Changing Self
...aught.” Changing self can also lead to many new possibilities and paths, bringing out the best and also the worst in a person. Personal change may not always be for the best and does not necessarily lead to a good out come. People believe that change of self will always be for the better. The idea of change of the better is challenged in the Gwen Harwood poem ‘In the Park’ and in Ridley Scott’s film “Thelma and Louise”. “In the park” looks at the grim side of motherhood and the woman is presented as depressed and stuck in a domestic prison. This is supported by “She sits in the park. Her clothes are out of date”. When she briefly encounters her ex lover we have a glimpse of her previous life and see what she has come from, it further proves that self change is not always for the better. She is stuck looking after children that have “eaten me alive” in her words. It would appear that the woman never thought she would end up in the position that she finds herself. She tells her ex-lover ‘Time holds great surprises.” Because the poem is a sonnet it helps in adding to the idea that the poem is supporting the idea that change can be for the worst. The situation is set up in the first 8 lines of this woman’s sad life and then at the end we see that the resolution is still the same, she is still stuck in the sad life that she has. In “Thelma and Louise” we see the transformation of self through two women who become outlaws. The turning point of self change is when they kill man a while he is trying to rape one of the main protagonists, Thelma. We see the biggest change of self for the worst through Thelma who was once a subservant wife, naïve and indecisive. After the murder she becomes a criminal on the run and her self esteem and confidence builds. She uses this new found courage to hold up a grocery store. She even says she has a “knack for this”. A way that the director has used to help in our understanding of the nature or change and its effects is to convey Thelma’s character going from one extreme to another. The journey of the change of self is shown through the road trip that they embark on further improving our knowledge of the nature of change. As they go further along the road in a physical sense the more they change and subsequently the more Thelma in particular changes for the worst. After finding their new-selves Thelma and Louise realise that they would rather die then give up what they have become. ‘In the Park’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’ both show that self change is not always for the better and can be juxtaposed because of the like situation that the women in ‘In the park’ and Thelma are in. Although ‘In the park’ is more of a reflection of what the women had and what she has come to while Thelma changes from the monotonous house wife to a life on the run. This film and poem help also in the conveyance of change of self being inevitable with the woman from ‘In the park’ having no control from where she has come to as Thelma must change to escape the misery of the life that she is in. Our understanding of the nature of change and its effects are furthered through the movie ‘Shrek’ and Gwen Harwood’s poem ‘The Glass Jar’. We see how both Shrek and the boy in ‘The Glass Jar’ embark on journey’s of change that they do not want to experience. In Shrek it is the story of how he is sent to bring Princess Fiona to Lord Farquaad and in doing so becomes the unlikely subject of personal growth, experience and change. We see how he grows from an anti-social Olga who is not accepting of anyone else but himself into being able to accept people into his life. In ‘Shrek’ we also see the change if Princess Fiona who becomes more accepting of people for who they are and not just judging people for their face value. As they physically go along the journey they each learn their own personal faults and they go on a personal journey at the same time. We see, by the end, how Shrek has learned to accept people into his life such as Donkey and Princess...