David Malouf's Fly Away Peter

Belonging is considered as a human need, providing individuals with a form of identity and offers security. The poem portrays an insight into the migrants facing separation from Australian society on arrival and thus are suffering from a lack of belonging to their new “home”. This separation from society is evident in the fourth stanza, where the composer makes reference to the visible, yet non-accessible highway. The quote “A barrier at the main gate, sealed off the highway” illustrates the separation between the migrants and contributes to the theme of loneliness and detachment from the rest of Australia. The simile “It rose and fell like a finger” continues this idea and refers to the boom gate isolating the migrants from the life outside of the neglected hostel. The personification of the boom gate as a “finger” implies that the migrants are controlled by human authority, diminishing their freedom and autonomy over their lives. This idea of uncertainty and disorientation is similarly expressed through the use of the motif of a bird. In both similes, “Like a homing pigeon, circling to get its bearings” and “We lived like birds of passage” a bird is used to convey the constant moving and unpredictability of their journey to safety. The use of “birds of passage” compares the migrants to migratory birds, it emphasises that they are constantly moving and are never

Gabriel Quinn, a scientist partially responsible for the destruction of Samaritan Bay and employed by the company Domidion International; attempts suicide in his hometown of Samaritan Bay and ends up saving himself in a bid to save a drowning first nations girl in the water. Much like himself, the girl is struggling in the water, and when he first sees her he describes her as a “hand thrust out of the water, then and arm, fragile, a slender branch caught in a flood.”. This girl is a symbol of the guilt that weighs Gabriel down, from the disaster that drove out the first nations people and obliterated his hometown. Gabriel meets two other characters, Crisp, a crafty local full of vibrant stories, and Mara, an artist who returned from Toronto to reconcile with her past. The relationships that Gabriel develop with the people in Samaritan Bay when he returns is what, in my opinion, ‘makes’ the novel as good as it

Francois used to visit her on Sundays, and also Charas went there a couple of times in order to get answers for their questions. She would kindly answer any questions, but when they asked why she killed her man, she simply answered “I cannot answer that question”. Later Francois realized that there has to be some connection with the flies as Henri asked him about the flies’ lifespan, and talked about a funny looking fly, which he caught, but had to release, but later had to find again, as he was told by his mother. He then tells Helene, that the fly she was looking for was at his study that morning, and she becomes excited. They go out to talk in the garden about the insect, where he threatens her that if she won’t tell the truth about that night, he will tell the information to the police about that fly. Francois knew the she is not insane, that’s why he lied to her. At last he succeeded to convince her that it is better to tell him the truth, so she called him back to the house, and gave him a letter, to read it and do what he wants with it.

Set in the Australian summer of 1967, Michael Gow’s Away is an elaborate play which explores the ideas of self- discovery and change. Through the war affected nation, three families, each from different social classes, depart on an iconic Australian holiday to the beach. In the play, Gow utilises the characters to demonstrate that going away physically is intrinsically linked to their mental developments. With the help of references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer night’s Dream, Away uses Gwen and Coral to show the significant psychological changes made by the characters during holidays to the coast. Tom throughout the play acts as a catalyst for the change in other characters and is associated with Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Throughout the novel Fly Away Peter, published in 1982, David Malouf explores many binary opposites as a way to map Jim’s existence. Some of the opposites explored by Malouf include life and death, war and peace, and, innocence and experience. While exploring each set of opposites individually, Malouf is also able to touch on other sets of opposites in the process. For example Malouf explores war and peace hand in hand with light and dark. Malouf explores most of these opposites through the protagonist, Jim Saddler, the supporting characters of Jim’s father and Ashley Crowther, as well as the setting and the structure. The main opposite explored throughout Fly Away Peter is innocence and experience. At the beginning of the novel Jim is portrayed

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are left stranded on an island after a fatal plane crash in the midst of a World War. With no communication to the outer world and no presence or influence of adults on the island, Ralph, Jack Merridew, and Piggy are forced to take initiative if the group of hopeless boys want to survive. The group of boys experience a drastic change throughout their time on the island, a change that no one would ever expect to occur to a young group of primed British boys. The leader of the stranded choirists on the island, Jack Merridew, shows such a change that he soon persuades other boys to follow his savage actions as the novel progresses. Though the changes to Jack’s mental and physical characteristics advance slowly at first, the final personality of Jack is instantly taken over at the climax of the novel to a dehumanized savage. Jack’s innocence is corrupted by his inability to withstand a society without rules proving man's good essential nature is altered by the evil within society.

In Fly Away Peter, David Malouf uses the natural environment to highlight the cognitive journey to understanding the contrasts in, and value of, life. Malouf uses the sanctuary’s peaceful serenity to illustrate the blinded innocence of humanity, contrasting with Brisbane which begins to expose the darker side of humankind. This is then vigorously supported by the horrors of the trenches in the Western Front. The natural environment is also used at the beach to explore the emergent answers to the meaning of human life.

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies displays pivitol moments revealing someones level of maturity. Lord of the Flies takes place in the aftermath of a plane crash, the surviving population of boys create a society forcing them to assume adult roles. Golding novel proves the island reveals the childrens level of maturity through Ralph, Piggy, and, Simon.

The presence of the biplane is established through “flopping” throughout the estuary “in all directions” with its “clumsy shape”, that foreshadows the intrusion of war’s “murderous machines” into the natural environment and destroys nature as a result. This idea is then reinforced when Malouf foreshadows that war is unavoidable through the “tilting” and the “sliding” of the city of Brisbane. To further illustrate the idea that war destroys the natural environment, Malouf juxtaposes the tranquil setting of the Queensland estuary against the barbaric conditions on the Western Front. Malouf establishes an idealistic setting at the beginning of the text where war does not exist. He reinforces this idea through exploiting vibrant and positive imagery, such as poetic visual imagery of the “intensely blue mountains”.

Michael Gow's play, "Away" expresses the idea of going through changes and receiving help from people around you. The key characters of the play experiences change and renewal as a result of their relationships with others ad the summer vacation. Coral and Gwen is two characters that undergo the most changes throughout the trip. Coral manage to moved on from her's son death while Gwen changed from a snobby person to a person who is more understandable. Tom is one of the critical character that help Coral and Gwen realised their issues and surpasses it. The play showed lives of people and their own struggle during the 60s and how they overcome it.

When a group of people is stranded on an island, it is very easy to lose hope, even if rescue is very close. People never know when something will happen, especially if no one knows to do it. In the young adult novel, Lord of the flies, William Golding writes the events that happen to a group of kids, with varying personalities, who are stranded on an island, and how their personalities affect the outcomes. A message saying to never give up is effectively shown leading up to the conclusion because the boys are very close to being rescued, but they do not know it, then the conch breaks, which symbolizes the loss of the social structure that has been developed. After that, Jack’s group becomes savage and hunts Ralph, but shortly after that, a naval officer appears.

Malouf evokes the horror and absurdity of war in ‘Fly Away Peter’ through an Australian frame of reference that creates reality for the reader. Discuss.

'Fly Away Peter' is essentially a story about life. Through the life of Jim Saddler the reader becomes aware of the ideas posed by the author, David Malouf. Jim's life, if anything, is indeed a journey, unfolding through various broadening experiences that lead to Jim's eventual understanding of the world and his own self. However, to simply say that this understanding is enhanced solely by his contact with those around him is only true to a certain extent. Jim's journey of life exists on many levels, just one of which is the lessons he learns through his contact with others.

The idyllic world of sandpipers and kingfishers is contrasted with the brutal conflict amongst the mud and horror of the trenches of Armentieres through symbolism and binary opposition within David Malouf’s Fly Away Peter. The sanctuary owner and employee are drawn to war developing their identities as they endure a new world unlike anything they have experienced. Symbolism is a powerful tool used throughout the novel as a depiction of war and the celebration of life. Binary opposition of innocence and experience is addressed through the characters and setting to portray the ideas within Fly Away Peter.

In the Lord of the Flies, a group of boys were all found on the same plane flying over the ocean in the midst of WWII. In the center of an air battle, the boys find their plane venturing down at a rapid rate. After the plane crashes to the ground, the boys realize they are