So Much to Tell You – John Marsden

So much to Tell You by John Marsden, explores the struggle that the protagonist, Marina, endures along her journey to psychogenic satisfyingness. Marinas sense has been shattered due to a traumatic event, and being witness to a large amount of violence and hatred in her family. So Much To Tell You is rich in techniques that are use effectively to induce the idea of Marinas struggle, and journey towards mental wholeness. Marinas difficulty in achieving psychotic personlogical completion is shown through the major technique, structural contrast.We follow Marinas personal journey and her healing through stunned the allegory, and we watch as she develops from an introverted, suspicious person into someone who is able to appropriately communicate with other individuals. Marina uses a tone of self-loathing to show us that she views herself as a nutcase, psycho and the freak of Warrington who suffers from anorexia of speech. Marina is sent to Warrington Boarding School to learn to m come onh again, because her mother cant stand her silent presence at home.At first Marina is isolated and detached from the rest of the instill, shown through the call in imagery of Marina as she slinks along the walls and corridors. As the novel progresses, Marinas entries project that she is becoming more in touch with her peers, and moving round the school more confidently. Her visit to Mr Lindells house over the pass is a very significant event in Marinas transformation. Throughout the weekend she becomes more expressive, expressed through her tone of excitement in the phrase it was goodAnd theyre so nice Nice, nice, nice Here, the use of exclamation and the repetition of the word, nice emphasise Marinas positive involvement in life. This is contrasted with Marina being a passive spectator during school tennis, and life in general. Towards the end of the novel Marina chooses on her own accord to return to Warrington, and reaches out to Mr Lindell to help her, a drastic ch ange from the beginning of the novel where she didnt interact with anyone at all.In the early stages of the novel, the struggle and difficulty of repairing Marinas soul due to damage and conflict within her family, and Marinas journey towards mental health, is expected through the composers effective manipulation of fragmentation imagery. Perhaps the almost prominent examples of fragmentation imagery would be Ann Maltins spangled leading doona cover. Ann tells Marina the the stars do fit together, but it took her years to figure it out. This is a metaphor for Marinas damaged someone, and it foreshadows her psychological wholeness.Her psyche go forth fit together again she just has to give it duration to heal. Marina alike explains the she likes the word coalesce, though when she looks at it for a long time it divulgems strange and ugly. This is how Marina views herself, a jumble of strange and ugly fragments that claim to coalesce in order to become one healed psyche. She also writes about the way the pool is when there is nobody there hence the first girl jumps or dives in and it all cracks. This demonstrates how fragile Marinas psyche is it could shatter at any time. Ann Maltin also had a ceramic piece on the cupboard beside her bed.It was a big bird, an eagle. Whilst vacuuming the lobby Marina accidentally knocks the bird of its stand, and it promptly shatters on the floor. Even after Ann has paste it back together, she can still attend the cracks. She will always see them. This indicates that Marina will heal, but she will never be exactly the resembling person as she was before the incident, and she will always be pit from the traumatic event. John Marsden has greatly emphasised the importance of Marina repairing her damaged psyche through the use of metaphors, foreshadowing, and fragmentation imagery.Symbolism and figurative devices are also utilise effectively by John Marsden to evoke the idea of Marinas take for retreat or refuge fr om the difficulties of reality, prior to her significant journey to wholeness. For Marina, the chapel at her school symbolises a sanctuary. Churches are safe places, where you can hide, Marina sits by herself in her dark corner and writes in her journal, it is where she can think about her life, and her father. She feels saved in the chapel, and in the school generally too.This is shown through the use of similes in the phrase in the hospital she felt exposed under the snowy light, here she feels like a black snail. This contrasts between the gaberdine exposure of the hospital, and the black refuge of the school. Similes, retreat imagery, and symbolisation are used dextrously passim So Much To Tell You to demonstrate Marinas difficult journey to wholeness. John Marsden dextrously uses effective techniques throughout So Much To Tell You to explore the concept of struggle and wholeness, demonstrated by the protagonist, Marina.We learn about Marinas personal struggle to become whol e again after the tragic events that have occurred prior to the beginning of the novel. We see this through the contrast of Marinas character between the beginning of the novel and the end of the novel, the extensive use of fragmentation imagery, and the retreat imagery, that is used to convey Marinas struggle. We trace her traumatic personal journey, difficulties and mental healing throughout the novel, on an emotional rollercoaster that is Marinas life.