Alli Hobhouse's Journey

Explain the connection between the journeys of Arthur and Allie Hobhouse

‘Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea’ embodies two gruelling journeys encompassing the lives of Arthur and Allie Hobhouse. Similarities in self-discovery through aspects of physical perseverance are present in both expeditions. Self-discovery is prominent, vital to character development, challenges resilience and evident during times of survival, conflict and endurance. Both father and daughter endure physically laborious tasks and spiritual exhaustion especially during times spent sailing alone. Their road to development and overcoming themes of death, spiritual stagnation, loneliness, deprivation of love and support simultaneously resonate with ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and being ‘Alone on the Wide, Wide Sea’. The solitary expedition that Michael Morpurgo portrays

Arthur shares his enlightenment and foreshadows the challenges of Allie’s journey when he proclaims “that poem is not just about a sea voyage, it’s about the journey through life, and about the loneliness of that journey” to conclude Marty and Aunty Megs’ death (another reference to loneliness and loss). Contrary to her father’s beliefs, Allie’s travels commence in high spirits (similar to the Mariner) announcing her “great sailing adventure...dreaming of doing it”. Later, Allie begins “to believe, in the darkness of those long nights, that I really was on my own” and “Dad had gone too, gone with the albatross...suddenly overwhelmed with misery”. For the Mariner, Arthur and Allie, ships were vessels for a journey of solitary suffering on the wide, wide sea, resilience when “sails dropt down”, sculpting their character through icebergs, turbulent waters, “silent seas” and future perception of