Summary Of Double Exposure By Brain Caswell

Brain Caswell explores the themes appearance and reality, showing how appearances can be deceptive and how humans are complex in his novel, Double Exposure. He does this by using the metaphor of double exposure, and characterisation. Caswell also effectively used intertextuality to ensure that the reader has a greater understanding of the main themes, and to convey different ideas that are explored during the novel.
Double Exposure deals with ideas of how appearance and reality can be deceptive and the complexity of humans, which is explored through the metaphor of double exposure itself. In art, double exposure is a technique where two or more exposures are changed to create a single image, and has a corresponding meaning in respect of the two images. In the novel, however, it is used as a metaphor …show more content…
However, this judgement soon changes as the reader finds themselves getting lost into the novel. The reader immediately visualises the girl’s face, one image showing a certain ferocity and the other with a sense of purity and innocence, unaware that it is the exact same face. The metaphor of double exposure helps clarify the meaning of the novel, as the reader understands that under the girl’s fierce façade is a yearning to be saved. A second piece of artwork, created by Chris, also delves into the concept of double exposure, “Two young lovers stand, eyes locked, fingers gently touching… against the spray of a fountain… in the frame beside them their images have aged. Wrinkled hands touch with familiarity… the fountain had become a tree in autumn… But the eyes… he has made them shine, brighter than the original… a shared expression of a far deeper… understanding.” This is a clear example of the author conveying the idea that humans are complex and of double exposure, as their love, once invisible to the reader, is made clear