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AB Faceys 'A Fortunate Life' Chapters 9-68 Summary and Analysis

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Bush Schooling - Chapters 9 - 25 Title tells us that Facey is uneducated up to this point, which would be considered strange these days "My birthday went unnoticed, a common thing in those days" - Shows how Facey has matured, and the fact that his birthday is "unnoticed" is almost a sign of a coming of age as only children's birthdays were celebrated, while his older acquaintances never celebrate their birthdays. 'Snake Bite' chapter reveals harsh realities of life in the outback. Adds to image of the setting of the bok being very desolate, desert like and dangerous. In chapter 10, when Facey is denied payment for his services from Moran, he says "My experience up to now made me doubt the word of everyone". This shows a change-of-self …show more content…

The fact that he could not be adopted by the Phillips and they're attitudes have changed towards him was the cause of this change of self. We also understand Facey's attitudes towards life when he says "After awhile I pulled myself together and again started off, towards another job I hoped". This epitomises the 'Aussie' identity of a battler and has become almost seamless with Australian identity and values. We are again reminded of how young Facey is at this point when Mrs Bibby sees him and says "Your swag is bigger than you are." The swag can be see to represent all the responsibility that Facey must carry on his shoulder, and to say that his 'swag is bigger than he is' is to say that he is taking on more responsibilities than someone like him should be taking on. "Nobody knew [it was my birthday]; I hadn't told them as birthdays were nothing to me... I used to hear a lot about birthday parties from time to time, but who was going to bother about me." This quote shows the lack of confidence and self-worth Facey has in himself, and doesn't think of himself as being as important as other children. Rifle represents manhood Facey has another bad experience with alcohol when he returns to the Bibbys and sees that none of the chores have been done, and dingoes have attacked the sheep. This adds to his morality by turning him further against alcohol. In this chapter we see that even though Facey is formally

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