“Discovery in any sense challenges or changes us”

The road to discovery contains many twists and bends, but has always had a
distinct fork within it. One path leads to changing us, while the other challenges
our true character. There is no doubt however that either path taken will lead to
a common point, revelation. After all, change and challenges work hand in hand,
with each requiring the other to play some part in producing the final goal;
discovery. Both ingredients to discovery are varied in quantity in the four texts:
The Price of Experience, The Magic Place, On First Looking into Chapman’s
Homer and Hook.

The forming of relationships, a catalyst to discovery, often results from

challenging one’s self. The Magic Place, a short story based on a father
discovering the forgotten bond between his son and himself, allows Jonathon, the
father, to challenge his own emotions towards the death of his late wife and his
father-son relationship by embarking on the journey to the Magic Place with his
son Christopher. Before they leave for the park, the author characterises
Jonathon as a man filled with anger and grief, “Jonathon was not only angry with
Anna for abandoning him, but also for leaving behind this stranger for Jonathan
to cope with on a daily basis”. This technique effectively creates the beginning to
a juxtaposition which will be formed after the relationship is discovered. Jonathon
unintentionally begins to challenge his feelings by forming similarities between
Christopher and himself, “intense concentration was so reminiscent of Jonathan
himself”. This creates a longing for such a relationship, which he had previously
disregarded as he felt his son had nothing in common with him. The moment of
discovery, also serving as an anti-climax, occurs when the boy accidentally falls
into a pool of water. This not only allows Jonathan to realise that there has been a
bond created between the two, but also completes the juxtaposition, “His step
was light, as was his heart, un hampered by the grief and anger he’d harboured
for so long, but left behind this fine Spring morning at the magic place”. Through
the discovery of a relationship between father and son, Jonathon manages to
challenge and conquer his incorrect views.

As demonstrated in The Magic Place, the forming of a relationship often result

from challenging one’s self, but in many cases discovery, made through
relationships, changes the protagonist’s mental perspective. Unlike The Magic
Place, both “Hook” by James Wright, a lyric based on the unexpected encounter
between the protagonist and a Sioux relates to the protagonists predicaments,
which are answered through the relationship between the Sioux and himself.a