We All Fall Down – Plus Related Text
Nelson Mandela, Former South African President, said “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb” a journey is full of obstacles, Mandela believed this on his quest to unify the South African people whether they were black or white, he aimed to make them one. For a journey to be effective, they require self-belief and perseverance, when you fall down you have to get back up, and the most important thing that will inspire and influence a change is the reflection one undergoes once it has come to an end.
Robert Cormier author of We All Fall Down, Clint Eastwood, director of Invictus and Rosemary Dobson, the poet behind Folding the Sheets all relate their pieces of work to a journey directly or indirectly. In Robert Cormier’s We All Fall Down he uses character development to express a journey. Two key journeys that are represented are the ones in which relate to Buddy Walker and Harry Flowers. Buddy has a problem with alcoholism and his dysfunctional family due to his father walking out on them.
Harry is a manipulative character and he acts like he can control anyone especially Buddy. It is ironic that Cormier gave Buddy the last name Walker to demonstrate that it was inevitable that Buddy’s father was going to walk out on them and contribute to what fuels Buddy to drink. The relationship between Buddy and Harry is subtle and hidden as they don’t share many things in common apart from the fact that they are both lost and don’t seem to fit in.
Although once compared to each other after the trashing of Karen and Jane’s house Buddy shows the beginning of his development through his feeling of guilt and demonstrating that he has some part of human respect in him, Harry on the other hand doesn’t show any remorse and continues on with his life not caring about how he acts and how he always gets his way. One of Buddy’s major developing moments is when he begins to move away from the group and continues to follow his own path rather than joining in with drinking and the other plans they make.
Buddy’s two major inspirations to stop his drinking are Jane and Addy, Addy finds Buddy’s bottles and hides them and will not give them back to him and states “the sins of omission” the sin of doing nothing. Buddy won Jane on the base that he would give up drinking for her, although he still drinks it isn’t as meaningful compared to the relationship he has with Jane. Harry changes dramatically as through out the novel he has a key moment at the end of the novel after Jane breaks up with Buddy.
Harry calls Jane and says “I took advantage of his shitty life… he is a good guy and don’t be so hard on him” this shows that Harry has began to show remorse on his actions during the trashing is on a “road to recovery”. The similarity between all of the characters and journeys in this novel is that they all want to belong. Similarly to We All Fall Down, Invictus also follows a journey of wanting to belong, reconciliation, and progression. Nelson Mandela was a prisoner for several years and on his release made President of South Africa.
Eastwood used Mandela and Francois Pienaar as key protagonists to bring two divided nations within the one together. Eastwood uses character development to represent the journey of unity. Black against white. Mandela’s goal was to unite South Africa and create equality for black and white people. “he’s unlike any person I’ve ever met” Mandela is not any ordinay person, he inspired an entire group of people to fight for rights and at the end of the film this is achieved. “The Rainbow Nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here.
Forgiveness starts here too. ” Mandela always believed in creation the Rainbow Nation, he was motivated and was inspired. His inspiration inspired he rest of South Africa. Eastwood uses the Rugby as Mandela’s message to the world, he uses Pienaar as a way to get to his team and unify them to share his views on black and white South Africa. The key part to Mandela’s success is the fact he spent several years in prison sacrificing a significant amount of time in his life to change the nation, and change it he did. Undefeated, Unconquerable, Invictus.
Mandela wasn’t defeated, he wasn’t conquered but he conquered the South African common attitude and changed it to create equality for black people. “The Rainbow Nation starts here. ” Mandela inspired a nation and the world, helped Pienaar motivate his team an his country to support them trough a rough time and lead themselves to the victory and the glory of winning the World Cup and gave something to all South Africans to share, a reborn nation and the glory of success. Invictus and Folding the Sheets share the similarity of recognising unity.
The unity of a nation and the unity of a world and the elements. Dobson uses unity to represent her journey “from Lapland… to India”. Dobson’s message in her poem is achieving world peace and unity “You and I will fold the sheets”. He folding of the sheet represents a job that is hard to be completed by ones elf but requires several people to make it easy if they work together, which also relates to how we can work together to achieve world peace and unity between all nations rich or poor, great or weak.
The use of mentioning three of the elements earlier on it the poem and stating the fourth in the end represents unity and the coming together of a balance of the earth which van also relate to the coming together of the world “Together we will match the corners”, it is not possible to achieve unity single handed, it requires a shared belief in achieving it. These three text-types all relate to journeys as they share the commonality of unity and character development.
They show how a journey can either be completed by moving away from people and showing you can stand for yourself and not be controlled by a manipulator, or if you wish to achieve unity or justice then you cant change the world or a nation by your self, you require to share a common belief that it can be done. In their own unique ways We all Fall Down, Invictus and Folding the Sheets all relate to a journey. The two texts and the film all show that we encounter heartache along the way but perseverance and motivation can help us continue no matter how hard the path ahead is.
