An Allegory is a narrative that can be read on more than one level. Allegories are generally understood as rhetorical, and as a form of rhetoric, are designed to persuade their audience. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an example of this rhetorical device; as an allegory it extends its representation over the course of the entire novel.
How is this Story Allegorical?
As an allegorical tale about the dangers of tyranny, Animal Farm uses the story of Napoleon, Snowball and Boxer as a form of rhetoric. In this novel Orwell is using the story of Manor Farm’s animal rebellion to caution people against the encroachment of tyranny.
Animal Farm Characters as an Allegory of the Russian Revolution
Critics often consider Animal Farm to be an allegory of the Russian Revolution matching in great details the story’s characters to historical persons. For example, linking the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball to the historical feuding between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky for control of the Soviet Union. Old Major represents Karl Marx who dies before realising his dream. Other comparisons include Moses as the Russian Orthodox Church, Boxer and Clover as workers, the sheep as the general public, Squealer as Stalin’s government news agency, the dogs as Stalin’s military police and Farmer Jones as Czar Nicholas II. The farm’s neighbours, Pilkington and Frederick are said to represent Great Britain and Germany. While Mollie suggests the old Russian aristocracy, which resists change.
What did George Orwell Believe Animal Farm Represented?
George Orwell wrote in the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945 that his novel: ‘… is the history of a revolution that went wrong and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine’.
George Orwell uses Satire to expose what he saw as the Myth of Soviet Socialism
In a Satire, the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it. Orwell uses satire in his novel Animal Farm to expose what he saw as the myth of Soviet socialism. Thus, the novel tells a story that people of all ages can understand, but it also tells us a second story – that of the real-life Revolution.
Background to the Russian Revolution
Many of the events of Manor Farm in Orwell’s Animal Farm are closely linked to political events in Russia during the first half of the 20th century. In the early 1900’s, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II faced an increasingly discontented populace. Freed from feudal serfdom in 1861, many Russian peasants were struggling to survive under an oppressive government. By 1917, amidst the tremendous suffering of World War I, a revolution began. In two major battles, the Czar’s government was overthrown and replaced by the Bolshevik leadership of Vladmir Lenin. When Lenin died in 1924, his former colleagues Leon Trotsky, hero of the early Revolution, and Joseph Stalin, head of the Communist Party, struggled for power. Stalin won the battle, and he deported Trotsky into permanent exile.
Once in power, Stalin began, with despotic urgency and exalted nationalism, to move the Soviet Union into the modern industrial age. His government seized land in order to create collective farms. Stalin’s Five Year Plan was an attempt to modernize Soviet industry. To counter resistance (many peasants refused to give up their land), Stalin used vicious military tactics. Rigged trials led to executions of an estimated 20 million government officials and ordinary citizens. The government controlled the flow and content of information to the people, and all but outlawed churches.
Animal Farm is the Story of an Animal Revolution
The animal residents of Manor Farm, spurred on by the dream of the pig, Old Major decide they will change their “miserable, laborious, and short” lives. They overthrow Mr Jones, their master, and take over the management of the farm. Rather than living under the heel of their human master, the animals of Manor Farm decide they will take control of the products of their labour, working for the good of the farm and other animals, rather than for the good of humans.
Tyranny by any other Name
George Orwell’s Animal Farm and his other novel 1984, are often cited as works that are designed to show the weaknesses of Communism. These works took aim at the Soviet Union, however Orwell’s larger target was tyranny, in whatever form it appeared. He was as much concerned with the repression of rights and the injustice of the economic system in his own England as he was about Stalinist Russia.
George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm is an allegorical indictment of tyranny which utilises the historical events and players of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent rise of Stalin as a cautionary tale.
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I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
What makes a story a page-turner, exciting from the first page?
A truly suspenseful book, short story, novella or other literary work is much like a theatrical performance. Just as a well-written and superbly acted drama keeps the audience on the edge of their seats until the curtain call, a suspense filled thriller should captivate the reader until the final word.
When you think about the last story you read that seemed to grab you by the throat and not let go, what exactly made it gripping?
Did you feel the excitement from the first page? Were the characters captivating? Was it the heart pounding events that took place? More than likely it was all of these things combined that made the story exciting.
I always judge a book by how late I stay up to find out what happens next. If I’m still wide awake at two in the morning, that’s a fantastic book. So, how do you keep your readers up to the wee hours of the morning? You have to get them hooked.
What Makes Us Keep Reading a Good Book?
definitely the characters count for me, if I don’t like them then I don’t care what happens to them in the book
the book proposes questions that need to be answered with a hook that doesn’t let go
basically a mystery that drives me to find out the ending
emotional intensity between being scared out of my wits to heart-broken
To make a suspenseful piece of work you need to use many techniques from playwriting
If you think of the most famous playwright, William Shakespeare, he understood the necessity to build up to a suspenseful climax by feeding his audience tidbits of information during the first and second acts of his plays. He would then finish his dramatic theatric piece by using the most emotionally-intense scene with the climax in the third act.
Making Your Characters Real
In any great play, there are characters with whom the audience can relate. Whether they are lovable or loathsome, viewers find some speck of familiarity or general humanity within them. This keeps the audience actively engaged. When you are writing your short story or novel, if your readers don’t like the people who populate the book, then they will not care less what happens to them.
So there is one really important point, you must give the readers a character that is fleshed-out and real so the readers can care about them
By making the readers care, you give them a reason to go on with the story and to find out what happens to this person you have created. The wanting to know keeps them reading.
The Setting Must Make Sense
Just as your characters must be realistic in your story’s world, so must your setting seem to make sense. Your readers must be able to see the universe through the narrator’s eyes, smell the odours, and hear the sounds. Without solid descriptions, your readers cannot become entangled enough in your work to truly enjoy the roller coaster of suspense. Take nothing for granted, tell your readers the setting and don’t assume that the reader understands your fictional world as well as you do.
The Plot Must Be Logical Not Impossible to Follow
It is difficult to build suspense if your plot is impossible to follow. Like a stage play, your plot must have some kind of logic to it. If it doesn’t, your readers might be too distracted by the complicated plotline to become involved in the suspense. It is more critical to tell the most important steps your characters have taken rather than describing every movement. Nothing spoils suspense for a reader like having to flip the pages of the book wondering, “Did I miss something?”
Build up to a Suspenseful Climax within your Fiction
Don’t spring a suspenseful moment on the reader without some kind of foreshadowing. It is a good idea not to start your work with an emtionally-intense scene. As in a drama, work your way up to a suspenseful peak. If you just keep hitting your readers with suspenseful moments without any context, you will only leave your audience perplexed, rather than engaged in the suspense.
Can you think of the last book you read that deeply affected you?
Emotionally charged books by Monica McInerney affect me. Many times I have shed a few tears along with the characters and laughed with them too. What was it that caused this effect? I know for me, it was the characters, their believability. However, it is really a combination of many things – characters, timing, plot and believability. A good idea is to re-read a book or story that had a strong effect on you. See if you can figure out how the author accomplished this. Pay attention to the different techniques the author used.
The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody
So many different techniques go into a suspenseful book. One of the most suspenseful and horribly graphic books I have read that affected me was The Gathering by Isobelle Carmody. I had to teach an excerpt from this book to a Year 10 Class. The section we were reading was very descriptive, horrific in its nature, intense and suspense filled. It affected me so much that I had to put the book down and walk away from it for a while to gather my thoughts before I could write up my lesson plan for class. If you have read The Gathering, then you will know the part I am referring to: chapter 26, pages 212-215 where Nathanial’s dog is burnt alive.
Carmody’s language techniques captivated and terrorised all at the same time
What I realised is that Isobelle Carmody crafted such a brilliant novel with clever use of language forms, features and structure that I was spellbound, captivated and terrorised all at the same time. The suspense is created by development of the mood from normal to foreboding and fear. The build up of terror is emphasised by Nathanial’s frantic attempts to get free from the boys holding him. Buddha is so evil he has poured petrol on Nathanial’s dog Tod. When the match is lit we know something horrible is about to happen. Is there some hope that Tod will survive? The end result is emotionally and physically shocking. Carmody achieved what she set out to do.
For Teachers : Using 6 Thinking Hats Strategy in Teaching English Literature
If you ask students to think about something, they are often at a loss to do so, however, the 6 Thinking Hats method can allow students to explore a subject using the framework of the hats so that their perceptual powers are quickly expanded. The students are able to think more richly and more comprehensively about their subjects and forces them to move outside of their habitual thinking styles while obtaining a more rounded view of a situation.
Problems within a subject can be solved using all approaches of the 6 Thinking Hats opening up the opportunity for creativity, especially in students who are persistently pessimistic. It enables rational students to look at problems from a more emotional, intuitive and creative point of view or from a negative point of view. Conversely it enables emotional students to look at decisions more calmly and rationally.
6 Thinking Hats strategy can be put into practice for teaching English Literature by asking the students to analyse a novel using the different styles of thinking as follows:
6 THINKING HATS
ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL
White HatInformation & Facts
List the facts you learned from the book
Describe the characters, setting & plot
Yellow HatGood Points
What were the interesting parts of the story?
What are the positive aspects of the story?
Black HatNegative Points
List what is wrong with plans made by a character in a book
What were some of the main problems encountered by the main characters?
How/why did these occur?
Green HatCreativity
Design something new for a character from your book
Solve a problem a character has
Read a new book to the students but don’t show the title.
Get the students to brainstorm a list of new titles for the book.
Red HatEmotions
How did the feelings of the main character change throughout the story?
How do you feel about the story?
Keep a red hat reading record of all books read on the same topic
Blue HatPlanning Reflection
How has reading this novel contributed to your understanding of the subject?
If you had written the novel, what would you have done differently?
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Basic Debating Rules: Starting with an Explanation of What is a Debate?
A debate is basically an argument with strict rules of conduct. It is not a shouting match between two sides with different points of view.
Topic Sides
There are 2 sides in a debate:
The Affirmative agrees with the topic
The Negative disagrees with the topic
The Team Line
Three speakers work together as a team. The Team Line is the basic statement of “why the topic is true” (for the affirmative team) and “why the topic is false” (for the negative team). It should be a short sentence, presented by the first speaker of each team and used by the other two speakers to enforce the idea of teamwork.
The Debate Announcer and Time Keeper
The Debate Announcer introduces the topic and the students on each team
The Debate Announcer mentions that each speaker will be timed, the minimum speech is 3 minutes and the Time Keeper will tap on the desk when the 3 minutes has elapsed so the Speaker knows
Each team will have the same allowance for time
Speakers
Each side has 3 speakers who speak in order:
First Speaker of the Affirmative Side Must
define the topic
present the Affirmative team’s line
outline briefly what each speaker in their team will talk about
present the first half of the Affirmative case
First Speaker of the Negative Side Must
accept or reject the definition. If you don’t do this it is assumed that you accept the definition.
present the Negative team’s line
outline briefly what each of the Negative speakers will say
rebut a few of the main points of the First Affirmative Speaker
the First Negative Speaker should spend about one quarter of their time rebutting
Present the first half of the Negative team’s case
Second Affirmative Speaker Must
reaffirm the Affirmative team’s line
rebut the main points presented by the First Negative Speaker
the Second Affirmative Speaker should spend about one third of their time rebutting
present the second half of the Affirmative team’s case
Second Negative Speaker Must
reaffirm the Negative team’s line
rebut some of the main points of the Affirmative’s case
the Second Negative Speaker should spend about one third of their time rebutting
present the second half of the Negative team’s case
Third Affirmative Speaker Must
reaffirm the Affirmative team’s line
rebut all the remaining points of the Negative team’s case
the Third Affirmative Speaker should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting
present a summary of the Affirmative team’s case
round off the debate for the Affirmative team
Third Negative Speaker Must
reaffirm the Negative team’s line
rebut all the remaining points of the Affirmative team’s case
the Third Negative Speaker should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting
present a summary of the Negative team’s case
round off the debate for the Negative team
neither Third Speaker may introduce any new parts of their team’s cases
Importance of Rebuttal
In debating, each team will present points in favour of their case. They will also spend some time criticising the arguments presented by the other team. This is called Rebuttal.
There are a few things to remember about Rebuttal:
Logic – to say that the other side is wrong is not enough. You have to show why the other side is wrong. This is best done by taking a main point of the other side’s argument and showing that is does not make sense. A lof of the thinking for this needs to be done quickly and this is one of the most challenging aspects of debating.
Pick the important points – try to rebut the most important points of the other side’s case. You will find that after a while these are easer to spot. One obvious spot to find them is when the first speaker of the other team outlines briefly what the rest of the team will say.
Play the ball – do not criticise the individual speakers, criticise what they say.
The Manner of how you present your debate is important
The manner is how you present what you say and the best manner style is definitely not to shout and thump the table but to keep calm and present your points with a clear speaking voice. Here are a few tips that might come in handy with your debating style:
Use Cue Cards – debating is a lively interaction between two teams not just reading a speech off notes. Use cue cards like a prompt in a play as a reference if you lose your spot or train of thought.
Use Eye Contact – if you look at the audience you will hold their attention. If you spend the whole time reading from your cue cards or looking at a spot away from the audience, they will lose concentration very quickly. Keep the audience in your sight and their minds will follow your logic.
Your Voice – you must project your voice so that you can be heard but definitely do not shout. Use the volume, pitch and speech of your voice to emphasise important points of your speech. Sometimes a loud burst will grab the audience’s attention while a period of quiet speaking will draw the audience in and make them listen more carefully to what you are saying.
Your Body – Make your body work for you by using hand gestures with confidence. Move your head and upper body to maintain eye contact with all members of the audience. Stand straight up, definitely do not slouch over the desk or let the audience know you might be nervous.
Nervous Habits – avoid them like the plague. Playing with the cue cards, pulling strands of your hair, fiddling with your watch or bouncing up and down on your feet will all distract from what you are saying. Don’t let any one thing detract from your ability to persuade the audience.
Using Big Words – try to avoid going overboard with big words and confusing people. If you don’t understand the big words yourself then the chances no one else will understand what you are saying either. It would be a huge mistake to debate and get stuck on a word that you are not sure what it means but also one that you can’t pronounce.
The Marking Scheme in a Debate
Every adjudicator marks to a standard. You will get a mark out of 40 for matter, manner and method with a total mark out of a 100.
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I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
Creative Writing Ideas: Firstly, Where do you get your ideas from?
Does this ever happen to you? You have to write something for school. You sit down to write it, and you just can’t get a word on the paper. You’re stuck. You have writer’s block.
You wonder “where do writers get their ideas from?
The answer is not that difficult because ideas can come from everything we see and hear and find in the world around us. If you break the ideas into three departments you can see that there are stories waiting to be told by looking into:
The Experience Department = Do you travel a lot with your family? The airport is a great place to watch people arrive and depart. Ask yourself, why are these people here, what are they wearing and how do they look? Are they leaving to start a new life somewhere else? The questions are endless. If you use your imagination you can think up characters and events based on the people you have seen.
The Memory Department = Your memories are terrific ideas to use for your writing. They are based on a fantastic character – you! They are easy to remember as they always have a beginning, a middle and an end. Can you remember when you first started school, went on a holiday, joined a new team for sport or may be got lost in a large department store? Do you keep a diary? You’re lucky if you do because you have all the journal entries there waiting for your new story to begin. The memories are all locked away in your mind just waiting to emerge as a story.
The What if Department = What would it be like to have a clone of yourself, someone who looked like you, talked liked you and may be he/she is you and you are really the clone!! What if you hypnotized your sister and you couldn’t snap her out of it? What if you could hear your dog’s thoughts? Think about it and have fun writing.
Concentrate on gathering as many details as you can see but don’t forget smells and tastes in five minutes. (Even set a timer if you have one to make you think and write faster)
What I do is to think about the senses ie. sight, smell, hearing and taste because they are all part of the world that you inhabit. Don’t forget feelings, they are just as important in your story as the characters themselves . If you write down your ideas about a story in a list or notes as fast as you can without making the writing sound perfect, then you have already started your creative story. Just put the words down, you can always go back and put them in the right order later.
Try putting ideas down using a concept map or fishbone diagram.
If you still can’t write down anything, try this: Tell the story out loud.
Pretend you’re on the phone, telling a story to your best friend. Once you’ve told it out loud, it will be easy to get it down on paper.
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I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
Common themes and issues in texts are central to the purpose of any text and relate to the author’s values and point of view.
A text may have one or several themes and issues. An author selects and deliberately arranges material (characters, setting and plot) in a text to explore, support and develop their themes and issues. These common themes and issues are open to different interpretations by the audience depending on their own context and perspective.
See the common themes bank below that will help you to identify common themes and issues in set texts so you can track their development as the text progresses:
Religion
Power of religious faith
Cultural and religious influences
Restrictive nature of some societies, religions and cultures
Justice
Social, family, peer group and legal
Love
Enduring nature of love
Loyalty and betrayal
Betrayal of love
Betrayal of self
Friends
Workplace
Institutions
Family responsibility/loyalty/love
Power of love
Grief and loss of love
Gender
Gender roles (traditional vs modern)
Gender conflict
Self awareness
Personal journey
Individuality versus conformity
Loss of innocence
Quest for perfection
Loss of self
Importance of place/identity in society
Power of dreams and ambition
Sense of identity and belonging
Conflict
Courage in the face of racial or gender discrimination
Destruction of war
Workplace conflict
Cultural conflict
Racial conflict/prejudice
Family conflict
Global conflict
Shakespearean Themes
Love versus betrayal
Divine rights of kings
Ambition and power
Evil versus goodness
Image versus reality
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I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
Have you heard this term before? The fish bowl analogy is related to the term many people say these days as “seeing the big picture”. What does it mean? What requires you to see the big picture and take that leap beyond your current fish bowl?
The fish bowl analogy means that we are all immersed in a paradigm and reality, much like a fish in the water it swims in. A fish can’t distinguish itself from his water, just as most of us don’t distinguish ourselves from our thoughts about the way we learn. We don’t know that there is a new learning reality outside the fish bowl within which we are immersed.
The challenge is to pop out of your current fish bowl or context in order to see the “big picture” to strive ahead far more effectively at school and beyond . Like a man on the flying trapese, we all have to let go of a known way of viewing our learning for the unknown. Everyone of us who aspires to something greater than our current fish bowl or our current grades at school, has to risk this moment of vulnerability. What makes a clever person is their willingness to confidently jump out of the fish bowl in order to see the bigger picture from which to strive ahead far more effectively.
It takes commitment and a capacity to expand one’s reality. In order to let go of the trapeze bar of one level of functioning, in order to swing to and grasp another, you have to be committed enough to let go of what no longer serves your learning. One distinction of a clever person is their willingness to risk failures and their own vulnerability to expand their knowledge to see their potential.
As an English Teacher I can help to hold the bigger picture for my students to leap into. I will endeavour to empower my students to make the leap into learning outside the fish bowl in order to see and act from the Big Picture. I will allow my students to get the big AH-HA moment to shift their paradigm to include this next level of the Big Picture of learning by giving them the tools to write well and achieve academic success.
Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service
I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
Frosts poetry is a Metaphor for the ways in which we make sense of our lives
The ways in which people develop their imaginative landscapes, their attitudes and values and how they respond to the world around them are influenced by their sense of place. In analysing texts the landscape may be seen in literal or metaphorical terms. Places where we have lived and people we have lived with contribute to our outlook on life and how we respond to particular situations. For some people these memories stay with them throughout life. The imaginative landscape derives from the diversity of these experiences over the years. The physical landscape of a person’s life forms a literal and metaphorical yardstick with which to measure the passage of time and the acquisition of personal characteristics. The physical becomes intertwined with their imaginative landscape.
Robert Frost’s Imaginative Landscape
Encompasses both the beauty and dark side of the land and of human nature. While his love of the natural world is evident, inspiring him as a poet and a person, he does not romanticize it, rather he imbues it with strong moral tones, reflecting in his love of rural America.
As well as describing the physical world, Frost is also preoccupied with how the human figures are placed in the landscape and in time. His characters are aware of where they have come from and their history. They move in time from the past but also encompass the future. Frost’s imaginative landscape helps us to construct versions of ourselves by exploring where and who we have come from and who we might become.
‘The Road Not Taken’ Poem by Robert Frost
The speaker stands in the woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that he will have the opportunity to do so. He admits that someday in the future he will recreate the scene with a slight twist, he will claim that he took the less-travelled road.
One of the attractions of this poem is its archetypal dilemma, one that we instantly recognise because each of us encounters it numberable times, both literally and figuratively. Paths in the woods and forks in the roads are ancient and deep-seated metaphors for life, its crises and decisions. Identical forks, in particular, symbolise for us the nexus of free will and fate. We are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two.
The Fourth Stanza Holds the Key to the Poem with 2 Tricky Words
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”.
Those who interpret this poem as suggesting non-conformity take the word “difference” to be a positive difference. There is nothing in the poem that suggests that this difference signals a positive outcome. The speaker could not offer such information, because he has not lived the “difference” yet.
The other word that leads non-discerning readers astray is the word “sigh”. By taking “difference” to mean a positive difference, they think that the sigh is one of nostalgic relief. However, a sigh can also mean regret. There is the “oh, dear” kind of sigh, but also the “what a relief” kind of sigh. Which one is it? We do not know.
If the the sigh is one of relief, then the difference means the speaker is glad he took the road he did. If the sigh is one of regret, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret. The speaker of the poem does not even know the nature of that sigh because that sigh and his evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the future. It is a truism that any choice we make is going to make “all the difference” in how our future turns out.
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Place is integral to an understanding of the characters in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy.
In some ways, the cities of Darwin, Adelaide and Vienna parallel the growth of the characters. In other respects, the character’s attitudes towards the cities reveal their motivations and, in the case of Keller, the mystery of his past. Darwin and Adelaide exemplify the most obvious and literal examples of the polarity of North and South.
“Up North” Darwin in the 1960’s – a Wild Frontier Town
“Up North” in the 1960’s traditionally represented the outpost of civilisation in Australia, with Darwin as its wild frontier town. In pre-Cyclone Tracy Darwin, there were few opportunities for public entertainment or cultural events. The town’s residents had a reputation for heavy drinking, fast driving and little regard for fine music or the arts. In 1967 few homes had air conditioning so that Darwin’s wet heat had to be alleviated with iced drinks, ceiling fans and evening sea breezes through louvred windows. Initially John Crabbe described Darwin’s inhabitants as “wife-beaters, fugitives from justice, alcoholics and maintenance dodgers” (p.17). Darwin was “the terminus … A town populated by men who had run as far as they could flee” (p.17).
Goldsworthy Portrays Life in Darwin as a Rhythm of Dramatic Contrasts
Life in Darwin is portrayed as a rhythm of dramatic contrasts between day and night, and the Wet and Dry seasons. Thunder is “the sound of February, of deepest, darkest Wet” (p.4). The Wet exaggerates nature in every way. The hard-drinking customers at The Swan where “it was always Wet season” (p.17), provide the background rhythm to Paul’s lessons with Keller and their wrangles over the choices of compositions for his lessons and practice. The change of season to the Dry marks an important point in the characters’ moods. Everyone’s mood is lightened and refreshed at the beginning of “seven months of clear, enamel-blue days” (p.28), when meals are taken outside in “a nightly cooling ritual” (p.30). Throughout the novel, Goldsworthy uses the imagery of night and day, Wet and Dry, sunshine and darkness to symbolise or illustrate his characters’ states of mind.
Darwin confronts the Crabbes with Physical and Mental Challenges
The Crabbes’ move to Darwin, a career promotion for John, confronts all three family members with both physical and mental challenges. To Paul, Darwin is a tropical paradise; to his parents it is, initially too hot, humid and uncivilised. John Crabbe declares Darwin is “A city of booze, blow, and blasphemy” (p.9) but Paul loves Darwin from the moment he steps off the plane from Adelaide: “I loved the town of booze and blow at first sight. And above all its smell: those hot, steamy perfumes that wrapped about me as we stepped off the plane, in the darkness, in the smallest hours of a January night. Moist, compost air. Sweet-and-sour air …” (p.9).
Goldsworthy Describes Darwin in Lush Descriptive Passages
Goldsworthy devotes considerable attention to crafting lushly descriptive passages which evoke Darwin’s exotic quality, its multicultural population and the strong emotions of sexuality. Paul delights in the dense foliage of their garden, at the “unnatural greenness” of leaves, and marvels at the brilliance of parrots, butterflies, huge insects and grubs: “Everything grew larger than life in the steamy hothouse of Darwin, and the people were no exception. Exotic, hothouse blooms” (p.11).
Darwin for Eduard Keller was an Exile
For Herr Eduard Keller, the maestro, Darwin was an exile, a self-imposed punishment stemming from his perceived responsibility for the deaths of his wife and child. Darwin is the maestro’s decision to live as far as possible, both literally and metaphorically from his cultured European background. Paul vividly remembers his first encounter with the maestro. He was fascinated by Keller: “I’d seen nothing like him before. He was short: migrant-height, European height…The hair above that flaming face was white, sparse, downy. On his red nose he had placed … a pince-nez… Above all, I remember the hands: those dainty, faintly ridiculous hands” (p.5). Despite Darwin’s oppressive heat, Keller is dressed in a white linen suit, crisp and freshly laundered. As Paul pushed his way through the drinkers in The Swan each Tuesday for his piano lesson, he found it “easy to place Keller among these fugitives” running away from things they chose not to remember.
Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service
I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
The Themes studied by VCE Students in The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif includes the importance of the relationship between culture and identity
You have to ask yourself the question, “What becomes of a person in our world if political developments made it impossible for him to live in his own country?” The politics of displacement creates an identity crisis. Thinking outside the square about the issue of identity; “Is ‘identity’ portable?”
Conflict has Far-reaching Consequences
The text articulates the many and varied ways conflict affects individuals and communities. The immediate and personal costs of war are often obvious. Gorg Ali and Rosal Ali are killed. Najaf is injured when a bomb explodes above his house and he suffers financial hardship and shame as a result of this injury. Ultimately, Najaf is forced to flee Afghanistan when the Taliban take control of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Long Lasting Trauma from Violent Events
The text also captures the long-lasting emotional trauma that accompanies these violent events. Consider Najaf’s emotional state while recovering from his injured leg. He is uncharacteristically despondent, angry and jealous. His inability to contribute to the family income and, worse, calling on his brother’s charity, make him feel “sick with shame” (p.137). While these feelings subside when Najaf is finally cured, other key incidents show that single events have lifelong ramifications. Najaf’s grief for Gorg Ali, for instance, does not diminish and he sheds disconsolate tears in his interview at Woomera 18 years later. Najaf’s mother, too, endures lifelong grief. Just before the rocket attack, Najaf comments, “her heart was still broken after the death of Gorg Ali a year before, and would stay broken for the rest of her life” (p.13).
Indirect Consequences of Living with Conflict
Long-term consequences of conflict also arise indirectly. Living with conflict makes Najaf perpetually fearful. He is so accustomed to being threatened that he inanely worries that the Australian authorities have been fed misinformation. To avoid forcible recruitment into either the communist or mujahedin forces, Najaf has to keep his “eyes peeled” and “one part of [his] brain … always on alert” (pp.152-3). He is tense, vigilant and constantly “ready to respond” to seemingly imperceptible signals (p.153). Najaf’s safety and security are constantly undermined.
Insecurity Leads to a Sense of Powerlessness
Najaf sums up this state of mind when he realises, early in his rug-making apprenticeship, that “this future of learning and gaining greater and greater skill all depended on things that I couldn’t control” (p.154). To cope, Najaf trains himself “not to think too far into the future” (p.154). This demonstrates a terrible and often hidden consequence of war: people lose hope.
Private Home Tutoring of English Not an On-Line Free Tutoring Service
I am NOT an on-line free tutoring service. My resources on this website are for general use only. I do not write student’s essays for them or give advice on essay prompts. However, for more intensive tutoring in a specific area of English, I will visit students in their own homes for private tutoring sessions that are paid on an hourly basis.
