Away

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The play Away by Michael Gow is set in Australia in 167/8. This was a time when women stayed home, and young men were being called up to fight in the Vietnam War. I will discuss the ways in which the three families portrayed in Away have each been shaped by the social context they come from and are living in. Each family is affected by either the past(Gwen’s) the present(Coral’s) or the future (Tom’s), in this way Gow makes the point that family life is always impacted on by its history and its aspirations. Often its aspirations grow out of its history. Gow’s different representations of the three families leads the reader to contrast one family with another. The reader is led to view one family as more functional than another, this is in part influenced by our own values and what we believe is appropriate.


Gwen’s attitude towards her family reflects greatly on the life that she had while growing up. She had it tough, and her own family expected her to stay at home and look after everyone. She hit the roads and lived in terrible places, Jim understands why Gwen acts the way she does, and trys to explain this to Meg on pages 17 and 18. Gwen is shown as a very materialistic person, she is portrayed as feeling as if the more material possessions a person has the better they are. When Meg and Gwen are arguing in Scene Two, Act Three, Gwen voices all the things she has gone through so that Meg won’t have to, “never,never,never.” The past hardships that Gwen endured as a child in the depression have led her to over identify with material wealth. She always wants and needs to out do everyone else, to try and put her past behind her. Gow uses the character of Gwen, with her extreme position to illustrate the way that all of us are moulded by our past experiences whether they are good or bad.


Coral is utterly distraught because of her sons death in Vietnam and can only make connections with anything to do with her son and the ‘jungle’. She cannot handle the present because her mind is still stuck on her past with her son. She knows she needs to change but doesn’t want to feel real again. “Roy...come back to reality. Coral I mightn’t like it there.” This shows the author drawing on contemporary issues of the time, in a similar way a current author might depict a central figure struggling to cope with terrorism. Because Roy is always thinking about the future and trying to block out the past and the present, Coral is finding it hard to keep in touch with anything real. Roy is finding his wife’s behaviour perturbing and is worrying that because of it he may lose his place as Principal, and can only worry about what others may be thinking. “Roy ... I can feel people watching us walk away thinking, how much longer before he has to lock the poor ratbag wife up?”. Roy isn’t portrayed as uncaring for his loss, but he doesn’t seem to think that there is any space for his sorrow, and it seems he has pushed the whole loss to the back of his mind and locked it up. By portraying Roy as suppressing his emotions and Coral as unable to contain hers, Gow is representing both characters in gender stereotypical ways that were appropriate for characters of their class and time. Gows representation of this family portrays them as one would expect middle class professionals to behave; with regard for their social position and perceived status. Similarly today professional families holiday in the same kind of places, send their children to the same kind of schools and have expectations that their children will achieve and not let them down.


Tom knows that he is going to die soon, his parents know, but they don’t want him to know. All families will be familiar with the notion of hiding things from each other in order to save the other pain or embarrassment. By choosing an issue as big as death Gow has picked a universal issue that all readers will have an opinion on. All of this family are living in the present as much as they can, because they know they don’t have much time together. Because of that they are doing things like holidays when normally they wouldn’t have, because they aren’t very rich. This family is shown to be a very compassionate and caring family, when Tom was in hospital they brought in the tent and put it up as a surprise, and both the parents are looking out for each other, trying to make sure he has a good time so that they can feel that they have done their best by him.


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Gow portrays each family in a different yet believable way, the different way that each family responds to their issues invites comparison. It is tempting to identify one family as being better than another but it may be more useful to recognise differences rather than seeing one as better. Whilst Tom’s family appear to have better priorities than Gwen’s family, because they are portrayed as focussing on what really matters; spending time together, supporting each other and making the best of things, Gwen’s attempts at enforcing rituals such as christmas present opening are seen as empty attempts at controlling something that should be spontaneous. But when we include into our judgements the past issues that lead both to respond as they do, their behaviour becomes more acceptable. By focussing on small common family events Gow once more invites the reader to identify with their own families, and this also may allow a more compassionate reading of the characters.


In the play Away , Michael Gow explores the representation of family by presenting three quite different families from different backgrounds. By depicting each family struggling with universal issues such as death, grief and the hopes that parents have for their children, Gow presents issues that are relatively timeless and enables the reader to consider their own values and views. He encourages us to consider our position about materialism, class consciousness and caring. These issues are as relevant today as they were in the 160’s.


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