Are you beautiful today PDF

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very detailed analysis and techniques...

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Are You Beautiful Today Shape

Techniques

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Handles the topic of sensitive issues of mental health

We sit around our lounge rooms, Discussing jail and suicide as though asking One lump or two? And I laugh Till I am blue ● The use rhetorical question of “one lump or two” draws a connection with asking for sugar for coffee, paralleling with the normality of discussion about jail suicide. ● Employment of metaphor of ‘Till I am blue’ highlights how trivial the topic of suicide and imprisonment is for the protagonist, crystallising the integration of these morbid ideas into the Aboriginal lifestyle and hence, the declining lifestyle conditions of those with an Aboriginal background

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Reveals the continual nature of the discrimination that indigenous population

“Ah you are a peaceful people, your people do love, peace.” ● Repetition of peaceful highlights the mocking tone and emanates the misconception of the behaviour of the Aboriginal people ● It conceals the genuine Aboriginal tale and hence, reveals the continual discrimination of the indigenous population I laugh with my sisters and brothers At things that others wouldn’t get, ● A separation between the narrator and the reader, how they wouldn’t understand the things they were talking about. More specifically between the Aboriginals and non Aboriginals ( Europeans ) and coercing the reader into a certain mindset/ choosing a side. ● Also shows the personal connection, and how deep the scars of their discrimination were. Degree of finality with the culture gap.

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The difficulty for indigenous people to achieve success? higher socioeconomic professions.

“He wanted to sing opera From the bottom of the river, ● Paradox ( how can you sing from the bottom of a river, where the circumstances greatly hinder singing?) He wanted the bees and Their knees” ● This refers to something of the highest quality, the grandfather wants ultimate satisfaction in the pursuit of his dream

We brag about poverty, ● The irony of pride taken in their low socioeconomic status as they “brag about poverty” creates a sardonic tone in which such converses are considered conventional. “Have you read it” ● the rhetorical question is a variation of a previous question, “Do you read beautiful poetry”. However, “it” refers to newspaper reports of incidents involving their people. This contrasts the lives of indigenous to the lives of white people. Dream, Could you take Conversations about jail and suicide ● The Australian dream, through the accumulation of negative connotations, changes to convey the Aboriginal version of the dream which is full of “jail”, “blood” and “suicide”. ●

Reveals the continuous downwards spiral to alcoholism which many Aboriginal people fall into revealing the cyclical nature of poverty

The life of the oppressed, This is a funny situation, Much funnier than death, ● “This is a funny situation” - the use of irony to create the tone of satirical humour and add lightness to the topic whilst simultaneously drawing attention to the issue itself. ● ‘This is a funny situation’ - anaphora is utilised in order to emphasise a point.

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Challenges and mocks the trivial lives of Western that contrasts to the oppressed lives of the Indigenous

Are you beautiful today? Are your children safe and well, Brother, mother, sister too? ● They are superficial questions, conveying that we take it to granted that our children are born into privilege ● Irony through rhetorical question - challenge to the Western, whose children’s safety is taken for granted, while the basic rights of safety and security of the Indigenous are not, something they have to work for ● “Are you beautiful today?” Question focus on trivial matters such as beauty - irony where the Western’s lives revolve around trivial issues, while the Indigenous’ lives revolve around the matters of survival and death and keeping their elementary rights

Are you well clothed and well fed, And are they alive And Well, Not dead? ● The use of a common greeting, insinuating that death is common in Aboriginal society. The rhetorical question also helps to relate the audience to the narrator, who is asking about basic human rights that seem to be optional. But I laugh, do you laugh too? I laugh with my sisters and brothers At things that others wouldn’t get, While talkin’ bout jail, While talkin’ bout death ● “I laugh with my sisters and brothers” written in a tone of cheekiness and signals that the reader (the privileged) does not share their perspective and wouldn’t understand them ● “While talkin’ bout jail/While talkin’ bout death” An ironic tone is presented when the author uses colloquialism in “talkin’” in order to mimic and mock the stereotypical “Aussie” accent, where the world sees it as an iconic characteristic of Australia. ● The abrupt enjambment of “jail” and “death” with a comma, is a symbolic representation of the abrupt termination of an Aborigine’s life and fate when they were imprisoned by white-Europeans. ● The anaphoric use of “while” insights a clueless tone within the poem that reinforces the contemplation and confusing mental perspectives of the privileged I drag this sorry carcass Have dragged it for centuries, And miles, I have dragged it over gnashing teeth, Poised in revolt, And poised in style, ● The recurring motif of death is used to embody the dehumanising impact of the Indigenous’ experience of hardship and oppression ● Hyperbole to exaggerate the tedious tribulations they’ve had to deal with for centuries...