cool, thx alot. notice that this is way too long for a 40min response (still working on it)
Text Analysed: Empire of the Sun, Road Not Taken and Superman (song)
The Question is: "The inner journey involves the exploration of the self, as individuals are confronted with experiences which challenge and inspire them." - How have your texts develop your understanding of this idea.
here it is:
Inner journeys are journeys of the mind and spirit, the discovery of the self, which leads to acquiring new insights and understanding about the world. Empire of the Sun, The Road Not Taken and Superman are texts supporting the notion that “The inner journey involves the exploration of the self, as individuals are confronted with experiences which challenge and inspire them.” This concept is evident through the text, as the experiences within the journey are catalysts and motivations for the persona to change and acquire greater understanding about the world and themselves.
A most significant and effective exploration of the concept of inner journeys is Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical novel by J.G Ballard. Empire of the Sun depicts the life altering journey of an eleven-year-old protagonist Jim Graham during the World War II. Living in Shanghai, the British expatriate Jim lives an affluent life with chauffers and servants. His upbringing consequently made him self absorbed and culturally insensitive to the Chinese people. This is evident as “Jim felt sorry for the old beggar, but for some reason he could only think of the tyre patterns in his foot” Jim, the child has believes that he is the centre of the universe and that everyone should be interested in his doings. However, as we go through the episodic nature of the novel we see Jim searching for a sense of self as he matures from childhood to adulthood.
The normal challenges of adolescence are compounded by Jim’s difficult circumstances and the moral dilemmas created by war. Jim faces many tests of his spirit and beliefs. These tests are central to Jim’s physiological and emotional development, as he is challenged and inspired by the experiences he undertakes. Ultimately, Jim learns that the world has changed; comes to understanding that war is about destruction, cruelty and psychological pain. Ballard uses powerful imagery to convey the motif of death and suffering evident through the “regatta of floating corpses” and “…women on the floor were barely alive... flies swarmed over their faces, darting in and out of their nostrils”.
Basie and Dr. Ransom are major influences on Jim’s moral development. Through Basie Jim learns the art of ingratiating oneself to others for a reward and learns to steal, even from the dead in order to survive the wartime situation. Through Dr. Ransom, Jim learns about health and hygiene. Ultimately, Jim’s relationship with Dr. Ransom leads him to new understanding that “having someone to care for was the same as being cared for by someone else.” abandoning his self-absorption. Jim’s new moral values towards people are also evident as he stays with the dying Mr. Maxted and his changed attitude towards the Chinese people; Jim believe that one day China would emerge and take revenge.
The Road Not Taken, written by Robert Frost is a highly figurative poem that relates to the concept of inner journeys both on a literal and metaphorical level. Using symbolism and extended metaphor, Frost explores the process and impact of inner journeys through the persona’s journey throughout his life, the choices he made and the road he travelled.
Written in first person narrative, Frost presents the idea of an individual facing the difficult unalterable predilection of a moment and a lifetime through “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. The adjective yellow symbolizes the wood as hope and metaphorically symbolizes that the personas’ in the autumn of his life, a time of reflection, maturity and change, suggesting that the decision will have a significant impact. The persona recognizes that “way leads on way”, symbolically suggests that journeys have many obstacles and challenges; this presents the idea of the on going implications of our choices and the ramifications that flow from them. Like Jim, the persona is alone and unaware on this quest and like Jim; the persona must face the barriers and deal with the challenges.
Frost uses the symbol of “morning” as a new beginning, where the subsequent stanza changes tone into a nostalgic and sentimental tone with the usage of the emotive “sigh”. The journey undertaken with the decision of “one less travelled by”, inspired and changed the persona to have a unique life where his decision “has made all the difference”. This also suggests a neutral tone of the personas attitude towards his decision and ultimately sees reality and accepts it. Unlike the persona, Jim regrets his decisions; for example, he later recognizes the potential value of the materials in the suitcase for bartering with the Japanese. The Road Not Taken is a structured poem that portrays the metaphor of “road” as life, where whichever road you take, no matter how similar it may seem, the outcome are never the same.
In Empire of the Sun, Ballard uses the recurring images of light to symbolize strength, survival and reflect a world in chaos. The motif of light can be found in the title of the book, also in “a flash of light fills the stadium” to symbolize the "light" as the Hiroshima bomb being dropped on Japan. When Jim returns home and finds that Shanghai “remains the same” the perception explored is that war ultimately alters nothing. In exploring the theme of war, the novel points out that war isn’t won by bravery and heroics but by technology and power.
Performed by Five for Fighting the song Superman is about self-discovery, a journey to the interior evident through "I’m just out to find a better part of me". Composed by John Ondrasik, we see the persona emerge with greater understanding and changed attitude of the self as they face emotional challenges and inspiration through their journey, just like Jim. Like the persona, Jim has a strong imagination. At the beginning, Jim was fascinated by the valour of the Japanese and the technology of war, especially the planes which is evident in the image “…feasted his eyes upon the aircraft.” Like the persona, Jim dreams of being great evident in Jim’s recurring dreams to be pilot and “fly” with the Japanese. The persona aspires to be Superman as he dreams, unfortunately realizing that it’s all illusions and that the world of supermen does not exist in real life, evident through "I'm not that naïve”.
The persona knows all of these illusions will disappear when he wakes up evident through "find a way to lie 'bout a home ill never see” and “I’m not that naïve”. Jim compared believes that his dreams of war are real until he ultimately learns that war in reality is brutal and chaotic. The repetition of “I can’t stand to fly… I’m not that naive”, shows that men are supposed to be realistic in our world; however, the persona cannot help to dream. Like the persona, Jim’s dreams are greatly influenced by the newsreels and the media. The motif of films is evident as “the whole of shanghai was turning into a newsreel leaking from inside his head.”
The song has irregular rhyme and no clear structure, this presents the idea that an inner journey is unpredictable and we cannot see the journey clearly, like the “bent” road and “undergrowth” in the Road Not Taken. Ondraski uses repetition “Inside of me, Inside of me…” as the persona is rethinking, repeatedly in his mind and contemplating to himself. In the final verses, the poet creates the message that we all try to be supermen and everybody's aspiring to be Superman, but sometimes that's very hard, very disappointing, and we tend to lose the humanity in ourselves. “It’s not easy to be me”, the personas journey to the interior did not necessarily change the person’s perspective about the world however, the persona ultimately has better understanding about himself. Superman looks down inside yourself and trying to touch what you have. It supports the notion that inner journeys are filled with emotional challenges, however surreal or unrealistic it may be.
Through the texts studied, we learn that inner journeys are catalysts and motivations for the persona to change and acquire greater understanding about the world and themselves. The texts show that inner journeys provoke the undertaker to challenge his ideas and thoughts about the world and himself. Ultimately, we learn that the journey undertaken changes an individual as the undertaker concedes with re-established views and attitudes of the self and his surroundings.
