Powerful moments of stillness can lead us to a true understanding of self, but to understand who we are we must look at what makes us unique as an individual human being. In Gwen Harwood’s “Alter Ego” she is at peace with the world and lives and breathes music. Her views are often overlooked in modern day society, but she remains true to the fact that she believes that we never really have a full understanding of our identity. Opposing this in Tim Winton’s “Land’s Edge” his true self resides in the ocean, a place where he feels most at home, his Australian coastal background, his main influence of his sense of identity. Both composers examine the moments of stillness in our lives and how it is only then that we truly get a glimpse or a sense of who we are.

In “Alter ego” Harwood describes the alter ego as a part of herself …show more content…
He sometimes feels that maybe he is the version of himself that lived the suburban life and only imagined the times where he was free, running on the beach with his back a “map of dried salt and peeling sunburn”. When explaining his 2 selves and how they are different he uses rhetorical questions like “Is it just nostalgia?” or “Did the suburban boy simply imagine himself a coastal life?”. These rhetorical questions give an insight into the fact that Winton feels that he doesn’t completely understand his identity but identifies himself with nature and the sea, his motif throughout “Land’s Edge”. Winton displays his belief that we only reach an understanding of who we are through reflection and our places of significance that we remember when we are alone, and in Winton’s case walking along the