Shark Bait by Justin D'ath

Shark Bait by Justin D’ath

The novel Shark Bait by Justin D’ath, continuously portrays the relationship between the protagonist Sam and a Japanese boy Michi who are strangers until a series of extreme adventures bring them together. The boys are swept off a coral reef by a freak wave into the ocean. Michi does not speak a word of English and Sam does not understand his Japanese ‘The language barrier was so frustrating. If only we’d been able to talk we might have distracted each other from scary thoughts of salt water crocodiles and sharks and whether or not we would have been rescued’ (D’ath, 2006, pp 34). Even though the pair were restricted by communication they formed a relationship based on words used from ‘Finding Nemo’ a movie they were both familiar with ‘He knew no English, I knew no Japanese. But we had both seen the movie’ (D’ath, 2006, pp 3). A common name that they used was Bruce; this was used when one of the pair sensed danger as Bruce was portrayed as the bad shark within the movie. Once one of them said the word Bruce the other would understand that danger was near. They both found a common ground they could base their relationship upon to communicate their thoughts and feelings to each other.

Furthermore the pair began to rely on one another. Whist being stuck out in the ocean the pair felt comfortable in each other’s company. Their adventures take them both to a different island where two smugglers are there catching birds illegally. Sam confronts the pair and feels as though he is in danger when one of the men asks Sam where his friend is. Sam lies to the man so he can keep his friend out of harm ‘No, there’s just me,’ I lied. I didn’t want to get Michi mixed up in this-whatever this was (D’ath, 2006, pp 79). This is showing their relationship has grown and how Sam does not want his friend to also be in danger because he cares for him. D’ath (2006) shows how Sam looks after Michi as he cannot swim so Sam holds Michi’s head above the water ‘He seemed to understand what I was saying, and allowed me to support him from behind (D’ath, 2006, pp 131). Even though Sam has only known Michi for less than a day it shows how their relationship adapts along the way to depend on each other and grows into a trusting friendship. At the end of the book Sam realises that Michi is actually a female. By changing the sex of the character Michi, Sam and Michi’s relationship turns from a friendship into a feeling of fondness and affection towards one another. Their relationship is continuously growing but the gender change takes their relationship to a whole new level.