How does Go Back to Where You Came From enhance your

understanding of the role of choice in human experience?

Choices are key aspects to the human experience as it determines how

an individual reacts. This notion is clearly depicted in both the film
documentary, Go Back To Where You Came From, directed by Ivan
O’Mahoney and a poem Refugee Blues by Wystan Hugh Auden. In
the lives of many individuals making a choice is seen as a privilege,
for others it is a norm to make many different choices in every second
of the day. These texts explore how refugees and asylum seekers are
unable to make a lifestyle choice due to the harsh conditioned lives
they are living. These choices are then compared to the lifestyle
choices that settled people make. Ultimately, the individual's reaction
is exposed once human experiences reveal the kind of choices the
individual makes.

An individual may be limited to the amount of choices they have

based on their current lifestyle.This concept is distinctly illustrated
within Ivan O’Mahoney film documentary, Go Back To Where You
Came From. Raye being one of the six participants, is notified that
there are fifty people living in the one building while visiting the
Chins. In disbelief Raye states, “how many? fifty? Five- zero? Fifty.”
Raye repeats the number ‘fifty’ just to confirm that she is hearing the
correct number. Thus, exposing her tone of disbelief which then
revealed her confronted realisation of the reality life that these
refugees are living. Raye is seen to be in such shock as it is not
considered a norm to her that 50 people live in the same house. The
chins did not choose to be pressed in a room with fifty other people in
it. However, it was their lifestyle conditions that guided them into
such harshed conditioned lives, leaving them no other choice but to
share a house with forty nine other people. The ideology of choice is
also being represented through episode two, when Raquel and Raye
are shown in the sleeping area for the Chin family kids in Malaysia,
which is the floor. The Mid shot shows Raye and Raquels shocked
faces in the foreground, at the disturbing fact that children sleep on the
floor is revealed to them, in comparison to the background of the mat
on the floor that children sleep on.  Raye repeats what she hears in
disbelief  “No mattress? They sleep on the floor, like-” while the
camera mid shot shows her raised eyebrows and an open mouth to
show the emotion of shock of the bad living conditions she is
informed that refugees live. The floor is the only thing the Chin
families have available, this displays the lack of choice that they have.
Raye and Raquel are extremely confused about these conditions as
they have never been exposed to them as it is not a norm in their life.
Overall, one's lifestyle greatly influences the amount of choices they
are open to. 

The lifestyle of an individual can be very limiting when depicting the

amount of choice they receive. This ideology is being portrayed
throughout the successful poem, Refugee Blues by Wystan Hugh
Auden. As the poem opens, the speaker is trapped in a difficult
position. The speaker is in an unnamed city, a city that is enormous
enough to fit ten million people. Some of them are very wealthy while
some are very poor. As the speaker notes, “Some are living in
mansions, some are living in holes.” Through antithesis the line is
carefully constructed to emphasize the difference between the rich and
the poor. Its two clauses have the same grammatical structure, but
they say opposite things. The two ideas are being split by a caesura,
which further emphasise the antithesis. Despite the difference between
rich and poor, they are united in one respect, they all have some kind
of home, whether it’s a mansion or a tenement. But the speaker has no
such security and isn’t welcome between the poor and the rich only
because they are a refugee.the speaker then states “Once we had a
country and we thought it fair”, here the reader is make reference to
how Hitler took over the Jewish people homes and left them with no
choice but to flee. The speaker is finding it hard to find another place
that they can treat like home. There is a clear difference between the
choices being made by the refugees and the choices being made by the
people living in the city.  The people living in the city are purposefully
and selfishly choosing not to allow refugees into their city thinking
that they will steal their bread and wealth. On the other hand the
refugees have been left choiceless and are forced to flee their home
country due to the war taking place. Ultimately, many of the
individuals choices are greatly being affected by the individuals
lifestyle.
 

Some individuals associate choice as a customary norm, but what they

don’t realise is that it is a privilege that many other individuals are
unable to access. This notion is excessively portrayed throughout the
film documentary, Go Back To Where You Came From, directed by
Ivan O’Mahoney. Raquel entered this journey with a stubborn
mentality and hatred towards African Americans. When Raquel
visited Kenya, alongside Raye and Roderick, she was surprised to
know that the people living in Kenya do not have access to an actual
toilet seat, as all they have access to is a hole in the ground. Raquel
over exaggerated the situation and started yelling stating “Well I’m
not a refugee am I? I’m an Australian and I haven’t been brought up
like this. It might be easier for everyone else because they’ve grown
up like this. I haven’t grown up like this so it’s not easy for me.” After
hyperbolically deciding that she cannot utilise that bathroom, a long
shot reveals Raquel sitting on her mat in the temporary
accommodation. As the camera cuts to a close up shot, it highlights
the tears running down her cheeks revealing the makeup she is
wearing. Raquel is  expressed to be one of many other people who
don’t realise all the privilege that they have been gifted with, living in
a country like Australia. Back when Raquel was living in Australia,
she was privileged to have a choice as to whether or not she wanted to
wear makeup, whether or not she wanted to use a toilet seat or just a
hole in the ground, as they were material that were considered to be a
norm to her. Unlike the people living in Kenya who don’t have a
choice whether or not they want to use a toilet bowl with the luxuries
of a seat covering the bowl, they just use what is currently available to
them. Overall, what is considered a norm to some individuals may be
considered as a privilege to many others.

The manner in which an individual reacts may reflect the choices they
are capable of carrying out. Such a concept is intelligently being
explored throughout a film documentary, Go Back To Where You
Came From, directed by Ivan O’Mahoney and a poem, Refugee Blues
by Wystan Hugh Auden. An individual's freedom to make their own
choices is clogged by the lifestyle they are living. Those individuals
who are unable to make their own choice are often looked down upon
by those who are able to make their own choices as it is not seen as
the norm.  Consequently, an individual's past human experiences
surrounds their reaction to decision making