English: The Shifting Heart, Grade 11

Introduction:

Picture yourself being an Italian immigrant in the 1950’s.

Imagine yourself stepping into a brand new country full of hope and opportunity and everywhere you go you're faced with discrimination and hate.

Imagine if you were physically and verbally abused because of your heritage.

Richard Beynon’s, The Shifting Heart is a play set in the late 1950’s in a community in Collingwood in Melbourne, Australia. The play provides the audience with an insight into the life of a lower class Italian family, the Bianchi family. Over the course of the play, the family is faced with various controversial challenges including physical and psychological challenges Italian immigrants who moved to Australia in the late 50’s were faced with. 

Richard Beynon, the author has used a Christmas tree as a symbol to explore the theme of hope throughout his play. It is through his use of the Christmas tree that we can see the Italian Immigrants perception of life in Australia in the 1950’s where foreigners were not accepted and were forced to conform with the Australian ways and traditions despite strong acts of prejudice and discrimination from third party citizens as well as fellow family members. 

Body Paragraph 1:

The first element that the audience is introduced to that represents the hope of the Bianchi family is Gino’s mature and genuine act of purchasing the Bianchi’s very first Christmas Tree for Momma as well as the the thought of including eight candles for each of the eight years the family has been in Australia. On Page 39, Momma states ‘in all that time, this; the first Christmas tree’. Her statement reflects upon her hope of a new beginning for the Bianchi family, a beginning for assimilation between the Australian and Italian culture, a beginning of maturity for Gino and a new beginning for Clarry and Maria’s near born baby. At this point in time, Beynon has positioned the audience to feel like the prejudice and discrimination the Bianchi family had faced was coming to an end and daily life was going to improve significantly. 

As Pope John Paul once said, a Christmas Tree ‘exalts the value of life’ and ‘becomes a sign of undying life’. Life in the Bianchi family at the time of the arrival of the Christmas Tree was optimistic and demonstrated Pope John Paul’s saying however, just as Christmas festivities must come to an end at one point in time and Christmas trees must come down after the Christmas period, the families happiness and optimism also comes to an end which is exhibited through Gino’s dramatic death in the latter of the play. 

Beynon’s connection between the Bianchi families dying hope has been effectively conveyed through the timing of the play coinciding with the Christmas period and the fact that all good things, which in this case was the novelty of the families very first Christmas tree must come to an end at one point in time which was expressed through Gino’s death.

Body Paragraph 2 :

The second element that the audience is introduced to that represents the hope of the Bianchi family is Gino’s gift of the Christmas tree as well as the specific number of candles that were housed within the tree.

On Page 39 Momma is quoted saying ‘Eighta years! One for each year we come to this country’.  

Gino’s gift to Momma Bianchi was a Christmas tree with eight candles. The eight candles that were gifted represented the hope the Bianchi family had of living a calm and positive life. The candle light represented Gino’s intended thoughts of providing a clear path for the family - keeping controversy and negativity away. Little does he know, life for the Bianchi family will soon take a turn for the worse resulting in his death. 

Beynon utilises the candles to position the audience into feeling a sense of direction and stability for the Bianchi family. As soon as the audience feels comfortable with the positive direction of the family, the play exhibits that the prejudice and discrimination towards Italian immigrants from the Australian community has not nearly been shifted or lost but rather increased and the hope the Bianchi once had of interacting and assimilating with the Australian community and culture was completely abolished. 

Conclusion:

It’s clear that Beynon has utilised a range of acts of prejudice and discrimination to prove that assimilation between the Italian culture and Australian culture is impossible and the hope the Bianchi family once had of the intercultural mingling was complete and utterly terminated. The hope and life of the Christmas period was merely a distraction and pause for the Bianchi family and  the eight candles that once signified a clear path for the families future is now just a set of eight ordinary candles. 

I’d like to leave you with one final quote today; as Ellie Wiesal once said ‘“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them” ‘