Rabbit Proof FenceEssay title: Rabbit Proof FenceQuestion:“Once we learn to walk in someone else’s shoes we can truly understand the meaning of freedom”How have the set texts explored the idea of freedom?You should refer to examples from all three texts in detail, as well the techniques used by each composer to communicate their ideas.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimari and I have a Dream (speech) by Martin Luther King Jr. all explore the idea of freedom. Freedom is being able to act at will and having social and political liberty. They are all set in the 1930’s when there was great racial inequalities and discrimination in society. To Kill a Mockingbird explores the idea of freedom through the themes of courage, prejudice and symbolism. Rabbit Proof Fence explores freedom through denied freedom and the individual’s journey to obtain it. I have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr is about the desire for freedom by promoting racial acceptance, racial equality and justice for all. These themes are explored through the use of techniques of symbolism, perspective, dramatic incident, dialogue, use of costume, music and character development.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Rabbit Proof Fence and I have a Dream (speech) all explore the courage needed to obtain freedom, both physically and mentally. Courage is the ability to face danger or pain without fear. Freedom is explored in To Kill a Mockingbird through Mrs Dubose’s courage to fight against her morphine addiction in order to be free from it before she dies, even when she knows she will die in the process. Atticus tells his children that despite her faults, Mrs Dubose was the bravest person he knew, for real courage is “…when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what…”. The technique used in this scene is dialogue and character development. Dialogue is used to show Atticus’ respect of Mrs Dubose’s courage in facing death and character development is based on the response of Mrs Dubose’s addiction on the children and how they are able to in some ways
The Children
During the first scene, we are treated to a character talking about his childhood. Mrs Dubose says, “I’ll be your mother all day or we’ll just be friends.” Atticus’ feelings of loneliness at the end of “The Heart of a Man,” however, are expressed on the stage and the moment they are talking. It is the idea of how these things were handled during his childhood that has the power to carry it through with him, that has allowed him the courage to stand up to other people and fight against the monsters who surround him with a determination to live up to his own potential.
This concept also helps to explain why the ending is such a strong fit with the characters. Mrs Dubose is a young woman, living the life that she is set to live, with a loving and caring father, who is her “mother” and loves her. She spends her days reading to the “Fearsome Man” while staying in touch with her friends, and learning just a little more about herself through the books she is reading, as well as she is having “fun at life, doing stupid things, helping others, talking to other people… It is all in the face of what she thinks and doesn’t know. She hates herself at this moment and she feels that she is getting tired of feeling bad or being alone. She doesn’t know, or doesn’t know, who she is until this moment. This is what this girl represents to the children.
After the children are taught how to walk and use a stick to stand, Mrs Dubose brings in all of her own power to protect them and their siblings. She asks him about the “Fearsome Man” and Atticus tells her that they are all “friends” and she must use their power to find out who they are before she dies so when her heart breaks, she can return to what she knows.
The Characters
The children are also portrayed in this fashion. The “Fearsome Woman” is one of many characters you see and think about the characters who are portrayed as childhood lovers of girls during the course of the second episode. The Fearsome Woman was always a very strong influence on Atticus’s personality, for this is what led to his being placed in as much of the episode as possible. The children aren’t only taught some of his values, their emotional well-being is at the forefront of them.
A common refrain is that Atticus is always a strong, optimistic girl who never does everything for her mother, even if it takes a while for her to do things for her mother. Of course, this is what she learns from her mother but it is also revealed in this episode to be much deeper and more difficult than what our little heroine might have encountered during her childhood.
The children learn that the world is different every day. Each day has many different meanings. Some are different so that your mother will see you as a person, some are just words she speaks in order to say “I love you”. Some are simply lies. In the case of Mrs Dubose when confronted by the truth, she goes as far as to say that her own family and those who loved them have died to save her only to be turned away from that truth by someone so cruel and who hates her only for wanting to save her siblings, and who takes it all out on that person when she wants to save her. In the case of Mrs Dub