The main heroine of The Changeover, Laura Chant is a teenager. But she sacrifices herself to becomes something different from an ordinary girl that she was trying to be. She chooses to become a witch to save her younger brother, Jacob from an evil spirit. People say, “The eldest sister is a second mother.” I see that Laura is like a mother to Jacob. She protects him and love him so dearly. She even refuses to enjoy her teenage life partying and chooses to babysit her brother.
The Changeover of Laura also portrays the transition of a young teenager into a mature womanhood. Along the way, she has faced obstacles and troubles. She fears of the evil spirit. However, she has courage and tries to overcome those despite her mother’s distrust of her. So, she seeks help from the people who believe her words. While she is trying to help her brother, she has almost lost herself too.
Sometimes people make a changeover to become a better self. But in Laura’s case, she chooses to become a witch to save her brother. Being a witch can be frowned upon by people in the society. However, she does not care about herself, she only wants to save her brother. Time to time, people make choices, good and bad. The value of Laura is family. Therefore, the choice she makes is for her family. This may be a supernatural movie, but it has family drama in it. This also portrays the struggle of a teenager in the society.

“Perfect Places” by Lorde

A song “Perfect Places” is a story about partying, using drug and having sex of a young girl. It was released on 1 June 2017 and it is from a second single album, “Melodrama” of a New Zealand pop star, Aucklander, Ella Yelich-O’s Connor, better known as Lorde. Perfect Places is composed and sung by Lorde and released through Universal Music New Zealand.

 The main message of this song is a fruitless exploring that causes an imperfect feeling and emotion. The genre of this song is a contemporary electropop (a music style characterized by the use of electronically created sounds) with combing beats of bass, synths and drum. Lorde feels unhappy and so lost, tries to fill the empty hole in her life by using alcohol, going out and having relationship with strangers; however, it only makes things worse. She is wandering for perfect places.

She begins the song with “Every night, I live and die”, telling her emotionless and meaningless life that is always changeable. “It’s just another graceless night” shows that she feels disappointed with her night at the party. “Watch the wasters blow the speakers”, wasters means people who are drunk and make a terrible mess at the party. Lorde expresses herself in “I am nineteen and I’m on fire”, even though she is young and energetic; her thought seems to be full with negative things. The dancing at parties is a great way for her to forget an awful experience because she says that “when we’re dancing, I’m alright”. She tries to explain her unpleasant feeling of the hot weather in New York City and the news through “I hate the headlines and weather”.

In the pre chorus, “Are you lost enough?… cause I don’t know”, Lorde makes sure herself that she has any pleasure of having party and drinking but she has no idea to get a real joy. When she realizes that nothing happened, “Let’s go to perfect places” means the artist and friends keep finding to solve their problem out. The last verse gives the solution for Lorde. There is no place and thing to be prefect for her. She concludes her songs with “What the fuck are perfect places anyway?” She conveys her emptiness through questioning herself impolitely.

Overall, the song Perfect Places by Lorde teaches me that partying is helpless to achieve my real happiness. As for me, I personally believe that only God can give joy, peace and blessing.

References:

Perfect Places (1 June 2017). “In Wikipedia”. Retrieved 1 June, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Places

https://genius.com/Lorde-perfect-places-lyrics

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LordeMusic

Pip Adam’s The New Animals is about the two generations: generation X and millennials working together to make creative and ground-breaking fashion. However, they have different opinions and different level of risk tolerance. The older generation as Carla, Sharona, and Duey may have been idealistic at some point in the past. But now they are trying hard to earn for a living. They have been in the fashion industry for a much longer time. And now they have to work together with the generation which is 20 years younger. The younger generation like Tommy, Carl and Kurt are energetic and have high risk tolerance. They are ready to make a change in fashion world, and they are backed up by their families unlike the older generation. The author carefully shows the generation differences, but some may think that the author is taking sides. Both generations are trying hard to earn a good reputation for their work. Both generations are trying hard to earn a good reputation for their work. The author shows the tension between these two generations and how they are struggling to their way to success. Moreover, the author includes the comparison of 1990s and 2000s fashions.

I think this is a strange book. The first part of the book is hard for me to follow. The names are also confusing for me. The characters seem emotional and heartbreaking; this may be because most of them are women or consider they are “she”. This novel is not very related to me because I have never worked in a global scale fashion industry. However, I notice the fashion changes and conflicts of breaking through in each generation.

The Cross of Soot by Albert Wendt is a contemporary Samoan short story about a young boy who gets unfinished tattoo on his hand by a condemned prisoner. The story is emphasised on the traditional Samoan tattoo and the main message of the author is about the journey and loss of innocence of a young boy. Wendt introduces the main character as an innocent boy. At the beginning of the story, the boy is playing and wandering around the stream. Afterwards, his exploration leads him into the compass of the jail where he uses to visit. The author emphasises on the characterisation to portray the relationship between young and old ages such as the boy meets the old man in the jail teasing and laughing, they enjoy their time. The boy has suffered a loss of innocence as the old man named Filipo does not want him to know the death of the other prisoner, Tagi. The boy pretends as he understands everything while he is talking with adults, for example, the man told him a bout rape but he does not understand the word “rape”.The story identifies the relationship between the boy and the old man as well as the different ages among them. The author also employs a bond of friendship as the symbol to describe the journey that the boy has to complete when he is growing up. Concerning with the psychological aspects of the boy, there is no fear to answer his mother’s question about the tattoo on his hand and tells his mother straightaway that ” A man put it on”. The boy knows that the prisoner, Tagi is not coming back anymore after putting a partial black cross tattoo as he has become mature to consider the situation. In the story, the young boy’s unfinished tattoo represents the experience and circumstance of a person’s life during the period of crossing from childhood to adulthood. The story frightens me that when the boy gets into the corner of the prison and a painful tattoo is put on his hand.

“A Game of Cards” is a short story written by Witi Ihimaera in 1972 that tells the story of a young man who returns home and visits his sick grandmother Miro who loves to play card games. There are two main themes included in the story A Game of Cards such as;the importance of the family and friends and Maori culture. The author uses first person narrative as his point of view in the story. A young man returns home to visit his sick grandma. Miro welcomes her grandson and they press noses in greeting. They spend a lot of time talking in the room, Miro tells him why she wants to come home from the hospital. When the grandson returns home he gets a call saying his grandmother is in a critical state. The family rushes to see Miro. Granny’s friends sit around her bed, playing cards, teasing, laughing and enjoying their last moments with her. Because of that Miro’s last moments are happy and peaceful.

At the beginning of the story, Ihimaera illustrates clearly the bond between family. For example, the father is waiting for the son coming back home at the train station. They hug and kiss each other and the father let him know that his granny is very sick. The young man recalls the remembrance with his grandma and says that “I was her favorite mokopuna”. A gathering of relatives and friends at Miro’s place illustrate the importance of love and relationship.The activity that depicts the tradition of te reo Maori includes Miro’s welcoming to her grandson, e.g, “Haere mai, mokopuna”. The author effectively uses characterisation in the story. The message on his story can be understood from differences between the old and the young generation. Miro symbolizes the past or old generation and the narrator as the current situation of Maori people. In the story, Ihimaera employs a game of playing cards to represent the unity. Miro loves playing cards because it is an appropriate reason for bringing the family together. She also wants her new generation, mokopuna to conserve the interest and identity of Maori. In this story, the narrator explains his nanny that “I was too busy” and what he is doing in Wellington is applied to show that he is the one who does not care about his family or community. As far as the nature of the friendship concerned, the author beautifully describes it. Nanny’s friends come and play cards with her. They enjoy their time and while playing the game a friend says to her that “Eee! You cheat, Miro.” All the old ladies keep her company because they wants the granny to spend the rest of her journey peacefully.

Overall, I have learnt that how family and friends are crucial. They both mean to me love, encouragement, understanding, hope, comport, advice, values and faith. I have a friend who I cannot forget in my life. She always puts herself after me and never complains. She supports and comforts me in both times of joy and distress. Therefore, this story left me with love and peace.

A short story ” Another Language” by Craig Cliff is written about a seven years old boy who is curiously finding out the reason of his sad grandfather’s stutter. The purpose of Cliff’s story is the loss of innocence of a child. The boy asks his grandfather, Dedo and questions why he is always quiet and left his native country. His reply for the grandson is that he always feels sad because of missing Yugoslavia and he has left his place because he stutters. However, the boy does not understand the reason of his grandfather escaping his questions.

Using a first person narration, James is the main character and narrator in this story. Cliff’s work is a contemporary story as it was written in 2007. The author employs a simple language usage like “Do you speak another language?”and ” I am always sad”. This is the reason why the narrator is a child. The interactions and the secret between the boy and his grandpa are emphasised through of the author on the characterisation ,for example, the young boy often asks questions to grandfather concerning his stutter . The grandpa just replies a few words like ” because I stutter” and sometime gestures such as nodding his head. The boy just wants to satisfy his curiosity but he has lost his innocence as he does not understand that his family wants to protect him from the persecutions.

Overall, Cliff clearly reveals his perspective about a boy losing his innocence. After reading this story, I realise myself that I sometimes lie my children to preserve the reality in front of them. It should be possible to give appropriate reasons and answers when I can, otherwise they might lose their trust in me. My mom left me when I was two years old. I do not know whether she alive or not. I tried to find her and asked some of her friends about her. They told me that she is still alive and living in somewhere but whenever I asked my dad, he told me that she was dead. His answer made me lost trust in him. Therefore, the feeling and emotion of the boy in this story resonate with me.

The poem in this paper is “The Peacock of Motherhood” which is a composition by Anna Jackson. Most of her works belong to the subject of family and domestic life. The poet’s writing is full of allegory that makes her work meaningful. With regard to The Peacock of Motherhood, this poem is a free verse poetry, five lines with four stanzas. The poem depicts mainly about being a mother who is selfless, sacrificed many of their wants and needs for children and proud to be a mother.

First of all, the author introduces the poem with “This is the gift my son gave me” which means how the mother has been given a lot of pleasure by motherliness. She prioritises everything before her necessaries and sometime she has to do things that she unwilling to do. Jackson uses a great variety of allegory, for example, in the line” The pea-hen of girlhood makes no sound now, sleeps undisturbed.” The peahen is used as allegory to describe the age of puberty. When the mother was young, she put to sleep and had no worries, however, she can never remember that simple childhood as she has plenty of responsibilities and now she has started to blossom. Another allegory is in the line “The birds strut and preen, flash their tails, while the mothers smile till the bell goes” . The word “tails” allegorises for illustrating children in this poem. As the peacock struts when they are flashing their trains, mothers are very proud of taking their children to the school.

The message of this poem depicts the emotion, feeling and life of a mother. In my view, Anna Jackson was successful in bringing up such idea. As I am a mother, this poem has taught me many life lessons. It is no longer about my wants and needs, it is about my children’s wants and needs first. I was enormously impressed with the quality of her work.

” Fall ” is a poem written by Ursula Bethell in 1940 to illustrate the beauty of autumn and old men who are waiting to sleep. The fact of the author is the acceptance of the process of life which can be seen in the last stanza of the poem. The poem is based on an association between the nature and the reality. As for the physical assessment of the poem, it starts with one lines stanza and followed by three lines stanza, a readable work with five stanzas.

The poet begins her work with a description of autumn in a very positive way. The blooming rose and little flying birds reveal the nature of autumn. The major theme of this poetry is observing nature of mortality by comparing with the circle of the fall season.Through the first three stanzas, there is a progression from the early autumn, the the mid autumn, to the herald of winter and then the poet does her work from a purely perceptive. As a poetic devices, Behell uses a wide range of metaphor and symbol to make her work colourful. Allegories are used to convey an hidden meaning through autumn to create the moral meaning, the finality of death. For example, when the autumn comes, the trees are changing their green colours to red, yellow and orange. Finally, leaves are ready to fall which is a symbolic of the circle of life, the passing of time. Harvesting takes a major component of autumn to signal the growing season is going to stop. The poet is engaging the reader to realise how autumn teaches regarding the reality of old men’s life. They have spent their blooming times and are ready to accept the final day.

This poem has been chosen due to the writer’s idea of message depicting. In my opinion, the poem provides a gloomy and reflective mood. The author’s perspective is relevant to every human being as nobody can escape from the mortality. Although within the first part of the poem, autumn produces the beauty, peacefulness and compassionate, it represents that sadness is coming soon. I was touched to read the very last sentence of the poem which is ” we are drowsy and very ready to fall into deep sleep.

Written by Emily Perkins, A Place Where No One Know Your Face is a short story which was published in 1996.Perkins goes to an appropriate length to describe the journey of a family to the camping. The author’s main message is to illustrate the emotion and behavior of a teenager who is influenced by the family especially parents.

She attracts the reader to her point if view which is able to remember and interpret the memories of childhood and the place for fun throughout the time of being a child. Using second person singular as her perspective, she puts the reader themselves as a narrator to achieve the purpose and to experience from her point of view.Perkins’s background setting is cool and true to nature. The main character got the smell of the countryside and saw some cows and sheep. Some little stone cottages, farmer and streams were included in her rural area setting.

Perkins begins the text by very briefly detailing the symbolism of the crossing fingers, white horse and black dog which bring the luck.Without using any punctuation for the spoken words in the text, it is clear that she uses a prose writing style. The sentences are curt , for example, ” you hate her, you hate that word. It is forest”. Therefor they are readable for the general audience. Perkins implies emotions through the alliteration, “y” letter: “you” is a case in point in the text. The interactions of the main character with her family is the way how the author emphasizes the characterization such as the main character eats peach, throws it out, has a barley candy, ice cream and fish and chips. The main character seems to be a teenager, e.g, she was interested in the opposite sex and she was warned by her mother not to get juice everywhere before she was having her peach.

Overall, I found this story quite interesting, even though the text is confused for me when I have done my first reading. After finishing this story for three times, seeing the description and having my own picture in my head bring me back to my childhood as I grew up in a rural area where I could never forget it. This text is likely to leave the reader with the impression of a teenager’s emotion.

“The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield is a short story that was published in 1921 to focus on the modernist expression among the social classes. Mansfield’s story evoked emotions and feelings that can open readers eyes to class issue as her perspective is clear. The text is interesting and mostly well written. Preparing for a wonderful evening party,the main character Laura Sheridan, heard a bad new that a carter from the same community has died suddenly in an accident.She thought to cancel the party; however her beautiful hat takes her thought away. She has learnt something meaningful about life after delivering a basket of food to the carter’s family.

Lots of loaded languages to show her opinion on having compassion and humanity, for example, “Are you right their, matey” and “mother, isn’t it terribly heartless of us?”. Mansfield used a big comparison between the lower class and the upper class throughout the stories to explain the readers the differences between the two worlds.The author gave balanced information on the subjects as she fairly described the characters and their relationships. The story was written in a logical manner and an appropriate length to attract the general audience’s attention. She also tried to figure that flowers play diverse role in human life representing a unique meaning in the text.

Overall, even though it was easy to distinguish the wealthy and the under class in the 19th century, Mansfield was brave enough to stand for equality and was a supporter of modernism in her society. However, I found that this story was quite interesting and provided the reader an opportunity to assess ourselves effectively to work on the social weakness.