Jason Donovan

English draft

Caswell represents the nature of fame and celebrity as both positive and negative in “asturias” by demonstrating its effect on the characters Tim and Natasha, these two characters both react to the pressure of fame in different ways. This pressure of fame also affects the subject of my TOYOC Jason Donovan.

Different people cope with the pressure of being well known differently than others, this can cause outbursts from the celebrity leading to over drinking, drugs and outrageous behaviors. These characteristics can be seen in the Asturias character ‘Tim’. Tim was a socially inexperienced person, he had never been comfortable communicating with girls, to him “they were like a strange race, with their own language and rules” (pg.37). His main problem was that he had spent too much time playing his keyboard rather than talking to other people. After Asturias’s career took off and they became a major hit in the music industry, Tim’s fame leads to an increasingly self-important outlook, his new wealth and the presence of girls “who would’ve never looked twice at him before” (pg. 139) raises his ego and makes it quite difficult to work with. Caswell uses an intertextual reference to “Jekyll and Hyde” to suggest Tim’s sudden out bursts.

Caswell as well as employing the negatives of fame, he also portrays the positives of fame. These positive characteristics are all evident in the character Natasha. In the novel Natasha Is shown to be able to live with a dual identity of lead singer Tasha K and ordinary teenager Natasha Kusnetsoff “all I know… in full force” (pg.146). What had been natashas major weakness from the start was now her strength, being able to be change personalities in a moment’s notice and having the ability to hide her personal problems when she is in public view. Caswell presents tasha as an angelic figure to the audience “her amazing hair fanning out so that it shines like a pure white halo” (169). Thus natashas on stage appearance as Tasha K entrances the audience showing a positive aspect of fame which is her ability to fulfil her potential while connecting with fans.

Jason Donovan is an Australian actor whose struggle ship with fame mimics that of Tims. Jason Donovan said to Australian story that “success came to quickly” and that “fame just happened but its seductive”.  These are the traits that affected Tim when Asturias hit the top of the charts. In an interview on Australian story, a friend of Jason Donovan stated that “everyone knows my mate and he doesn’t know any of them”. This relates to Tim as no girl would have gone for him before however now girls are going crazy over him. These are just minor characteristics that Tim and Jason have in common, however their biggest similarity is their actions after they hit the spotlight and that’s drinking and drugs. Drinking and taking drugs has affected most young celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Lindsay lohan, Charlie sheen and even johnny depp. Tim hit the spotlight too rapidly and when he did, he didn’t know what to do with it, thus leading him to drinking and using drugs to help cope with being famous and everyone knowing your name.

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