First Cloudstreet: Redemption

Tim Winton’s short story, ‘The Water Was Dark and it Went Forever Down’, depicts a nameless, adolescent girl who is battling the voices inside her head along with the powerful punishments at the hands of her inebriated mother. The key concerns of life and death are portrayed through the girl’s viewpoint as she compares her life with her sad, depressed mother. Anonymous as she is, the girl constantly makes an attempt to escape the outbursts, that come as a result to her mother’s drinking, by submerging herself into the water. An extended metaphor is used when expressing the girl as a machine and her will to continue surviving in her sombre life.

The father does not like “the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors [that] sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving.” He always talks about how “there were no years” and how everything was so constant. However, he is getting to the point where he is starting to know that his future is near. He starts to realize that when a thunderstorm comes. This brought the father “the revival of an old melodrama that [he] had seen long ago with childish awe.”He is no longer confused about who he is anymore, and he knows that he is getting old. As he starts to accept this, the lake which he saw was “infinitely precious and worth saving [is now] a curious darkening of the sky, and a lull in everything that had made life tick.” Although he realizes that it is what it is, he knows that this is something he will have to accept, and his son is the new generations who is going to hold the future. His son, whom he always got confused as himself, now sees his son for his child. When the son goes swimming, the father “languidly, and with no thought of [swimming]. . .saw [his son] winch slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment.” Seeing how his son is strong and independent gives him the “chill of death.” He finally realizes that he is no longer a child, he is an adult who is going to die. A new generation will take his place, and

As the boat drifted away “the fisherman went blind with uncontainable rage. ‘Get back down there where you belong!’ he screamed” (377). The fisherman, in pure shock and disbelief of his imminent doom, lashed out at the boys he loves so dearly. While his words try to shelter the boy from the reality of the situation, it is his inability to conceal his anger that instead allows them to understand what is happening. The fisherman tries to take control of a situation he clearly cannot control, “Dad,’ asked the boy steadily, ‘what do we do now?’...’The first thing we have to do,’ he heart himself saying with infinite tenderness… ‘is think” (378). Before he can even think of what to do, the fisherman is trying to instruct others and, ultimately, save them. As the fisherman develops his plan for their rescue, the situation grows more dire and the inevitability of their fate grows more apparent. The fisherman’s actions in the face of imminent danger exemplify his protective leadership and will to

For this essay, I am going to be discussing the short story “Swimming” found on the New Yorker, and written by T. Cooper. I have chosen this story for many reasons, and among those reasons is the personal sadness I felt when I first read the story, almost as if the universe was placing a certain theme in my life, that only the main character could possibly understand. I am talking about running, the god given instinct felt by all men, inherent in the nature of fear, and brought out in all who feel sadness in its full intensity. Though in my short life I can not compare the sadness I have felt with that of losing a child at my own hand, but if I had been placed in that situation, if fate had tempted my soul with such a sequence of events, I would like to think I could find the strength to endure and the courage to not abandon all I had previously known. Yet I am able to reconcile the themes of grief, the mode of recovery, and the longing to escape such a terrible tale. I think in this piece, as I will discuss in later parts, the author was able to put into words a transformation we rarely get to observe in closeness, the kind of transformation that turns a kind man into a “just man” the kind of death that turns this world from a beautiful and happy place into a world that is closing in on our main character, that is forcing him to surface temporarily and gasp for air, much like he does when he finds peace in the water, wading breath after air, after sea. I firmly believe that

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

Tim Winton’s funny and sprawling saga, Cloudstreet is an Australian classic novel which shows a tightly structured narrative that charts twenty years of cohabitation of two contrasting working class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, thrown together in misfortune to live under one roof in No.1 Cloudstreet. Winton paints a nostalgic picture of Australia’s post-war past, evokes a time and place that no longer exists. Winton’s characters are a “restless mob” who individually are finding one’s place in the world or in society and each are searching for the meaning of life. We learn about Fish’s and Rose’s characters through a flexible, shifting narrative (cyclical) structure and omniscient point-of-view that gives us access to their thoughts and feelings.

The themes of faith and religion are weaved through Cloudstreet. The text presents an amalgam of traditional Christian beliefs, working class superstitions and Aboriginal spirituality. Tim Winton builds layers of religious symbolism through the text to show its influence on culture. For example, the river becomes a surreal environment where many important events occur such as the ‘black angel’ (Winton, 1998, page 220) walking on the river, fish that ‘shone like money’ (Winton, 1998, page 216) swarming into Quick’s boat and Fish and Quick being embraced by the stars on the river. The nature in which the river is treated, the clarity and peace upon which it imparts and the importance the characters place upon it create the river as a symbol for the coming together of the two families.

In the iconic Australian text, Cloudstreet, author Tim Winton portrays two vastly differing and struggling families; the Lambs and the Pickles, in the barren land of post war Perth forced, against their will, to live under the same roof at number 1 Cloud Street. Although each of the characters has diverging personalities, perspectives and issues throughout the text, they are more alike than it may seem at a surface level. Every one of the characters all struggle with their own personal adversities, but each one of them also seem to be fleeing from these issues rather than tackling them head on. Whether knowing or unknowing, each of Cloudstreet’s characters are all interconnected, walking “the same corridor time makes for us”. With the house

In conjunction with the symbolic representation of Elisa’s life, the dramatic description of the environment can also be seen as a unique representation of the relationship conflict between husband and wife. Steinbeck’s foggy description demonstrates conflict through the following statement, "a time of quiet and waiting." This description is interesting because the fields are personified as waiting for rain, however, “rain and fog do not go together” therein lies the conflict just as Elisa waits for a positive change in how her husband treats her (Palmerino, Gregory J). Gregory P. further points out that, “The natural elements of the foothills ranch seem as unwilling to confront each other as the characters that inhabit its environs. Hence, fog and rain can be seen as the female and male equivalents to Elisa and Henry.” This only further solidifies the deep rooted troubles within Elisa and her relationship with her husband. The setting of the story is personified to act as a symbolic representation of the couple’s relationship (Steinbeck, John 337-338).

“Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,/Little Lamb Ill tell thee;” (10-11) He is speaking to the animal fiercely, by saying Little Lamb I’ll tell you, i’ll tell you, as if the child knows where the lamb comes from. In this last stanza, we suddenly see that there is a hidden relationship that we have

As she is developing, she is tantalized by the societal norms he represents. She is ready to give up the backwoods (a symbol of herself) for all he (a symbol of society) has to offer. Convinced of that, she sets off to find the secret of the elusive white heron and in order to find the heron, she had to climb to what was literally the top of the world for her, the top of the pine tree. The world from the top was different than the city and it was different from the woods at ground level. From the top her perspective about the world changed, it was vast and awesome, and she understood her place in it more than before. She understood it to mean more than to sacrifice her own self for the gifts this man had to offer that were tantalizing but incapitable with her personality and true self.

For the rest of the night, the little lamb stayed on the meadows nursing its broken heart, as well as braying and crying out until it could no longer utter another cry of misery. Amidst the feelings of abandonment and disregard, the lamb felt an aching void eating away at its heart, the heartache spreading throughout its

The speaker catches not only a fish but a “tremendous” fish. At first the speaker was disappointed that the fish did not fight to get away, but gains respect for it along with a connection to the fish. The fish was not only tremendous but also becomes “venerable” which attaches the speaker, as well as the reader to the fish personally. In the poem, the speaker describes the fish saying, “his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wall-paper” and “Its pattern of darker brown was like wall-paper”. Both similes that the speaker used to describe the fish’s skin gives the reader an image of what the speaker sees, knowing the fish is old and must have been peeling off because of how much the fish has been through. The speaker looks past the dead skin which she says is “dark and brown” and sees that the fish is

In this astounding yet woeful moment, the narrator of Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat comes to the forlorn realization that nature is unconcerned with the trials and suffering that he, and his fellow shipwrecked companions aboard their small, wayward lifeboat, are facing. After inwardly ranting at the gods and Fate about the injustice and absurdity of their ordeal on the lonely sea, the narrator (who is embodied the correspondent character) sinks into existential despair as he can find no greater meaning or redemptive purpose in their predicament; nor any benevolent deity or greater power who will answer their appeals for salvation. Nature stands as indifferent to mankind as surely as man clings to the preciousness of his fragile, yet all-encompassing, life. The rules that govern reality seem incomprehensible and are incomparable to man’s rules of justice and meaning. While man may turn to his fellow man for help in the struggle for survival and meaning, in the final confrontation with nature and death, each man ultimately stands alone. In the search of meaning, the narrator wrestles with existential paradoxes.

As a young boy, Trond’s interactions with water illustrates his innocence, showing his youthful behavior and preservation of innocence. Growing up, water has played a huge role in Trond’s life; He would often go out, “fishing for trout in the river” (15) or “riding logs down the river” (15). These activities that Trond engages in reflects Trond’s close bond with the river and how it brought out his adventurous and youthful behavior. The dynamic environment of the river and the never-ending flow of water is symbolic of Trond’s constant energetic youth. As a kid, Trond was always outside admiring the beauty of nature or out stealing horses, and the river provided him the opportunity to do that. In order to go out stealing horses, Trond had to “row across the river”(32), in which the river acted as the path or gateway that led Trond to his next adventure. In addition, the river also represents Trond’s reluctance to change or grow out of his childhood. Trond recalls, “I could immerse myself in water up to my chin and remain the person I was”(101). This highlights the idea that the river is a comfort zone in which Trond is able to submerge himself in and stay youthful. Trond doesn’t want to grow out of his childhood and the river protects his innocence. Even with the “current pounding away and pulling at his body,”(101) Trond felt untouched and remained the same person. This shows how the river maintains Trond’s growth into a man and it serves to show that Trond is the “anchor of