Fly Away Peter Essay Research Paper Malouf

Fly Away Peter Essay, Research Paper

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.

Malouf’s ‘Fly Away Peter’ uses an Australian frame of reference to display the horrors and absurdity of war. The way in which Malouf writes creates reality – the reader can suspend disbelief and believe that the events in the novella are actually real. When we read ‘Fly Away Peter’, we see the story through Jim’s eyes. Jim is a bird watcher, and he is Australian. Ashley, his employer, was born in Australia and educated in England. Ashley has inherited the land on which Jim watches the birds. The Australian frame of reference is seen through Jim, juxtaposed with Ashley’s British influence.

The first few chapters of the book are set just before World War One, in coastal Queensland. A description is given where Jim and Ashley live and their lifestyles. Here we learn that they are not incredibly important or powerful people – they are ordinary. Many readers can identify with the characters, creating a sense of feasibility and reality within the story.

World War One is another setting in ‘Fly Away Peter’. Australia, being strongly tied to England, to obliged to be involved in the war, despite the lack of any other solid reasons. Jim and Ashley enlist, Jim as a soldier, Ashley as a general, only Ashley returns. Descriptions of events and locations that Jim gives while in war really display to the reader the horror and war and just how much people had sacrificed.

At the time of the World War One, Britain was Australia’s ‘mother country’. Influences were still very strong, and Australia, still very young, needed this support and comfort that Britain offered. Australia, as a country officially existed, but she had no identity of her own to set her apart from Britain. This is seen in history through the English style uniforms the army adopted, the clothes that were worn, and the style of houses. The isolation of Australia also had an effect on her development. There was a lack of technology, money and industry. Without that base, it seemed that Australia would develop rather slowly.

World War One was to be a morale raiser for Australia – her first war as a nation. It was seen as a chance to show to the world what Australia could be, the first step in breaking away from the restraints of Britain. In ‘Fly Away Peter’, Australia is seen through the contrasts of the descriptions of Jim’s homeland and descriptions of the locations of the war.

“The landscape, the whole great circle of it, grassheads, scrub, water, sky, quite took his breath away.” (Pg 17)

“There were emergency roads everywhere, cutting across what must once have been vineyards or beet-fields, metalled for motor vehicles and guns, cobbled or packed with dirt for the men, and they were all in use, with men on foot or on horseback moving in dense columns, mules, horsed wagons, guns.” (Pg 68)

This contrast portrays Jim’s disturbance. He is accustomed to his peaceful, quiet surroundings and his birds. The war though, is completely different. He is out of his comfort zone, and in something he has never experienced. As this disturbs Jim, it disturbs the reader, and foreshadows the horrors and troubles Jim faces.

Australia is also seen through the contrast of Jim and Ashley’s cultures – Jim living in Australia all his life, and Ashley being educated in England. Ashley is seen as higher class than Jim, because Ashley owns land, received a better education, while Jim is working class, and was educated in a one room school. Ashley’s classical taste in music suggests an education, also.

“He had been to school in England, then at Cambridge, then in Germany for a year studying music, and light have passed anywhere on that side of the world for an English gentleman.” (Pg 8)

War is not one of the most pleasant images this world has seen. Usually it is regarded as one of the most frightening. When reading ‘Fly Away Peter’, Malouf almost expects us to have a reasonable idea of the general experience and descriptions of war. We only see the war from a single person’s perspective – Jim’s. Even Jim’s descriptions though, give a good idea of the personal turmoils and hardships throughout the war.

The horror of war is not only shown through descriptions, but also through a character known as Wizzer Green. As readers we are told that Wizzer picked on Jim, for an unknown, unannounced reason.

“He didn’t know what he had done, maybe he had done nothing at all, but something in him offended Wizzer.” (Pg 62)

Wizzer seemed a very strong character, because of his willingness to fight Jim.

“…dull savagery he sensed in the other man, who’s square clenched brows and fiercely grinding jaw…” (pg 63)

A few chapters later, Jim is alone in the trenches during a battle. He expects very many members of his group are dead. Wizzer finds him, and Jim is glad that he is not alone. He expects that the pair will find safety – in each other’s company, and from the enemy. Wizzer refuses Jim’s invitation, and suddenly enters a state of disbelief – he has experienced too much and cannot think straight.

“Suddenly, alarmingly, Wizzer began to quake. His shoulders first, then his jaw. An odd moaning sound came from between the man’s

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