All children go through a stage in life where they feel unmotivated and disempowered to do what they want to do. The short story “Distant Lands” is written by Tim Winton and explores ideas of the disempowerment, power and isolation. Through the use of narrative conventions such as characterisation, setting and symbolism, the reader is influence to respond to the ideas with sympathy, frustration and hope for the main character, “Fat Maz”.
Through characterisation, the author is able to construct representations of disempowerment. One of the most important characters in the story is “Fat Maz” and her parents. In the story, the main character is portrayed as being fat, unmotivated to do anything and living a very bland life. For example,
It also provides power for the main character leave the town. However, throughout the story, the author also writes of the dark man. In representing an unfamiliar journey, the author uses diction as he describes the dark man’s “exotic hands”, and the “Distant Lands” book he reads with the “Exotic purple cover” emphasises the concept of the unknown. In the closing parts of the story, the man gives the main character the power to change her life. The man gives her money to go on the bus, represented when stating “And this is for the bus”. This definitely gives us as audience a sense of hope that the main character will use that money to transform from a hopeless girl who lives a bland life to that of a promising character whose feeling and thoughts have changed. Through symbolism, the author has explored the idea power and providing us a reader an impression of hope for the transformation of the main characters life.
The ideas of disempowerment, power and isolation have successfully been explores in the story “Distant Lands”. Using characters, the author was able to covey the main idea of disempowerment in a more effective way. Setting was used by the author to relate to the main characters life. Furthermore, symbolism was used to convey the idea of giving power to the main character and giving hope for the audience that the main character transforms her life. Through the use of the narrative conventions, the author