na
...inted innocence that the child possess. “He has not yet put out leaves.” Implies that the child is still “naked” in the Garden of Eden and has not yet encountered the Tree of knowledge for the reason that the child is unaware that it is “common etiquette” to be clothed. Sky High, mainly focuses on childhood joys and freedoms of the persona’s past. This is shown in “Smooth, sweat-damp hands fiercely grip the sun warmed metal and I get a foot up on the handle, grubby toes curling tenaciously.” Alliteration and descriptive language emphasises the persona’s “laidback” attitude indicating that persona has not realised the hygienic “grubby toes” and practical issues of climbing on a washing line. The texts; The Forest, The World and The Child and Sky High demonstrates that the process of changing perspective begins with undisturbed innocence allowing for an expansion of knowledge to follow or an experience to occur. Through the expansion of knowledge or experience, maturity can occur. The growth in protagonist throughout each story occurs when they attaining knowledge. In The Forest, Judith Wright uses “white violets smudged with purple” as a metaphor for the persona’s inner growth. The violets are symbolic of purity, chastity and humility, even more so as the violets are white, the colour of pureness. However, the violets are “smudged with purple,” the colour of knowledge, tainting the persona’s character. The Flowers is a short story that tells the tale of a young black African girl, Myop, whose journey through the woods takes her to a skeleton belonging to a typical black slave. From this point, this experience allows Myop become more aware of the world and finally becomes an adult. The Flowers uses symbolism to illustrate the loss of innocence. “Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she stepped into the head was a wild pink rose” The wild pink rose symbolises Myop’s growth from a child to a young woman thus developing maturity with knowledge in the process. From her experience in the woods, Myop became aware that “black people” were mistreated where she lived thus causing maturity. Sky High uses contrast between the beginning and end of the recount to present the narrator’s personal growth. Initially, the description of the washing line symbolic of the character’s outlook on life, “Silver skeletal arms throwing long, summer afternoon shadows on the lawn.” is perfectly content. However, over time the narrator no longer sees life so complacent but rather the opposite. “It’s an older, more age warped washing line I reach up to now.” The narrator now describes the washing line as “age warped” implying that life is out of shape, out of the norm. In each text, the protagonist or persona gains knowledge, consequently becoming aware that there is less to be happy about in their imperfect worlds, thus causing the loss of innocence. Since the persona or subject of the poem has matured through an experience or gain in knowledge, a greater understanding of the world and society has come of it thus a change in perspective. Judith Wright uses the flora in The Forest to express the way that persona feels. “Now that its vines and flowers are all named and known, like long-fulfilled desires those first strange joys are gone” The persona expresses discontent with life now that there have been experiences and growth...