The famous Australian play “The One Day of the Year” by Alan Seymour explores various conflicts over ANZAC Day in the 1950’s in a working class family from Sydney’s Western suburbs. Since then, opinions on gender roles and cultural diversity in Australia have changed and so have ideas about Australia in general. This is also closely examined in Ellen Connolly’s article ‘Burquini Hits the Beach’, written for the Sunday Telegraph on February 4th 2007. The text reveals a plan by Surf Lifesaving Australia to introduce new uniforms that conform to the guidelines of Muslim culture regarding women’s modesty. This was created by a program named “Call the Same Wave”, which was established after the 2007 Cronulla riots. Both texts cause the responder
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Alf is incredibly resistant to change, which is shown when he says, “We’re working class people and we’ll always be working class.” The repetition of ‘working class’ emphasises Alf’s loyalty to being a middle-class citizen or ‘battler’. Alf’s character is portrayed as a “bloody Australian” which is coincidentally the first and last line of the play and is repeated constantly throughout. The cyclic repetition of this nationalist phrase portrays Alf’s unwillingness and inability to change despite the constant conflict in his family. As a result of Alf’s low social class in adolescence, he has a fairly poor education, as shown in, “… and its because I’m bloody Australian that I’m getting on the grog.” Both the swearing and the colloquialism in this statement demonstrates his traits as and ‘Aussie battler.’ Like most people from his generation, Alf is immensely racist, which is demonstrated when he refers to Italians as “Bloody …show more content…
Mum is a stereotypical housewife in the 1950’s who does all the cooking, cleaning and other domestic duties around the Cook household. She is constantly at home in the kitchen making a “cuppa tea” for someone and is dressed in “an old floppy frock, loose cardigan and old slippers.” Whereas Jan is a more modern-day woman who wears lipstick, which shows that she takes pride in her appearance unlike Mum, whose main purpose in life is to dress functionally to serve her family. Jan is also incredibly independent and liberated, as shown when she states that she drives a car; something not many women did in those times. Even the fact that she goes to university and is outside the home symbolises her contemporary attitude towards gender expectations. The juxtaposition of these characters pushes the responder to think deeply about gender expectations and equality in the
Alf is incredibly resistant to change, which is shown when he says, “We’re working class people and we’ll always be working class.” The repetition of ‘working class’ emphasises Alf’s loyalty to being a middle-class citizen or ‘battler’. Alf’s character is portrayed as a “bloody Australian” which is coincidentally the first and last line of the play and is repeated constantly throughout. The cyclic repetition of this nationalist phrase portrays Alf’s unwillingness and inability to change despite the constant conflict in his family. As a result of Alf’s low social class in adolescence, he has a fairly poor education, as shown in, “… and its because I’m bloody Australian that I’m getting on the grog.” Both the swearing and the colloquialism in this statement demonstrates his traits as and ‘Aussie battler.’ Like most people from his generation, Alf is immensely racist, which is demonstrated when he refers to Italians as “Bloody …show more content…
Mum is a stereotypical housewife in the 1950’s who does all the cooking, cleaning and other domestic duties around the Cook household. She is constantly at home in the kitchen making a “cuppa tea” for someone and is dressed in “an old floppy frock, loose cardigan and old slippers.” Whereas Jan is a more modern-day woman who wears lipstick, which shows that she takes pride in her appearance unlike Mum, whose main purpose in life is to dress functionally to serve her family. Jan is also incredibly independent and liberated, as shown when she states that she drives a car; something not many women did in those times. Even the fact that she goes to university and is outside the home symbolises her contemporary attitude towards gender expectations. The juxtaposition of these characters pushes the responder to think deeply about gender expectations and equality in the