Author: Kahu Allan

The writer of the text has a clear and very strong impression of seafood and the rest of the text are his justifications, reactions, opinions and feelings towards all things related to seafood. The writer uses many language features to better explain his hate including setting an atmosphere of disgust, first person experiences, some degree of a parody to relate his hate and something like a volta at the end to demonstrate his understanding of his unpopular opinion.

The first few words we hear from Alan Perrott is “I can’t stomach seafood.” We are not even five words in and we already have his views on seafood. He also uses strong language here when saying “…can’t…”, he doesn’t say “I try to avoid seafood.” or “I dislike seafood” its that he cannot eat it. This already gives us an atmosphere of hate. Alan goes on; “The tentacles, the whatever the hell that muck is that comes out of shells…” More strong language and emotions and we have barely finished the first sentence. This man desperately needs you to understand his opinion and disgust towards seafood.

The first person is you, experiences that you have experienced, feelings you have felt and opinions that you have formed. Alan goes deep into his traveling around town and smelling the disgusting smell; “There’s a fish market in New Market and I don’t even like driving past it unless the vents are off and the windows up.” This is about his experiences in his car and his opinion on the disgusting smell. The reader would never have been able to experience that simple thing in such a way. It adds a more personal feeling to the text.

At the end of the text there s something resembling a volta. Not in a way where he admits his love for seafood but where he admits how difficult he is making life for himself. He puts it plainly as; “But the thing is that I really wished I liked it, loved it even, because it would be so much easier…” He spends the previous 24 lines explaining his virtually allergic reaction to seafood and how disgusting it is yet he understands that it is all around him and that he expresses an uncommon and disliked opinion towards seafood. This makes you understand him a little more as a person then that mad person that he describes throughout the text.

After Alans rant / deeply personal text about his hate for seafood and his elevating language features.

Intro:

What would you do if you wake up one morning and can see a path to your wildest aspirations and dreams, would you follow this path blindly, or cautiously travel the path and take notice and care on every detail. In the case of Macbeth, he charged blindly forwards to meet his fate which, unfortunately for him, turned out to be the worst move possible. In the case of Ernest Shackleton, he did take his time and knew when enough was enough so he could turn back and save the hundreds accompanying him. Ambition can almost be seen as a force of nature, something that acts on things to change the world forever. How you use this ambition can lead you to be revered in years to come or to be hated throughout time.

Main:

Gattaca is a film set in the not so far future where your children are designed and your fate is determined in a urine sample. We watch as a undesigned person, Vincent, try and follow his ambitious dreams only to be shut down by society around him. With a little help, a plan, serious ambition and a fridge full of blood, overcome his ‘disability’ and reach the stars. As he developed as a character, we also see him develop more of a consciousness. Early in the film he is desperate to achieve his goal by any means necessary, rejecting all who could betray him including his own family. Later in the film however we see him make connections with other characters such as Eugene, Irene, somewhat his brother and even the doctor who’s only purpose was to stop people like him. He showed the power of ambition and him and Eugene left no legacy behind… except a fridge full of blood…

On the very other end of the scale, you have the originally noble, popular, loyal and unambitious Macbeth turned crazed leader of Scotland after murdering his friends and some of the royal family. Why? Ambition! Imagine this for me, please. You are wandering through a old and cold Scottish battle field, a figure appears from the mist, who or what is it? MACBETH! YOU! WILL! BE! KING! He was told a piece of his future, the part where he ascended to the throne. At first he dismissed the idea brought forth by the mysterious bag lady but soon his views changed, he liked the idea of power. If Gattaca demonstrates the power of ambition to do good then Macbeth shows us the devastating that unchecked ambition is capable of.

Another ambitious yet cruel character is the once king of kings, Ozymandias. A character who’s only legacy is a broken statue carefully carved to have a look of cold command and a slight sneer. This statue is described in the poem using words such as “vast” and “colossal” giving us a sense of awe and giving the deceased Ozymandias a sense of pleasure and power. The plinth on which his statue lies reads, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” Unfortunately for Ozymandias, all around him is sand. His once great civilisation crumbled to dust only by time. Everything that we do is eventually forgotten and ground to dust no matter our status, our commanded respect, our legacy, our vision, it all counts for nothing.

Or is it? Not all ambition is in stories, ambitious people do exist! You see, unlike Ozymandias who mocked his people, you then have Ernest Shackleton. He was an incredibly determined, motivated and ambitious man who from a young age dreamed of reaching the South Pole. He set out for the Pole 4 times in his life and on the fourth things went badly wrong. His ship was crushed in the polar sea ice and they were stranded about 90 kms away from the pole. He gave up his food, his warm clothes and his warm sleeping bag to the other 27 men aboard trying to survive. Eventually he sailed 800 miles in a modified lifeboat to make contact with the world and rescued all 27 crewmates waiting stranded on Elephant Island. He then later revisited the pole, Elephant Island and the whaling station on South Georgia where he suffered from a heart attack and died. He was forgotten about for a period of about 50 years when he was rediscovered as a legendary hero who would do anything for his men if it got them closer to survival. It was ambition that got Shackelton to the pole, but it was morality and humanity that got them all home. He didnt command nearly as much power or do nearly as much as Ozymandias or as Macbeth, but who do you revere more now?

Conclusion:

4 texts illustrating ambition through 4 different and unique characters. All of them achieved notoriety in their own way, all of them either influencing their society or ruling it. And what do a Scottish king, a social reject, a dusty god and a polar savior have in common? A dream, a dream inspired by ambition.

Text	Macbeth	Sir Ernest Shackleton	Gattaca	Ozymandias
How they used ambition:	To kill his way into power and by killing his own family to become king.	He attempted to do the first land crossing of the South pole on the Endeavor until his ship was crushed. His journey turned into a battle to survive. He was knighted for his ambition.	Vincent overcomes the limits set by society and the doctors who told him his fate at birth and how he’d most likely die and wouldn’t ever be able to achieve his dreams.	Ozymandias was a man who build apparently build an empire to make all cower and admire his greatness, yet all his statue was surrounded by was vast sand.
Outcome:	Macbeth became so hated his own sworn troops and members of court turned on him and killed him after he realised the man he had become.	He set out to be the first person to cross the Antarctic via land. His ship, The Endeavor, got trapped inside the ice and eventually crushed. He undertook a battle to survive and his year long expedition ended up taking three years.	Vincent got his way to the stars without anyone knowing he was a god child, he overcame every obstacle and dreams came true, but he still had trouble leaving due to Eugene.	His ancient empire was eventually consumed by the surrounding sands, nothing toppled him other than time. All his work would eventually add to nothing.
Message / Ideas:	Ambition is powerful yes but is is best for everyone when balanced with morality.	Ambition is more than a fairy tale, it is the backbone of all real world heroics and legendary stories.	With careful planning, ambition and help from those around you you can overcome everything the world has to throw at you.	He may have created a vast empire but all he has now is a slightly arrogant statue claiming how great his pile of sand is.

If you woke up one day and discovered that you had a drive to do something major that made sense to you, would you think twice before following the path set out before you?

Ambition can almost be described as a force of nature a powerful force that acts on things that pursue it, and this force can be channeled into action that has the potential, to change the world.

Ambition can be used to contribute to those around you, or to better yourself off of others around you. This choice can lead you to be either revered in years to come or despised present and future, it’s a big decision to make and some people don’t even make it, they follow their hearts desire and just follow the path ahead.

In the case of the tyrannical Macbeth whose mind was poisoned with faultless ambition and a clear path to ‘greatness’, toppled a nation to seize it for himself. In the case of Ernest Shackleton, he originally used his ambition to attempt to reach the south pole but then change his goal to saving the lives of everyone around him.

These two men demonstrate the power of ambition paired with the desire to win with ease, or try to win with morality intact that makes sure that you achieve your goal without destroying the lives of others and maybe even saving some.

Answer with reference to specific quotes and language effects.

Ozymandias is a poem written around 1820 about a man from an “…antique land” who has seen the remnants of a giant statue of a great king, Ozymandias, and aside from being a story with some truth in it there is also a hidden message about ambition. The “…colossal wreck…” is of a once great yet arrogant king who mocks the mighty and possibly even the supernatural. To be a king means that you have to be ambitious to begin with. You must manage absolutely everything around you and that in a way makes you the beating heart of your empire whilst keeping the people happy and expanding beyond the previous achievements of the past. Ozymandias is the king of kings and late on in the poem the line “The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.” it tells the reader that although he was indeed powerful and let everyone around him know that especially his subjects he still took the time to rule them. He also apparently built a great empire to show all the extent of his power. Then the volta appears in the play and then the mood switches from the vast statue to the surroundings where his empire should be. However there is only boundless and bare dunes which show that no matter how ambitious you are in the moment and how much you achieve with that ambition it all eventually turns to dust.

Personal response:

The piece reminds me of a old and mysterious tale of mystery and old knowledge. Clearly Ozymandias is not a person any more, but a stone obelisk and he is about to go into his story about how the king of kings became no more than a stone. The way the poem says “..the words appear…” gives it a much more magical feel to it. This stone plinth is more than a carving, it is alive!

Mood:

The poems mood is that of mystery and it also displays some form of ancient myth or legend that derives from far away in the hot desert. Like one of the myths and mysteries surrounding Egypt and its past.

Questions:

And who is this king of kings this, ‘Ozymandias’? Clearly a king, but from where and how? Was he a noble knight of england or a warlike savage who ruled over his people? There is not given or set time in the piece so he could be an even older ruler. Maybe a ancient Pharaoh of Egypt, a child of god who was sent down to guide his people and rule over them benevolently and to be immortalised in stone only to be consumed by the sands of time.

Possible connections:

I do know that long ago a thousand years before christ there was a ruler over egypt who was known as the king of kings. He was Ramses the Second and is the person whose face you see on many of Egypts monuments. One of his largest monuments was also discovered in 1820 when this poem was apparently written. Ramses the Second could very well be Ozymandias.

Sonnet format:

The sonnet seems to be indirectly focusing on the past and major events that happened before and is written in first person but it switches character early on. Every second line for the first six lines rhymes at the start of each verse and the last line and the line two lines before that also rhymes. It follows the format: A – B – A – C – A – D – E – D. F – G – F – H – F – H. It also is written in Iambic Pentameter with the sentence apparently ending midway through each line of the poem.

Volta:

There is a volta close to the end of the poem which switches the mood from the mysterious and commanding king to this newfound emptiness of his once great empire reduced to dust or just disappeared just like himself.

Viewpoint:

It is written in first person but it starts in the perspective of poet but it then transitions to the description of the traveler from this “…antique land…”.

Here is Mount Aspiring College, (8) A large school, what a place to be. (11) A dispenser of power and of knowledge, (10) Completely landlocked from the sea. (8)

Roughly 40 packed buildings, (8) Fire drills and lessons every week. (9) Classrooms filled with restless children, (8) Teaching us future needed Techniques. (9)

Four warring houses on the attack, (9) Competing to simply be the best. (9) Fighting over a painted wooden plaque, (11) I kid you not, I do not jest. (8)

MAC’s many benefits come at a price, (10) It’s almost the opposite to a paradise? (11)

“Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”

“I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brains out against a wall if I had sworn to do that the same way you have sworn to do this.”

“Then the liars and swearers are fools; for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men, and hang up them.”

“Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it”

“To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”

“He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear. And you all know, security is mortals’ chiefest enemy.”

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.”

“I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight”

“Will all great neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”

“I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er”

Shakespeare’s knowledge of the sonnet form allows him to display his messages much better than those who don’t, in this case not all beauty can be observed or touched.

The sonnet is about his mistress yet and her features. Whilst he writes about her he also lists that there are much better things than her, eg “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a more pleasing sound.” This does not directly insult the woman yet it says that there are things that are better and he then wraps that up in the end by saying basically that none of these physical imperfections matters. None of her physical forms relate to her soul and mind for that is what Shakespeare describes as “…belied with false compare” which basically means that she cannot be represented for her appearance but for her character. If he had not laid out all of her imperfections then he wouldn’t have given nearly as clear an image.

Andrew Nicol plans out each shot of the film and hides small symbols in it to demonstrate a deeper meaning and or an idea, this is called symbolism and it plays a part in much of gattaca.

Gattaca is a film where a man must overcome the limits set by society and his own image of himself to achieve what should have been impossible.

The entirety of the movie revolves around space and Vincent’s goal to get to one of Jupiter’s moons Titan, which in turn revolves around the company / space agency that the film is named after, Gattaca.

Often when Gattaca appears in camera, far above the building there is a rocket departing for space. There are roughly 12 or more launches every day and as Irene says mid way through the film, “You’re the only one that watches all of them.”

He is the only person in the whole agency including the director who watches each rocket and takes none of them for granted, it is his dream it is his goal.

Those rockets symbolise Vincent’s dreams, his aspirations and his undying ambition to one day board that rocket and leave for the stars, To neglect the rockets that fly above him is to neglect everything he is aiming to achieve and if he loses his aspirations to be better than he is no better than those that he works with.