The Castle Essay Example for Free

The Castle Essay â€Å"Texts convey certain attitudes and beliefs that help define who we are and how we relate to the world around us† Discuss the attitudes and beliefs that are highlighted in you prescribed text and two related texts of your own choosing. The term global village refers to the idea that individual countries and communities are affected by the media, electronic communications and cheap air travel that their traditions and beliefs are challenged. These challenges may be positive or negative as it makes people to reassess their attitudes and beliefs. There have been numbers of areas of challenges and two of them are food and multi-culturalism. These challenges are explicitly presented in the film directed by Rob Stitch, The Castle, and a number of related materials. One aspect of the global village which is effectively represented by Sitch in The Castle is the attitude towards the food from diverse cultures which exists in Australia. Kerrigan family is very contented with their rather bland and preservative diet which they share in their family home. Sitch represents this situation by repeatedly filming the dining of Kerrigan family. Sitch focuses on the food menus and they are just ordinary Australian food. This shows that Kerrigan family has yet not encountered many diverse food cultures such as Vietnamese and Thai which exists in Australia. Dale, the narrator, comments in an enthusiastic tone that, â€Å"Dad thinks mum is the greatest cook on earth† so when she serves them a rather ordinary looking cake Daryl asks, â€Å"what do you call that, darl? ’† Sal’s simple answer of â€Å"Sponge cake† sums up that this family have yet to really come to grips with the astronomical influence of the global village on Australian cuisine. He states glowingly just how he feels about Sal’s cooking when he says, â€Å"Why go out to a restaurant when this keeps coming up night after night†. Eating meals together is represented as an important family tradition. Daryl’s attitude strongly contrasts with the words of the song from Scene Four of Noelle Janaczewska’s play Blood Orange. In this short play, it explores aspects of global village in Australia. Repetition of ‘Coles is selling tabouli, lemon grass and parmesan cheese! ’ accentuates that a whole range of food from different ethnic backgrounds exists in Australia and even one of Australian food market ‘Coles’ is selling them. Cultural challenges to taste buds are certainly another strong influence in increasing tolerance and acceptance of Australia’s different ethics groups and cultures which are consistently reaffirming that Australia is indeed an excellent example of the concept of the global village. Another aspect of the global village which emerges from the experiences of the Kerrigan family in the film The Castle is that Australia is a multi-cultural country with immigrants from a range of countries. Sitch reveals multi-culturalism in Australia through various characters in the film. The Kerrigans are a very self sustaining family but even they have to open their door and minds to people of different ethnic backgrounds. Sitch is able to represent this in the way Daryl interacts easily with ‘new Australians’. Daryl is portrayed making a real effort at Tracey and Con’s wedding to show his acceptance of a different culture by commenting jokingly on the Greek tradition of breaking plates. He also learned ‘Good Evening’ in Greek which pleased Con’s family. Daryl welcomes Con to their family saying that while Con might be different â€Å"anyone who loves our Trace as much as us deserves our love. So we love you Con. We love you†. Sitch celebrates in a positive way this genuine acceptance of others in the way Con is presented as one of the family up at Bonny Doon and in the family home on returning from Thailand; he is obviously one of the family. Farouk is a neighbour of the Kerrigans and he too is a part of Daryl’s circle of neighbours. Farouk comes to Daryl for leadership and help with English when the letters of compulsory acquisition arrives. Daryl does the same assisting Jack and Yvonne who also are his neighbours. Therefore Daryl’s leadership and kindness to others in his neighbourhood, whether they are Australians or immigrants shows the vibrant part of the global village. An article â€Å"I now call Australia home†, written by Nick Gianopoulos is a relevant piece of related material on the global village which supports the idea of Australia as a multi-cultural country. Gianopoulos talks of the difficulty growing up as a son of Greek immigrant during the 60’s from racism. Similarly with Daryl Kerrigan, Gianopoulos says that Australia has changed to accept people from around the world as part of the Australian mainstream. â€Å"Our cultures are better understood. We’ve even become trendy’. He also believes that we now need to continue to extend that understanding and acceptance to our newest Australians from Asia. Daryl’s and Giannopoulos’ experiences strongly reflect upon the aspect of global village that Australia is a multi-cultural country. As Australia rapidly grows into a multi-cultural country, people are challenged to their beliefs and attitudes. In conclusion Sitch’s film The Castle and related materials â€Å"Blood Orange† and â€Å"I now call Australia home† has effectively revealed and represented how the two aspects of global village could challenge people’s attitudes and beliefs. Through food, it showed the difficulty that Kerrigan’s family encountered. However Kerrigans adapted well to accept multi-culturalism into their neighbourhood and family.