Deadly Unna by Phillip Gwynne explores racial issues directed at the Indigenous Australians. Gwynne’s story is based on events that occurred in the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. This book clearly shows that Australia is not the land of the fair go for certain demographics, while other demographics do experience Australia as the land of the fair go. People who have money will experience Australia as the land of the fair go, but the people who do not will not be able to experience Australia as a land of equal opportunity. Indigenous Australians are also included in the demographic of people who cannot experience Australia as the land of the fair go.
Literacy academic Lois T Stover once wrote, “There is nothing simple about quality young adult literature. Good young adult literature deals with the themes and issues that mirror the concerns of the society out of which it is produced. It does so in ways that help readers understand the complexities and shades of grey involved in dealing with these issues. ” The novel Jasper Jones (2009) by Australian author Craig Silvey, illustrates the story Charlie Bucktin, a 13 year old boy living in the parochial mining town of Corrigan, in 1965. The foremost theme is the prejudice within the population of Corrigan. There is the underlying theme of prejudice, especially through racism; against refugee of the Vietnam War, Jeffrey Lu; Jasper Jones, an indigenous Australian of mixed descent often being the town’s
The poem, ‘Be Good, Little Migrants’ by Uyen Loewald, thoroughly explores the concept of identity throughout the poem. Uyen Loewald is an Australian migrant of Vietnamese background who has been subjected to racial oppression and degradation when first migrating to Australia. As a result, she created the poem, ‘Be Good, Little Migrants’ to express her emotions of frustration and anger at the plight of new Australian migrants. The poem conveys the notion that migrants of a non-British background, more specifically Vietnamese and Asian, had to discard their own cultural identity. Furthermore being forced to change and adapt to an “Australian” identity. This process is known as assimilation. The continuous repetition of the imperative, “Be good, little migrants” in each stanza,
Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s non-traditional view of Australia in ‘An Appeal’ shows how stereotypes of Australia are not always correct. The poem shows how camaraderie and mateship are not always expressed in Australian lifestyle. It is evident in the poem that not all Australians help each other to get through tough times and Australia is divided into different groups of people and is not equal. ‘An appeal’ shows how the nation stands up for themselves and fight for what is right against the power of the ‘not really’ authoritative people of Australia.
In Thomas King’s short story, “Borders”, he writes about the Canada-America border. Within the short story, the main character refuses to identify her citizenship even though she is from Blackfoot. Even though the story is being told through the young boy’s point of view, the main issue focuses on another character, the mother. When approached by guards on the border, the mother insists that she is a Blackfoot, which causes issues because her son is a minor and must stay on the Canadian side of the border.
Jasper Jones, the iconic Australian novel, explores the main theme of morality and ethics, through a range of language techniques and conventions. As the story progresses, Silvey portrays Charlie’s constantly challenged notions of right and wrong, with the use of language techniques. The story is mainly written using first-person narrative perspective through the eyes of Charlie. Silvey exploits language conventions such as capitalization, spacing, dialogue, descriptive language, and imagery to create Charlie’s point of view and construct his thoughts on morality and ethics.
Described as “Australia’s Martin Luther King moment” Stan Grant as part of the IQ2 debate series attempted to confirm the legitimacy of that “Racism is destroying the Australian Dream”. Grant pronounced that racism was not only eroding the Australian dream, but lay at its very foundation.
The profound novel, The Help, can be interpreted as having many themes and subliminal messages about life, but to truly understand the meaning of them, the conflicting points must be recognized. Due to the fact that the setting of the novel is during segregation, the friction between blacks and whites is what creates the novel. Although it is easily recognizable that one of the main conflicts is segregation, there is a major conflict between two prominent characters, Hilly and Skeeter, wealthy white women. Some of the issues within this novel lye in location and the social aspects of living in a small southern town in that time. There are several underlying conflicts in The Help, but the main one that sets up all the themes are the conflicts
Gullah Geechee is the culture of African descendants who incorporate the traditions, customs, and history from Africa while integrating Christianity and preserving the ancestral heritage. Gullah Geechee culture is still present in various forms of media including literature and historical content of southern regions. The culture is well preserve and very influential even in present-day literature. It is evident that the Gullah Geechee culture influence the literary works of Ntozake Shange in particular the novel Sassafras, Cypress,& Indigo. But to what extent does Gullah culture influence the development of the title characters ? Shange incorporates magical realism including ancestral heritage, customs and historical content. Analyzing the
Noel Pearson’s An Australian History For Us All and Margaret Atwood’s Spotty Handed Villainesses effectively explore the challenges faced when rectifying the consequences of the past on the present. This is achieved through the implementation of rhetorical techniques, including ethos, logos, and pathos, generating textual integrity. While Pearson uses the rhetorical triangle in order to shed light on the ramifications of past injustices towards Aboriginal Australians, Margaret Atwood employs it to showcase the complications derived from second wave feminism, and its impact on the portrayal of female characters in literature.
Multiculturalism are keys for people to realise the consequences of prejudistic way they lead their lives which value the presence of normality and neglecting anything that’s different. This directly relate to a quote which Craig Silvey once mentioned, ‘...some folks learn to live as adults but never quite grow up…’ He chooses a ‘universally recognisable’ small town such as Corrigan to portray this theme as Corrigan, at the time of the story, were directly affected by the Vietnam War which added to the racial prejudice and the strict social order of the small ignorant town. The author made this especially prominent when an Aboriginal, a half cast character of Jasper Jones discovered a body and yet he refused to tell the police due to the distrusting
Throughout the novel, Charlie must question his conventional notions of right and wrong. How are language techniques used to demonstrate the theme of morality and ethics?
Melina Marchetta uses a plethora of themes within ‘on the Jellicoe Road’ to establish the major characters. The themes of the text all revolve around self-discovery and identity, thus they link together to give readers an in depth understanding of the characters world. Ultimately, themes have the ability to create exceedingly complex characters, and Marchetta demonstrates this within the novel.
The character Jasper Jones experiences continuous prejudice due to his race from the town 's people. Jasper is a half aboriginal who is the outcast and scapegoat of the town.
As Johnson explains, castles served as stage settings and were all a matter of perspective. For instance, in his chapter Watery Landscapes the author supports his thesis by showing that the landscape and by extension the castle, change their meaning in relation to the observer at hand. Likewise, he links this concept to the importance of social standing and the individual and shows how they must be considered within the broader picture. In a way, observer and social status are interchangeable in this case as the meaning of the castle is a direct reflection of the individuals’ culture, gender and placement in the social scale. Johnson proclaims that the meaning of the landscape changes depending on where the individual finds themselves on the social scale. The castle will ultimately have a different significance to those on the outside as opposed to its inhabitants. Peasants will therefore attribute a different importance to the castle and its landscape than perhaps the lord of the structure. In addition, social standing will determine what parts of the castle will be unveiled to the individual piece by piece. This is explained with the use of Caister Castle, which Johnson describes as a sequential staging in both a social and theatrical sense. The castle discloses itself to a certain few and will