Cate+Falconer

=Topic: Australians At War = Task 1: Visual Text Group: Mel McMillan, Chelsi Cook, Cate 



Our main focus for the Australians at War topic is the recruitment of soldiers to fight in World War 1. So the images our group has sourceed are war recruitement posters with slogans like "Australia has promised Britatin 50,000 soldiers. Will you help us keep that promise?" and we chose these images because they help convey our topic. Also, some of the images are persuasive in some ways " What picture would your father like to show his friends?" with two pictures one of a man as a soldier, and another fo the same man relaxing on a lounge chair reading a book, which is not the case.

Poem: Redgum- I Was Only 19

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing-out parade at Puckapunyal It was a long march from cadets. The sixth battalion was the next to tour, and it was me who drew the card. We did Canungra, Shoalwater before we left.

And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean. And there's me in my slouch hat with my SLR and greens. God help me, I was only nineteen.

From Vung Tau, riding Chinooks, to the dust at Nui Dat I'd been in and out of choppers now for months. But we made our tents a home, VB and pinups on the lockers And an Asian orange sunset through the scrub.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I stil can't get to sleep? And night-time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16? And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means? God help me, I was only ninteen.

A four week operation when each step could mean your last one on two legs It was a war within yourself. But you wouldn't let your mates down til they had you dusted off So you closed your eyes and thought about something else.

Then someone yelled out "Contact!" and the bloke behind me swore We hooked in there for hours, then a Godalmighty roar Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon, God help me, he was going home in June.

I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row.

And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real. I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel God help me, I was only nineteen.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep? And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet? And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means? God help me, I was only nineteen.


 * Commentary on “I Was Only Nineteen” **

“I Was Only Nineteen” is a song that was performed by Redgum which is an Australian band. It was first released in 1983 as a protest song for a parade in Sydney. Its main targeted audience was the Australian public as it was to inform them of the traumatic experiences that Australians soldiers had to go through during the Vietnam War.

This is an informative text as every line in the song is related to the chosen topic, “Australians at War”. However, it isn’t very well-rounded because someone from another culture or country might not be able to understand what the text is about as some of the lines are more specific to the citizens of Australia. For example the line, “But we made our tents a home, VB and pinups on the lockers” would be confusing as VB is a local beer that is only available in Australia. So in this way some of the Australian terminology would be lost for someone from another culture. The text is also very individual as it does not include any stereotype nor does it discriminate against other groups.

The rhyming patterns that are featured in the song provided the rhythm for the song. Also, the repetition in the song helps to reinforce the main point ” God help me, I was only nineteen”. This emphasized the terror that this “soldier” had suffered, especially for someone so young. Stylistic devices such as metaphors are used in the song. For example, “And night-time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?” .The metaphor being that the M16 is a dog, and the barking is the noise of M16 shooting. This gives an alternative to “ a shooting M16” and it also served an imaginative purpose of a dog-like M16. The imagery shown in the song also gives the reader a surreal feeling as it compelled the reader to imagine that they are there in Vietnam fighting in the war. The line “Then someone yelled out "Contact!" and the bloke behind me swore” gives Australians a sense of belonging when they use a common slang such as “bloke”.

The text presents a positive emotion as it gives the reader a sense of what the war was like and events that soldiers had to go through. On the other hand, it is also negative as the experiences of the soldiers are traumatizing, horrifying and yet they still convey an understanding of what war was like.


 * 2nd Text **
 * Jungle Green**
 * Author: Peter (Ollie) Orlinski - veteran of the Vietnam War**
 * Date: 1968**
 * Jungle Green the young men now wore and for the first time this strange land they saw. **
 * A land oiled by sweat from brow from people struggling to survive, in this land called Vietnam. **
 * Here they stood so proud to be these Aussie lads, to fight the enemy so hard to see, **
 * In a land filled with grief and misery. **
 * Children playing by the roads and women carrying heavy loads, **
 * Some dressed in black and carried straw,upon this land now torn with War. **
 * Our life is now in each others hands each day we fight and make a stand, **
 * The Enemy is so hard to find, in this land with it's jungles and hidden mines. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">We shut out the thoughts of humanity and continue searching for the hidden Enemy. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">The Jungle thick with trees and vines through tearing bamboo the Mountains we climb. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">We search in tunnels some rigged with Mines. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Our thoughts of loved ones far away now nourish our soul night and day. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Bonds grow more solid between young mates,and the living hell **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">they now tolerate, **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">For each depends upon each other our bond becomes strong like for a brother **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">and we fight on so proud to be Australian.Then **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">returning home to abuse and riddicule, from the people that we new,. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">So we drank and hid themselves to dull the pain and shame that now we new. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">The years went by and wev'e now grown old, **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">and many a tale has been heard and told, **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Of the War in that place they called Vietnam. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Some survived the memories of what we had seen and done, **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">The ridicule and heckling from a War that wasn't won. **


 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">But in my restless sleep I still can see, those young Aussie mate's, **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">mate's who never came back home with me. **
 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Mate's dressed in jungle green. **


 * <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">The poem jungle green, shoes an extreme amount of imagery especially of the physcial descriptions of the climate and landscape of vietnam. It is also a very emotive poem, it stirs up emotions with certain lines" so we drank and hid themselves to dull the pain and shame that we now we knew" the line is chilling in a certain aspect, as we can see how a lot of soldiers who fought in wars turned to drinking, to drown away the memories of war that haunted them. It is quite stereotypical in respect to war poems, lots of scenic descriptions are featured along, lots of emotive lines to provoke the reader. **

<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">Analysis 3:

<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">powerpoint presentation on a visual text ( in this case an advertisement for recruitement)

<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">[|Australians at war.pptx]

Cate,


 * This is a good start but you haven't put enough detail into your analysis - it should be more than one paragraph in length
 * You do look closely at some literary and poetic devices but you need to do this in more detail
 * You needed to discuss at greater length the representations of Australia depicts by the authors
 * You need to improve the structure of your paragraphs
 * You should also always describe the intented effect on the reader and link these discussion back to the overall respresentation of Australia the author is trying to convey

A good effort

__ Natasha evaluation on Cate: __

I think your analysis is good. You need to add more detail to your literary and poetic devices.Sturcture of pragraphs need to be improved. The representations of Australia should be discussed more in detail depicts by the authors. I think overall it is good!!