Change and Gows Away

Change is a process a transition that everyone experiences throughout his or her lifetime. The impact on individuals or groups can be both positive or negative, long or short, serious or superficial. A person grows within themselves and has a change in self when they embrace change and learn from it. Through studying the focus area ‘changing self’ it has becomes clear that change is much more beneficial if we view it in a positive way and accept it and learn from it. The texts that have effectively shaped my understanding of change are the play Away written by Michael Gow, the short story Sky-High by Hannah Roberts and the movie Remember the Titans.
The play Away by Michael Gow shows three families whose members must undergo change in order to save them selves and their family’s relationships.
Gow shows change and change in self through the development of his characters. Many of them change; they are different people by the end of the play. The techniques that Gow has used in his play to show how the characters change throughout the play are the use of symbolism in the transition scene, placing a play within a play and the metaphor of the storm, which is the catalyst for change in the characters. Each of these techniques helps show change in the characters.
One character in particular that has dramatically changed is Gwen. Gow presents her at the start of the play to be a woman who greatly believed in controlling every aspect of her life. She was very bossy and demanding and acted like a constant victim. All she cared about were her possessions and Gow showed this through her attitude towards other characters in the play, “We’ve got a new caravan, everything you could want in it. Have a lovely time in your…tent”. We learn that this behaviour was caused by Gwen’s fear of insecurity and poverty that she experienced during the depression. In the middle of the play Gow symbolically uses the storm as a metaphor for the healing power of nature.   All of Gwen’s...