What's Dark? What's Bright? Everything's Equal (Says Literature Also)

Darkness and Brightness Together

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars, the hope they give to the blithe-bright times of one’s life.” Text ‘A’ is a movie poster of an American slasher film of 1985, ‘Friday the 13th: a new beginning (also known as Friday the 13th part V: a new beginning),’ a fictional film. The film is directed by Danny Steinmann and stars Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, and Shavar Ross. Presented by ‘paramount pictures. Music by Harry Manfredini. The executive producer is Frank Mancuso. JR. Screenplay by martin Kitrosser, David Cohen, and Danny Steinmann. It was produced by Timothy Silver, all of which is seen in Text ‘A.’ Text ‘B’ is a non-fictional poem, a song of hope by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath walker), published in the 1960s and is from the book: ‘My people: a Kath walker collection.’ Both texts target the ‘rise of the beginning, the hope.’ Text ‘A’ aims for such an audience who need entertainment since it’s a famous horror film sequel of its prequels, while Text ‘B’ aims at the audience who are the struggling Australian aboriginals. Thematically text ‘A’ is a movie poster; its movie is about a ‘new beginning on Friday, the 13th’ and uses color/visual techniques and focal placements of words for emphasizing, which is parallel to text ‘B,’ that’s a poem on ‘Hope, a new beginning.’

In the text ‘A,’ the dark color in the movie poster shows that there is darkness and horror in the movie poster & Text ‘B,’ ‘dark-freedom lover’ represents the race, color, or negativity/bad times (since they have been discriminated and removed from their native land) of aboriginals of Australia, who were involved in racial tension. The movie poster suggests that it has darkness based on the movie poster’s or Text B’s color. Text A suggests darkness and the need for light in the life of aboriginals as we can see in ‘points….loner’, which is cursing/condemning someone to death (i.e., bone dipped in poison, that is an aboriginal-Australian term), so it’s horrifying as the victims, the Australian aboriginals have been thrown away from their own origin, and ‘darker race’ is 2nd example, which is race of aboriginals or even the darkest (symbolizes negativity and cruel times) lifetimes of the Australian aboriginals; also another example is that the entire poem talks about how the aboriginals should be ‘like birds’ freely, so it means the opposite of what’s been said in the poem is what Aboriginals should have experienced. The mood and tone are horrifying, and I sympathize with both texts because Text ‘A’ is obviously a horror movie based on the color of the movie poster and general info about the franchise. In the text ‘B,’ the Austrian aboriginals went through the horror of times when they were cursed/condemned to death (as we can see in ‘points…race) and the experienced opposite of what the poet is conveying about what will aboriginals receive, due to racial tension between them and white settlers in Australia. Text A suggests that it has darkness, having dark color, and the movie’s subheading, being ‘the new beginning,’ both express ‘how light will conquer the/occur in the dark’ in the movie, respectively. Text B signifies darkness in the life of aboriginals since they have been discriminated from white settlers in Australia, having no rights and chances to live happily like a human.

Text A is fictional, while Text B is non-fictional. The purpose of Text A is to inform about the promotion of the horror movie's new beginning, and the purpose of Text B is to inspire aboriginals to hope for a new beginning. The audience of Text A is/are the entertainment ones who experience, and the audience of Text B are the ones who experienced suffering. Nevertheless, Text ‘A’ interprets the theme, using allusion and symbolism, whereas, Text ‘B’ relies on juxtaposition, symbolism, personification, repetition, and allusion.

The tone of Text A is mysterious and intriguing due to the darkness in the poster, which gives suspicion and horror to the audience. In contrast, Text B’s tone is commanding and shows a sign of inclusivity (i.e., the author and audience are both included in this Text B) in ‘Look….’, then ‘assuring’ about (what not the aboriginals need to face, as the long awaiting of aboriginals, towards the light of life, isn’t any far anymore) what pains occurred in the past and what will crush those pains in future, by providing light in the life of aboriginals.

A stylistic device used in Text A is symbolism, where the color dark in the background and white spaceship, a subheading of the movie (i.e., a new beginning), symbolizes how black and white correlate, meaning bringing up a transition from bad to good in the movie by symbolizing darkness and horror. In contrast, Text B uses juxtaposition in ‘to…tomorrow’ to show the transition from past pain to the future of joy in the life of aboriginals.

Text B uses repetition in ‘when…. more’ to ‘stress’ how the particular devaluations and discriminations of aboriginals would not occur anymore, and whole Text B repeats the same meaning in different ways that ‘we suffered a lot, but joy is not far away. Text B uses personification in ‘the…waking’ because the world does not wake, but her world is represented as a person by giving the trait of a person to a non-living thing ‘world.’

Text B uses rhythm/rhyme in ‘new………...us,’ which talks about the ‘time of joyousness is getting nearer for the aboriginals, where the joy they would receive will EMBRACE AND MEET the aboriginals. The mood is also different because Text “B” is about ‘entertainment, suspense, and excitement for the movie’s audience, and Text ‘A,’ is about ‘sadness, a new beginning, and sympathizing’ for the poem’s audience. Text A suggests that it has darkness, based on its color, whereas Text B suggests hope, a new beginning for aboriginals who suffered from racial tension.

Focusing on how Text A does not have any similarities with Text B, The main spaceship in the dark is at the center, the heading and subheading of the movie are above the spaceship because it is the movie title and should be at the top, to let the audience know, what on earth is the movie’s name? which is to see the movie.

The subheading is in mouse print font, and details about the cast and crew are presented in even more mouse print font so that the audience will first focus on the spaceship (since it is the symbol of the movie), secondly, know even more about the movie (i.e., the subheading), thirdly for the audience to know who made this movie (since background should also be known, as a matter of fact, and/or recognition of who made this movie).

On balance, both the texts explore the ‘hope, the new beginning,’ while Text A is a horror movie signifying a new beginning, and Text B is a poem about ‘hope for aboriginals.’ The theme of both texts means hope, the new beginning, with a difference where Text A talks about ‘ hope’ in the cinematic context of a horror movie. In contrast, Text B talks about ‘hope’ in its poetic context of the Pain of Aboriginals, where their joy is signified to happen soon. A horror movie about a new beginning and horrifying times of aboriginals in a poem of hope makes me realize that ‘hope is the key--take off after suffering’ for both texts.