1. English
Thriving of Merely Surviving? A look at Parent-Child Relationships in
Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover and Paula’s Boock’s
Dare Truth of Promise
Course name: Adolescent Fiction
Stage: three
Assignment description: research essay
Grade awarded:B++/A-
During the adolescent years, many people experience an increased frequency of disagreement
and tension when socialising with their parents. In her article titled “An End of Innocence:
The Transformation of Childhood in Twentieth-Century Children’s Literature”, Anne Scott
MacLeod describes a shift in the familial relationships depicted in American children’s
literature published during the 1970s. No longer are children growing up in happy, stable
home environments as they were in previous generations, but instead parents in these
fictional stories suffer addictions, abandon their children and relinquish parental
responsibilities, effectively forcing the adolescent offspring to become the adult figure within
the family unit (103; 107).
MacLeod concludes by asserting that the goal endorsed for adolescents in these works of
fiction is survival or coping, not mastery (114). Yet two New Zealand adolescent fiction
novels - Margaret Mahy’s novel The Changeover published in 1984 and Paula’s Boock’s
literary piece Dare Truth of Promise released in 1997 – suggest that MacLeod is only
partially correct. Parent-child relational problems do play a part in each of these texts and
survival is briefly presented as a theme. However the conflicts that do arise are significantly
more surmountable than those described by MacLeod. To a large extent then, the adolescent
protagonists’ sustain or create a positive relationship with their parents. Thus, in addition to
Boock and Mahy also creating positive resolution for parents in their respective works,

2. MacLeod’s assessment of survival and coping being the endorsed goals in contemporary
adolescent fiction is too narrow to contain these two more recent works.
Before beginning, it is first necessary to note that the texts discussed in this essay both have
in common the genre of realism. Whilst the term itself is problematic, realism is generally
described as “an author’s honest attempt to depict people in ordinary situations” (Nilsen and
Donelson 101). Dare Truth or Promise fits neatly into this category, however The
Changeover is a novel containing a hybrid of genres, one of which is indigenous fantasy.
Stories within this genre take place in the ordinary world, but also contain supernatural
forces. For the purpose of this argument however, only depictions of characters in ordinary
situations will be examined in order that the narratives can be compared from a common
platform and so that they more clearly link back to the texts discussed in MacLeod’s article.
As mentioned, MacLeod is somewhat correct in her assertion of survival being a goal - or at
least a theme - in young adult fiction (114). Survival can be defined as “continuing to live
after some event” and in the context of MacLeod’s argument the implication is that, despite
parenting that is detrimental to the adolescent protagonist, he or she must live through this
difficult relationship (Oxford English Dictionary). Survival is a theme that relates to teenage
protagonist Louie in Dare Truth or Promise, albeit briefly. After Louie’s mother Susi
discovers Louie and Willa in bed together and prohibits them from seeing each other, Louie
struggles to consume food. At the climax of the narrative, she is found seriously injured in an
overturned car (169). However, this period of struggling to survive ends for Louie shortly
after the accident as Boock turns the situation around. Susi accepts her daughters relationship
choice, albeit reluctantly. Consequently, survival is not so much a goal in this novel as it is a
temporary theme.

3. Willa and Laura also temporarily lend themselves to assertions presented in MacLeod’s
article. MacLeod states that the adult-child relationship hierarchy is destroyed in
contemporary fiction, as are the systems of responsibility that separate the child’s role from
that of the adult (114). Willa and Laura both occupy the role of a parent in relation to other
family members at different stages within their respective narratives despite not being parents
themselves. In Dare Truth or Promise Willa brings a cup of tea to her mother Jolene’s
bedroom one morning. This scene, where Jolene is introduced as a character for the first
time, informs the reader that Jolene typically has headaches in the morning as she both
smokes and drinks and consequently it seems that Willa needs to assist her in getting
mobilised (Boock 10). However, whilst Willa is briefly portrayed as the parent-like figure,
this idea is undermined when Willa asks her mother for lunch money, effectively switching
Willa and Jolene back to their proper roles within the relational hierarchy.
Though from a different angle, Laura also is framed as a parent-like care giver. On Thursday
nights when Laura’s mother Kate works, Laura is required to attend to her “domestic
responsibility” of babysitting her younger brother, Jacko (Mahy 27). Then when Kate
decides to attend a classical music concert with Chris, a man she has recently met, Laura is
also called on to babysit Jacko despite having looked forward to handing Jacko over to their
mother that evening. In this last example we see Laura occupying the role of caregiver, a
placement that reflects MacLeod’s notion of the teenager having to take responsibility
because the parent has reverted back to teenage behaviour (MacLeod 113, Boock 60). Yet
although Laura could have fought with Kate over her frequent requests to babysit Jacko while
she experiences the freedom Laura desired, Mahy shuts down any opportunity for conflict.
She does this by offering dialogue consisting of banter between the two characters, such as

4. when Laura informs Kate that she is suddenly making money stretch now that Chris is on the
scene. Kate, though mistaken, views this as sympathetic and in turn replies “Bless you,
Laura, isn’t it just!” (Boock 61). Thus, although Laura’s character does somewhat align with
MacLeod’s sentiments regarding children taking on the adult role in the parent-child
relationship, the matter never develops into an issue.
In contrast to Laura and Willa’s homes however, conflict becomes an issue that erupts in
Louie’s home once her mother forbids her from seeing Willa (100). After Louie is made to
visit a doctor because of her homosexual involvement, Susi progresses from “understanding
and concern to fits of exasperation” (Boock 120). This conflict can be understood in terms of
what Julia Kristeva calls “loss of paternal function” (Oliver 45). In this scenario, the
narcissistic mother fails to “differentiate herself from the child and the child from her” (46).
This absence of differentiation is evident when we learn about Susi’s obsession with having a
wall-free open plan living area in the family home (Booch 25). This structural style
symbolically represents her desire to merge her identity with those of other family members,
including Louie, and therefore explains why she struggles to accept that Louie has a sexuality
that differs from her own. However, at the novel’s resolution Susi is arranging to have a
fireplace and woollen curtains installed in the lounge, suggesting that she has – at least on an
unconscious level – decided to separate Louie’s identity out from her own, proving that the
relational problem is surmountable and effectively allowing Louie to establish her own
unique identity (Boock 166). Such conflict resolution further demonstrates that even Louie,
the protagonist with the most challenges in her relationship to her mother, is able to do more
than just survive or cope, she is able to thrive.

5. Unlike Susi, Louie’s father Tony avoids expressing his opinion about her sexuality in a
negative manner. Indeed, Tony is framed as a positive father figure who is supportive of
Louie and willing to meet her present challenge. He does this by sharing with her details of
how he had a fascination with and a great awe of a boy during his school years (Boock 122).
He then gently advises Louie not to be pressured into making any decisions too early. Unlike
MacLeod’s belief that parents in adolescent fiction by the 1970s are inadequate in their role
as parents, other scholars testify that young adult authors are now “developing parents who
are not quite as one-sided as they used to be” (Nilsen and Donelson 111). This shift in
representation is reflected in Tony’s character as he considers the perspective of his daughter
whilst also offering his own point of view. In effect then, Tony meets Louie’s challenge by
utilising confrontation in a non-vindictive manner (Winnicott 27). This confrontation is not
only necessary in order for Louie to establish liveliness, it also weakens MacLeod’s argument
regarding parental inadequacies in adolescent fiction Winnicott 28). With the advice from
her father, Louie is able to move into a calmer space where she can think things through more
clearly (Boock 129).
Indeed, Tony’s non-vindictive approach when communicating with his daughter is not
dissimilar to that seen in Jolene when she speaks with Willa. Jolene hears Willa crying night
after night and although she is initially reluctant to force the issue, she realises she needs to
respond. Regardless of having not liked the relationship that existed between Willa and
Cathy in the past, Jolene is now supportive of her daughter’s choice. Her claim that “Mothers
can grow up too” brings to light her awareness that parents can decide how to respond with
the implication being that if she can reach a point of understanding, perhaps Susi can too
(Laurs 131).

6. Moreover, as authors both Boock and Mahy are kinder to the parental figures in their
respective novels than the authors informing MacLeod’s argument appear to have been. In
Dare Truth and Promise and in The Changeover parents who have previously failed in
familial relationships are given a second chance. In Kate’s instance, despite being divorced
from Laura’s father, she meets Chris who often stays over and whose relationship to Kate is
solid enough that they consider the possibility of marriage (Mahy167). Jolene, on the other
hand, is widowed, but she is close to Sid, and on the night that Willa returns home from
Signal Hill decidedly drunk, Sid stays over suggesting his relationship to Jolene is intimate in
nature (Boock 108; 127). Deborah Laurs believes that the destabilisation of traditional family
roles has led to a presentation of parents as “characters in their own right, rather than just
authority figures” (123). In this sense, both Mahy and Boock establish positive relational
outcomes for single parents in their respective novels, thus highlighting that the goal is not
just the fulfilment of adolescent characters’ desires but also fulfilment for parents who are
given a second chance at meaningful adult relationships.
Likewise, Laura’s father Stephen is also given a second chance: in this case, a re-established
relationship with Laura. While at the hospital Laura witnesses her father’s pleasure and
gratitude over seeing Jacko’s health improve (Mahy 236). Laura then finds herself able to
forgive Stephen for the day he felt their family for another woman. Indeed, as Lucy Norton
argues, Laura’s changeover is not just concerned with becoming a witch and saving Jacko,
she also “gains a new understanding … and learns … how she needs to look at life” (32).
This forgiveness and new understanding allows for Stephen and Laura to re-establish a new
father-daughter relationship where Laura is both encouraged and inclined to visit with her
father and his new family. Moreover, this metaphorical changeover for Laura also allows her

7. to “recover from a secret illness” that had previously gone unrecognised and untreated, thus
highlighting how she does more than just cope within her family environment (Mahy 267).
Laura and Willa are also given new opportunities in a way that benefits not just themselves
but also their relationship to their parents. In the case of Laura, her increasingly intimate
relationship with Sorensen Carlisle not only allows her to experience her first romantic
relationship with a boy, but Sorensen also aids her in coming to terms with new shifts in her
family, such as Chris’s presence and Stephen’s child he is having with Julia (Lawrence-
Pietroni 34). Nilsen and Donelson add that contemporary authors soften their narratives with
motifs supporting wishful thinking, the most common being a boy arriving on the scene to
help a girl solve her problems (Nilsen and Donelson 111). Definitively then, adolescent
characters are portrayed as flourishing and not merely surviving or coping.
Similarly, Willa’s relationship with Louie also aids in restoring Willa’s relationship with
Jolene. Although the tension between Willa and Jolene are never as obvious as that found
between Louie and Susi, when Willa is preparing to go out one day - Jolene, on learning
Willa is seeing Louie - receives a hug from Willa as though there is unspoken gratitude on
Willa’s part for Jolene’s acceptance of her choice (Boock 71). This hug leaves Jolene
blinking back tears, as it is the first hug between the pair since “the Cathy mess”, thus
demonstrating how Willa’s relationship with Louie benefits both her and Jolene (71).
Unlike MacLeod’s assertion that parent-children relationships represented in young adult
literature have broken down, Dare Truth and Promise and The Changeover both seem to
suggest the opposite: that the relationships between parents and children, though not without
episodes of conflict, are either so solid that the individuals need to form new attachments to

8. other significant others - as is the case with Laura and Kate - or they are on the journey to
being rejuvenated, as seen between Laura and Stephen (275). Willa and Jolene, having only
each other in their immediate home, are accepting of each other’s decision to enter into
meaningful relationships, which strengthens their bond. Scholars in the area of adolescent
fiction are quick to point out, however, that whilst such fiction may seem to be concerned
with growth, such growth takes place in the context of power (Cart317). Though Susi has the
power in hers and Louie’s relationship, she renegotiates this power, thus allowing Louie to
form a relationship with Willa. This factor in turn allows relative peace to be restored
between the mother and daughter. Whilst MacLeod’s theory regarding contemporary
adolescent literature’s endorsement of goals concerned with survival and coping does not
hold true for these two novels, she is correct in her assertion that “a child’s story, however
‘realistic,’ must end on a note of hope” (55).
Bibliography
Boock, Paula. Dare Truth or Promise. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
1997. Print.
Cart, Michael. "Reviewing Children's and Young Adult Literature." Handbook of Research
on Children's and Young Adult Literature Ed. Wolf, Shelby Anne. New York:
Routledge, 2010. 455-66. Print.
Laurs, Deborah Elizabeth. "Ungrown-up Grown-Ups." (2004): 1-260. Web.
Mahy, Margaret. The Changeover. London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2003. Print.
MacLeod, Anne Scott. "An End to Innocence: The Transformation of Childhood in
Twentieth-Century Children's Literature." Opening Texts: Psychoanalysis and the
Culture of the Child. 1985. 100-17. Print.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Kenneth K Donelson. Literature: Today's Young Adults. 4 ed. New
York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1993. Print.
Norton, Lucy. "Seeing Is Believing: Magical Realism and Visual Narrative in Margaret
Mahy's the Changeover." MLA International Bibliography 36.2 (1998): 29-32. Print.
Oliver, Kelly. "Kristeva's Imaginary Father and the Crisis in the Paternal Function." A
Feminist Miscellany 21.2/3 (1991): 43-63. Print.
Oxford University Press. "Oxford English Dictionary." (2014).
Winnicott, Donald Woods. "Playing and Reality." Psychology Press, 1971. Print.

9. Liable to Run
Course name: Introduction to Creative Writing
Stage: two
Assignment description: short fiction
Grade awarded:A
Perhaps this was all part of the scheme. Let me turn up, hang around for a bit, maybe even
make myself cosy. Then, as I’m starting to feel at home again, they’ll spring on me as
though I’m some unidentifiable creature that has just meandered out of the bush. Actually,
that isn’t far from the truth. Unidentifiable is the only guise that gave me the nerve to come
out here in the first place. Thirty-one years and not so much as a photo or a Facebook invite,
so unless I really am a chip off the old block then they’ll just see me as some sorry punter.
Retrieving the advertisement from my pocket I once again confirm that yes, the opening time
is definitely ten am despite the fact that it is now ten-seventeen. Hell, I don’t know which is
worse really: them turning or no one turning up. Of course it occurred to me in the days
leading up until now that my well intentioned determination might falter and fail me. Instead
I get to stand here feeling like a victim once more, as though the simple act of being here
might be the bit that tips me over the edge and finally sees me come crashing down with such
horrific force that my few remaining fragments of contentment simultaneously combust and
cause me to do something unthinkable. Bit like Dad, really.
“I know revisiting the place will be a struggle to the max, potentially even dangerous, but that
is exactly why I’ve decided Julia should know where I’m going” I’d said to Lorna, my
therapist, last week during our usual weekly session.
“You just feel that someone should know where you are in that event that anything….
untoward happens to you?” Lorna responded with a quizzical look on her face.

10. I studied her for a moment. Could a woman close to retirement who spends all her time
sitting inside these sterile office walls with half-circle glasses balanced delicately on the end
of her nose possibly understand the first thing about precautions?
“Sure, I mean, this is a big deal – not something that should be entered into rashly,” I
confidently replied.
Some men need to buy flashy sports cars during their late forties; I needed to know if mental
instability really was hereditary. In my reasoning, if genes have motives those motives could
quite likely be to carry on specific patterns of behaviour in subsequent generations. If that is
the case then I really am their only hope, being an only child and all. During my first
session Lorna asked if I had any questions. Yes, are a parent’s neurotic attributes innately
inherited by their offspring? I pelted out inside my head. I’d hinted many a time to her
about my parent’s dispositions, but never had she come right out and asked me what exactly
it was that they’d done that forced me to have this repugnant perception towards them.
After some months of seeing Lorna I decided it was in my best interests not to ask about
instability having a biological basis. After all, how would I cope if – come the following
week – I arrived to find the therapist had included a third person in out chat: a bodyguard
cleverly disguised as an intern? After some months of thinking like this, I punched in the
words ‘genes/insanity’ and anxiously awaited the crystal ball that is Google to reveal my
biological destiny. Twenty minutes and twelve websites in I began to feel like I was taking
on the sort of neurotic persona that the sites described, just by virtue of reading them. I
resolved to never question the matter again.

11. My train of thought is abruptly broken by a car door slamming from the road. My heart
begins to hammer to such an extent that I’m unsure how long my chest cavity will manage to
contain it. Then a thought runs through my mind: what if I hadn’t wiped my Facebook
profile picture down on time? What if Dad is one of those technology-savvy old guys who
copied and pasted it, made it into his desktop wall paper even, and would be able to pick me
out in a line-up of one hundred different men? Crap, maybe I should run into the bushes and
hide. For one moment I seriously consider this, but then I realise if they capture even the
tiniest glimpse of me I’ll have to live out my life as a derelict in forest surrounds. As I allow
my eyes to trace all possible exits from the property, a woman leisurely appears from around
the side of the house. There is already a smile on her face as though she suspected I was here
waiting all along. However, closely on her tail are a young couple holding hands and
grinning at each other. I take comfort in the fact that I am not her only focus.
I avoid gazing her way while she unlocks the front door and lets the eager couple inside. If
she’s trying to sell the house then she obviously knows my father and I can’t risk her
detecting any family resemblance. On the other hand, if she’s in on some kind of Capture
Barry Operation then she knows I’m liable to run and as such has got to play out her part as
unsuspecting real-estate agent.
Scratching my head for a final act of stalling, I force my legs to support me up the steps to the
front porch. With great delicacy I then proceed to walk towards a wooden framed window to
the left of the door. My careful foot placement is not merely a means to lessen the blow
should I see Dad starring back at me from inside, it is also an act of practicality: I’m not
entirely convinced this tired wood will support my weight. Inside on the dining room table

12. my eyes fall on the real-estate rag that I retrieved this open home advertisement from ten days
ago.
It’s funny. I hadn’t looked at the real-estate section of a paper in years. Then out of the blue
I arrived at work one morning and there laid strewn across my keyboard were the real-estate
pages. Straight away I knew there was significance to this; that somehow something within
the confines of those pages was going to change me in a massive way. Massively bad, that is.
I looked around to see if anyone was about, like Stan perhaps, he is always asking me what
I’ve got planned for the evening as though he secretly thinks I’m also working for the
opposition one block over. But no, it was astronomically worse than that. There, on the
inside cover of the front page was my very own house of childhood horrors. Of course the
ad made it out to be this idyllic wooden cottage on the outskirts of Titirangi. Yet certain
inalienable truths could not be ignored: someone knew what this house’s connection was to
me, but more importantly, they knew that I was the son of the monster who owned it. So,
despite my life-long determination to never speak to or lay eyes on my father again, I
couldn’t help but feel that there was something more to this and that it needed to be acted on
accordingly.
Collecting my courage, I venture inside. The agent and the young couple are now casually
assembled in the living room area as though the couple already own the house and the agent
is there as a welcoming neighbour. They’re busy telling her how this is the only place in the
housing section that caught their fancy. Then, in the most unnatural form, they stop talking
and look at me. For a split second I see something in the guy’s eye, something that tells me
running off into the bush might have been a better option after all. He takes out his phone

13. and begins texting. The other two just stand there looking at him knowingly as if to say,
‘Good time to let the old man know it’s definitely him’.
I side step into the kitchen. A man enters through the door a few metres away from where I
stand paralysed with fear; he looks at me and then looks at me again. As though on cue my
heart starts involuntarily ponding again, and I wonder if I could possibly pass out this time.
With my eyes bearing down towards the floor below, I continue to feel his brimming-with-
discovery glare burning into my face. Suddenly something about the floor’s appearance sees
a hideous memory penetrate my consciousness: this is the exact spot I was standing in when
Uncle Kevin came around all those years ago to tell me The News.
“Yeah, listen ah your old man, he’s not coming back mate. He shot Mr Robinson this
morning”
Presumably my face said it all: why Mr Robinson?
“Cause your mum, you know, they were in the car about to run off together. Sorry mate, I
thought you knew. Your mother, she’s always… been a bit like that”
No, I didn’t know was all I wanted to say. For the next two weeks mum couldn’t look me in
the face; whether it was from shame or sorrow I’ll never know. In the end, she decided to
migrate to Australia anyway, even without Mr Robinson. Even without leaving any
forwarding address too.
Out of the corner of my eye I see another man coming towards the door. The young guy who
was texting earlier strides confidentially towards him and they break out into a chat on the
porch.
“…..Here?” the older of the two voices quips.

14. Ten seconds pass. Patiently waiting on the response I realise this is the response: silence.
Silence that says it all. A few seconds more pass. Raising my hand I wipe beads of sweat
off my forehead and, with near-crippling anxiety, I walk out with my head down to avoid any
eye contact. Perhaps this was all part of the scheme. Let me turn up, hang around for a bit,
maybe even make myself cosy. Then, as I’m starting to feel at home again, they’ll spring-
I break out into a run and don’t stop running until I’ve reached the end of the block. With
shaking hands I scroll through my contacts list before lifting the phone to my ear.
“Hey, Lorna, it’s Barry. I think I’m gonna need to bring next week’s appointment forward.”
Exegesis for Liable to Run
A recent online article depicting the sale of a house with a twist to it was what motivated me
towards this assignment (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8667535/House-sale-revives-
murder-trial-memories). The idea of imagining up a fictitious person who was somehow
implicated in a real news story was a narrative starting point that was recommended in a
lecture. Partly attracted to the house for its historic appearance, and partly drawn by the
oddity of what went on there – a husband shot his wife’s lover as they tried to leave the
property - I sketched a story from the view point of their son who returns to the home on
open day. After writing my first draft, I saw elements of paranoia in Barry, the male
protagonist, and consequently decided to elaborate on that frame of mind in my subsequent
redrafts. Thus, both Barry and his psychological inner space became the primary
representations of this short story.
Utilising Exercise Six of the course pack, I made a list of all events relevant to the story.
Rather than wasting words on character introductions or setting a scene, I then selected an

15. event from half way down the list. I found that this functioned well as a means to delve right
into the psychological state of Barry. I felt it necessary to spend quite a bit of time sharing
historical encounters that further framed his paranoia in addition to answering why his
turning up to the open home was of significance. By adding passages of text that came with
no explanation, such as ‘bit like Dad, really’, I was also able to keep the reader guessing as to
what it was that caused Barry to have a negative view towards his father. Furthermore,
because the affective centre of this text is so reliant on Barry’s psychological state for its own
conveyance, I felt he needed to possess a first person voice. By portraying Barry as someone
with a permanent, general state of paranoia rather than a single episode, the feeling kept at the
foreground of the reader’s awareness.
In an effort to vary what was explained in detail and what was kept minimal, I also used
suggestions from Exercise Three. After having created the list of all events in the story, I
then allocated descriptive weight to several of the points. I chose to focus more on describing
Barry’s recollections relevant to the story and his experience of being at the house than on the
actual house itself. By doing this, I hoped to create an affective centre that carried through all
paragraphs of the texts. Additionally, I also used various imagined props, such as a
newspaper on the kitchen table, as a springboard to begin talking about necessary background
information. This I envisaged would give the text a natural flow. As such, the only
significant break that occurs to this flow is between the second to last and last sentence. Here
I have reused the first few sentences from the beginning of the story to reinstate that same
impression created at the onset. I then catapulted Barry from the harrowing property and
onto the phone to his therapist to create a noticeable gap in time that would serve as a unique
feature to the story’s end.

16. Film, Television and Media Studies
Historical Inaccuracies and Singular Perspectives in Alan Parker’s film
Mississippi Burning
Course name: Race,Indigeneity and the Media
Stage: three
Assignment description: a research essay on historical-realist film
Grade awarded:A
When Mississippi Burning was released in cinema in 1988, it sparked much controversy
(Toplin 44). The tension was resultant from the film being based on a real-life event – the
Freedom Summer of 1964– which took place in Philadephia, Mississippi. Whilst many
Mississippians present at Freedom Summer claim African Americans who fought tirelessly
for Civil Rights were the real heroes, what Hollywood released was a film that offers no
credit to the black community, instead portraying white Federal Bureau Investigators (FBI)
who arrive to solve a ‘missing persons’ case in the face of Southern racism as the conquerors.
One could well argue then that this portrayal is inaccurate (Toplin). However, according to
Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, what matters more than accuracy relative to historical-realists
films is the text’s ability to relay the perspectives and voices of the community represented
(Shohat and Stam 214). Furthermore, concern should also be afforded to the construction of
discourses, as – for the viewer - struggle over meaning arises from these. Upon examining
Mississippi Burning in light of such concerns, it is evident that Eurocentric discourse takes
centre stage, a positioning that pointedly denies the perspective and contribution of African
Americans towards the real-life inspiration and reaffirms that centrality of whiteness.
It is first necessary to address why a historical-realist film would distort the Civil Rights
success remembered by so many Southern Americans. Chris Gerolmo, the script writer for
Mississippi Burning, decided to shift the film’s focus from being Civil Right-orientated to

17. being about the FBIs fight against the Ku Klux Klan in an effort to bring justice to the three
missing Civil Rights activists (Toplin 31). Whilst Gerolmo openly admits this deliberate
shift, such a disclaimer does not evade the notion of the film making historical claims given
its real-life prototype (Shohat and Stam 178). It is, however, this shift to a narrative focus on
the white law enforcers, and the positioning of the African American people to mere
background figures, that creates the Eurocentric discourse apparent in the film. Furthermore,
this choice allows viewers who are unfamiliar with American history to potentially believe
that the Mississippian African Americans were passive and quietly living in fear while the
FBI fought for justice on their behalf. Yet the collective and individual memories for these
people recollect how they were trained in nonviolent resistance tactics in an effort to bring
about equality, a representation they are denied in the film. This choice also ensures that
undeserved positive framing is given to the FBI who, according to witnesses of the actual
murder investigation, bought about the criminals’ arrests by giving monetary rewards in
exchange for information, and not by aggressively interrogating the suspects as the narrative
suggests (Toplin 35). It is any wonder that judgement has fallen upon this film then, given its
contrasting historical evidence.
A disclaimer such as that made by Gerolmo can also not disarm the fact that media constructs
for its audience “a definition of what race is, [and] what meaning the image of race carries”
(Hall 11). The image of the black race in Mississippi Burning film is undeniably one of a
stereotypical helpless, colonized people unable to fend for their own cause. This is
problematic not only in that it is a disempowering ideology that strips the black community
of their deserved credit, but also, as Casey et al argue, it is a narrow capturing that denies the
complexity of these people (Casey et al 229). Surely any community of people exhibit more
characteristics than a singularly passive one. Such a stereotype is also connected with issues

18. of power, whereby making the black man powerless and a background figure, and the white
man powerful and in the forefront of the action, thus allowing a paternalistic form of white
supremacy to infiltrate the ideological framework of Mississippi Burning.
But simply observing white supremacy and racist discourse relative to a historical film is not
enough when considering realism. Shohat and Stam maintain that what is more important
than a film’s accuracy is its relaying of the perspectives – plural – of the people within that
community (Shohat and Stam 214). Mississippi Burning fails to meet this requirement in its
overarching bid to accentuate the FBIs success. Admittedly, there are a few scenes where
FBI agents Alan Ward and Rupert Anderson interview African Americans during their
missing persons search. Thus, though the coloured man is functioning within the image, at
no point does the filmmaker, Alan Parker, allow him to detail what having one of his own
activists – James Chaney – go missing means to him personally. Additionally, whilst there
are a number of scenes depicting the arson inflicted upon the black peoples’ homes, the
viewer is denied knowing what their perspective on the Klan and terrorism is and, for that
matter, how they think the law enforcers should deal with it.
It is apparent, too, that this exclusion of the black man’s perspective is deliberate,
highlighting Mississippi Burning’s Eurocentric discourse. It would have been possible to
primarily focus on the FBI whilst also giving some voice to the African American people.
This is evident when examining the process of editing that took place post filming. A scene
which depicted several black and white Civil Rights organisers meeting with Ward and
Anderson contained the dialogue of a young black man stating his distrust in the FBI (Toplin
38). By omitting this scene from the final cut however, not only is the black man denied a
voice but also Parker has gone a step further: he has encoded the representation of the FBI as

19. though they are heroes in the eyes of the Civil Rights workers, despite such reservations
having existed within the real-life prototypes.
This notion of a FBI hero is most evident when examining Ward’s character. Ward, who
arrives from out of town to investigate the so-called missing persons’ case, is framed as a
white saviour, here to rescue the suffering, helpless blacks from the torturous Klan. True to
the narrative structure of such films, he experiences offense towards the racial tension, albeit
vicariously on behalf of an elderly African American man who suffered a beating after
witnessing the Klan torching the activist’s voting booth. Notably, this victim confessed only
to the activists, who were later shot, and withheld from confiding in law enforcers until Ward
showed up. Seemingly, Ward’s anti-racial conscience develops radically at this point; we see
the fruits of this when he calls for 100 naval personnel to search the swamp. As a testament
to Eurocentric discourse, by the end of this film the representations of Ward and Anderson
lead the viewer to believe that, as an army of two men, they rescued the black community
from on-going oppression. Yet the real life prototypes for the FBI agents were in fact
historical enemies who were racist towards this ethnic community, thus the assertion of a
saviour in this historical-realist film is an absurd one (Shohat and Stam 179).
Despite the predominant representation of the FBI agents putting in the work to lift
oppression, there is the occasional yet brief glimpse of the black man’s efforts for his people.
During a scene where the Klan are torching a black church, amidst the fleeing congregation
one young black boy kneels to pray, thus heralding a ‘good’ or ‘positive’ image of how the
blacks respond non-violently towards terrorism. But as Julie Codell argues, these so-called
‘good’ images are frequently flat and idealised (Codell 217). What makes this image flat is
that we are denied revelation of what the boy is praying for. Perhaps he prays for the Divine

20. to protect his people, but it is also possible that he is praying for God to strike down the
forces of the Klan as an act of vengeance. Furthermore, whilst this positive image might
have been used to expand the complexity of the African American people, it is but a very
brief moment in a film that is otherwise heavily laden with Eurocentric discourse (Hall 292).
Mississippi Burning offers one other positive image that is also worth exploring. Towards
the end of the film, a black FBI agent is presented. He sits calmly before the Mayor and
interrogates him regarding the killers’ identities. In essence, he is aiding the FBI – those
Eurocentric characters at the forefront of the film – in their bid to see justice served. Indeed,
Shohat and Stam explicitly discuss how the positive image approach assumes a conventional
morality “intimately linked to status quo politics” (Shohat and Stam 203). This scene clearly
depicts the linking of the African American man to “status quo politics”; he will contribute
by doing as Anderson has instructed him to do. Yet what is spectacular about this character
is that he is not based on a real-life prototype; he is an instrumentation of fictional discourse.
Moreover, when filmmakers include a forced positive image in their media text, a lack of
confidence in that minority group is evident (Shohat and Stam 204). Specifically, the lack of
confidence Parker has in the ability of blacks to fight against their own oppression outside of
the law enforcement structure is highlighted. Additionally, this image is positive perhaps
only for the white viewer, as it suggests to them that blacks are capable in bringing about
change, albeit if they work alongside the powerful white man within the system. However,
for the black viewer this portrayal would offer a poor substitute for the efforts afforded by
thousands of Civil Rights workers during the Summer Project.
Indeed, Eurocentric discourse that inflates the powers and presence of white law enforcers
can also be detected when examining the cinematic mediation within Mississippi Burning

21. (Shohat and Stam 208). A close analysis of the scene detailing a Freedom March reveals in
the initial shot African Americans marchers, physically active, yet still holding to passivity
by way of deadpan facial expression. Ethnic marchers as the main focus of the scene is only
momentary, and just enough to set the scene of black political action. Following this, most
subsequent shots are of Eurocentric characters, such as Sherif Stucky and his staff, as they
monitor the proceeding. There are two tracking shots where we see Anderson trying to make
his way through the crowd to reach Mrs Phell, the Deputy Sheriff’s wife, at the hair salon.
The presence of Anderson at this moment reminds the audience that the FBI’s search for
justice is still at large; the obtainment of justice is secured through their success, and not
through the marching of well-meaning coloured folk, as the subtle implication within the
representation suggests. The ethnic perspective can be detected more through the
background music where a black singer soulfully describes the struggle of the black people,
yet this voice is removed from those blacks present in the scene. Aside from this singer, we
are offered the voices of the blacks through the point of hearing of the white man: repetitious
chanting, numerous voices deflated into one. At no point do we hear an individual black
man’s perspective. One shot reveals television reporters interviewing some of the coloured
activists, yet because their dialogue is inaudible their views are silenced, another cinematic
choice that speaks of Euro-centricity and the black’s low rank in the hierarchy of status and
power. We faintly hear their chants once the salon setting is utilised, but they are positioned
now in the back of the frame as Anderson and Phell talk. Finally, we are offered a close-up
shot of Anderson and Phell from outside the salon window, Phell’s mouthed confession is
sentenced to silence to maintain the narrative suspense, a focalisation that immediately
distracts from the marchers and their plight.

22. With such Eurocentric production then, it is perhaps no surprise that the audience too is
envisaged as European. Parker acknowledged that Mississippi Burning deliberately focused
on the white FBI agent’s investigation rather than the struggle for Civil Rights in order to
gain box office popularity (Toplin 36). A focus on the African American struggle, said
Parker, would not elicit such a strong attraction. Yet simply acknowledging that Parker chose
to frame the film from a Eurocentric perspective does not mean “nothing is at stake” (Shohat
and Stam 178). Films have largely replaced books as primary sources for information, and
the struggle over meaning regarding the real heroes of the Summer Project matters because
audiences who are not familiar with the historical facts may end up “idealising the FBI and
regard African Americans as mute witnesses of history rather than the makers” (Toplin 44;
Shohat and Stam 179). Consider, for example, that the activist who was actually driving the
car in the lead up to the shooting was Chaney, but Parker instead placed him in the back seat
and had the two white activists up front (Toplin 35). Cinematic choices like this suggest to
the audience that, in terms of history’s inspiration, the white men are the most active in
striving for social change, and the black man is merely going along with their plans.
With the striking contrast between the portrayed characters – Ward, the white saviour and his
fleet of white FBI agents - and that of the original inspirations - racists who were enemies of
the black community – it is not difficult to see how harsh judgement has fallen upon this film
that is based on real events (Shohat and Stam 179). The Eurocentric discourse denies
acknowledgement of the invaluable contribution the African American community made
towards social change and justice in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Furthermore,
the cinematic choices Parker and Gerolmo made mean there is very little relaying of the
perspectives and voices of this ethnic society. Whilst they made no secret of the film’s focus
being on the FBI’s investigation rather than the Civil Rights activity, this bias could easily be

23. misinterpreted by the audience as meaning the white FBI with their interrogation methods
brought about justice, as the black people sat passively awaiting salvation. The distorted
historical-realist claims within Mississippi Burning do, as Historian Harvard Sitkoff states,
such injustice to the events they are representing that ultimately the film is lynching history
itself (Toplin 40).
Bibliography:
Casey, Bernadette, et al. "Television Studies: Key Concepts." London; New York: Routledge,
2002. Print.
Codell, Julie. "Race: Stereotypes and Multi-Realisms." Genre, Gender, Race and World
Cinema. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Print.
Hall, Stuart. "The Spectacle of the "Other"." Representation: Cultural Representations and
Signifying Practices. Ed. Hall, Stuart. Thousand Oaks, California; London: Sage in
association with the Open University 1997. Print.
Hall, Stuart. "The Whites in Their Eyes: Racist Ideology and the Media." The Media Reader.
Eds. Alvarado, Manuel and John O Thompson. London: BFI, 1990. Print.
Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. "Stereotype, Realism and the Struggle over Representation."
Unthinking Eurocentricism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London; New York:
Routledge, 1995. Print.
Toplin, Robert Brent. "Mississippi Burning: A Standard to Which We Couldn't Live Up."
History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past. Urbana; Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1996. Print.
Impersonation and Exploitation:
What Bullying Has Evolved to in the Modern Age
(a look at two cyberbullying case studies)
Course name: Technoculture and New Media
Stage: two
Assignment description: a discussion on the role of the internet in relation to bullying.
Grade awarded:A+
When thinking of bullying, one often thinks about a school child taunting another in the
schoolyard. Yet with the advent of the internet came a new social medium from which to
treat another with mockery. In fact, data suggests that students who have never bullied
another at school are taking to the cyber world in an effort to prey on victims (Willard 35).
The term used for this type of bullying is cyberbullying, which is defined as aggressive and

24. intentional acts performed by persons who utilise electronic platforms to contact a victim
repeatedly over time (Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston 70). In this essay I will discuss
impersonation and the spreading of nude photos in relation to online bullying. What draws
these two avenues of bullying together is that both are intended to sabotage the reputation of
the victim and cause hostility between the victim and other persons. I will draw on two
specific examples where teenagers have fallen victim to this practise via the social
networking site Facebook. Through analysing these two cases, this essay highlights the
frequently negative pitfalls of the cyber-web via Facebook.
Impersonation within the social networking arena is when “a perpetrator poses as the victim”
(Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston 64). Through a fraudulent account, these cyberbullies
communicate with the victim’s friends in an effort to sabotage the reputation of, and cause
humiliation for, the unlucky individual. This is exactly what happened to fourteen year old
Alex Boston from Georgia in the United States (Bond). Via impersonation, Boston’s
cyberbullies posted destructive and untrue comments on her friends’ walls. Boston’s
suffering brought on by aggression then grew as Boston’s Facebook friends began responding
negatively towards her (Bond). Moreover, because Boston’s perpetrators chose the highly
popular Facebook site to portray her as a wayward individual, the pain and embarrassment
incurred may have been amplified upon Boston realising just how wide the audience of this
injustice was (Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston 85). In all likelihood, it was not just school
friends Boston interacted with via Facebook, but also family and members of other groups
she is associated with. Resultantly, the reputation of this teenager is damaged among
potentially numerous social circles in which she belongs to.

25. In addition to potentially tainting Boston’s name before a large audience and creating friction
on the social front, another unique feature of impersonation is that it affords Boston’s bullies
– two girls from her school – anonymity as they seek to create friction. Conceivably,
Boston’s bullies may have avoided traditional bullying - like name-calling, from example -
because they did not want to damage their own reputation. Indeed, research suggests that
when a bully poses as another, they often say and do things that they would not ordinarily do
if their identity was known (Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston 86). As such, it is difficult to
deny how the internet has played a part in both extending the ways one can victimise another
and, by virtue of anonymity, the number of people who would enter into this behaviour.
Defenders of the internet may well state here that because this medium identifies users by
noting their IP address, Boston’s bully’s’ protection shield of anonymity may well be a false
sense of security. I believe there are a few prominent problems with this suggestion,
however. Firstly, if Boston’s impersonators are clever, they may engage with the fake
Facebook account from any number of locations making them hard to pin down. Also, an
unfortunate side-effect of aggressive and persistent taunting is that the victim may eventually
snap and retaliate online. Once this has occurred, the victim would conceivably stand less of
a chance in convincing anyone investigating the matter that they too were not bullies.
Conceivably, Boston’s bullies may also have seen the computer screen as a removed, and
perhaps therefore easier, target for retaliation and this could also be why they chose this
avenue of bullying. If they are caught between a rift of wanting to damage her reputation and
concern about how effectively they can carry it out in practice, they may have chosen
impersonation online because it both harms Boston’s reputation and it utilises technology
with a more predictable response than what can be expected from a human being. Moreover,
as Weber and Dixon state, once a new technology is integrated into everyday culture, it

26. becomes significantly transformative, thus arming it with the ability to shape social norms
(Weber and Dixon p5, cited in Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston). When we consider the
percentage of teenagers using the internet today –one American internet project reported 93%
- Boston’s bullies could well believe that the internet exists as an avenue to attack Boston
should they feel unable to do it in person (Lenhard, as cited in Kowalski, Limber, and
Agatston 4). As such, the social norm becomes to revert to attacking via the internet should it
suit the bully and the internet is once again seen as an accessory for inflicting harm upon
another. The counter-argument to this of course is that it is the user, not the technological
device, which is causing the damage. After all, it is not cars that kill people on the roads but
the people who drive those cars carelessly. Again though, this view appears to me over
simplistic. A bully who victimises someone directly in person ensures the victim feels unsafe
around them. Yet as described earlier, the ability to capture a much wider audience by
brandishing someone’s reputation means that person then lives on edge around many
individuals as they try to register how they are now perceived by numerous others.
Importantly, impersonation is not the only way to taint someone’s reputation and cause them
distress. Fifteen year old Amanda Todd from Canada was victimised by a man she knew
only from the online world. He constructed a fake Facebook page under her name, used a
topless photo of her as her profile picture – she unwittingly provided it by going topless
during a webcam chat - and then befriended her friends (Popkin). The picture circulated
among Todd’s class mates and led to constant online bullying. Like in Boston’s situation,
Todd also suffered the consequences of the internet’s ability to reach a wide audience.
Similarities can also be seen between Boston’s bullies and those of Todd’s. As stated, I think
it conceivable that Boston’s victimisers did what they did to her online because the internet is
seen to be a viable root to antagonise another without entering their physical sphere. Indeed,

27. by establishing an environment where people could act aggressively towards Boston online,
the social norm within her school may have been to jump on the bandwagon and have a go at
her. In the instance of Todd, studies suggest female teenagers who know of other teenagers
that are captured sexting, often then associate that teenager with several derogatory terms
(Walker 74). This implies both that, in the eyes of her peers, Todd acted outside of socially
accepted norms and also that these derogatory terms are cast upon her in light of the
incriminating online evidence that she behaved in this way.
Despite the possibility that Todd violated a social norm by having a nude picture taken, it is
likely that as time progresses this action will be seen with less disgust. One study found that
20% of teens have sent or posted semi-nude or nude images of themselves, and that Facebook
was the most common networking site through which to make these posts (McLaughlin 7-8;
Walker 73). While one could argue that, until such a time that sexting does become a social
norm, people like Todd have only got themselves to blame for the negative attention they
receive by making images of themselves naked available to others. Consider, however, that
sexting has its origins in “the erosion of the public-private divide” (Walker 15). In light of
this, it is difficult to place blame entirely upon individuals like Todd; indeed, she was born
into a world where the internet was already embraced by much of the Western world.
By examining cyberbullying in light of two different real-world cases, it seems that when all
is weighed up between the internet and bullying, one does have to attribute much of the
reputation corruption and suffering of individuals to this pervasive medium. In the case of
impersonation, Boston’s Facebook contacts believed her to turn aggressive towards them
online. Consequently she was harassed by an even wider group of people than just the two
from her school that created the fake account. Moreover, the anonymity afforded to such

28. perpetrators means they may push limits in derailing another that they would not have had
they been limited to purely in-person interactions. For Todd, this reputation sabotaging was
resultant from a topless photo of her that was posted on Facebook. Had the internet not been
invented by this point, perhaps the distribution of this image could have been limited to only
a cluster of students whom she was acquainted with, thus saving her reputation at least in
other social circles. Additionally, the act of posing topless before a webcam was conceivably
in part resultant from the erosion of the private and public which the internet has helped
facilitate (Walker 15).
Bibliography:
Bond, Anthony. "Teenage Girl Who Claims She Was Bullied on Facebook Sues Classmates
Because Police and School Are Powerless to Help." Mail Online 2012.
McLaughlin, Halloran. "Crime and Punishment: Teen Sexting in Context." (2010). Web.
Kowalski, Robin, Susan Limber, and Patricia Agatson. Cyberbullying: Bulling in the Digital
Age. 2 ed. UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2012. Print.
Popkin, Helen. "2 Girls, Ages 12 and 13, Face Felony for Fake Facebook Account."
Technology. NBC News 2012.
Walker, Shelley. "Sexting and Young People: A Qualitative Survey." (2012). Web.
Willard, Nancy. Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats. Illinois: Research Press, 2007. Print.