Religious Imagery in The Glass Jar
...holicism, Harwood manages to show the similarity of the child’s simple faith in the sun light compared to a mature system of belief. A few examples of this in this text are when Gwen Harwood describes the “pulse of light” as a “host” and the glass jar itself as a “monstrance”. The monstrance carries within it the host therefore the resemblance is brought out because the glass jar contains within it the pulse of light. Other religious terms Harwood uses in relating the poem towards Catholicism are passion, bless, exorcise, holy and resurrected. Not only do words bring out the similarity between the two faiths but also the layout and the sequencing of the narrative side of this poem portrays this well. The introduction of this text reflects Jesus Christ. One way which this was done was by the use of a pun, “the sun’s disciples” which can also be interpreted as the Son’s disciples. The coming of night signals the end of sunlight, the death of Jesus and “hope fell headlong from its eagle height”. Like most of the disciples of Jesus the boy ran away frightened. In the last stanza there is another very similar pun to the first one, “the resurrected sun” which once again can be interpreted to its alluded and religious meaning, the resurrected Son. The comparison of the literal to the religious narrative in this poem is a very efficient technique which Gwen Harwood has used and the effect of this is that a mature reader can see through the eyes of a child and compare the similarities of the child’s values to there own values being able to feel with the child maybe even through the readers own religious experience. Also the consistency of the utilisation of religious imagery throughout this poem is beneficial in the fact that it brings textual integrity t...