Advanced_English_Assessment_Task_1__Speech

Glee. By it's very definition brings open delight or pleasure and is a most suitable text for inclusion in the website for students dealing with the concept of belonging in HSC English. The metaphysical need for the sense of belonging is a multi-faceted concept that becomes a part of human nature and is something that Ryan Murphy's Glee: Mash Up and Jhumpa Larhiri's The Namesake de-construct. The audiences are able to observe how the nurturing and detrimental effects of belonging are achieved through both corporeal and ethereal realms. Glee also explores the delights and downfalls of adolescence, growing up and adulthood through the microcosm of McKinley High school. Glee will be most suited to this website because of its raunchy appeal, suitability for teens and descriptive exploration of belonging. Along with the juxtaposition and comparison of the prescribed text, The Namesake; I will demonstrate how and why Glee: Mash Up episode 8 will be beneficial in a student's understanding of the diverse concepts of belonging. Good Morning/Afternoon “A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world”. Glee: Mash Up highlights the idea that individuals can struggle to find that sense of belonging to a group or community because of their interests, artificial or external features. In Glee this is explored through the use of diegetic music, aided by the effective application of cinematography and lighting in the visual medium. The first song used in Glee: Mash Up is a cover of 'Bust a Move'. The use of this song in Glee identifies the difficulties and pressures placed on an individual to conform and thus belong in society. Exemplified by the line “...says she wants to dance 'cause she likes to groove, so come on fatso just bust a move”. However, represented through the visual medium and efficient use of camera work, the audience is able to see the lighter side of the song and its purpose in Glee. The audience views the bright lighting and how joyous each of the Glee members are while participating in the singing of 'Bust a Move'. This way, the audience can understand that the glee club is able to deal with the issue of not belonging to the school community, through the singing of 'Bust a Move' which address those issues directly. Despite the fact that glee club is a choral group of social misfits, through song and the sincere expression of happiness and joy shown through the use of close-ups, the audience can tell that the glee kids belong together. This induces the greatest sense of belonging between the characters of Glee and the audience. Similarly the same alienation and exclusion from the wider community is explored in The Namesake. This is represented by the use of names as a symbol which reveal Gogol's character and personal sense of belonging.“One day, the peculiarity of his name becomes apparent... On a school trip to some historical event” when the bus makes a brief stop at a graveyard to make etches of the deceased people's names. As each of the children find their family names, “Gogol is old enough to know that there is no Ganguli here... that no stone will bear his name beyond life”. The use of a name as a symbol, a link between the sense of belonging that should be present among regular school children, is effective in isolating Gogol and his awareness of his obvious alienation. Although Gogol understands his name is unique, he can't help but feel that he doesn't fit in with the “Collins” or the “Woods”. This same isolation because of an artificial feature – in Gogol's case, a name – is present in Murphy's Glee: Mash Up and the glee kids social exclusion. However, in the Namesake, due to Gogol's maturity that comes with his age he is able to perceive this situation through an optimistic lens. “Gogol goes from grave to grave with paper and crayon in hand, bringing to life one name after another...”. He finds names so unique like his own. This instance is profound in making Gogol aware of how individual he is. Making this discovering and coming to this realisation has provided Gogol with a great sense of reassurance and connection to his own name. The radical transformation of isolation in both Glee and The Namesake into a well developed understanding of an individual's sense of belonging is effective in exploring HSC belonging. Such a connection through techniques to belonging is why Glee: Mash Up is such a suitable text for the study in HSC belonging. Not belonging to a place and time is identifiable in Glee: Mash Up through the effective use of a 'slushie facial'. This slushie facial is the act of launching the frozen sugar beverage, known as a slushie, into one of the Glee member's faces. This highlights and symbolises the fact that those involved in glee do not belong in such a place as McKinley High. The slushie facial occurs four times throughout the episode to a range of victims and therefore transforms into a motif, the recurrence of which emphasises the social rejection of the Glee kids. Therefore this shows the audience another concept of belonging through repetition of motif. The use of symbolism and motif to explore the concept of not belonging to place links Glee to The Namesake. The closeness and similarities between Glee and The Namesake furthermore deem Glee: Mash Up as a valuable text in the exploration of belonging because the undeniable link between texts would reinforce such ideas and concepts to those studying the texts. In contrast, The Namesake and Glee: Mash Up are possibly two of the most different texts in terms of context, approach and medium. The difference between television medium which Glee uses, compared to the novelistic approach by Lahiri's The Namesake; the incorporation of American teen culture in Glee and the Indian family in The Namesake show how belonging can be evoked in contrasting ways. Just as in Glee, Lahiri has made constant use of motif in The Namesake to demonstrate yet another concept of belonging – one's place in the larger world – and showing the significance of objects to one's sense of belonging. Lahiri relates trains to significant, life altering events which happen to the Ganguli family. Ashoke's near death experience and the stabbing and robbing of a man in Calcutta. The use of motif not only demonstrates how trains link an individual to an awareness of their belonging to surroundings but continues to connect with Glee through the same technique, motif, which explores belonging. Lahiri and Murphy's application of motif in their respective texts is of utmost importance in enriching the audience's understanding of belonging through the repetition of idea. The use of motif further explores and deepens the audience's understanding about what belonging is and how the metaphysical need for belonging can lead to both nurturing and detrimental effects. So why choose Glee' The amount of contrast and connections that can be made between Glee: Mash Up and The Namesake are possibly endless, highlighting just a few in the aforementioned discussion. Glee, in conjunction with The Namesake will be fundamental in a student's best possible understanding and evaluation of belonging. The links and differences between the two texts are impelling in their portrayal of belonging – illustrating how similarly yet differently ideas can be expressed through a range of techniques and mediums. Also, the combined influence of Glee: Mash Up and The Namesake will lay proficient foundations for the audience to formulate their own understandings of belonging, resulting from representational techniques. Thus empowering the reader to analyse a person sense of belonging to their world. Therefore, Glee's inclusion alongside The Namesake in the website for HSC students dealing with the concept of belonging will be exceedingly valuable to their understanding, enrichment and evaluation of belonging.