In Gwen Harwood's poetry, the changes in an individual's perspective and attitudes towards situations, surroundings and, therefore transformations in themselves, are brought on by external influences, usually in the form of a person or an event. These changes are either results of a dramatic realisation of the world that was beyond the world to the one the protagonist were confined to. Time, trauma, death and discovery are all aspects of this process of changing self that we can effectively recognise in theirs and our lives. This can be seen in the poems "The Glass Jar", "prize giving", and "father and child" where all the main persons must confront a situation, past and present and that the resolution of the incident will change the person's view on life.

The poem "the glass jar" is about a child's emotional change due to his lost of faith in the glass jar...