Journey

English Essay

Individuals often struggle to overcome obstacles on their journey to self-discovery. Our understanding of others journeys can enlighten and encourage us to reflect on our own circumstances. All physical journeys include obstacles and hardships however they also involve inner journeys along the way. Peter Skrzynecki’s poems “Immigrants at Central Station 1951” and “Migrant Hostel” demonstrate the circumstances that emerge out of the physical and emotional struggle in migrating to a new country. Similarly the newspaper article, “Dinh Trans Story” recounts the episodes of Dinh forcefully being transferred to a new country and the difficulties she encountered at such a young age. The composers have effectively used a variety of language forms and features to convey ideas about the journeys of a number of individuals.
In the poem “Immigrants at Central Station 1951”, Skrzynecki describes a group of immigrants that are about to embark on a journey, and begin a new chapter in their life. Skrzynecki conveys the anxiety, dislocation and uncertainty faced by the migrants through the use of emotive terms and figurative imagery. The imagery in the first stanza conveys a sense of depression, “All night it had rained”. As the poem goes on it says, “But we ate it all”. This is used metaphorically for a positive connotation. No matter how gloomy the situation was, they found a way to enjoy it. The personification, “Time waited anxiously with us” emphasises that the immigrants waited although they did not know what they were waiting for. Time is also personified as an entity that accompanies them. Skrzynecki and his family are crowded together, “Like cattle bought for slaughter”, the composer uses this simile to illustrate the crowded conditions in which the immigrants were experiencing and emphasises their vulnerability. “The trains whistle” personifies the order of authority, as they are compelled to make a decision with the little time that they have. This...