'Home and Away' by John Marsden

“Home and Away” is about a typical Australian family, whose city becomes war torn, forcing them to sell everything that they own, to become refugees, and go by boat to another, safer country, ‘Hollania’. When they arrive in ‘Hollanian’ waters, their boat is intercepted by the navy of Hollania, who initially tries to force their boat away, but it is sinking, so the refugees are put in prison.

They stay in prison for over a year; the government won’t allow them to enter the country, because they are not ‘genuine’ refugees. The main character gives up on all dreams of freedom, and just wants their family back together.

Told in diary format, the narrator tells of the days following an invasion and how it affects the family. With little detail, the family is introduced in the first four pages, then the fifth page, April 27, with the deep red colour of blood reflected through the aquarium, war begins. Over the next four pages, the war is described, again sparely, but the childlike illustrations mirror the horror of what is happening. By August 29, rations are being handed out to the homeless, and on September 16, the stark realistic illustration shows the scared and undernourished family sitting by a candle, talking about what to do. All around is black, the features of the family stand out in bleak contrast. The alternate page illustrations depicting a child's drawings underscore the brutality of what is happening, and the diary written on scrap pieces of paper, reiterates the transitory nature of their lives.

Five tear old Toby asks the narrator “Are we bad?” “No, why?” the narrator responds “Well, why are we in prison?” asks Toby. This again allows the reader to have a different perspective on refugees, and see what their point of view might be when they are put into detention centers.

When considering a text critically, readers are often asked to reflect upon the intended audience and how this affects the mode or register of the piece (Gamble & Yates, 2008, p.40), as well as ideologies which may be either implicit or overt within the text. The young narrator of Marsden’s picture book and visual appeal might seem to suggest that it is ideally suited to the juvenile market. However, this text tackles issues in which adults do not have the moral upper ground, they do not have all the answers. Hence this text is equally as powerful for older readers.

Home and Away forces Australians to consider the perspective of refugees, by making them imagine what it would be like if Australia was to become stricken by war or un-safe like many countries around the world. This book offers a new angle than that often portrayed by the media and the government. The latter perspective generally refers to refugees and asylum seekers as “boat people”, needing to be put into “detention centres” until they are “processed” as refugees, and allowed to enter Australia.

In result, the otherwise controversial topic, of ‘illegal immigration’, has been de-humanised or sterilised

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.

'Deadly Unna?' by Phillip Gwynne

Gary Black, a fourteen year old ‘Goonya’ or white teenager from a small country town in South Australia who forms an unlikely but nonetheless powerful friendship with an “incredibly skilful” player on his local football team (Gwynne 1998 p.5). Dummy Red is a ‘Nunga’ or aboriginal who Gary admires and respects and their ‘inter-ethnic’ friendship acts as a catalyst for change as Garry forms an acute awareness to the ‘small town racism’ which is blatantly prevalent.

 Dummy Red and the Aboriginal population  live on a reserve, separate from the main town. They remain segregated in the town pub, and they’re football achievements go un-acknowledged. Their culture is foreign to the dominant Anglo-Celtic population, and hence racism is rife and the local aboriginal community marginalized.

Phillip Gwynne’s juxtaposes Gary’s and the town butcher Slogsy’s judgment of Dummy Red and his friends to illustrate the opposing attitudes which exist within the town’s community.

Gary: “This Dummy Red was trendy, he was talented, he was up himself, he wore Jezza’s number 25, and he had that smile” (Deadly Unna? 1998 p.25). *Jezza is Gary’s favourite football star.

Slogsy: “Good for nuthin’ punks, bunch of stinkin’ boongs” (Deadly Unna? 1998 p.26)

Gary’s determination to attend Dumby’s funeral after his tragic death is a turning point. Even though Gary is aware that his actions will put an end to his blossoming friendship with summer love Cathy and enrage his abusive father he attends the funeral on the aboriginal reserve. The experience gives him the courage to make a further stand. It is clear when he and his siblings paint over the ‘BOONGS PISS OFF’ graffiti (Gwynne 1998 p.270), how much he has matured. He is standing up for something important. As Gary confronts his own prejudices and the racism of the town he finds himself faced with many hard choices and from each the reader learns more about the strong moral footing he possesses.

‘So much to tell you’ by John Marsden

Fourteen-year-old Marina recently transferred from a mental hospital to Warrington boarding school, she doesn’t speak. Her muteness stems from a very traumatic incident one year prior. Driven mad by his wife’s intention to leave him, Marina’s father, in a moment of rage, threw photographic acid in their car window and, instead of hitting his wife, hit his daughter's face (McIntyre, C 1999).

Severely scarred, both inside and outside, Marina has become disconnected from a mother by whom she feels betrayed and abandoned. She is withdrawn not only from her parents and the “friends she once had” (Marsden 1987 P.56) but also from her own emotions. She records the struggles of her daily life tentatively in a journal assigned, but not read by, a favourite English teacher.

Marina’s introverted ways and “anorexia of speech” has meant that above all she is lonely. Marina’s tendencies to reject and withdraw form relationships have left her a prisoner unto herself. “I draw lots of stripes, which weren’t stripes at all, but were bars, prison bars’ (Marsden 1987 p.80). As the novel progresses so too does Marina ability to reach out to those around her, she becomes a participant in her own life as opposed to a bystander. 

Marina’s school life can be considered a microcosm, a world unto itself (Martin 2011 P.19) from which she initially is an islet. In her first weeks of boarding schools Marina nurses a general bitterness towards her environment and those within it; she rejects the overtures of her dorm-mates and is unable to express her needs, opinion and emotions. Though the development of relationships Marina is able to find her voice and eventually accepts affection, friendship and her own growing interest in school and social life. This process of healing is aided by her developing ability to ‘lean’ on others.  When the young daughter of her favourite English teacher, shows the kind of affection Marina is unable to she is unable to retreat within herself any longer and hence forced to face the traumas of her past.

“She was looking up at me- I guess she was sleepy- then, after a minute, she put her hands up to my face and touched my cheek with her finger and said: “Hurt face, hurt face.” I know I went very red and hung my head, but something in the way she said it seemed to break something inside of me and I realised I was going to cry, and there was no power on earth that could stop it, and even though I fought and fought to hold it back the tears ran down my face and, even worse some sobbing noises came out – the strange sound of my own voice, that I had not heard for over a year” (Marsden 1987 P.57).

Marina is challenged by the relationships she forms. No longer able to render herself invisible, “shrink away” or make herself “small” (Marsden 1987 P.58), she is reminded that people can be happy and kind and caring.                                                                                                                                        “Sometimes it feels like I go for weeks on end being totally ignored by everyone, and then Cathy comes along and does something nice like that and I feel like I’m in a shattered shocked heap of tiny pieces on the floor, trying to put myself and everything back to together in the new pattern – everything having to be reconstructed in a slightly different way” (Marsden 1987 P.62).                                                                                     

 Marsden poetically refers to these acts of kindness as proverb in Marina’s English class. ‘The darker the night, the brighter burns the candle’. Marina has not experienced kindness in a long time, and hence the more moved she can be by it. Her newly founded relationships with dorm-mates acts to shine light unto Marina’s ‘dark night’, her all engulfing depression.