Meaningful discoveries can alter an individual’s perspectives and challenge their beliefs and values. When the perspectives of an individual is challenged, they experience enlightenment which impacts on their beliefs and values on the issue at hand. Go Back To Where You Came From follows a conversion narrative where the program's aim is to re-evaluate the widely accepted stance connected with refugees and asylum seekers. Raye Colbey, one of the six participants part of the life changing social experiment, is aged 63 from rural Australia. Her initial beliefs about refugees are representative of those widely accepted by older Australians, she states “When the boat crashed coming into Christmas Island, I thought, serve ya bastards right” portraying her disdain toward asylum seekers through the use of a bitter tone as shown through her disapproving facial expression. Raye’s first challenge and subsequent emotional breakthrough was achieved whilst staying with the Masudi family who were recently resettled in Albury. Maisara Masudi’s moving account about her child’s death in the poverty stricken country of Africa had a profound effect on Raye through the common experience of child loss. During her confessional monologue, she questions “to have a sick baby and because she’s got no money the baby dies, how do you live with that?” highlighting the heartbreaking circumstances that are universal. Rayes positive connection with Maisara, demonstrates her growth towards “real refugees”, as she leaves their home to continue her edifying discoveries. However, her views towards “these boat people” which has negative connotations for asylum seekers, still has not shifted, challenging her beliefs towards them as her next encounter is a confrontation of asylum seekers being raided in Malaysia. A close-up shot of Raye’s distraught and frustrated face portrays her disgust toward their mistreatment as she reasons that “These people are just trying to get away from persecution and find a new life somewhere and I don’t call that criminal”. This emotional reassessment and shift stemmed from her relationship with the Chins who are illegal migrants living in Malaysia juxtaposes her initial “I could go over there right now with a gun and shoot the lot of them” statement toward “boat people”. She begins to ‘peel back their label’, seeing the human dilemma behind the squalid poverty, fear and violence, vehemently reflecting during her debrief “I wanted to somehow stop it… they’re human beings… why treat them like this?”. Raye’s experience has informed her on the topic of asylum seekers and refugees as she was able to convert her initial perspective. Her journey is a clear portrayal of meaningful discoveries as she went from ignorance to enlightenment, deepening her knowledge and changing her initial beliefs and values about the refugee issue in Australia and around the world. After her emotional transformation, she now values all human life equally as a result of her deep discovery into the living standards and oppression that both asylum seekers and refugees experience. 

Similar to ‘Go Back’, ‘My Father Began As A God’ by Ian Mudie, observes the changes in perspective of a persona who explores the opportunities of reflection that meaningful discoveries bring to him. The first two stanzas recounts the father through the persona’s appreciative toddler’s eyes, with metaphorical language and biblical allusions to Moses to emphasise his awe and wonderment for this father, “My father began as a god…as if brought down from Sinai”. The third stanza highlights a transformation from the admiration to ignorance showing the change of perspective as narrator enters adolescence “until by my time of adolescence, he had become a foolish small man.” The arrogant tone again changes as the narrator matures into adulthood in the next stanza, gaining empathy, “his faults and his intolerances, scaled away into the past revealing virtues.” The process of transformation ends in this stanza for the father as he passes, but continues for the persona in the last stanza “how the deeper he recedes into the grave the more I see myself as just one of all the little men.” The empathetic tone eludes that change is an ongoing process that powers emotional discoveries and perspectives to alter. The use of repetition in “Strange then how he shrank and shrank” not only highlights the literal shrinking that comes with old age but also addresses a second story. An allegory of the shrinking role of a father in his child’s life due to growing maturity is evident in the quote “he shrank and shrank”, reflecting both the personas and his father's confronting discovery of their drifting relationship. This confrontation provokes the personas negative outlook of his father during his adolescent stage. The congeries used within the fourth stanza where the persona has hit adulthood was used to highlight the persona’s revelation of his father's virtues of “honesty, generosity, integrity”, values that he had not previously understood or discovered as a teenager. The personas transformation of beliefs came as he grew out of his younger perspective that lead to the questioning of his father's actions, leading him to reassess the worth of his father's values of honesty and integrity. 

Once an individual experiences more than the mundane, they will undergo a meaningful discovery, leading to a reassessment that shapes their values and beliefs. Raquel Moore who represents the unemployed youth demographic, caused the biggest commotion over social media due to her blantly racist remarks and ignorant attitude. The voice over narration informs the audience Raquel is ‘A self confessed racist’ who openly admits ‘I don’t like African people’ and strongly believes that her Australian identity is weakened as she feels ‘outnumbered’ in her home country by ‘black people’. Throughout the series she is reluctant to engage in activities, evident in her tentative eating whilst sharing a meal with the Masudi’s. Admitting afterwards with a grin on her face, as the camera cuts from a close up of her miserably eating to stating “I didn’t really like their food. I don’t like black people anyway.” demonstrating her dislike of other races. However, after staying with Deo Masudi and his family in Africa, her perspectives suddenly change. The reverse journey provides her with the opportunity to gain insight into living standards and situation and even forms a bonds with the African refugees evident when she embraces one of Deo’s daughters as the camera cuts to a mid shot of her happily smiling and holding his youngest child before reflecting “I look at them differently now”. These simple gestures demonstrate the change in her assessment of Africans from an essentially egocentric view to her discovery of compassion towards others, summing up simply what she learnt from the experience “...I’m not going to say ‘no’ to refugees. I’ve seen it.” In her reflective statement she uses the cliche, “I think people should give people a chance before they judge a book by it's cover” portraying the power that experience has to encourage participants to challenge their beliefs, thus, illustrating that personal experience has the power to enlighten even the toughest opinion, leaving individuals to change their beliefs and values.

Discovering a new sense of self, engaged through empowering experiences can lead to insightful and confronting experiences, leading to a shift in beliefs and values as seen in My Father Began As A God’ The amplification of the term “Strange… Stranger… Strangest” is used to portray the continuous epiphany of the persona as he experiences different stages of his life. The addition of suffixes depicts the personas change in age and perception as he reflects on the reassessment of his attitude towards his father. The motif of his father as a ‘God’ and simile “My father began as a God full of heroic tales” has been utilised to demonstrate the idea of how age and experience can renew perceptions and attitudes toward people and their relationship. The poem begins in the perspective of the persona as a child, who has a mythical interpretation of his father, however, after challenging his beliefs during his adolescence, has found that this is not so. But after reassessing this adolescent belief after he transitions into adulthood, he gains a deeper insight into his father referring to him once again as a God in the last line of the poem. Although at this stage his father has passed. “The deeper he recedes into the grave” the more anguish the persona feels as his realisation of a good father came a little too late, empowering him to be a better man instead of “just one more of all the little men who creep through life not knee-high to this long-dead god”. The unity between the first and last stanzas through the contrast of the first line “My father began as a God” and last “I...creep through life not knee-high to this long-dead god.” highlights the persona’s final view as his initial perception. This demonstrates the transformative power of discovery that have allowed the persona to reassess and change his perceptions of his father as he has gained both experience and age. The metaphor of “... not knee-high to this long-dead god.” portrays his belief that he cannot compare to his father nor do any of the mundane men who disrespect their elders. 

Both the documentary Go Back to Where You Came From directed by Ivan Mahoney and the poem ‘My Father Began As A God’ by Ian Mudie explore how meaningful discoveries can transform individuals through their reassessment of perspectives and personal experiences. Shaping their beliefs and values, the texts also highlight the opportunities that a change in perspectives and experiences can bring, evident in the participants Raye and Raquel and the persona from ‘My Father Began As A God’. 

Technique - Motif and Simile

Example - “My father began as a God full of heroic tales”

Effect - This motif and simile “My father began as a God full of heroic tales” has been utilised to demonstrate the idea of how age and experience can renew perceptions and attitudes toward people and their relationships. The poem begins in the perspective of the persona as a child, who has a mythical interpretation of his father, however after challenging his beliefs during his adolescence, has found that this is not so. But after reassessing this adolescent belief after he transitions into adulthood, gaining a deeper insight into his father’s mentality, he refers to him again as a God in the last line of the poem. Although at this stage his father has passed. “The deeper he recedes into the grave” the more anguish the persona feels as his realisation of a good father came a little too late, empowering him to be a better man instead of “just one more of all the little men who creep through life not knee-high to this long-dead god”.

Technique -  Juxtaposition

Example -  “....heroic…. fearlessly…foolish, small old man.”

Effect -  The juxtapositioning of the positive emotive language and adjectives of “heroic and “fearlessly” to describe his father's attributes during his childhood to the negative emotive language of “foolish, small old man.” not only highlights the father’s physical shrinking with age evident in “small” but also the heroic and godly qualities the persona admired during his childhood are absent now during his adolescence. The juxtaposition also depicts the personas first time discovering his father’s mortal “outmoded views of life and morality” as he has experienced more through his aging process, demonstrating the first detection of doubt that the persona has in his father’s morals and opinions. 

Technique -  Contrast and Metaphor

Example -  “My father began as a God”, “I...creep through life not knee-high to this long-dead god.”

Effect - The effect of the contrast of the poem's first line beginning with “My father began as a God” and ending the last line with “I...creep through life not knee-high to this long-dead god.” was used to highlight the transformational discovery that the persona endured as a result of him challenging his beliefs, going from respecting him as a child to ignorance during adolescence and back again to respect for his father during adulthood. The metaphor of “... not knee-high to this long-dead god.” portrays his belief that he cannot compare to his father nor do any of the mundane men who disrespect their elders.

Technique -  Ignorant and appreciative tone

Example - "His laws were immutable", "he had become a foolish small old man", "all the little men"

Effect - The first two stanzas recounts the father through the persona’s toddler’s eyes in an appreciative way, with metaphorical language and biblical allusions to Moses “My father began as a god…as if brought down from Sinai”. Progressing to the third stanza, an emotional change from the admiring to ignorant tone shows the shift of the perspective of the narrator to an adolescent “until by my time of adolescence, he had become a foolish small man.” The contrast to the previous stanza highlights the drifting respect for his father, changing him from a God into a small man. The arrogant tone again changes as the narrator matures into adulthood in the next stanza, reaching empathy “his faults and his intolerances, scaled away into the past revealing virtues.” The process of the fathers emotional transformation ends in this stanza as he passes away. This emotional journey continues for the persona in the last stanza as he states “how the deeper he recedes into the grave the more I see myself as just one of all the little men.” The empathetic tone eludes that change is an ongoing process that powers emotional discoveries and perspectives to alter.

Technique - Amplification

Example - “Strange… Stranger… Strangest”

Effect - The amplification of the term “Strange… Stranger… Strangest” is used to portray the continuous epiphany of the persona as he experiences different stages of his life. The addition of suffixes depicts the personas change in age and perception as he reflects on the reassessment of his attitude towards his father as he finds it peculiar that as he becomes older and experiences more, his outlook changes. With each checkpoint of “Strange… Stranger… Strangest” representing a different stanza of his life, the persona challenges his belief with an older and more knowledgeable mindset leaving him constantly reassessing himself. 

Technique - Antithesis

Example -  Second stanza “He fearlessly lifted to me to heaven by a mere swing to his shoulder” and third stanza “he had become a foolish old man”

Effect -  The antithesis of the second and third stanzas has been used to contrast between the personas stages in life. In the second stanza, the persona is still a child with the perception of his father as strong, fearless and godly, evident in the anthropomorphism of his father as he “...fearlessly lifted” him “to heaven” enticing him to feel like a “godling” that can achieve anything. However has he grew older and moved into adolescent stage, he begins challenge his childish ‘God’ like beliefs about his father as he states through the use of negative emotive language “he had become a foolish old man” highlighting that his father is now inferior. This challenge later leads him into remorse after the passing of his father. 

Technique - Repetition and allegory 

Example - “Strange then how he shrank and shrank”

Effect - The quote “Strange then how he shrank and shrank” not only highlights the literal shrinking that comes with old age through the use of repetition, but also addresses a second story. The allegory, located in the first line of the third stanza, of “shrank and shrank” refers to the shrinking role of a father in his children's life due to their maturing personalities. The allegory reflects the personas and the fathers confronting discovery as his father’s feels the impact of his smaller role in his son's life, provoking the personas new negative outlook of him during his adolescent stage.

Technique - Structure

Example - ”...until by my time of adolescence”, “Stranger still that as I became older”

Effect - The structure of the stanzas start the story from the beginning of the personas life as a toddler who sees his father as “heroic” and ends during his adulthood as his father passes, makes it easier to convey Mudie’s message as at each stage of the persona’s life. This is evident throughout the poem as each stanza picks up from the previous going from childhood in the first two stanzas to “by my time of adolescence” in the third stanza to “as I became older” in the fourth stanza, continuing the story in the order of the personas progressive age, highlighting the sudden and unexpected nature of discovery.

Technique - First person

Example - “deeper he recedes into the grave the more I see myself as just one more of all the little men”

Effect - The use of first person allows the responder to comprehend the persona's unexpected feelings towards his father as he is writing his thoughts out as a reflective statement looking back at his relationship. Evident through his final reflection of the “deeper he recedes into the grave the more I see myself as just one more of all the little men”, the persona unexpectedly found himself as just another man, ordinary, who didn't take the opportunity to learn the virtues his father tried to teach him.

Technique - Congeries

Example - “honesty, generosity, integrity”

Effect - The congeries used within the fourth stanza where the persona has hit adulthood was used to highlight the persona’s revelation of his father's virtues of “honesty, generosity, integrity”, values that he had not previously understood or discovered as a teenager. Due to his blinding and arrogant mentality, he never appreciated or discovered his father's virtuous lessons, emphasising the link discovery has with offering new understandings and renewed perceptions.

Technique - Foreshadow

Example - “My father began as a God”

Effect - The title of “My father began as a God” and use of the term ‘began’ implies that there is a tale to come, foreshadowing his father’s undoing from the perspective of the persona who is his son. The persona later discovers that his father is not a God but after experience and a reassessment discovers that he is in fact one. This foreshadowing reflects the ever changing nature that encompasses the experience of. 

Sketching a picture of a mechanical bird to kill time, he pictures himself sizzling under the history rich roman sun whilst inhaling the pure joy of the spectacles taking place in the colosseum and exhaling the delightful dirt filled air or at home digging his own holes over VR. 

Leaning back in his chair as the sluggish clock moves around, evaluating the bunch of ravaging plebs, one fellow catches his eye. He glances over to the far corner, taking in each speck of knowledge motivated by the dull spectaculars of poverty. Working harder than anyone else yet struggling to keep up. His socks protruding from the material in his shoes and his pencil snapped in half, he’s got the world against him but he’s still going, going to achieve, going to become the engineer he so desperately wants to be. 

What’s Professor Snape's excuse again? 

***

He meets his mechanical bird in reality, clinging on to it’s very wings as it lands under the history rich red hot sun to cool down. When he hops off he’s greeted with a roaring welcome of a cooling breeze, leading him to a museum of treasure.

Discovery is cloaked by meaningful experiences that challenge an individual to question who they are and what they believe like the persona in ‘My Father Began as a God’ who constantly questions his beliefs about his father at differing stages of his life, reassessing his perspectives. The reassessment that comes with these altering perspectives and personal experiences is what contrasts a meaningful discovery from an ordinary one. Once an individual steps out of their own bubble and starts seeing not looking as Raye says in ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’, that is when an individual can be enlightened on an issue and experience a shift in their attitude. Evident through Raye Colbey when she stepped away from her pessimistic views about asylum seekers and refugees stating “I could go over there right now with a gun and shoot the lot of them” to wanting to stop their mistreatment and help them by the conclusion of the social experiment. Discoveries allow individuals to gain a deeper understanding into the topic or issue at hand. The persona in ‘My Father Began as a God’ demonstrated how the outlook of the world in the eyes of a child is vastly different when compared to that an adult who has who has seen close to it all. To me, discovery highlights the fact that our perspectives will never stay permanent and will continue change. Our experiences, knowledge and level of maturity define us and for as long as they keep changing, so will we and for as long as they keep changing, we will continue to discover new things.

My extract is about a teacher who hates his day job but has a passion for discovering Rome's past and archaeology, evident in the metaphor that he could be “inhaling the pure joy of the spectacles taking place in the colosseum” However after being a substitute teacher for a subject he loathes, math, he glances over at a determined young boy who has got the world against him, but is trying to transform himself to escape his poverty stricken life. He is the hardest working student in the class and a symbol of persistence and perseverance. His outlook changes the disheartened attitude of the persona, leading the narrator and audience to ponder, through the use of a rhetorical question, ‘What’s Professor Snape's excuse again?’. This shift in perspective was enticed by a build up of his horrible experience as a teacher and the simple hardworking gesture of one student who is up against the odds, transforming his view of himself. The contrast of the second and fourth paragraph depicts the transformative power of the persona discovering his vehemence and passion for archaeology as he becomes determined to change his situation. As he waits for the period to end, he envisions himself hopping on a plane to Rome, evident in the metaphor of him “Sketching a picture of a mechanical bird” which he later brings to life as “He meets his mechanical bird in reality”. The personification within the quote “When he hops off he’s greeted with a roaring welcome of a cooling breeze, leading him to a museum of treasure.” reflects his transformation from being an unhappy teacher to ‘loving his life’ as a tourist exploring in a Roman museum.