Australian Author, Tim Winton’s collection of short stories titled, ‘The Turning’, Includes 17 short stories connected through themes, locations and characters. Winton’s fascinating stories allow the reader to make connections between themselves, charterers and locations. Three short stories that hold a strong connection between the reader and the action of the stories, ‘On her knees’, ‘Damaged Goods’ and ‘Long clear view’.
Throughout the engaging, descriptive short story, ‘On her knees’, Tim Winton investigates the theme of dignity. Throughout the story the narrator and main character’s mother showed dignity. She quit her job as a specialized employee in a medical office as well as becoming a cleaner to pay off her son’s Uni fees and …show more content…
The female narrator, tells the story of her husband Vic’s teenage obsession over a girl named Strawberry Alison, with a bright red birthmark which covered half her face and neck, like a mask that couldn’t be removed. The narrator tells her husband’s life story from her perspective. ‘During the day he dreamed of pulling her into a car and tearing out of town and heading north. He’d rescue her, love her and marry her…’(page range 60-61) It’s a strange mingling of first and second person points of view that places the reader into the lives of Vic (as an adult and teenager) and his wife. The story contains a moment of insight which is directed at the question of the story, who or what is damaged goods? Could it have been, ‘Strawberry Alison… ‘could have been stunning.’ ‘As if you (Strawberry Alison) qualify as his sort of ‘Damaged goods.’ ‘Vic’s wife wonders if her ‘husbands love could be another act of kindness’. This is relevant to the audience because not everyone is perfect, and people hide matter because they think it could damage the good that people might think they have in …show more content…
He feels he is missing a piece to the puzzle, or if he has missed something that happened that leaves him out of the loop. Vic is treated with misgiving within the town, perhaps as a result of being the son of a policeman, or possibly just because he is new in town ‘The son of the copper’. This anonymous secret may suggest that these people are hiding something, or may just highlight Vic’s already obvious fascination. Vic obviously looks up to his father as a role model, clearly values their relationship very highly. His father’s job means that Vic doesn’t get to spend much time with him, and we find that Vic feels alone, or lonely when he cannot be with his father. Vic develops this obsession with his father’s rifle, that is hidden in Vic’s parents’ room. He takes it out, not to shoot, but to feel the smoothness of it. It seems to calm him, and to help him when he feels alone. Winton tells us how Vic loves the rifle, “you know it’s old and ugly... You love it because it’s yours.” It is also suggested that the reason that Vic loves the rifle, is because of the connection it gives him to his father. Throughout the story, we are told of memories that Vic has with his father, of going out shooting together. This helps us to make the link between Vic, the rifle, and Vic’s father. This is relevant to the audience because most policemen go through traumatic experiences within the line of their
Throughout the engaging, descriptive short story, ‘On her knees’, Tim Winton investigates the theme of dignity. Throughout the story the narrator and main character’s mother showed dignity. She quit her job as a specialized employee in a medical office as well as becoming a cleaner to pay off her son’s Uni fees and …show more content…
The female narrator, tells the story of her husband Vic’s teenage obsession over a girl named Strawberry Alison, with a bright red birthmark which covered half her face and neck, like a mask that couldn’t be removed. The narrator tells her husband’s life story from her perspective. ‘During the day he dreamed of pulling her into a car and tearing out of town and heading north. He’d rescue her, love her and marry her…’(page range 60-61) It’s a strange mingling of first and second person points of view that places the reader into the lives of Vic (as an adult and teenager) and his wife. The story contains a moment of insight which is directed at the question of the story, who or what is damaged goods? Could it have been, ‘Strawberry Alison… ‘could have been stunning.’ ‘As if you (Strawberry Alison) qualify as his sort of ‘Damaged goods.’ ‘Vic’s wife wonders if her ‘husbands love could be another act of kindness’. This is relevant to the audience because not everyone is perfect, and people hide matter because they think it could damage the good that people might think they have in …show more content…
He feels he is missing a piece to the puzzle, or if he has missed something that happened that leaves him out of the loop. Vic is treated with misgiving within the town, perhaps as a result of being the son of a policeman, or possibly just because he is new in town ‘The son of the copper’. This anonymous secret may suggest that these people are hiding something, or may just highlight Vic’s already obvious fascination. Vic obviously looks up to his father as a role model, clearly values their relationship very highly. His father’s job means that Vic doesn’t get to spend much time with him, and we find that Vic feels alone, or lonely when he cannot be with his father. Vic develops this obsession with his father’s rifle, that is hidden in Vic’s parents’ room. He takes it out, not to shoot, but to feel the smoothness of it. It seems to calm him, and to help him when he feels alone. Winton tells us how Vic loves the rifle, “you know it’s old and ugly... You love it because it’s yours.” It is also suggested that the reason that Vic loves the rifle, is because of the connection it gives him to his father. Throughout the story, we are told of memories that Vic has with his father, of going out shooting together. This helps us to make the link between Vic, the rifle, and Vic’s father. This is relevant to the audience because most policemen go through traumatic experiences within the line of their