Peter Goldsworthy Visual Techniques

Through the use of techniques, a composer is able to create distinctively visual images when describing setting and characters which help us to understand and form meaning of what the composer is trying to convey in their texts. The use of techniques to create distinctively visual images which help us to convey an understanding and form a meaning is evident in the novel Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy, the film Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott, and the poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost.
The clear visual images that Goldsworthy uses in Maestro through his techniques affect the interpretation and help shape the meaning of the characters and blossoming setting which reveal aspects of these characters. Through these distinctively visual images
“Movie-set architecture, “Keller murmured. “ Ornamental facades. Hiding the hypocrisy within...” (pg45). Goldsworthy has interpreted a distinctively visual images through Keller’s description of Vienna, and formed a meaning if why Keller is the way he is through hinting to Keller’s harsh past. Goldsworthy uses a distinctively visual juxtaposition in order to form a meaning and interpretation of his theme escapism. Keller is sitting in ‘The Swan’, “his white suit and Panama could not be missed among the blue singlets and short-sleeved shirts; the clear, heavy fluid of his schnapps bottle likewise, standing high and separate among the amber, lathered beers.”(pg30). This distinctively visual image is shown in the setting of ‘The Swan’ and juxtaposes Keller to the men of Darwin as Keller is said to be wearing a white suit and holding Schnapps which gives us a clear understanding that Keller does not fit in. Also, the out casting of Keller from the Darwin community links to Goldsworthy’s theme of escapism. Through the use of techniques in distinctively visual images when describing setting and character, the reader is able to interpret the themes and main ideas and form a meaning of what is going on
Conveying to the reader his themes allows the responder to create a meaning and purpose for his poem. In Mending Wall, the composer uses imagery to convey his theme of the barrier in the relationship between humans. In the poem, the ‘wall’ is a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate friendship between the neighbours. The repetition of the word ‘wall’ throughout the poem allows the reader to interpret and understand why there is a barrier between the neighbours. “Sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun” (lines 2-3) is an example of imagery used to help the responder to create a distinctively visual description of the setting. The responder can see that the ‘wall’ is visually described as a giant barrier. Through the use of the imagery in the quote and the distinctively visual image Frost has created through it, the responder is able to interpret the distance in the relationship between humans. “Good fences make good neighbours” (line 27), once again frost uses the distinctively visual image of the fence being the neighbour in order to convey his theme of man’s relationship with each other through the characterisation of the neighbour. The repetition of this quote throughout the poem