Fly Away Peter

The choices we decide to make build our path in life. If we make the right choices, then your life will be the life you want to live. I believe that we were all destined with some kind of purpose. However, the choices we make will determine whether we fulfill that purpose or not. Thus, our choices will ultimately decide our fate. Through the years, we have been taught about choices and their impact on our actions. We have free will in the sense that we can either go on one road or the other. We decide what we do on a daily basis, moment by moment, and we decide what path we want to go on. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was a fireman who had his life entirely changed when he met a 17 year old girl named Clarisse, and an old woman who

“Fly Away Peter is an exploration of Jim’s physical and spiritual journey from innocence to experience through his move from Australia to Europe when joining the war” (Nair 149). Malouf showcases his journey by exploring where Jim originated

In the Discourse on Metaphysics by Leibniz he suggest that, "we maintain that everything that is to happen to some person is already contained virtually in his nature or notion, as properties of a circle are contained in its definition." This assertion raised a difficulty for Leibniz. This difficulty was that "human freedom will no longer hold, and that an absolute fatality would rule over all our actions as well as over all the rest of what happens in the world." With such a reality there would be no use for free will and whatever fate succumbs an individual is the will of the Most High; in other words, being destined. But for Leibniz, this is not the determined reality of humanity. Leibniz

The identity of a character can be discovered in many aspects of their contextual and intellectual characteristics determining who or what they are to become. In David Malouf’s 1982 novella Fly Away Peter, Jim Saddler is an employed twitcher in Queensland 1914, one of many young Australians searching for their purpose in life as the war to end all wars breaks out pulling them all in to the trenches. Jim’s search for identity is represented largely through his actions and interactions with others, as well as his thoughts and interests. Malouf presents particular ideas about identity and how it is shaped in his novel, looking particularly at the identity of Jim pre-war and post-war, also the identity possessed by Ashley Crowther with his foreign

The river represents the period between life and death. Another part of this symbol is the air representing life and under the rocks and waterfall representing death. Just as the transition from life to death is in motion, so is the rushing of the water. Both have a beginning and an ending point, but the part in the middle is constantly moving, swirling and churning. As the girl loses hope for survival and the waterfall is approaching, the narrator states, “[S]he becomes part of the river” (45). The girl now crosses over the borderline of life and death, and she is about to be swallowed up by the falls of death and can never return to life. However, when the diver goes into the river to save her, he comes out saying that “he’d never enter that river again” (47). He encounters the spiritual eccentricity of the edge of death when he looks into lifeless girl’s animated eyes, and he can not fathom that experience. Another symbol that is introduced twice is the gurgle of the aquarium, which symbolizes the attempt to understand nature’s cycle of life. As she floats downstream, the girl remembers “her sixth-grade science class, the gurgle of the aquarium at the back of the room”(45). During this moment, all of her thoughts are puzzled, and she cannot understand the death awaiting her. Later on, after sleepless nights, the diver is in the empty school where “the only sound the gurgle of the aquarium” (48). This moment is the point at which he decides

Fate determines each person’s will that believe it is meant to happen. In the book, In the

Life requires us to move to new stages, each with its own set of obstacles and challenges which, if successfully overcome, can enrich one’s experience. A significant role in this process is played by familial and social values and external interventions. Stephen Daldry’s film ‘Billy Elliot’ (2000) depicts the protagonist’s growth as he discovers a passion for ballet which drives him to break free from traditional masculine stereotypes in his mining hometown. This similar drive traces the quest of the Brennan Family in the Australian Documentary “Proof of life”, when their son Nigel, a war photojournalist, is captured and held hostage in Somalia for ransom. Both texts illustrate the importance of determination, persistence and tenacity in

Automatically, the reader knows that serious issues are about to be discussed and that the outcome may not be positive. This novel challenges the material ideology discussed above. It does this by bringing the issues to the forefront and reporting on them in a fictitious yet realistic manner. The reader is not led to believe that the ending will be happy, he is supposed to expect the consider the harsh realities of the world throughout the piece.

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.

The thoughts and emotions that occur in connection with water are triggered by the lake, and they help Ruth choose transience over any other form of existence. When water floods Fingerbone, the boundaries are overrun, exposing the impermanence of the physical world, and the world’s own natural push towards transience. Water shifts the margins, warning us that the visible world only shows us part of the whole--or perhaps even a mere reflection of a false reality. After the fantastic train wreck in which Ruth’s grandfather perished, the lake sealed itself over in ice, changing boundaries again, while it concealed, like a secret, the last traces of the victims with the illusion of its calm surface. The lake, a source of beauty and darkness, life and death, is “the accumulated past, which vanishes but does not vanish, which perishes and remains” (172). Water carries the symbolic possibility for rebirth– the flood causes the graves in the town cemetery to sink, “so that they looked a little like…empty bellies," suggesting that the dead were born into the receding waters (62). As water and death are so pre-eminent in Sylvie’s consciousness, in dream, she teaches Ruth to dance underwater, to live a life of transience to be

`Fly Away Peter' by David Malouf - To what extent is Jim's understanding of self enhanced by his contact with those around him?

This chapter as the beginning of the book sets the scene and begins to develop the characters of the novel. The story begins with Jim in the swampland watching birds calmly, looking at how they live their lives, remembering that these small birds have seen more of the world than most people, "has been further and higher than even that clumsy plane" (p.3). As a respectful intruder into the birds' territories, Jim feels that nature is in balance before he notices a biplane begins making circles above the swampland.

This novel teaches us about the endless possibilities of life that we can face and that we can keep trying until we succeed with the many opportunities that we have around us.

Widely recognized for philosophical writings as a French essayist and playwright, Albert Camus is a major contributor to exploring the absurd in modern Western literature. Characterized by highlighting the human condition, Camus’ writing style focuses on the everyday lives and inner psyche of individuals in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Such a character-driven writing style is most notably displayed in his 1946 work, The Stranger, a tale of an emotionally-detached man known as Meursault, who lives in French-colonized Algiers during the intermission of the two World Wars. Consisting of two parts—The Stranger first explores his daily life as a free man, and in the second, delves more into the character’s own philosophy as Meursault contemplates during his remaining time in jail. At its core, the story explores the relationships and interactions of the odd Meursault through the character’s inner monologue and dialogue with those around him. The story itself is very ambiguous in its’ nature, and the idea of contemplating the meaning of life and purpose is prevalent throughout The Stranger. Evidently, Camus writes Meursault as a man who believes that life has no meaning, and therefore people are free to do as they please. To supplement the protagonist’s view, the author also presents Meursault alongside various personalities of key supporting characters, each with their own unique personality, and differing outlooks on life. Doing so thus enables Camus to get readers to contemplate about meaning through multiple perspectives. Stylistically, through many devices that emphasize diction, imagery, and story themes. Ultimately, The Stranger is a way for Camus to convey that there are multiple ways to perceive the meaning of life, using Meursault to directly project a different view than what readers are used to. Surely, with the intent of crafting a protagonist so strange, that Meursault becomes comparable to other characters; less so as a reflection of what the author personally believes the meaning of life is, but more of what such exploration of the idea could be.

I am shock by what I am seeing now. I find myself flying in the middle of the boundless sky like an eagle. The beauty of the earth is all under my eyes now. I can see the greenish forests, the giant mountains, the empty lands, and the busy cities that are far away. But the most beautiful thing is the blue sky itself where I am in. Suddenly the next moment, I was standing on the roof of a 100-stories tall skyscraper while enjoying my expensive wine and the landscape of the city. When I look down, although I am scared of heights, I see the miniature of pedestrians and cars that are moving around. Travelling in an imagination world is probably the most joyful thing to do in the life. I don’t where I will be next yet, but it will come to my mind when it is the right time.