Many texts explore the concept of change, whose meaning differs according to the text’s context and mode of production. These varying depictions help shape an understanding of the elusive nature of change. Two poems of Gwen Harwood, The Glass Jar and Father and Child present change through the subject of changing self, as does Sky High from the Stimulus Booklet ‘Changing’, the magazine article I Had Breast Cancer at 20 and the anonymous nonfiction book Go Ask Alice. Through these texts changing self appears a phenomenon which manifests itself physically, psychologically, socially, culturally and through many opposing paradigms.

A significant aspect of changing self explored in Harwood’s poems is the process in which a child’s innocent mind is tainted by some experience. The naive hopes and beliefs of a child are replaced with a more mature understanding, the transformation occurring either consciously or subconsciously.

The poem The Glass Jar describes the night in which a young boy’s journey into adulthood begins.

Harwood portays his innocent mind through his fear of the dark and lack of under

All this changes when one day she is tricked into trying acid. Scared of the elation she experienced she tries “to convince myself that using LSD makes me a ‘dope addict’ and all the other low-class, unclean, despicable things I’ve heard about kids that use LSD and all the other drugs”. However the need to get high again overrides rational thinking; acid makes the world a better place for Alice and she begins to experiment with other drugs. She feels as though she has found a new form of freedom, this enlightenment leads to sexual encounters and deepens the need for extra stimulation. Caught in a vicious downward spiral, she repeatedly tries to clean herself up and resume the life she previously had, but the world has become unbearable without the use of drugs, as the drug world is the only one she now knows. Her family has noticed changes in Alice, however they have no idea of how serious the situation is. They merely believe it is the people she is associating with. Eventually Alice died, whether from an accidental or premeditated overdose, it is unknown.

It’s Christmas! Wonderful, magnificent, happy, holy Christmas. I’m so happy I can hardly contain myself. I got some books and records and a skirt I really love and a lot of little things.”

Written predominantly in first person, the article’s tone reflects Halie’s thinking. It is strong, confident and positive and allows the reader to feel closer to the writer. It is a reflective piece, looking back on the experience as a whole, and is therefore able to note how the woman has changed from this event. This text shows how a circumstance can adjust a person’s perspective of the world and their life, and can lead to an alteration of self.

standing of physical laws, “his monstrance stood ready to bless, to exorcise, monsters that whispering would rise”. Creations of the boy’s subconscious mind appear in nightmares, they are indefinite, relying on incomplete images of “Pincer and claw, trident and vampire fang”. He seeks safety from his “comforter”, his mother and discovers his parents love-making, a scene he sees as “gross violence” inflicted upon his mother by his “rival”, his father. In anguished incomprehension he returns to sleep and again has vivid nightmares. This time they are more definitive, a ring of skeletons are conducted by his father in a dance. This shows that his subliminal self has learned the cause of his pain, even without managing to comprehend what he has seen.

Some topics in this essay:
Hannah Robert, Glass Jar, Night Fall, Breast Cancer, Christmas I’m, Father Child, , Gwen Harwood’s, Eventually Alice, Alice Change, changing self, magazine article, father child, “like coloured flags, poem father child, bless exorcise, innocent mind, harwood’s poems, book alice, nonfiction book, article breast, article breast cancer, coloured flags secret, change subject, nonfiction book alice,