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Summer Of The 17th Doll Gwen Harwood Analysis

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Change is a concept that will effect everyone at some point in their life; quite simply it’s inevitable. How an individual reacts to change is dependent on a number of factors such as the situation and their personal perspective. Positive or negative change will obviously have different reactions in terms of a person’s acceptance or rejection of its influence on their life. Ray Lawler, author of the play, “Summer of the 17th Doll”, and Gwen Harwood, author of the poem “In The Park”, use a number of various aesthetic features in their writing to portray the ideas, attitudes and values surrounding change, and its affects on their characters. Change of career, relationships and lifestyle were evident in “Summer of the 17th Doll”, whilst the focused …show more content…

The piece revolves around the subject of motherhood, portraying a women who feels smothered and consumed by her children. Poetic devices were used by Harwood to emphasise the affect that change had on the woman and her life progression, whilst illustrating the negative response which became evident as a result. In the poem, whilst taking her children to the park, the woman encounters an ex-lover, briefly discussing their life progression and stating to herself after his departure, that her children 'have eaten [her] alive’. Harwood’s use of this metaphor and hyperbole, shows the affect of the change her choices created, and its impact. The use of symbolism, to a large extent, also portrays the woman’s feelings derived from her sense of imprisonment. The opening line “Her clothes are out of date” as well as the children 's behaviour; demanding her constant attention as they "whine", "bicker" and "tug her skirt” are symbolic representations of how the mother no longer lives the same life she used to. The reference to “out of date” emphasises the sacrifices the woman has made for her family, whilst the children’s dialogue illustrates their negative depiction from the mother’s perspective. In this piece, the children are the catalyst for change; depicted as having a crushing weight on the mother’s emotions, leading to the development of her belief she is tied to a straining and sacrificial life as a result of

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The formulistic construction and simplistic language echo a child’s understanding of the world, enhanced by the synecdoche “beak and claw”. Harwood’s repeated references to literal and figurative blindness through “daylight riddled eyes”, are metaphoric of the child’s ignorance. The child belief of “death clean and final not this obscene” is left reeling, highlighted through alliteration and grotesque imagery “stuff that dropped and dribbled through loose straw tangling in bowels”.

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The multifaceted nature of the human condition encompasses all aspects of human life at both an individual and collective level and delves into the notion of humanity and the values it comprises. Gwen Harwood’s poems’ “Father and Child” and “Mother who gave me life,” and Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” (1998), explore the dynamic and often contradictory nature of the human condition. Harwood portrays the transience of time and inescapable truth of mortality, illustrating the ever changing complexion of the human experience. Whereas, Jackson examines the capability of all humans to be violent and cruel while questioning whether such tendencies can be masked by a constrictive society’s heartless ideals. Harwood explores the brevity

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The mother is clearly counting how much time she has away from her children. Her awareness of the time shows her unhappiness. What she wants is to be free from this restraint. Everything about Liza was an obligation she had to satisfy. If she did not tend to Liza’s needs, then both her ideal and reality would fall apart.

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Whereas Harwood commences the sonnet setting the scene of the mother sitting in a park, the mother is only referred to as “she”, removing any personal aspects of her, symbolising the lack of identity held.

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