The Glass Jar Film Analysis

Virginia Wolf once said, “Growing up is losing some illusions in order to acquire others.” In other words, changing your perspectives is a fundamental aspect to gaining maturity and a sense of self. Good morning teachers and students. If I were to tell you that one tiny attitude adjustment could transform your world what would you do? Kate Woods’s film Looking for Alibrandi and Gwen Harwood’s poem The Glass Jar both explore this attitude adjustment through the value of changing your perspective. Their protagonists’ overcome a catastrophic event in order to advance through personal growth.

Woods communicates Josie’s initial disdainful perspective in her deep-seated animosity towards her Italian culture. The sepia tinge in the opening scenes is indicative of her view of ‘Tomato Day’ as ancient. Supported with clever voiceover, Woods contrasts the immediate cultural image with Josie’s internal thoughts. Her rough sense of identity is evident in, “This might be where I come from but do I really belong

The anxiety, which the immanent arrival of Josie’s father caused, is evident through the close proxemics of the two in the doorway, whereby Josie panics and isolates herself. Andretti’s arrival instigates fractures in the complex interrelationships, which becomes imperative to Josie’s change. Correspondingly in Harwood’s The Glass Jar, when the jar failed to fill with light, the boy turned to “His comforter/who lay in his rivals fast embrace.” This tone of contempt is a mirror of Josie’s derision for her father at the beginning of the film. Whilst Josie overcomes this, Harwood’s protagonist does not rekindle the relationship with his mother. Instead, the sense of impartiality triggered his transition to maturity. These moments of anagnorisis, for both protagonists’, highlight the formidable nature of changing perspectives in order to grow from catastrophic