module C - The Story of Tom Brennan Flashcards
Introduction - Topic Sentence
Transitions can be sudden and confronting, embraced or repelled, exciting and challenging, and result in deepened understanding of one’s domain: pushing individuals to venture into new worlds. Transitions push individuals to discover oneself and hold the power to enrich and foster a renewed sense of awareness, provoking a shift in personal and social beliefs, attitudes and ideas.
Introduction - The Story of Tom Brennan - J.C. Burke
In the bildungsroman novel, ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’, J.C. Burke explores the life of teenager Tom Brennan, who through his brother’s drink driving, has been thrust from his home in Mumbilli to the foreign town of Coghill where he learns to overcome the pain of the past, and assimilate into the community he once felt alien to.
Introduction - Neighbours - Tim Winton
Similarly, Tim Winton delves into the lives of a young couple, transitioning into their new neighbourhood community in his compelling short story, ‘Neighbours’.
Challenging Transitions - Introduction
In the novel ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’, Burke sheds light on the challenges that can come with transitions, which can force individuals into a more desolate direction. Through Burke’s vivid descriptions of the Brennan family, responders are given an insight into the pain and grief that they experience as a result of Daniel’s actions.
In the novel ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’, Burke sheds light on the challenges that can come with transitions, which can force individuals into a more desolate direction. Through Burke’s vivid descriptions of the Brennan family, responders are given an insight into the pain and grief that they experience as a result of Daniel’s actions. Burke opens the novel with stark imagery, as the family sneak out of their hometown Mumbilli, “past the ugly words that told us we were no longer wanted”, giving the responder insight into the pain that had become the Brennan’s lives. Through her use of metaphor in, “down, down we glided” Burke paints an image of the family’s reduced moral standing and reputation within the community, emphasising the family’s alienation. Flashback is also used as a motif to intertwine the past with the present, emphasising the long lasting effects of Tom’s traumatic past, forcing him to transition, revealed through the oxymoron in “I hated the past, and yet hated the present nearly more.” Through the vivid depiction of the family’s struggle to cope, and the way it is intertwined throughout the whole story, Burke makes clear the difficulty of facing unwelcomed transitions, and the transformative emotional effects these transitions can have on individuals.
Challenging Transitions - Quote 1
“past the ugly words that told us we were no longer wanted”
Stark Imagery
- Burke opens the novel with stark imagery, as the family sneak out of their hometown Mumbilli,
- giving the responder insight into the pain that had become the Brennan’s lives.
Challenging Transitions - Quote 2
“down, down we glided”
Metaphor
Burke paints an image of the family’s reduced moral standing and reputation within the community, emphasising the family’s alienation.
Challenging Transitions - Quote 3
“I hated the past, and yet hated the present nearly more.”
Oxymoron
Flashback is also used as a motif to intertwine the past with the present, emphasising the long lasting effects of Tom’s traumatic past, forcing him to transition, revealed through the oxymoron in
Challenging Transitions - Conclusion
Through the vivid depiction of the family’s struggle to cope, and the way it is intertwined throughout the whole story, Burke makes clear the difficulty of facing unwelcomed transitions, and the transformative emotional effects these transitions can have on individuals.
Emotional Growth - Introduction
Alternatively, Burke depicts the difficulties of Tom’s emotional transition as he grows and matures - pushing him to change his own perspective on life.
Alternatively, Burke depicts the difficulties of Tom’s emotional transition as he grows and matures - pushing him to change his own perspective on life. In the beginning of the novel, Tom is depicted as quite sad and depressed through the motif of his bedroom, ‘the cave’, “so brown and dark”, which is symbolic of Tom’s inner pain, caused by his transition. However throughout the novel, Tom’s transition back to his true self is mapped out, with each stage being vital to his overall emotional recovery. The motif of running with Brendan becomes therapeutic for Tom as he learns to overcome his fear of facing the past, and allowing him to let go of the burdens that come with it; emphasised through the use of simile, “I’d zone out, the weight of my thoughts shedding with each kilometer, like layers of skin falling onto the track, leaving an empty shell.” Tom’s relationship with Chrissie is the final stage to Tom’s emotional recovery, with Burke using a combination of first and third person narrative to illustrate the importance of their relationship, “That was the morning we swam and loved each other, that was the morning Tom Brennan came back forever.” Through the portrayal of Tom’s emotional growth and development which is strung throughout the novel, Burke shows the true power of transitions in their ability to take individuals on a rollercoaster of ups and downs, developing renewed ideas and knowledge along the way.
Emotional Growth - Quote 1
‘the cave’, “so brown and dark”,
Motif + Colour Symbolism
In the beginning of the novel, Tom is depicted as quite sad and depressed through the motif of his bedroom, ‘the cave’, “so brown and dark”,
which is symbolic of Tom’s i_nner pain_, caused by his transition.
Emotional Growth - Quote 2
“I’d zone out, the weight of my thoughts shedding with each kilometer, like layers of skin falling onto the track, leaving an empty shell.”
Motif + Similie
However throughout the novel, Tom’s transition back to his true self is mapped out, with each stage being vital to his overall emotional recovery. The motif of running with Brendan becomes therapeutic for Tom as he learns to overcome his fear of facing the past, and allowing him to let go of the burdens that come with it; emphasised through the use of simile,
Emotional Growth - Quote 3
“That was the morning we swam and loved each other, that was the morning Tom Brennan came back forever.”
First + Third Person Narrative
Tom’s relationship with Chrissie is the final stage to Tom’s emotional recovery, with Burke using a combination of first and third person narrative to illustrate the importance of their relationship,
Emotional Growth - Conclusion
Through the portrayal of Tom’s emotional growth and development which is strung throughout the novel, Burke shows the true power of transitions in their ability to take individuals on a rollercoaster of ups and downs, developing renewed ideas and knowledge along the way.
Assimilation and Relationships - Introduction
Similarly to Tom Brennan, the characters in ‘Neighbours’ are also faced with a drastic transition into their culturally diverse neighbourhood community: learning to assimilate through new and renewed relationships with others.
Similarly to Tom Brennan, the characters in ‘Neighbours’ are also faced with a drastic transition into their culturally diverse neighbourhood community: learning to assimilate through new and renewed relationships with others. Winton opens the story with a simile, depicting the young couple “like sojourners in a foreign land”, emphasising how the couple had been thrown out of their depths. As the story progresses however, Winton illustrates the couple’s transitional journey into their community by portraying the couple’s initial view of their neighbours through his execution of sound imagery and tone with “the Macedonian family shouted, ranted, screamed” and then juxtaposing this with the couple’s renewed, more positive, perceptions of their neighbours, “a small queue of bleary faces looked up, cheering and the young man began to cry.”, emphasising the way in which the community came together, unionising to support the young couple. Through the way Winton illustrates the community coming together and supporting each other, Winton allegorically illustrates the mental and emotional adaptations people encounter as they transition into new communities, and new worlds, building relationships along the way.
Assimilation and Relationships - Quote 1
“like sojourners in a foreign land”,
Similie
Winton opens the story with a simile, depicting the young couple
emphasising how the couple had been thrown out of their depths.
