Discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings and renewed perception of ourselves and others. By broadening and deepening our perspectives on the wider world, discovery can lead us to new worlds, values and future possibilities. However the process of discovery can be conflicting with our personal beliefs. Whilst Allan Bailie’s The China Coin examines the impact of discovery such as new worlds and values, Robert Frost’s poems ‘The Road not Taken’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘Tuft of Flowers’, and the film Clueless directed by Amy Hecklings explore the complex process of discovery.
Personal discovery through experience and journey enable us to stimulate recognition of new identity and alter relationship of individuals. Baillie conveys the conception through the transition of Leah from an Australian girl to a person who is fulfilled with connection with China. Initially, she sees herself as being ‘sold into slavery’ to a village so primitive’, the exaggeration illustrates Leah’s instant denial towards China. However, she starts to accept her Chinese identity by looking at the letter from her Chinese family and then ‘maybe she was beginning to think Chinese.
From the simple emotive statement the composer used which conveys the mind change in Leah’s head. It effectively captures change in her attitude towards Chinese attitude. Towards the end, Leah has totally changed her perspective, we see her ready to form connection with her Chinese family, and this is shown in the third person point of view, ‘This time she really wanted to be part of the family’. She understands even she is not Chinese, but she is ‘not not Chinese’, the connection with her Chinese background has been discovered and accepted.
In other words, she has discovered a deeper understanding of self this suggests that new recognition and renewed perception can be achieved through journey and experience. In addition discovery can not only broaden insight perception but also initiate new relationship with others. The novel ‘The China Coin’ presents the changing relationship between the protagonist Leah and her mother Joan in Mainland China.
Leah refers Joah as ‘evil aunt’ who ‘flies a broom on a full moon. the metaphor clearly emphasizes the conflict between the daughter and the mother and the lack of understanding with her mother for bring her to China. Nonetheless, Leah decides to end the conflict with her mother and rebuild the relationship. ‘It is over, we’ve been through a lot, eh? ‘ the dialogue brings us to the questions of what enables her to discover a sense of connection with her mother. In the end, ‘Two women clung together in the back of the crowded truck. ‘ The use of simple emotive statement shows she begins to understand more through her experience that encourages her to improve the relationship.
Whilst discovery is a challenging and problematic process, perception of individual and their relationship can be enhanced and modified through journey. The complex process of discovery evoked from curiosity and necessity may have a dramatic influence to individual’s personal perception and lead to new insight value. Robert Frost clearly promotes this notion in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken. The literal description of the poem is a person walking down a road who comes to a folk and has difficulty to make decision.
The descriptive feature in the first line ‘Two road diverges in a yellow wood’, helps readers to visualize the image and metaphorically implies the moment in our life when we have to confront to make decisions. The uncertainty of the spirit is well expressed by the words ‘perhaps’ in ‘And having perhaps the better claim. However, without being able to predict the consequence of the choices, the traveler decides to take the path that ‘was grassy and wanted wear’, the combination of figurative language and personification accentuates the decision is very unique and not many people have chose it.
Along with this unique decision, the narrator is able to gain new personal understanding of himself, such as bravery, courage and the desire to adventure. The poet also portrays the traveler reminisce the memory ‘ages and ages hence’, the use of repetition of ‘Two roads diverges in a wood’ in the beginning and the end brings the audience back to the origin. From the last line in the poem,’ And that has made all the difference,’ he understands his decision is irreversible and it has totally changes the destiny and fate of himself.
The traveler in this poem demonstrates the process of discovery which can lead individuals to new ideas and initiate new recognition of ourselves. Importantly, intensely meaningful and emotional discovery can also be experienced through the interaction with nature and landscape. The concept is revealed by Robert Frost in the poem ‘The tuft of flowers’ where the insight transformation of the persona from solitude nature to companionship has been achieved successfully.
The internal monologue in the third stanza ‘I must be, as he had been–alone,/Whether they work together or apart. ‘ depicts the isolation which resonates the audience as it is the loneliness nature of human. Subsequently, the appearance of the butterfly interrupts the reverie on solitude. It alters the persona’s sight to the tuft of flowers. He realizes his colleague has spared the flowers because of the recognition of the beauty. Describing flowers as ‘A leaping tongue of bloom’, it has become a symbol of what units the poet and the unseen mower.
Both have a love of beauty and nature. the use of rhyme in the thirteen stanza ‘the mower in the dew had loved them thus, by leaving them to flourish not for us. ‘ emphasizes the spiritual connection between his value and the other man’s value, between his work and the other man’s work. Henceforth, a sense of companionship is able to be developed from the loneliness. This development is assisted by the repetition of the statement ‘Whether they work together or apart.
The change from a sense of individuality to a sense of companionship, from a sense of working alone to a final recognition that ‘men work together’, Ultimately, the transformation of individual’s perception by discovery from nature is highlighted in the poem. Personal discovery arises from experience can gain new perspective and change their value . This is generated in Amy Hecklings film Clueless. It illustrates the protagonist Cher, after undergoing a crisis brought by her own pride and repression of her feelings, are transformed from naivety to mental and emotional maturity.
She begins the movie telling us ‘I have a way normal life for a teenage girl. ‘ Meanwhile, the visual sow her choosing clothing by computer. Satire an dramatic irony are used with self depreciation as Cher reveals her shallow superficial posing. However, at the end of the film, while walking along Rodeo Drive in total misery at the mess she created, Cher does some soul thinking the comes with a sudden burst of inspiration, she realizes that she is in love with Josh.
We can not escape the consequences of our acts that love is not a emotion to play with and that marriage is not a game. ‘ The voice over of Cher shows her change of perspective from a self centered snob to a more tolerant and understanding young woman in touch with her true feelings. Through a variety of film techniques and language features presented, transition of individual from personal discovery is clearly promoted in the film Clueless. Furthermore, self realization can also be developed from the process of interaction with other individuals.
The perception is generated from the wall-mending activity in the poem ‘Mending Wall’. A stone wall separates the speaker’s property from his neighbor’s. In spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repair. The speaker questions the necessity of the wall by using personification ‘He is all pine and I am apple orchard, My apple trees will never get across. ‘ while the neighbor upholds the ancestral tradition by repeating the quote ‘Good fences make good neighbors. ‘
‘To each the boulders that have fallen to each. is a parallelism as its repetition of ‘to each’ emphasizes the persona and neighbor difference and separation. However, it is ironic that the stone wall acts as a barrier that allows them preserve individuality, the annual act of mending the wall forces the two man to cooperate and communicate with each other. Additionally, it is the persona who select the day for mendi and wolfs along the wall to repair the damage, the contrast of his skeptical attitude and actions deepen understanding of himself that he is even more tied to the tradition, the neighbor.
All in all, the process of self examination enhances individual’s outlook and understanding of the world is represented in this poem. IIUILI To sum up, analysis of China Coin, Robert Frost’s poetry and the film Clueless has reflects the impact and process of discovery and discovering which can lead to new perception and future possibilities. Composers exemplify varied experiences of discovery by broadening and deepening our perspectives on the universal and limitless boundaries of the concept.
