1984

Oral Presentation

Guilt from the past

Thematic message: Guilt can change who you are for better or for worse. It eats you from the inside out. It makes you do things that you never want to do, to get rid of the pain.

Pg 11 “A dream. But not a dream. It happened for real last September Labour Day weekend at Kayuga beach, Lake Ontario. The last blast of summer before school. The girls name was Maya. I didn’t know her, but I was the last person to see her alive. I was the person who didn’t say her.”

This quote shows that the guilt from Duncan’s past is back and haunting him again. Now the dreams have returned and they are starting for the beginning, when Duncan let Maya drown. They are making Duncan watch the pain of letting Maya drown over and over but not able to change the outcome. They are making him relive moments he can’t change.  Duncan guilt has got the better of him because he was forced to do thing that change who he is, turning him into something he is not, a very sad and depressed seventeen year old kid.

 Pg 55 “You lock yourself up in some dark little prison cell.”

This quote shows that since Duncan has let Maya drown his guilt dreams are coming back to him, because of this he was not able to keep a relationship with Kim his ex-girlfriend. Duncan started to stay at home more often because he was feeling depressed. He believes that it’s his fault for letting Maya drown, and it is eating him up from the inside. Duncan’s pain got the better of him, so Kim had to dump him.  

Pg 80 “The head doctor and pills didn’t do squat. But when I started to see how Mom looked at me that did it. Wasn’t quick or easy. But I had to wipe that look from her eyes.”

This quote shows when Duncan let Maya drown he has been acting different. When his Mom started to see his he wanted to stop it. He forced himself to find a way to get past the pain of Maya’s death. As he says, “Wasn’t quick or easy,” it shows that Duncan’s dreams were still raving, but he found a way to get past them and leave the guilt behind.  

                                        Visual Answer

        My images for my visual show different types of events that evolve what happens to people when they are do wrong things in life. For example the girl who is pasted out on the floor shows that she had too much to drink and she had made a bad decision that might affect her later in her life. Like being sexually assaulted and gotten pregnant which will affect what happens to her. Also where I put the words trust me, it shows that a boy or girl told their closest friend a secret and they went and told everyone about it. All of my images show how someone did something to get the feeling of guilt. The reason I put all of my photos in the middle of the screen is because that is where your eyes always first look, in the middle of the page. I also put cotton balls around the screen because it represents the misty feeling and what your mind would look like in the memories part.