Summer_of_the_17th_Doll

The journey of discovery often results in one finding out their true identity and recognising the world around them for what it really is. These breakthroughs can occur due to many reasons, including relationships and a change in circumstances, but nonetheless, the significance of these can certainly be determined by the impact it has on those around them. Ray Lawler’s “The Summer of the 17th Doll” is an effective example of this, as the relationships between Roo and Olive, Barney and Roo, lead to important self realisations which ultimately affect other characters. Similarly, in Lauren Oliver’s “Before I Fall”, the main character Samantha Kingston has a change in circumstances and through relationships; she begins to discover herself and the world around her. “Moulin Rouge” directed by Baz Luhrman also conveys discovery, as Satine and Christian both discover love, and their forbidden relationship has a major impact on the other characters. In “The Doll”, Olive and Roo are in a dysfunctional relationship, which ultimately leads to self- discoveries for each of the characters. The lay-off season is different this time round which is evident in the ironic statement of “Glorious Nights”. Roo is unemployed, and his “dirty lousy rotten pride” has forced him to go job searching during the lay-off, despite the fact that this time has previously been dedicated to Olive. The tradition of the layoff is what Olive lives by as it provides her with “five months of heaven every year”, and her immaturity, which is evident through her dependence on the symbolic kewpie dolls, blinds her from reality. Whilst their relationship is slowly falling apart, Roo is becoming more worked up over young Johnny Dowd beating him at his own job, and Olive is busy trying to replace Nancy with Pearl. As a result, there is an immense strain put on their relationship with Roo’s pride and Olive’s vision of the lay-off and her love for him conflicting. In Act 3, Roo’s dream of being “top dog” in a cane-cutting career has crumbled, and he discovers that he has indeed aged and gotten too old and therefore, he loses his self confidence. This discovery also has a profound impact on Olive. Believing he has nothing else to lose, Roo proposes to her, but by this time, Olive has already realised that Roo is not the hero that she looked up at him to be as he is getting old, losing strength and betrayed the ideals of the lay off. Olive refuses, and whilst “rushing at him and pummelling his chest, she exclaims “give me back what you’ve taken”, finally realising that the layoff is only an illusion created by her mind, and not reality. In addition, Before I Fall also demonstrates discovery, however in contrast to Olive, Samantha is more accepting of these changes and realisations. Being the most popular girl in school, Sam often would make decisions and do things despite the impact it may have on others. However, one night on the way home from a party, she is involved in a car accident which results in her death. In spite of this, she wakes up the next morning feeling confused, as she realises she is reliving the same day over again. The day progresses into another, which turns into and a week, and Sam beings to discover the consequences of her actions and she begins to look at life and herself differently. The most important discovery in this novel occurs as a through Sam’s relationship with Juliet Skye’s. Juliet was Sam’s target bully victim, who commits suicide, but when Sam relives the day again, she becomes aware of the fact that all the nasty little things she did to people, can have a negative impact on them for years without her even knowing so. As she relives each day, Sam attempts to mend all that is broken, and during this process she thinks to herself, “I shiver, thinking about how easy it is to be totally wrong about people—to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it’s the effect of vice versa. This was one of the major discoveries in the novel, as Sam finally realises that they way she judged and critiqued peopled were inappropriate, and the use of first person effectively highlighted discovery as it added a sense of intimacy and allowed readers to put themselves in Sam’s shoes and go through this discover with her. The impact this realisation has on others is tremendous, as they soon stop seeing Sam for what she was, and begin seeing her as what she is becoming; a better person. At the end of the novel, Sam leaves to heaven with Juliet, who ultimately could not be saved, however Sam leaves content and pleased as she has transformed into a whole different person, who acknowledges the world around them and does not take life for granted and Juliet has forgiven her. Likewise, Barney and Roo’s relationship in The Doll leads to a significant discovery. Their friendship is put under immense strain due to Barney abandoning Roo up north , and on top of that, throughout the play, the changing circumstances makes their relationship tenser and is the catalyst in their discoveries. Roo, as mention before is still not coming to terms with the fact that a younger ganger beat him at his job and Barney is established as a womaniser at the beginning of the play. At the end of Act 2, the tension proves to be too much as the pair is involved in a heated, violent argument, through which we can see that there is more between them that they care to talk about. This is where the characters discover shocking truths about themselves. During this, Roo yells “Dowd did a better job than me because he’s a better man than i am!”, admitting that he did not have a bad back and here we can see he has come to the realisation that, as mention before, he has aged and become older. Here, Barney also learns that he is no longer a ladies’ man and has indeed aged as well. Roo confronts him by saying “You couldn’t even hold Nancy!” And Barney realises that he is incompetent and can no longer attract women like before. In the end, Barney and Roo have realised that everything has changed. They have gotten older, they lay-off is different and that it is time to move on. These discoveries are significant as they also have an impact on the characters around them. Olive, Pearl and Bubba are also shattered, as this means that the lay-off is also ruined for them and things will never be the same. Finally, the movie “Moulin Rouge” directed by Baz Luhrman demonstrates discovery through the relationship of Satine and Christian. Christian is a young writer who is infatuated with the idea of love, in contrast to Satine, who works as a courtesan at the popular men’s club “Moulin Rouge” and believes that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. When Christian goes to the Moulin Rouge, he meets Satine, and as the movie progresses, the two discover love, despite the fact that Satine is “forbidden” to fall in love as her job is to be sold to men. The use of song and music throughout the movie effectively highlights their discovery as it conveys their emotions through song. For example, the lyrics to Elephant Love Medley clearly highlight the point where Satine discovers love. At the beginning of the song, Satine sings about her idea of love saying “the only way of loving me baby, is to pay a lovely fee” however by the end of the song, she has changed and the lyrics read “I can’t help loving you”. Her forbidden affair with Christian was a secret, until the jealous Duke finds out and gives Satine an ultimatum: either to stay with the Duke or to have Christian killed. This is where Satine goes through a huge self discovery, as she soon realises that she values her love for Christian a lot more than any money she is paid. This discovery has a huge impact on those around her, because now her boss Harold Zidler is frustrated as he thinks Satine is making a bad decision. When Zidler confronts her of this, she lashes out, yelling ““I don’t need you anymore! All my life you made me believe I was only worth what someone would pay for me! But Christian loves me! He loves me Harold, He loves me and that is worth everything!” The Duke is also affected as he loved Satine and is now realising that it was all just an illusion she was creating to deceive him