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Steve Worland's Paper Planes Essay

686 Words3 Pages

Steve Worland’s novel Paper Planes details the complicated lives of Dylan Webber, a 12-year-old boy, and his father Jack who live in the small town Waleup, situated in Western Australia. Dylan is not a characteristic young boy. With the loss of his mother, he is left to be raised by a severely depressed father who struggles to get himself off the couch; forcing Dylan to become mature beyond his years. When Dylan realises he has a gift for throwing paper planes, it is through this incentive which reinvigorates his father’s desire to be there as a factor in his son’s life. The character Dylan symbolises the lives of many children who are faced with challenges including loss, independence, lack of family support, bullying, and competition related conflicts. Through a sequential analysis of key moments, this essay aims to follow how Dylan and Jacks’ relationship alters throughout the course of the novel.

At the beginning of the book just before Dylan’s first paper plane competition, …show more content…

Jack driving his son to Sydney, and organising a garage sale to raise funds to cover travel expenses to the World Championships in Japan; demonstrate Jack’s efforts of trying to help out his son. However, Jack is still struggling with dealing loss of his wife, which is making it hard for him to be there for his son. It is at the garage sale that we see Jack caught up in between moving on to be there for Dylan, but still Jack cannot come to terms with the loss of his wife. This attachment to the past that stops Jack moving on is symbolised by old videotapes and his wife’s piano. After the garage sale Dylan’s makes an unsettling discovery of his father watching an old videotape of a happier time; staring “at the floor, lost in thought” (122). It is at this crux moment where Jack could possibly lose his

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