My Speech on 'Into the world'

So last term sometime I had an assessment on the topic we're currently doing in English 'Into The World' our set text was Educating Rita and we had to choose 2 related texts. The assessment was a 5-6 minute speech to target the next generation, mine ran a little long and I completely forgot to add a conclusion... but I got good marks for it regardless :)

Into The World-
An address to the next generation.

Good Morning/Afternoon future year twelve students, I am here today to speak toy you, as a former year twelve myself, about making transitions 'into the world'. A thing you will all have to do yourselves in the very near future.

I'm going to be speaking about moving into the world, some of the obstacles that must be overcome to do so, and some of the varying degrees of success that come from these transitions in relation to three texts; 'Educating Rita' a two hander play by Willy Russell, 'Encino Man' a 1992 comedy directed by Les Mayfield and 'The Body' a novella written by Stephen King.

A number of technical devices are employed by composers to show a characters transition 'into the world' the most common being; the characters relationships and how they change with the transition, the setting, and the characters language, be it narration or dialogue. As well as the characters motives for moving 'into the world', whether their transition is forced or by personal choice and the sacrifices the character has to make in order to transition successfully.

For 'Educating Rita', Willy Russell has, without a doubt make the relationship between the main character, Rita, and her teacher, Frank, a very interesting one. Frank is to Rita a teacher, a mentor, a friend and at times a figure held in awe, at the beginning of the play. Through her transition, however, Rita begins to hold Frank in less and less high regard and by the end they stand as equals. Some may even say that by the end of the play Rita is of higher status than Frank.

'Educating Rita' has a very small setting, Franks study becomes their 'world' with the lawn outside of the window considered the world that Rita so desperately wants to become a part of.

Language is another technique that Willy Russell uses in an interesting way to show Ritas transition into the educated world. In the first act of the play Rita speaks in a way that makes it clear she comes from an un-educated, working class background using phrases such as "dead suprised", "meself" and the like. In the midst of her transition Rita decides to "talk properly" at the suggestion of her housemate, Trish. After Frank asks what's wrong with her voice Rita says "Nothing is wrong with it, Frank. I have merely decided to talk properly. As Trish says there is not a lot of point in discussing beautiful literature with an ugly voice". But by the end of the play, and her transition she has managed to find a happy medium in her vocabulary.

Ritas motivation for moving 'into the world' is to escape her working class background. She wants to be one of the educated people and "know everything". She transitions by choice and sacrifices her relationship with her husband and alienation from her family and class, she doesn't know how to talk to them anymore. She also sacrifices part of her individuality, becoming a 'frankenstein' of other peoples opinions to transition into the world with success...and she does.

The relationship between Dave, Stoney and the aptly named caveman, Link in 'Encino Man' is represented similarly to the relationship of Frank and Rita. Dave and Stoney are Links mentors as he moves into his new world and, like Rita seems to surpass Frank in status, Link surpasses Dave and Soney during his transition.

The setting of 'Encino Man' could also be described as somewhat similar to that of 'Educating Rita'. Both are set at places of education, with someone from another 'world' enrolling and ending up seemint to outshine the mentor(s) who were already established there, The difference being that in this case Link becomes more popular than his mentors.

Both Link and Rita adopt phrasing used by their peers. The boys teach Link to use their language and he picks it up similar to the way Rita uses words out of her fellow students and Trishs' mouths.

Links transition 'into the world' is not by choice, but by force. He has no other option but to assimilate. His transition means he has to forget his ancient culture and learn a whole new language and way of life, but he enjoys it, so is it really a sacrifice? Dave sacrifices his dream of going to prom with Robin Sweeney and becoming prom king, but he is at peace with this sacrifice as it is Link who goes to prom with Robin and is crowned prom king. Links transition is a smooth and successful one. And thanks to him Dave transitions from 'loser' to 'cool'.

In Stephen Kings novella 'The Body' the relationship between the narrating persona, and main character, Gordie Lachance and his friends Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio is that expected from a group of twelve year old boys, on the surface, but as the older Gordie (narrator) reflects upon it throughout their transition, the reader gets a different perspective. At the beginning and through a majority of their transition they are a group of four friends, but then as they mature they split into two groups, Teddy and Vern and Gordie and Chris, the brainless and the intelligent. They remain as two through junior high, and the rest of their lives, as the older gordie puts it "Teddy and Vern slowly became just two more faces in the halls, or 3:30 detention".

The setting for 'The Body' is small, the small town of Castle Rock is the whole world to the four boys, but as they transition the world becomes bigger. Chris wants to get out of Castle Rock like Rita wants to get out on that lawn.

The language and vocabulary in 'The Body' is used in a way that shows the contrast between the Gordie who is narrating and the Gordie who is undergoing his transition. The narration is more formal, reflective and deep. Clearly showing that the narrating persona is an adult, in stark contrast to the dialogue snippets of foul mouthed banter and fears of the twelve year old boys.

The boys transition into the world is, unknowingly, a choice. They conciously decided to go find the dead body of Ray Brower, but they didn't know that their journey to find the body would become a journey out of innocence. The boys all sacrificed their innocence the day they saw Ray Browers body, which made the fact that they also sacrificed their fifteen minutes of fame by not reporting the bodys' whereabouts seem irrelevant.

The outcomes of the boys transitions vary, Neither Teddy nor Vern transition into manhood successfully, they take the shop courses in junior high, Teddy never gets to join the army and both of their lives are menial and cut short. Chris, like Rita transitions successfully against all odds, he does the college courses, does fairly well and goes into college as a pre-law student before his life is also tragically cut short. Gordie also transitions successfully. He outlives his friends and lives out his dream of becoming a writer, he describes his life as "so much like a fairytale it's fucking absurd".