Extended Study – Connected Texts
Compare the ways in which the creators of your chosen texts explored self-growth.
In Markus Zusak’s novel When Dogs Cry and in Tom Hooper’s film Les Misérables, stylistic features are used to explore the theme self-growth. Both texts show the idea of self-growth in many different forms. Self-growth with help from others, self-growth due to a difficult situation and self-growth because of a change in beliefs has been explored in Zusak’s When Dogs Cry and Hooper’s Les Misérables. The theme of self-growth is emphasised through the use of imagery, symbolism, cinematography and diegetic sound.
Both texts explore self-growth of characters due to other’s kindness and support. In Les Misérables, Jean grew from a …show more content…
The reverend chose not to tell the guards the truth and told them it was a gift he had given Jean and even when the guards had left, the reverend let him keep the silver so he can use it to become an honest man. The reverend gave [him] hope… and gave [him] strength to journey on. Similarly, When Dogs Cry explores self-growth due to other’s support although it is not a second chance given to Cameron that makes him grow as a person. Cameron was ashamed of himself, was an underdog and believed that winning wasn’t natural for [him]. He grew with the help of Octavia, someone who grabbed [his] spirit by the heart and reefed it from [his] body, made him realise he isn’t a loser and taught him to have confidence in himself. Both Hooper and Zusak use stylistic features to emphasise the growth of the two main characters in the texts although the stylistic features are varied between both texts. Hooper focused more on using music and cinematography to emphasise the growth of Jean whereas Zusak used a lot of symbolism to show growth. This growth of Cameron is emphasised with the symbolism of a dog …show more content…
Both characters judged a person too quickly without taking the time to know them and soon grew to realise they were not bad people. In When Dogs Cry, Steve believes that his brother Cameron is a loser and that [he was] ashamed of [Cameron]. As Steve spends more time with Cameron his judgement begins to change and he realises that he judged Cameron too quickly. When Cameron finds out what Steve had thought of him he becomes heartbroken and distraught and Steve’s growth is magnified here with the imagery used to show the sincerity of Steve’s apology. Zusak uses a passive voice in this scene to emphasise the regret Steve felt for misjudging his brother and repetition is used to draw the reader’s attention to the specific line I was wrong. Likewise, Les Misérables’ Javert spends his whole life believing that a criminal is always a bad person and explains to Jean that men like [him] never change. Javert is captured and Jean has a chance to kill him but instead of killing him and being able to live a life free of running away from Javert, he sets him free. Javert begins to doubt the life he has lived, always believing that these convicts are wrong and now he begins to ask himself whether [Jean’s] sins should be forgiven [and] should his crimes be reprieved. The self-growth of both characters are emphasised by a vast array of stylistic features, different for both
Compare the ways in which the creators of your chosen texts explored self-growth.
In Markus Zusak’s novel When Dogs Cry and in Tom Hooper’s film Les Misérables, stylistic features are used to explore the theme self-growth. Both texts show the idea of self-growth in many different forms. Self-growth with help from others, self-growth due to a difficult situation and self-growth because of a change in beliefs has been explored in Zusak’s When Dogs Cry and Hooper’s Les Misérables. The theme of self-growth is emphasised through the use of imagery, symbolism, cinematography and diegetic sound.
Both texts explore self-growth of characters due to other’s kindness and support. In Les Misérables, Jean grew from a …show more content…
The reverend chose not to tell the guards the truth and told them it was a gift he had given Jean and even when the guards had left, the reverend let him keep the silver so he can use it to become an honest man. The reverend gave [him] hope… and gave [him] strength to journey on. Similarly, When Dogs Cry explores self-growth due to other’s support although it is not a second chance given to Cameron that makes him grow as a person. Cameron was ashamed of himself, was an underdog and believed that winning wasn’t natural for [him]. He grew with the help of Octavia, someone who grabbed [his] spirit by the heart and reefed it from [his] body, made him realise he isn’t a loser and taught him to have confidence in himself. Both Hooper and Zusak use stylistic features to emphasise the growth of the two main characters in the texts although the stylistic features are varied between both texts. Hooper focused more on using music and cinematography to emphasise the growth of Jean whereas Zusak used a lot of symbolism to show growth. This growth of Cameron is emphasised with the symbolism of a dog …show more content…
Both characters judged a person too quickly without taking the time to know them and soon grew to realise they were not bad people. In When Dogs Cry, Steve believes that his brother Cameron is a loser and that [he was] ashamed of [Cameron]. As Steve spends more time with Cameron his judgement begins to change and he realises that he judged Cameron too quickly. When Cameron finds out what Steve had thought of him he becomes heartbroken and distraught and Steve’s growth is magnified here with the imagery used to show the sincerity of Steve’s apology. Zusak uses a passive voice in this scene to emphasise the regret Steve felt for misjudging his brother and repetition is used to draw the reader’s attention to the specific line I was wrong. Likewise, Les Misérables’ Javert spends his whole life believing that a criminal is always a bad person and explains to Jean that men like [him] never change. Javert is captured and Jean has a chance to kill him but instead of killing him and being able to live a life free of running away from Javert, he sets him free. Javert begins to doubt the life he has lived, always believing that these convicts are wrong and now he begins to ask himself whether [Jean’s] sins should be forgiven [and] should his crimes be reprieved. The self-growth of both characters are emphasised by a vast array of stylistic features, different for both