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Understanding of Discovery

Discovery is process in which varies in timing for individuals and can leave distinct consequences for them. Raye from ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ and the older waiter from ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ both have discoveries early on in their journeys, due to their leniency and empathy with their values and beliefs. Raye begins the reassessment of her values in the first stage of the experiment with the newly resettled Masudis after her emotional connection with Maisara, though it is still incomplete at this stage. The older waiter begins his journey upon hearing about the old man’s attempted suicide and defending his despair from thereon. Raquel, on the other hand, does not open her mind up to change until encountering the Masudis in Kenya, a very late stage in the experiment. The younger waiter does not experience any change within the text, although it is speculate future possibilities due to its cyclical nature and foreshadowing.

Extract & the Transformative Nature of Discovery

My imaginative writing piece is inspired by the symbolism and context in which Alice in Wonderland consists of - a text well known for its many discoveries. The most prominent symbol in my extract being the white rabbit, the vessel for the persona’s, Elise’s, discovery. Elise begins with running from something unknown, with oddly enough, a plethora of colour imagery within her escape, alluding to her wild imagination. She thinks of her mother bitterly and childishly, believing she will reprimand her. The voices she hears are her mother’s. She follows the rabbit, trusting that it will lead her to freedom - from fear or hatred. She then falls over and the rabbit leaves her, by returning back to ‘mother’, ‘the wrong way’. At first she is hesitant to follow, due to her fear, but discovers within herself courage to stop fleeing and go back home. She follows her rabbit, and the colours fade to a grey, symbolising a change. As she comes face to face with her mother, revealed to be an old woman - meaning that Elise is not a young girl - she looks at the rabbit for assurance. Elise possibly has some mental issues, or even drug addiction, but this is up for interpretation. These two themes are ongoing theories as to how and why Alice in Wonderland was made.

It is transformative as Elise transitions from her childlike fantasies of colour and running away to greyness and facing fears/consequences, stemming from the physical discovery of the white rabbit. She is now able to comprehend what is necessary to rid herself from fear.

Successes and Difficulties

It was pretty easy to use Padlet, it’s not very complicated, though I would prefer it just to send it through Google Docs (even though Padlet looks more aesthetic). I had success in deciding on a related text that I liked, understood and related to and I enjoyed reading and analysing it, although some rubric dot points were a little tedious. Go Back To Where You Came From was an enjoyable text as well, so I didn’t mind watching it repeatedly for techniques and quotes.

I had difficulty in time management as I had several other assessments at the same time but it all worked out in the end. Keeping my essay under the word limit was also very difficult, and after I received feedback it only got longer. I tried my best to cut it down and be succinct but it’s still over. I am generally terrible at writing essays, and better at creative writing. I didn’t really like writing an imaginative response because the topic was so broad. I prefer trying to create something out a fixed context/symbol/theme.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad task. I enjoyed some parts of it and some I didn’t. It was very time consuming though and the word limit for the essay was very restricting.

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The discovery of the old man’s despair leaves varying impacts on the two waiters.

Short syntax, symbolism, low modality - “It’s probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” compared to High modality, positive connotations -“I want to go home and into bed”

Due to the older waiter’s empathetic nature, he understands the despair the old man has. Consequently, he is more aware of the meaning of life and understanding his own desolation. He is now left with what might be “insomnia”, symbolism of his fear of nothingness.The younger waiter does not take the old man’s desperation to heart and uses high modality to convey that he simply wants to home, away from the light, as he has his own at home.

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Compared to the older waiter, the younger waiter is intolerant to the old man’s loitering in the cafe. | Impatient tone, present tense - “I have a wife waiting in bed for me”  | The younger waiter’s ignorance and intolerance questions and challenges the necessity of the cafe for the old man and older waiter. With his “youth” and “confidence”, he does not care for the cafe’s light or cleanliness like the latter.

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While the older waiter reaches his discovery almost instantaneously after hearing about the old man’s attempted suicide, the younger waiter is more ignorant due to the old man wasting his time.

Impatient tone, present tense - “I have a wife waiting in bed for me”

His impatient tone reveals his unsympathetic nature towards the old man and the present tense emphasises his value for time and his wife.The younger waiter’s process of discovery will take much longer as he is has not suffered the same loss and loneliness of the old man. His personal and social contexts and values of having a wife means he has companionship and does not experience the same desire for light in his life.

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Despite what everything the young waiter has and everything the old man lacks, becoming lonely and learning life’s meaning is inevitable as he grows older.

Juxtaposition - “‘I have a wife waiting in bed for me.’ ‘He had a wife once too’”

As growing old is a part of life, the younger waiter will sooner or later end up like the old man. The juxtaposition of the young waiter’s companionship and the old man’s previous companionship, means that they were not much different and that the young man might possibly become lonely and seek light from the cafe.

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When finally coming to terms with his discovery, the older waiter continues to defend the need for the light obtained from the cafe.

Motif, symbolism, darkness and light imagery - “This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted [...] there are shadows on the leaves”.

The older waiter is now appreciative of the cafe’s comfort and escape from loneliness. It has allowed him to gain new worlds/values/ideas of life and the old man’s reasoning for returning to the cafe nightly, thus making it transformative for him, believing the true definition of life at old age. This also links to his newfound understanding of the old man wasting away in the cafe.

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The older waiter distinguishes between himself and the younger waiter and makes an intellectual discovery of what is necessary in life.

Positive emotive language - “It is not a question of youth and confidence”

Youth and confidence is something in which the older waiter lacks, but he now understands that it is not something he needs in life. His intellectual discovery is that he needs ‘light’ which he can only obtain from the cafe.

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The older waiter finds himself at a bodega after his revelation about life, to then discover his dislike for it.

Motif, juxtaposition - “The light is very bright but the bar is unpolished.”

The motif of light and cleanliness continues here to reinforce the waiter’s need for these aspects of the cafe, one of which is missing from the bodega. This then leads the way for the older waiter to fully understand why the old man returns to get drunk at the cafe every night.

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The older waiter undergoes both an emotional and spiritual discovery based on religion, loneliness and life after discovering the similarities between himself and the old man.

Repetition - epistrophe, religious allusion - “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom…”

His repetition of “nada” and religious allusion reveals his emotional and spiritual discovery of the emptiness of life and religion. It is emotional as it regards his gloomy life without the light of the cafe and spiritual as it contemplates God and his presence or lack thereof in the older waiter’s life.

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Since growing old is inevitable, it is essential that the older waiter learns of the emptiness of life from the old man.

Repetition - epistrophe, religious allusion - “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom…”

The necessity of understanding what life means is conveyed here, after being evoked by the curiosity of the old man. The older waiter now realises that life only ends in nothing, as evident in the repetition of “nada” meaning nothing and the religious allusion to reinforce the emptiness of life, even with religion.

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The old man’s constant return to the cafe for light evokes the discovery of the older waiter.

Repetition, juxtaposition, tone - “‘He’s drunk now,’ he said. ‘He’s drunk every night’”

The younger waiter’s remarks, using repetition, reveals that the old man has been deliberately planning to come to cafe to get “drunk every night”. “Now” and “every night” is contrasted to reinforce the regular occurrence of the events. The old man and older waiter gain a discovery from this process, about life and how meaningless it is at old age, hence why the old man tried to commit suicide and both return to the cafe for comfort.

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The younger waiter tells the older one to go to a bar “bodega” and then he argues that it does not have the same ‘light’.

Colloquialism, motif, symbolism - “‘Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long’…’This is a clean and pleasant cafe’” and “The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is unpolished”

The older waiter already knows that the bar does not compare to the familiarity and comfort of the cafe, yet at the end of the text he finds himself there anyway. There is a continuation of the motif/symbolism of the cafe, being the older waiter and old man’s only light source in their gloomy lives. The colloquialism of “hombre” further display the setting in a Spanish-speaking area, and also bring to light the younger waiter attempting to comfort the older waiter’s desolation. Later, when the older waiter ends up at the bar, he rediscovers its uncleanliness, leading him back home.

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Point

Technique/Example

Effect

The older waiter suddenly realises that he identifies with the old man in the sense that he is also lonely and utilises the cafe to gain comfort

Anaphora, symbolism, darkness and light imagery - “With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night.”

The older waiter speaks to the younger waiter of how he empathises with the old man. The anaphora highlights his similarity with the old man - how he is lonely and needs the cafe. The symbolism of the light’ and darkness and light imagery further conveys the emptiness of life at old age. As the older waiter defends the old man’s habits from the younger waiter’s snide remarks, he discovers for the first time that they are much more alike than he previously thought, although the man has been visiting the cafe for much longer time. This is due to the events of his attempted suicide that the older waiter begins to notice life’s emptiness. The older waiter’s discovery is also sudden/unexpected as this has been a cycle for him for years, and yet he only realises it now.

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The transformative power of discovery urges individuals to amend their values and beliefs through empathy and assess the impact of this. Profound discoveries should act as a vessel for individuals to renew their perception of others, but only if they are willing to alter the importance of their values and beliefs. However,  beliefs and values which are immutable may hinder the impact of their experience. ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’, a hybrid documentary and reality series directed by Ivan O’Mahoney and ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’, a short story by Ernest Hemingway explores the concept of meaningful discoveries and their impact of transforming individuals through a series of language and film techniques.

Those that have a narrow vision are able to revolutionise themselves through the creation of auspicious emotional connections to uncloud their preconceived judgements of what is on the other side. Undergoing the refugee experience has shed light on the tribulations and dangerous reality of those seeking asylum. Raye Colbey, a participant representative of an aged rural population on Go Back To Where You Came From, was deeply affected by her discovery throughout the series which gave her a chance to reflect on her prejudiced views. Initially, Raye had a bitter hatred towards refugees, believing they were self-entitled and did not “have the right to all this freedom and generosity” from Australia, utilising a hyperbole to convey her intolerance. Her transformation is set in motion when she stays with the newly resettled Masudi family and hears of Maisara’s loss. Her confessional monologue coupled with the sentimental non-diegetic music and body language of hiding her face while crying conveys the emotional impact of her discovery and how she “understands where she’s (Maisara) is coming from” as she has struggled with pregnancies. In this stage, she considers the Masudis as “the real refugees” unlike boat people. She continues her development, through her value of ‘living’, during the raid. It is explored through medium shots of her bewildered facial expression, where she no longer considers the refugees as “criminals” but as desperate people trying to “find a new life”. Raye completes her reassessment in Kakuma, her initial belief of refugees being undeserving of Australia’s help is juxtaposed with her newfound perspective that people “look but don’t see” as the camera zooms in to acknowledge the transformative power of the experience. Raye’s emotional connection with the Masudis in both Australia and Africa has offered her a chance for reflection and the opportunity to reconsider  her beliefs and values connected with others and the world. As she would now “do anything” to improve the lives of her children, and believes that refugees are merely “existing” and not “living”, Raye has been able to utilise the changing of her beliefs and values for positive change through her discoveries.

Personal experiences are vital for individuals to experience their discovery holistically to absorb the impact in which will allow them to understand the hardships of others. When faced with a confronting discovery, empathy is a key component in how an individual can reinvent their beliefs and values about their world. Though the older waiter in ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ does not commence his journey to discovery as “tunnel-visioned” as Raye, his experience is  similar to the old man in the cafe are the foundation for his development. It unfolds during his exchange with the younger waiter, where he says that the younger waiter has “everything”, the hyperbole emphasises his values of “youth” and “confidence”. In contrast to what he has himself, his old age is conveyed to be prosaic and empty, much like the old man. This is similar to Raye, who is able to make a profound connection with Maisara due to their similarities. The older waiter then reiterates his affinity to the old man in the line “with all those [...]. With all those who need a light for the night”. The use of anaphora illustrates the despair that the old man and many others share and the symbolism and darkness & light imagery reveals necessity of a source of “light” in the perpetual nothingness of their lives. His allusion to prayer, replacing many words with “nada”, meaning nothingness, reinforces his anguish. Unlike Raye, he then dismisses his discovery using short syntax and low modality due to it’s nihilistic nature, as “probably only insomnia”, something that “many must have”. The older waiter will then repeat this cycle of desolation, a constant search for “light”, knowing that only the cafe has it. His empathetic nature and values and beliefs, like Raye, has enabled a renewed perception of the world around him through the substantial discoveries and the opportunities it has offered him.

Individuals can be unable to relinquish their prejudices and what they hold as important, which can leave their experiences to become futile in their transformation. Those that resist change will more often than not be incapable of evolving their ideas of others from their prejudices. Raquel Moore, ‘a self-confessed racist’, values a national identity and therefore would “send them (refugees) back” as heard in the voiceover and in her interview. She abstains from the alteration of her racist views, especially when she meets the newly resettled Masudis, where she states that they are “nice” but her experience has not “changed anything”. Many of her confessional monologues are evident of her feeling uncomfortable of being “out of place” and in company of people she is intolerant to.  Her constant exposure to the harsh conditions of refugee life such as the makeshift boat ride has only lead to her frustration and resistance to change, complaining that she feels “sick”. Medium shots of Raye and Raquel in a heated argument accompanied with the voice over narration of “tempers are rising” convey this. During the night raid, Raquel is seen overjoyed, with her belief continuing that the refugees are “doing the wrong thing” and her value of punishing criminality evident. This is contrasted with Raye, who believes that this event is unfair towards the refugees “escaping persecution”. Raquel’s naivety is also evident in the negative emotive language when she remarks that it is not her “fault their country is corrupt”, showcasing her ignorance during her journey despite the continuous exposure. The audience only comes upon Raquel’s possibly dubious willingness to change when she visits the Masudis in Kenya. In various mid shots, she is seen consoling a crying Amenata after viewing the heartfelt video and later is seen wiping away her own tears, evident of her reassessed sympathy and ultimately her transformation, juxtaposed to Raquel comforting Maisara which is much more uncomfortable, she is later seen to be genuine and caring. Her views were “deeply challenged” and prompted her to use the idiom “judge a book by its cover” to signify a true change. Raquel’s initial reluctance due to her firm beliefs and values to change was transformed, as she began to renounce her racism, she was capable of changing after experiencing meaningful discoveries.

By grasping onto assumptions and biased opinions of others, individuals disregard their discoveries, making them impotent at developing their awareness of issues surrounding them. Though individuals can experience profound discoveries, it may be rejected due to previous values or beliefs, entailing a missed opportunity to transform. The younger waiter in A Clean Well-Lighted Place  is insensitive and rude, resembling Raquel at the beginning of her refugee experience. He believes the old man is “nasty” despite his coworker’s convictions. The younger waiter finds time of great value, and employs an unapologetic tone and high modality to condemn the man,  highlighting his annoyance with the old man in , he “should’ve killed himself”. His value of time and the belief that the old man is wasting it continues when the older waiter asks him what an hour is, and he replies with “more to me than him”. This paradox reveals the contrast between the values in youth and old age. The younger waiter desires to return home to his wife. He does not undertake any transformation as he is in a hurry and holds his value of time and companionship more significant. His values and beliefs have hindered his transformation, and compared to Raquel who eventually altered her views, the younger waiter was not susceptible to change.

Individuals are faced with a choice of welcoming the change of beliefs and values after encountering meaningful discoveries. These discoveries can offer many options of reassessment of perceptions of others and themselves.  Those who resist the modification of the importance of their beliefs and values may miss their chance of improving their awareness and understanding of their surrounding.