Personal Commentary on I Heard the Owl Call My Name Essay

How have the texts you have studied this term effectively shaped your understanding of learning and experience?

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John Gardener

This term multiple supplementary texts have been studied however the two main texts tis term that best describe learning and experience are I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven and Missing her directed by Michael Wiesler. Both texts are about the protagonist being taken away from the culture that they know and relocating to somewhere foreign and unfamiliar. Two underlying assumptions of the texts are, that learning to adjust to life in a foreign culture can be daunting and confronting, and that the learning of a language is crucial in being part of a new culture or family.

In I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven uses various techniques to support the underlying assumptions in the novel. Symbolism is one such technique which is used frequently, in the eyes, the swimmer and the owl. The four part biblical structured novel is written using a omniscient narrator this technique helps us understand both Mark and the Indians journey and is important as it provides a foundation of what is to come and allows us to experience the main characters dilemmas and growth. Each technique Craven uses plays a specific part in broadening our understanding of the plot and thus effectively shaping the responders understanding of learning and experience.

Craven also uses characters to display learning and experience particularly through Mark, but also through the Indians and other contrasting characters like the bishop and Caleb. At the beginning of the novel as the responder we are made aware that Mark hasnt got long to live, we gain this knowledge through the omniscient narrator. Later in the novel he is relocated to Kingcome, which je knows nothing about and doesnt speak the native language, this proves difficult at the beginning. What does it matter if a man is lonely? One does not die of it. However by observing the Indians and learning their traditions Mark progressively begins to build knowledge about the culture.

The progress of knowledge and slow journey of becoming accepted by the Indians is displayed by the symbolism of the eyes. In his eyes you will see a look that is in the eyes of all of them.

The more time Mark spend with the Indians the better he gets to know them and the better he gets to know them he begins to realise the reasoning behind the sad and always waiting eyes and by then he has become apart of them. You suffered with them and now you are theirs, and nothing will ever be the same again.

In his own eyes where the depth of sadness, which he had began to understand. As the responder we also learn about what the symbolism means by reading about Marks experiences and living them with him.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name, is very effective and is equally ad effective as Missing her directed by Michael Wiesler, in shaping the responders understanding of learning and experience.

As the director of Missing her Michael Wiesler has used multiple techniques to show us as the responder how the young boy Henry learns that although his mother has passed away he can still be connected to her, however when his means of contact, the binoculars, are broken by accident, he is left feeling alone and diminutive. The birds eye view shot shows this as it looks down on him and this puts him in a vulnerable position, it expresses that he feels insignificant in this large city and by not having any other people in the shot it emphasis that he is alone in the very large and unfamiliar city.

Henry is incapable of speaking the native language, English, and so he becomes even more isolated, however as the story progresses he is taught simple common knowledge which he begins to respond to. The last shot of the film pictures glow in the dark stars, this symbolises his Mothers eyes, as he was unsuccessful in seeing them in the sky, My mother told me she would be watching me from the stars. But all the starts are gone here. So this piece of the story explains how although he is in another city, he feels disconnected to his Mother and he doesnt know the native language, he is not alone, his Mother is always looking over him even if he doesnt realise it.

Through this film we experience what Henry sees and a majority of the film is silent as this is what he is hearing and so by this we learn that the learning of a language is crucial in being a part of a new culture and being accepted into that new culture or family. This short film has dramatically shaped the understanding of learning and experience for its responders.

These two texts have played an important role in shaping the understanding of learning and experience through there characters, structure, language and plot. Learning and experience if influence by many outside factors however it is also highly personalised and these texts effectively replay this message.