Key scene analysis: Swallow the Air

To gain a better understanding of how language and visual techniques work together to represent the concept of belonging, it is a good idea to analyse a few key scenes from the text.

Activity

Make notes about a key scene in Swallow the Air, taking into account:

•                    language or visual techniques

•                    examples of the techniques from the text

•                    analysis of how these examples relate to discovery.

Then write a full analysis of the scene and its techniques, and their relation to discovery.

Modelled response

Key scene: May and Billy ‘cloud busting’

Techniques and examples:

         Imagery (e.g. cloud busting images, ‘We get drunk on the salt air’)

         Metaphor (e.g. ‘bursting cloud suds’, ‘strings of brown pearls’)

Analysis:

         The images depict togetherness.

         They show a spiritual connection between the siblings and to the ocean.

         The ocean is ‘home’ to May.

         The scene shows May and Billy’s innocence, which is shattered by their mother’s death.

         Shows how May and Billy are curious and love to explore, finding comfort & joy in the ocean.

         May eventually returns to the ocean, her home.

         Self discovery can often lead you back to where you began.

Full analysis of how the techniques and examples represent discovery:

The visual image of Billy and May ‘cloud busting’ creates a sense of magic and wonder they receive from the ocean and shows the close relationship between the siblings. Billy and May lie with their bellies up to the sky. In an almost Dreamtime-like story, they imagine rainbows coming out of their bellies and rising up to the clouds. May and Billy hold hands, squeezing tight to form the biggest rainbow. The clouds break up into ‘bursting cloud suds’, sailing into the air. The spiritual connection between the siblings is further developed through the images of them playing together at the beach: digging for pipis and finding ‘strings of brown pearls’ in the sand. The earth gives them so much enjoyment that they giggle and dance and ‘get drunk on the salt air and laughter’. They crash into the surf, swimming, diving and tumbling, and have ‘tea parties’ under the water. May and Billy’s youth and innocence is represented through this playful scene where the ocean is their home. They have no fear. At least, not then. It is only after their mother’s death that they lose their sense of self. Her loss is a catalyst for her journey of self-discovery. By the end of the novel, she returns to where she began, at home with her aunt and brother by the ocean, showing that discovery can help one to gain a greater perspective on what they had in the first place.