Discovery and Enriched Awareness in 'The Tempest' and 'Bridge to Terabithia' Jasmine Lee 12th Grade

Intrinsic to the human experience is our innate desire to uncover and discover aspects about the world. Inevitably, this also means we understand ourselves and the others around us even more greatly. This notion is reflected to a great extent in William Shakespeare's 1611 Late Romance, The Tempest, and Gabor Csupo's 2007 coming-of-age film, Bridge to Terabithia (Terabithia). in both texts, the protagonists undergo a tumultuous experience that ultimately results in their discovery, as well as the audience's, of a renewed perspective about themselves end of the wider world. Thus, discoveries are an extremely significant aspect of the human experience that, without it, would not allow us to mature or grow.

Indeed, discoveries do not come easily--after all, it would be impossible for us to understand our capabilities without a trial to first challenge our tenacity. In The Tempest, this is true of Prospero's journey to self-discovery, though in a subverted and unexpected way. That is, it is he that actually incites the eponymous storm, as seen by the active voice in his question to Ariel, "Hast thou performed to point the tempest // which I bade thee?" Shakespeare alludes to the metatheatricality of the play--that is, the notion of...