Jasper Jones By Craig Silvey

Craig Silvey engages us with Jasper Jones in order to convey a certain moral message in hope to make us stop and think. No one in this novel is truly accepted into the community, which tells me as the responder, that in order for this society to succeed differences need to be tossed aside. Jasper Jones is a credible recollection of the injustice, racism and social exclusion that exists in the Australian society. It also tackles growing up, first love, family unity, and a sense of belonging in a community.

The Australian history in the 1960s era proves to focus mainly on racial equality. There were many significant acts in this same time period, including the Indigenous Rights Movement, the White Australia policy and the 1967 referendum in regards to racial equality. This particular part of Australian history relates back to the novel Jasper Jones in numerous ways. It is clear that these powerful movements would have provoked Corrigan as a community. Jasper is treated as outsider due to his racial differences which sets him apart from what is considered ‘normal’. Jasper is described as a “half-caste”, due to his mixed race of white and Aboriginal. The community continues to refer to Jasper as this, despite the fact it is a rather offensive term to use. Regardless of their own personal flaws and egregious conduct, Corrigan’s citizens have Jasper pegged as an unrepentant bad boy. Typically, whenever a crime or misdemeanour occurs, such as the burning down of the post office, he is the likeliest

Jasper Jones has strong intertextual links to an all-time favourite but a complex novel to understand, To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee. In fact Silvey wrote Jasper Jones as an easier and modern version of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Many of the characters have parallel personalities and some of the main ideas were the same. Both deal with racism and discrimination in small country towns, both explore the distant relation between law and justice, and both, Jasper Jones and TKAMB create a world of moral opposites

The Novel Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey revolves around a young boy named Charlie Bucktin living in the small Australian town of Corrigan in the 1960’s. Charlie is exposed to the confronting issues of racial prejudice, injustice and moral duality. He is challenged to question right from wrong, has to come to the realization that law doesn’t always uphold justice and we as readers are positioned to understand that people are capable of holding two conflicting values and remain in confortable harmony. The ideas are portrayed through Silvey’s use of narrative conventions that are used to either challenge or reinforce our values, attitudes and beliefs on the issues explored.

Racism is heavily present during the 1960’s in the fictitious town of Corrigan, Australia. Throughout the novel Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey the character Jasper Jones is used to demonstrate the presence of racism and discrimination in Australia, with the setting of Corrigan during the 1960’s being used as a representation of a small rural town obsessed with appearances. Silvey uses setting to educate the racism that was present during the 1960’s in Australia through the use of first person narration and characters.

Although fictional texts are simply narratives, the characters and ideas presented within them have the ability to reflect a particular period in time and the attitudes and beliefs associated with it. The coming of age novel Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey, follows the journey of Charlie Bucktin, the thirteen-year-old protagonist, who is forced to rethink his traditional notions of right and wrong, after a tragedy opens his eyes to the world around him. Throughout the novel Silvey brings to light issues concerning morality, justice, and humility, by discussing them from the perspectives of certain individuals including Charlie, Jasper and Jeffrey. Overall it is these representations that provoke audiences to question their own morality, and to question the prejudices present in society during that era.

It is a natural part of human nature to long for the feeling of belonging, even if it means following a corrupt and unjust social regime. Craig Silvey weaves this idea into the novel Jasper Jones, in which the “half-caste” deuteragonist and protagonist Charlie Bucktin discover the death of the shire president’s daughter, Laura Wishart, and work together to find the culprit as to avoid the inevitable scapegoating of Jasper for this crime. Silvey’s implementation of the historical setting of the 1960’s introduces the themes of fear, racism within a social regime and scapegoating; these ideas relate to the racism present in Australia at the time, due to the reign of the White Australia Policy and the effect of the Vietnam War. By integrating these key ideas into the story of Jasper’s experiences with scapegoating, Silvey reflects on real-life examples of racism present in Australia during the 1960’s, as well as other developing nations, and how the need to impress others is the major drive for the wider

It is a natural part of human nature to long for the feeling of belonging and fitting into what people consider “normal.” Craig Silvey brings this idea into the novel Jasper Jones through the use of the historical setting of the 1960s as a platform to demonstrate realistic examples of racial discrimination and its consequences; the historical context also plays an important role in the setting of Corrigan, Western Australia, as the small fictitious town represents how the whole of Australia was following a corrupt social regime obsessed with appearances. The use of setting, first person narration and characters in the novel educates the reader of the reality of the “White Australia” movement and the impact it had on those of Australian Aboriginal

Introduction Prejudice refers to the judgements towards a person because of their race, social class, age, disability or sexual orientation. (Cherry, “What is Prejudice?”) Prejudice was, and still is, to a large extent experienced by people all over the world. It is a theme that is presented in so many works of literature in a plethora of different ways. One of the most prominent ways in which prejudice is explored is through the use of characters that perhaps are a different nationality or have a different orientation to the majority of the other characters in the works. Two texts, in which the theme is presented in an admirable way , are ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, and ‘Jasper Jones’ by Craig Silvey. Through the use of the

‘Jasper Jones’ challenges the idea that Australia is a mature nation and suggests that it can’t be with issues like racism still present, while ‘Jindabyne’ challenges the idea of everything is fine in Australia regarding racism, when really these issues are still prevalent. The issue of racism causes both Jasper and Susan to be represented very similarly in both texts, Jasper being positioned to be seen as lonely and Susan being represented as helpless, they are both without support due to the issue of racism. This shows the effects that racism can have on individuals in society, they become singled out without any help or support. Both texts have been successful challenging the ideas of the audience in relation to the treatment of

"Sugar Shack Johnny," as he was known in the pool halls of days gone by, had a rare combination of heart, muscle, and mind. He knew about hard roads and hard rides, and he loved life. Novak was a fearless tush hog. Even more impressively, Sugar Shack would not carry a gun, although many of his enemies did carry guns.

Welcome! Welcome! To Rodrigo’s Novel Analysis, by your favourite host…. RODRIGO! Or… I hope I am your favourite host {Tears animation on screen}. Today we will be looking at “Jasper Jones”, an Australian novel written by Craig Silvey. Just like last episode’s analysis of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, we will explore the deeper meaning to personal and societal issues faced by a major character in this book.

Prejudicial thinking is a prominent issue in both past and present societies, its heavy presence in literature consistently blurs into the world and day to day life, influencing people values, as subtle as they may be. The novel Jasper Jones written by Craig Silvey, showcases the disclosure of prejudice in a small town in Australia during the Vietnam War. The main character, Charlie Bucktin, struggles with the asperity of racism through his involvement with young aboriginal boy Jasper Jones as they work to solve the death of a young girl. In the film a daptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, a young girl—Scout Finch—is exposed to the evils of prejudice in her small town in Alabama through the case of a black man by the name of Tom Robinson in

In an ideal world, everyone would be treated equally, regardless of race or gender. Craig Silvey’s novel Jasper Jones and the film Jindabyne directed by Ray Lawrence are challenging texts with relation to representation of differences and tension in race and gender within Australian society. Both texts challenge their respective audiences to reflect on how Australian society treats individuals and challenges the constant misjudgment of Indigenous Australians. Silvey uses historical context to impose strong racial and gender bias in Australian society. Lawrence utilizes contrast in attitudes and values to challenge the audience and display characters being discriminated against and disrespected.

An example of which is demonstrated by the brutalization of Jasper by said authorities after the disappearance of Laura Wishart vindicated by no credible evidence other than the men’s bigotry and suspicion. Jasper has no legitimate recourse to salvage or redeem his name due to the presumptions made upon his character, other than the finite redemption of his prowess in sporting and its significance as social capital in Corrigan. Jasper, disinterested in refuting the prejudiced conceptions of Corrigan’s citizens transcends their manufactured typecast of an aboriginal person through determination to improve his own situation by leaving Corrigan despite the bigoted impressions embossed on Jasper’s character regardless of his intentions or actions. Thereby, employing Jasper’s character, and, more eminently, Corrigan’s condemnation of him, Silvey explores racial bigotry as a device of social exclusion and the repercussions of which on an individual, in Jasper’s case, transcendence through initial hardships of discrimination and resultant