Change In Perspective Over Time example essay topic

Time is an important factor in change. Time not only changes things but it changes peoples perspectives. "Feliks Skrzynecki" by Peter Skrzynecki and "Sky high" by Hannah Robert are both texts that are examples of change in time. They deal with the concept of growing up and the physical and emotional changes people go through. They both rely heavily on the strength of memories. And with the memories we are able to see the changes in perspective that occur.

In "Feliks Skrzynecki", the poet, speaks about his perspective of his father, and his lack of understanding of him. Although he has emigrated to Australia, he has made his home a kind of refuge from the new world around him and has preserved the unchanging elements of his culture. However his son, the poet, does not have the strong adult bonds with the family's European past. While the poet admires his father greatly he also recognises his difference from him. Skrzynecki shows through language how the father and son have become detached from one another.

They no longer communicate, their perspectives are different because the sons perspective is changing as he matures in the new country. The poem has been written from a child's perspective, and this can be seen through the lack of the poets understanding of adult behaviour as well as Polish culture. In the last stanza, we can see the father and son drifting apart as the father tries to teach him the polish language. The father repeated the words so the son never forgot, however the father, "like a dumb prophet" watched his son "pegging his tents further and further south of Hadrian's wall" Hadrian's Wall is a metaphor of the widening gap and border between Feliks Skrzynecki and his son. The simile used, "like a dumb prophet", gives the idea that the father recognised there was nothing he could do to stop the two drifting apart and when he predicted this, he either remained silent, or his son choose not to hear him.

The poet uses language that shows the passing of time, such as "Growing older", and 'At thirteen". The reference of the poets age, along with the simile and metaphor in the last three lines, show that the change and detachment from the poets father has happened as the poet has matured. The theme of change occurring over time is continued in the story 'Sky-high'. The story recaps past events from the authors perspective as a small child. The reader is drawn into the scene by such descriptive imagery as the "almond tree in the corner, and a small nectarine tree, hung with hard, bird bitten fruit". The use of this descriptive language gives a clearer picture of the landscape she is describing, and combined with personification, the description of the backyard becomes easier for the reader to visualise.

At first, the washing line is said to have "silver skeletal arms", and then, through the passage of time, it has changed into "an older, more age-warped washing line". These descriptions of the washing line changing over time relate back to the author her self changing. When she was young her "sweat-damp hands fiercely grip the sun warmed metal" where as now as a middle aged woman her "hands, beginning to accumulate the line etched story of life in scars and wrinkles, easily touch the sagging wires". As a young girl, the author would "swing upside-down" on the washing line, yet now, she remarks, "There are too many things tying me to the ground". The author feels the weight of the ages upon her shoulders; she has changed, and the child-like innocence she once possessed is almost non-existent. At the end of the poem she lacks the freedom and excitement of the past.

Her world has shrunk and diminished holding her back and tied down to responsibilities and expectations unknown to her as a child. Her memories remain strong and powerful but she realises that they are only memories, and she concludes, 'it is unlikely the washing line could support me this time". These descriptions of both the washing line and the author, help to create a picture of the two perspectives, past and present, and how they have changed. Time has caused her perspective to change, and the author accepts this, similarly to Peter Skrzynecki. These texts are both of value as they clearly convey change in perspective, and more specifically change in perspective over time. They discuss the issues of perspectives changing as people grow up and mature.

They show the contrast between a child's perspective and an adults perspective and have used these changing perspectives to express the ideas of change. Change can be seen on many levels, as being foreseeable, unpredictable, or easy to resist. But these two texts help with our understanding of change over time.