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Australian Novel Solved Assignment 2023-24 | MA ENGLISH Assignment
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Answer all questions in this assignment.
Q1. Consider
The Tree of Man by Patrick White as a pioneer novel.
The Tree of Man, Patrick White’s
first major work to receive international recognition, was published in 1955.
The novel, a bildungsroman (a novel of growth), chronicles the life of a
farming couple, Stan and Amy Parker, and the difficulties they encounter when
they come to settle in the remote and uninhabited inland districts of New South
Wales, Australia. The Tree of Manis is about the expansion of both Stan
Parker’s consciousness and the proliferation of the uninhabited outback into a
village, and later a town. It is a soul stirring saga of the Australian
wilderness doomed to submerge in soulless suburbia owing to modernity and
industrialization.
The novel consists of twenty-six
chapters, carefully divided into four parts, and relates the story of the settler
couple from their youth to old age. Having Biblical undertones and written in
epic style, it is not only about Stan Parker’s sojourn towards spiritual
self-discovery, but also about economic and social transformations that were
happening in twentieth century Australia. It portrays both ‘the mystery and
poetry’ of Australian life as experienced by Stan Parker, its protagonist.
Patrick White had thought of titling The Tree of Man as A Life Sentence on
Earth. The novel was an outcome of the self-doubt which White continuously felt
soon after his return to Australia in 1947 while he lived at Castle Hill,
farming and raising animals.
The novel wonderfully conveys his
experiences of “enjoying ‘the sleepy morning smell of cows’ or finding the
ordeal exhilarating as men ‘rounded their shoulders and screwed up their eyes’
against fire, flood, or storm” (Qtd. in Brown 868). White was perhaps
captivated by the purity and natural simplicity of pre-1914 rural Australia,
which he has described in the following words: It was the exaltation of the
average that made me panic most, and in this frame of mind, in spite of myself,
I began to conceive another novel. Because the void I had to feel was so
immense, I wanted to try to suggest in this book every possible aspect of life,
through the lives of an ordinary man and woman. But at the same time I wanted
to discover the extraordinary behind the ordinary, the mystery and poetry which
alone could make bearable the lives of such people, and incidentally, my own
life since return. (Qtd in Hansson n.pag.)
THE TREE OF
MAN: OUTLINE OF THE NOVEL
Stan Parker, the son of Noakes and Ned Parker
(a drunkard and blacksmith at Willow Creek), decides to settle, after the death
of his parents, in outback Australia at the end of the nineteenth century,
building a farm out of the bush. His mother, before her death, has told him
that his father owned a piece of scrubby land in the Hills, and Stan Parker
resolves to settle there, after his mother’s death, clearing the bushes and the
trees and building “a plain but honest house” in the uninhabited place. The
novel not only portrays the development of the man but also of the town: the
growth of Stan Parker’s body and soul is juxtaposed alongside the expansion of
suburbia. Parker marries Amy Fibbens, and both of them settle down. They appear
to be Adam and Eve on that uninhabited land.
They clear the bush, build their home, and
raise a cow. They also encounter the hardships of Australian bush life:
drought, flood, and bushfires. Soon some other families come – the O'Dowds, the
brawling humorous Irish couple, and the poor Quigleys— and the settlement
spreads, acquires a name (Durilgai), a Post Office and stores. The Parkers’
life, which was initially marked by the pastoral and idyllic existence wherein
the couple lived in harmony with the natural wilderness, is soon replaced by
the signs of development, urbanization and modernity. Stan and Amy Parker later
have two children, Ray and Thelma. With the passage of time, both the couple
and the children grow, and the children, Ray and Thelma, leave for the city
from the remote Australian wilderness.
Ray disappears to explore the world
and make a fortune, soon to be involved in a racing scandal, and is later
murdered. Thelma too moves to the city, attends a Business school, becomes an
efficient office assistant, and later marries her wealthy boss, the solicitor
Dudley Forsdyke. Meanwhile, Stan and Amy Parker have grown older, still farming
and living in the outback of Australia, which has been transformed into the
suburb of a large city. The novel ends with Stan Parker’s grandson remembering
his deceased grand-father in the midst of the bush field lane, which is all
that has remained of the virgin bushland which Stan Parker had cleared with his
axe.
Love and
sexuality
In the novel, Stan and Amy Parker appear to be
Adam and Eve, who start a new life on the virgin bushland. They are ordinary
peasants and White has not tried to romanticize their conjugal relationship.
Although the love of Stan and Amy for each other is an ennobling emotion, yet
it is far from perfection. Stan and Amy are united by their flesh: Flesh is
heroic by moonlight. The man took the body of the woman and taught it
fearlessness. The woman’s mouth on the eyelids of the man spoke to him from her
consoling depths. The man impressed upon the woman’s body his sometimes
frightening power and egotism. The woman devoured the man’s defenselessness.
(30) Despite the random outbursts of their sexual passion, Stan and Amy find it
impossible to connect with each other and feel discontentment. Because of their
inability to communicate with each other, they experience a coldness in their
marriage.
As a consequence, Amy develops
bitterness while Stan is engulfed by stoic indifference. Writing about the union
of Stan and Amy Parker, David Marr, in Patrick White’s biography, says: The
Parkers have this rocklike faith in union, and a wife who humbles herself to
her husband. The Parkers' marriage is revealed with extraordinary intimacy as
its passions build and die. Here is love in many guises even silence, fondness
and habit; jealousy and betrayal, dependence and intractable frustration; the
ascendancy of wife over husband and then in the next breath of husband over
wife.
The Parkers come to live the lives of
intimate strangers but they endure, unflinchingly, as a couple. (289) Amy, a
not so beautiful industrious, practical woman, is impatient and greedy for
love. Amy is matter and Stan the spirit; Amy the body, Stan the soul. Her love
for Stan is not without selflessness, cannot transcend materiality/physicality
and demands complete possession of her husband. It lacks the metaphysical,
mystical moorings of Stan’s transcendental quest. However, Stan’s failed
relationship with Amy is as much her fault as his. For whatever philosophical
reasons, Stan Parker is unable to let her have him fully, and this frustration
leads her to adultery.
She is seduced by a travelling
salesman Leo, and this transgressive violation of marriage turns out to be
self-destructive for her, instilling a deep sense of guilt without the
possibility of atonement. In the novel, love is not some romantic pursuit,
leading to the fulfillment of desire, nor does it connote the synthesis of the
senses and the spirit, where physicality is transcended. In fact, Stan and Amy
Parker are unable to achieve the reconciliation of the physical and the
spiritual and suffer from fragile incompleteness.
RELIGIOUS VISION White considered the
religious impulse to be at the centre of the human existence. In one of his
interviews, he argued: “Religion. Yes, that's behind all my books. What I am
interested in is the relationship between the blundering human being and God .
.. I think there is a Divine Power, a Creator who has an influence on human
beings if they are willing to be open to him” (Quoted in Bliss 6). In another
interview to Peter Beatson, he remarked “I suppose what I am increasingly
trying to do in my books is to give professed unbelievers glimpses of their own
unprofessed actor. I believe most people have a religious factor, but are
afraid that by admitting it they will forfeit their right to be considered
intellectuals” (Quoted in Bliss 6-7). White believed in the divine power and
always tried to explore this transcendental reality through the symbols, tropes
and imagery in his novels. Elucidating his artistic position apropos religion,
White contends: “I belong to no church, but I have a religious faith; it's an
attempt to express that, among other things, that I try to do . . . In my books
I have lifted bits from various religions. . . Now, as the world becomes more
pagan, one has to lead people in the same direction in a different way” (Quoted
in Bliss 7).
Stan Parker’s mother asked him “to
promise to love God, and never to touch a drop” (The Tree of Man11). His
mother’s God, Stan thought, “was a pale-blue gentleness” unlike his father’s
fiery, gusty God (11). Juxtaposed with Mrs. Parker's God-image, a
sentimentalized version of the God of the New Testament, Ned Parker's God is
the elemental, “jealous God" (Exodus 20:5) of the Old Testament who “bent
the trees until they streamed in the wind like beards” and “cut the throat of
old Joe Skinner, who was nothing to deserve it”(The Tree of Man 11-12). The
narrator of the novel tells us that Stan Parker “had been brought up in a
reverence for religion, but he had not yet needed God.
He rejected, in his stiff clothes,
the potentialities of prayer” (The Tree of Man 35). Stan can feel the presence
of God, without ever naming God, in the elements of nature. Parker does not
pray to God in the conventional sense of religion, but to what he could know of
God from light or silences. He has a religious sense which might reflect the
Judeo-Christian elements:
“He went to church too, singing the
straight psalms and rounder hymns, in praise of that God which obviously did
exist. Stan Parker had been told for so long that he believed, of course he did
believe. He sang that praise doggedly, in a voice you would have expected of
him, approaching the music honestly, without embellishing it” (The Tree of
Man295). However, he discards the orthodox/conventional Christian idea of God.
He constantly searches for the flash of illuminating knowledge of God through
thunderstorm, flood, drought and other natural events which remind him of human
limitations. Parker wishes to uncover the truth/reality behind this world of
appearances considering religion, creeds, and such other orthodoxies to be mere
masks which disguise the truth of the world. Parker is aware that people use
the religion to evade confronting their failures in life. His reaction to the
devastation caused by flood and fire, and other natural events is to accept the
failures of life with humility. Stan persists in his search of the elusive God,
whose epiphanic realization he experiences just before his death. The
conversation between Stan Parker and the young Evangelist is so interesting
which aptly foregrounds Parker’s religiosity/spirituality.
When the young evangelist tells
Parker about ‘the glories of salvation’, the old, unhappy Parker fidgeted and
didn’t say a word. On being asked whether Parker believed in God or not, Parker
wanted to tell him that “if you [evangelist] can understand, at your age, what
I have been struggling with all my life, then it is a miracle” (The Tree of
Man475). He has been throughout his life searching for the evidence of God. His
search is towards permanence. He earnestly looks for the “communion of soul and
scene” in which the world of nature is illumined with divinity.
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Q2. Explain the
significance of the title of Yasmine Gooneratne’s novel A Change of Skies.
While multiculturalism may be
applauded for the beauty and promise of diversity, and while this may be
reflected in multicultural literature, there is a variety of issues that arise.
These different backgrounds imply different perspectives and worldviews which
can be the wellspring of tension, distrust and intolerance. Both the diversity
and these issues are especially apparent in settler colonies like Australia
where immigrants from different countries, of different ethnicities make up the
population. Multicultural Australian writers, looking back to different
cultures reflect their concerns in their writing. Developing in close
proximity, these cultures have an impact on each other.
Each takes on cultural elements of
the other. This process of assimilation and acculturation leads to a hybridity,
the coming together of various elements which may create ambivalence. But this
also creates new cultural spaces. Multicultural novelists writing from these
spaces, display these attributes. We are going to focus on one such writer, Sri
Lankan Australian, Yasmine Gooneratne
Yasmine Gooneratne (1935- ) is a
well-known novelist, poet, essayist, academic, biographer, literary critic and
bibliographer. She was born in Sri Lanka in 1935 to a Sri Lankan father and a
mother of Trinidadian origin. She was educated at Bishop’s College in Colombo
and the University of Ceylon-Peradeniya, where she obtained a first-class in an
honours degree in English in 1959. This achievement earned her a scholarship to
Cambridge University from where she received her doctorate in 1962. Her
doctoral research was on the development of the English language literature of
Ceylon between 1815 and the end of 1870s. She returned to the University of
Peradeniya to teach for a decade.
She immigrated to Australia in 1972
where she took up the position of senior lecturer in English at Macquarie
University in New South Wales. In 1981, Macquarie University bestowed on her
its first ever degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt) for her scholarly and
creative work and her contribution to international scholarship. Gooneratne
became the Foundation Director of Macquarie’s Postcolonial Literatures and
Languages Research Centre in 1989 and continued to serve till 1993. She was
appointed to a Personal Chair in English Literature at Macquarie University in
the early 1990s. She was awarded the Order of Australia for distinguished
service to literature and education in 1990.
In the same year, she was invited to
become the Patron of the Jane Austen Society of Australia and the
Vice-President of the Federation Internationale des Langues et Litteratures
Modernes (FILLM, UNESCO). Respected for her academic and literary abilities, Gooneratne
was placed on a committee appointed by the Federal Government to review the
Australian system of Honours and Awards from 1994-1995. Since 1995, she has
held positions on both the Australia Abroad Council and the Visiting Committee
of the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong. In 1998, she
became a member of Asialink, a non-academic department backed by the Myer
Foundation and the University of Melbourne which promotes public understanding
of Asian countries and Australia.
She became an emeritus professor in
1999. Gooneratne’s main research interests have been in eighteenth century and
Romantic literature, in modern and contemporary literature in English from
Asia, in postcolonial literature. She has also researched and worked on film,
fiction and biography. She has been a visiting professor atvarious places
around the world including Edith Cowan University (Western Australia),
Universities of Yale, Michigan and Princeton (USA), Jawaharlal Nehru University
(India), and the University of the South Pacific (Fiji). She is a
founder-trustee of the Pemberley International Study Centre, a foundation set
up by her husband in Sri Lanka to host selected writers, scholars and creative
writers. She is a Patron of the Galle Literary Festival and director of The
Guardian Angels, an editing service focused on new writers from Sri Lanka and
Australia. Throughout her busy and varied career, she continued to maintain her
links with Sri Lanka. Despite having moved to Australia, she continued to edit
New Ceylon Writing, the journal she had started in 1970 while working at the
University of Peradeniya.Yasmine Gooneratne is married to Dr Brendon
Gooneratne, a physician, environmentalist, and historian. They married in 1962
and have two children, a son and a daughter. She currently lives in Colombo,
Sri Lanka.
Young Sri Lankan academic Bharat
Mangala-Devasinha, along with his wife Navaranjani, (later to become Barry and
Jean in Australia) migrates to Australia to pick up a short-term assignment in
the South Cross University. The novel simultaneously follows the journey of
Bharat aka Barry’s grandfather to Australia in the late 19th century. Despite
the parallels, the two journeys end very differently. Edward, the grandfather,
realizes that though this has been a tremendous learning experience, his true
home lay back in Sri Lanka to which he ultimately returns to marry his
sweetheart, Emily, and to establish a household and to take on the ‘duties and
responsibilities of an inherited tradition’(294).
‘I have seen enough,’ he notes in his
diary, ‘and learned enough of myself, too, to understand that a life served
here is not for me’ (166). On the other hand, Bharat and Navaranjani, having
now taken on the Australia-friendly names of Barry and Jean Mundy, decide to
stay on in Australia and to make it their home despite being subjected
initially to local prejudice against expatriates from the East, especially from
Asia. In the early years in Australia, they try to maintain their Sri Lankan
identity, only tentatively opening themselves out to Australian culture.
But later, in the process of happily
meeting the challenges of necessary assimilation and acculturation, they soon
settle down in the new land, developing a sense of place and rootedness in
their adoptive culture. It appears that in the new globalized world order, it
is easier for them to accept Australian culture than it was for Edward a
century earlier. Their decision to become Australian citizens is finally
precipitated by the tremendous political disturbance that overtakes Sri Lanka.
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Q3. “Kim
Scott’s novel Benang is a polyphonic text.” Comment on this statement.
Polyphony, in literature, refers to a
narrative style that gives voice to multiple characters and perspectives. It
creates a chorus of voices, each contributing to the overall story and
enriching the reader's understanding.
Evidence of
Polyphony in Benang:
Multiple Narratives:
"Benang" is not driven by a single protagonist. It weaves together
the stories of various characters across four generations of a Noongar family.
This allows the reader to experience history, trauma, and resilience from
different vantage points.
Oral Histories and Memories: The
novel incorporates oral traditions, a hallmark of Aboriginal storytelling.
Elders' memories and stories become integral parts of the narrative, adding
another layer of voice and perspective.
Fragmentary and Non-Linear:
"Benang" deviates from a traditional linear story structure. It
employs flashbacks, fragmented narratives, and dreamtime elements. This creates
a sense of collective memory and a non-singular view of history.
Shifting Perspectives: The narrative
voice shifts throughout the novel. We might hear from a descendant, then be
transported back in time to witness the experience of an ancestor. This allows
for a more comprehensive and multifaceted portrayal of the characters and their
experiences.
Impact of
Polyphony:
Richer Historical Context: By giving
voice to multiple generations, "Benang" offers a deeper understanding
of the impact of colonization on Noongar people. The reader experiences the
ongoing struggles and resilience across time.
Challenging Colonial Narratives: The
polyphonic structure allows Scott to challenge the dominant narrative of
Australian history. By offering Noongar perspectives, the novel sheds light on
the injustices and complexities often overlooked.
Emotional Connection: Through
multiple voices, the reader can connect with different characters and their
emotions. This fosters empathy and understanding for the hardships and triumphs
of the Noongar people.
Conclusion:
Kim Scott's "Benang"
effectively utilizes a polyphonic narrative style. This allows for a richer
portrayal of history, a deeper understanding of the characters, and a powerful
challenge to traditional narratives. The diverse voices create a tapestry that
reflects the complexities of inter-generational trauma and the enduring spirit
of the Noongar people.
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Q4. Discuss
with suitable examples, how Peter Carey mingles ‘fiction’ with ‘historical accounts’
in his effort to arrive at a ‘true history’ of a social outlaw, in True History
of the Kelly Gang.
True History of the Kelly
Gang is Peter Carey’s marvelous imaginative reconstruction of Ned Kelly’s
life story. Based partly on historical documents and on the remarkable writing
found in Kelly’s Jerilderie letter, the novel closely follows the known facts
of a figure now widely regarded as both a heroic opponent of England’s unjust
colonial rule and an early precursor to Australian nationalism. Having lost his
own father at the age of twelve and knowing what it is like to be raised on
"lies and silences," Ned Kelly sets out to write the history of his
life for his infant daughter so that she will someday know the truth about him.
What follows is an extraordinary narrative of the Kelly family’s struggle to
survive in Australia’s unyielding bush country.
As dirt-poor Irish immigrants they
are looked upon by the English settlers as "a notch beneath the
cattle" and face continual police harassment and the threat of eviction
from their land. When his father is arrested and subsequently dies, Ned becomes
the man of the house and fights fiercely to support and protect his mother and
siblings. After becoming an unwilling apprentice to the famous bushranger Harry
Power, Ned is drawn increasingly into a life of crime. He fights with his
mother’s suitors and the police, and when he shoots the treacherous Constable
Fitzgerald in self-defense, Ned is forced to flee into the wild back country.
With his younger brother and two loyal friends he outsmarts the police, eludes
a massive manhunt, commits crimes of spectacular daring, and falls in love, all
the while gaining widespread support from poor oppressed farmers.
True History of the Kelly
Gang gives readers an unforgettable portrait of the man behind the myth,
the trusted friend and loving son and father who would not sacrifice his
integrity to save his life and who planted the seeds of rebellion in the
consciousness of a fledgling nation.
1. In Australia, Ned Kelly is so
revered as a national icon that his image was placed on center stage during the
opening ceremonies of the Summer 2000 Olympic Games. Though his legacy is still
controversial and some regard him as a criminal and murderer, he is widely seen
as a champion of the oppressed and a forerunner of Australian nationalism. What
aspects of Kelly’s character and actions might be responsible for his heroic
status? What heroic feats does he accomplish in the novel? In what ways does
the novel present a realistic rather than mythic or romanticized portrait of
the man?
2. True History of the Kelly
Gang is fiction, yet most of the characters in the novel existed as real
people and many of the events are based on historical fact. What complications
arise from using fiction to tell the truth? Can a factually based imaginative
reconstruction present a truer or more accurate account of people than
straightforward nonfiction can? What distinctive pleasures does the historical
novel afford?
3. Ned Kelly begins by writing that
his history "will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak
false" [p. 7], and much in his narration is concerned with setting the
record straight. Is Kelly a reliable narrator? Why should his history be more
"true" than other versions of these events? What aspects of Kelly’s
voice and character convey a feeling of authenticity?
4. Why does Ned Kelly address his
history to his daughter? What effect does he hope it will have on her? What are
his motives for writing?
5. Throughout the novel, Ned Kelly represents
himself as a person who was pushed into the life of an outlaw by forces beyond
his control. "What choice did I have?" he asks, when he kills Strahan
at Stringybark Creek. "This were the ripe fruit of Constable Alexander
Fitzpatrick" [p. 250]. What are the forces, individual and political, that
influence his fate? In what ways is Fitzpatrick responsible for this killing?
6. What effect does Harry Power have
on the young Ned Kelly? What does Ned learn from him? In what ways does Ned
define himself against Harry Power?
7. Looking back on the moment that
Harry Power told him that he had killed Bill Frost, Ned thinks: "Now it is
many years later I feel great pity for the boy who so readily believed this
barefaced lie I stand above him and gaze down like the dead look down from
Heaven" [p. 123]. At what other points in the novel is Ned betrayed by the
dishonesty of others? What does his willingness to trust suggest about his
character? Why would he liken this recollection to the dead looking down from
Heaven?
8. How are the Irish in general, and
the Kelly family in particular, regarded by the English in Australia? What
methods do the police use to intimidate and control them? In what ways can the
novel be read as an indictment of English colonialism?
9. When Tom Lloyd is arrested for the
shooting of Bill Frost, Ned returns because, as he tells his mother, "I
can’t let Tom do my time". By what ethical code does Ned live?
Where else does he refuse to violate this personal code of honor? How do his own
ethics contrast with those of the police, squatters, and judges who are arrayed
against him? What are the consequences of Kelly’s strict adherence to his code?
10. What do Ned’s relationships with
Joe Byrne, his mother, his brother Dan, his wife Mary, and their child reveal
about the kind of man he is? Why is it impossible for him to flee with Mary to
America? How has his relationship with his father–and his father’s
history–shaped him?
11. Ned Kelly claims that his gang
had "showed the world what convict blood could do. We proved there were no
taint we was of true bone blood and beauty born" [p. 337]. To what extent
is Ned Kelly aware of himself as an actor on the historical stage? To what
extent should he be regarded as a revolutionary? What events lead to his
growing political consciousness?
12. Though possessing little formal
education, Ned Kelly was in fact a remarkable writer, as evidenced by the 1879
Jerilderie letter, which Kelly dictated to Joe Byrne and which survives today.
What aspects of Kelly’s writing, as Carey represents it, seem most distinctive?
How is his writing regarded by others in the novel? What does he hope his
writing–in the letter to Mr. Cameron and in the pamphlet he tries to
publish–will accomplish? In what ways does Peter Carey’s novel fulfill this
hope?
13. True History of the Kelly
Gang is preceded by an epigraph from William Faulkner: "The past is
not dead. It is not even past." How does this quote illuminate what
happens in the novel? In what sense do both English colonial history and Ned
Kelly’s personal past affect the events in the novel? What does this epigraph,
and the novel itself, imply about similar contemporary conflicts in Ireland and
elsewhere?
14. After his capture in 1880, Ned
Kelly said, "If my lips teach the public that men are made mad by bad
treatment, and if the police are taught that they may exasperate to madness men
they persecute and ill treat, my life will not be entirely thrown away."
In what ways does Kelly’s life, as it is presented in True History of the
Kelly Gang, serve as a warning about the consequences of injustice and
persecution?
Born in Australia in 1943, Peter
Carey lives in New York City with his wife, Alison Summers, and their two
sons. The author of six previous novels and a collection of stories, he won the
Booker Prize for Oscar and Lucinda; his other honors include the Commonwealth
Prize and the Miles Franklin Award.
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Q5. Write short notes of around 200 words each on the
following:
a. Trace the
development of the novel in nineteenth century Australia, and critically
evaluate its themes and concerns.
Regarding the development of the
novel in nineteenth-century Australia, it's important to note that the novel as
a literary form gained prominence during this period, reflecting the social,
cultural, and political changes of the time. Early Australian novels often
focused on themes such as exploration, settlement, colonialism, and the clash
of cultures between Indigenous Australians and European settlers. These novels
served not only as literary expressions but also as means of shaping national
identity and exploring the complexities of Australian life.
Critically evaluating the themes and
concerns of nineteenth-century Australian novels involves examining how they
addressed issues such as:
Colonialism and Settler-Indigenous
Relations: Many novels depicted the challenges and conflicts arising from
European colonization and its impact on Indigenous communities. They often
portrayed the harsh realities of dispossession, cultural clashes, and attempts
at reconciliation.
National Identity: Australian novels
explored questions of national identity, often grappling with the tension
between British influences and emerging Australian identity. Themes of
belonging, loyalty, and patriotism were common.
Social Realities: Novels of the
period often depicted the social realities of colonial life, including class
distinctions, gender roles, and the struggles of settlers to adapt to the harsh
environment.
Nature and Landscape: The Australian
landscape played a significant role in shaping literary themes. Novels
frequently portrayed the unique environment, its beauty, challenges, and its
impact on the characters' lives and identities.
Narrative Techniques: The development
of narrative techniques in Australian novels evolved, reflecting influences
from British literature while also incorporating local themes and settings.
Overall, nineteenth-century
Australian novels not only contributed to the development of Australian
literature but also provided a platform for exploring national identity,
cultural diversity, and the impact of colonialism. They continue to be studied
for their insights into historical perspectives and their representation of
early Australian society.
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b. Examine how
Keneally engages with the complex nature of righteousness and virtue through
the character Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s Ark.
Thomas Keneally’s nonfiction
novel Schindler’s List is based on the true story of Oskar
Schindler, a man known for astonishing acts of generosity. At great personal
risk to his own life, Schindler helps over a thousand Jewish people survive the
Holocaust during World War II (and helps slow down the German war effort in
other ways too). Many of these survivors can’t explain why Schindler would act
so selflessly when, before the war, he seemed to be a regular German
industrialist with few particularly virtuous qualities.
In fact, not all of Schindler’s
generosity is selfless: in his dealings with Germans, Schindler uses generosity
quite tactically, offering “gratitude” as a bribe to get what he wants. Even
Schindler’s dealings with the Jewish people he helps arguably have a selfish
element to them: later in life, he ends up relying on his former prisoners,
both financially and emotionally. Keneally’s retelling of Schindler’s story
thus demonstrates that virtue isn’t black and white—people tend to be
complicated, a mixture of both selfishness and selfless, and people with
selfish qualities can still be capable of generosity and self-sacrifice.
Moreover, it suggests that even small-scale acts of selflessness are worthwhile
and impactful.
Oskar Schindler isn’t an outwardly
saintly man, particularly in his earlier life, and this makes his eventual
selflessness all the more surprising and complicated. One of Schindler’s noteworthy
flaws is how he treats his wife, Emilie. Despite his reputation for
kindness, Schindler is, at best, indifferent toward his wife, having multiple
affairs and making little attempt to hide them. Schindler is also a heavy
drinker and smoker, which clashes with certain stereotypes of how virtuous
people should act. Perhaps the biggest gray area in Schindler’s life is his
involvement with the Nazi Party as a younger man.
Though he was clearly never a
hardliner, it is difficult to determine to what extent young Schindler agreed
with the Party’s goals and to what extent he was just playing the system.
Though Keneally and almost all the Jewish people saved by Schindler’s actions
agree that his good deeds far outweigh the bad ones, this doesn’t mean Schindler
is innocent of all wrongdoing. He, like all people, is complicated and
imperfect.
Though Schindler remains a morally
complicated figure, throughout the war he continuously puts himself at risk to
save other people, suggesting that selfishness and selflessness aren’t
clear-cut or mutually exclusive categories. One of the complicated elements of
Schindler’s character at the beginning of the war is his desire to seek a
profit. When he first meets Itzhak Stern, he has Stern look over the books
of a Jewish business he is thinking of taking over to make sure it is a solid
venture. Schindler doesn’t have any plan to rescue Jewish people yet; despite
his disagreements with the Nazi Party, he is just another German industrialist
trying to make a profit in occupied Poland.
It’s only after talking with Stern that
Schindler’s plan (to save Jewish prisoners by keeping them alive as workers in
his factory) begins to take shape. As the war goes on, however, and Schindler
finds his own life in danger multiple times, and he ends up in prison three
times. Schindler doesn’t know who reports him to the Nazis—anyone who happens
to witness what Schindler is doing to help the Jewish prisoners could report
him.
This means Schindler’s life is
constantly in danger, yet he makes the selfless decision to accept this risk.
By the end of the book, Schindler has given away most of his fortune, with a
large chunk of it spent on creating the Brinnlitz camp, where his
prisoners go after the dissolution of Płaszów. The factory at
Brinnlitz does not make any materials for the war effort and therefore does not
make any money for Schindler—its only purpose is to help his Jewish prisoners
try to survive until the end of the war. Schindler, then, has finally given up
his role as an industrialist and put aside any selfish stake he could have had
in the factory.
Though he remains a flawed person and
never gives up his womanizing ways, his decision to sideline his business
interests and put himself at risk to save his prisoners shows that even people
who are selfish in some respects can be selfless in other respects.
Given the small scale yet powerful
impact of Schindler’s actions throughout the book, his story also suggests that
acting virtuously doesn’t necessarily require grand gestures. At one point in
the book, Schindler’s Jewish accountant (and trusted confidante) Itzhak
Stern quotes a Talmudic verse to Schindler that has a profound impact on
his way of thinking:
“He who saves a single life saves the
world entire.” This verse suggests that acts of selflessness don’t have to be
huge and profound to be impactful, because helping even one person is
worthwhile. And indeed, although Schindler’s helps a relatively small number of
people compared to the millions who died in the Holocaust, his actions still
matter to those he saved (and to the millions of people his story has gone on
to inspire). When Abraham Bankier and some other Jewish workers are
rounded up to be shipped away because they lack Blauscheins, Schindler
personally comes to the station to save his men.
An SS guard there is dismissive of
Schindler’s efforts, saying that any men he saves will just be replaced by
others on the list. Schindler recognizes that this might be true—that his
efforts might be futile, and that perhaps it is selfish to favor his friends
when so many others are suffering. Still, he lives according to the Talmudic
verse: while he isn’t a perfect person and knows that he can’t save every
victim of the Holocaust, he also knows that even saving one life is tremendously
valuable.
Back in September 1939, soon after
Germany invaded Poland, Schindler comes to Cracow. Although within a
month, he shows signs of being discontent with Nazism, he can see that Cracow
is a good location and that he can make a lot of money there.
Schindler’s family is from Moravia,
once a part of Austria, which became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918.
Young Hitler would eventually become obsessed with reuniting
German-speaking people in areas like where Schindler grew up. Schindler’s mother was
a devout Catholic, while his father was a heavy drinker and smoker
and more dismissive of religion (as his son, too, would eventually be).
Schindler had a couple Jewish school friends growing up, and his next-door
neighbor was a rabbi.
The book focuses on Schindler’s
parents because their lives follow a surprisingly similar pattern to
Schindler’s own life, with Schindler mirroring his father and Schindler’s
eventual wife, Emilie, being similar to Schindler’s mother. In addition,
Schindler’s disinterest in religion and his personal relationships with Jewish
people may partially explain why doesn’t fully buy into the Nazis’ worldview
later in life.
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