Student

Good morning everyone and welcome. As I hope you all know by now I am Caleb Thompson and it is my great pleasure to have the chance to present to you a selection of poems by John Foulcher, as well as mention on the movie classic, “Jaws”, directed by Steven Speilberg and reference to the latest Government alcohol awareness campaign, “Don’t turn a night out into a nightmare.” My lecture today is themed the “violence of things” and how in moderation, violence is unavoidable but essential for survival. The texts mentioned share similarities in themes and ideas concerning nature’s unyielding challenge, the eternal battle for survival. Spielberg’s thriller film, Jaws, captivates the audience by his use of an exaggeratedly huge shark as well as strategic camera angles. It also explores humanities instinctive reactions of self-preservation when placed in life threatening situations. The numerous television advertisements used by the Government’s awareness campaign are aggressive and all use the re-enactment of menacing situations where you are placed as the victim and see it through their eyes. Foulcher examines the inevitable presence of violence in our daily lives and our reaction, or rather lack of reaction to it. He sheds light on the underpinning forces of violence and it’s interaction with nature and society through the use of metaphors, similes and analogies.
Even in the seemingly safe environment of our workplace, violence has still seeped in and grounded its roots firmly in its core. In “Harry Wood”, the violence of his job is unavoidable and is captured in the personification, ‘the mines nearly took him’. Foulcher described that Wood’s motivation for working was to “dig his way out of poverty” and it is this requirement of money that binds Wood to his dangerous job. Towards the end of the poem it describes how he works as a farmer, and how he violently, ‘pricks at their tubs of meat with a current-charged bar,’ bringing emphasis to the vicious cattle-rod in the...