3.4


 * Paragraph 3**

Sympathy and empathy

The audience is made to engage with the characters onstage and relate to Australia’s cultural issues and the personal concerns of each character through gaining sympathetic and empathetic responses. Matt Cameron’s //Ruby Moon// displays this effectively as he explores the minds and emotions of the Moons at a deeper level. This gains a sympathetic response from the audience as they are able to see the breaking down of each character’s psychological health. The audience is able to see this through the awkward routines the characters of Ray and Sylvie go through in their attempt to forget and move on.  This sympathy also brings a level of empathy as the audience begins to relate the situation to something or someone they have lost which was of great importance. Although many viewers may have not lost a child of their own, they are able to imagine their pain of loss on a greater level and relate to the character’s personal concerns through this. Jane Harrison’s //Stolen// has a similar effect on the audience and displaying Australia’s cultural concerns in more depth.  The play is able to make a connection to a wider Australian audience as society sees the mission children cases through the news and media within their own lives. There are a number of stories told during this play which allows the audience to empathise with a wider range of experiences making a connection on a more personal level.  The stories are all different but they retain a similar theme among them. Pain and loss are displayed within each of these stories along with helplessness which gathers the sympathy from the audience as they feel the need to help the characters onstage. The issues of the stolen generation and discrimination of indigenous Australians are highlighted through the audience’s sympathy and empathy allowing them to create a greater understanding of what it was like on a personal level rather than just gaining the facts. Through a workshop in class we were able to gain a deeper understanding of the stolen generation by performing personal experiences and developing a connection with the character. By seeing the emotions of a character whilst they are going through a moment in life, allowed us to understand the issue and gain a clearer perspective of what happened during this specific moment of the character's life. The audience is able to gain a better understanding about issues and concerns both in society and a personal level through the use of sympathy and empathy throughout texts.

Miss - This is my attempted edit and I'm sorry for the lack of communication between our group. Its difficult to compose an essay with multiple minds when your own mind flows in its own way. What do you mean by "Did you leave any work for the rest of your group???" =]

The recent changes tells me that you edited multiple paragraphs, but I now see who has done what.

OH! I understand now, i was just making it easier to see where each paragraph was... is there anything else in my paragraph that needs to be fixed or could be better?