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Change in self unquestionably has a substantial impact on the individual. The experience gained can lead the individual to maturity, and realization and better understanding of life, yet change can also provoke suffering and regret. Examples of consequences of self-change are explored in many texts including, Father and Child by Gwen Harwood, Glass Jar by Gwen Harwood, Sky-High by Hannah Roberts, and Winning isn’t everything by Tom Lehman. The listed texts all explore the concept of self-change and emphasize the affect on the individual by using various techniques such as metaphorical language and reflective narration. The poem The Glass Jar by Gwen Harwood exemplifies that self-change will lead to a better understanding and maturity. The boy’s naïve hope that he could hold the light of the sun in a glass jar, was discarded when he “recalled the glass jar…” to discover the blunt truth and “hope fell head long from its eagle height”. The child’s hope in the glass jar has been described using religious metaphors to emphasize the child’s dependency on the glass jar, “…ready to bless, to exorcize…” it has been perceived as his savior from the “monsters in the dark”. The failure of the glass jar and the change leads the boy to suffering and loss of hope and to “(run) sobbing his loss…” and to nightmares the next morning after the bitter realization, the boy abandons his hope in the jar, which “would fill night’s gulf and hungers…” and hence leading the boy from naivety to understanding, and innocence to maturity. These outcomes are an essential part of adulthood, and these consequences have enlightened the boy, although they were bitter it has paved his path towards independence. In the poem Father and Child by Gwen Harwood, the change in self leads to a mature understanding of death, and the experience also leads to regret.
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