Physical Journeys

Physical Journeys

Physical journeys provide challenges and obstacles for the traveler to overcome, giving them the opportunity to extend themselves physically, mentally and emotionally. Thus physical journeys provide learning experiences, enabling people to learn more about themselves and the world around them. This capacity of physical journeys is demonstrated in Michael Gow’s Away, Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken and the film Stand By Me, directed by Rob Reiner.

In Away the characters are able to learn more about themselves and the world around them through their undertaking of a physical journey, the Australian institution of the annual family trip ‘away’. Set in the summer 1967/1968, three families on their physical journeys are thrown together by circumstance on a confined beach setting, a natural place of healing and reconciliation. Here away from familiar surroundings, conflict is able to be resolved, allowing new ways of relating and understanding to develop. At the end of the play, the characters have a new understanding of the world around them as they have accepted what determines their actions. The learning experiences provided by physical journeys and their impact upon the protagonists are explored in Away through dramatic techniques including symbolism, juxtaposition and Shakespearean allusions.

Symbolism is used in Away. The storm that is conjured by the fairies in Act III is the main symbol of cleansing in the play. The storm represents the power of nature, a force beyond human control. Gwen, Jim and Meg are the only family that is caught in the storm, paralleling the upheaval in their lives. The storm acts as part of the learning experience encompassed in this physical journey. It serves to strip away Gwen to her basic state, as her prized material possessions are destroyed amidst the chaos and confusion of the storm. Only once this process of stripping away has occurred can Gwen experience healing and personal growth, finding new ways of relating...