Carpentaria Literary Elements

literary fiction

A fictional town called Desperance, in the Gulf of Carpentaria in north Queensland, Australia. The novel appears to be set during the late 20th or early 21st century.

Narrator: Omniscient
Point of view: Third person

Tone: Ironic, epic, mythical, volatile
Mood: Suspenseful, mournful, hopeful

The protagonist is Normal Phantom. The antagonist is the Gurfurrit mining company.

The major conflict in the novel is between the Aboriginal community that opposes the mine and the mining company that oppresses them with the support of white residents of Desperance.

The climax occurs when men from Mozzie Fishman's convoy set fire to the mine and free Will Phantom. Mozzie's men and Will watch the dramatic, total destruction of the mine they have been fighting against for years. This leads the mining company to withdraw from Desperance. Subsequently, floods destroy the whole town.

"Norm thought the old grey-green boat resembled a sea coffin, not the piece of tin Elias liked to float around in at sea." As Norm watches Elias set back out to the sea, he foreshadows his friend's death, making it clear that Elias's fate is set.

"Precarious modernity squashed by hostilities dormant for four hundred years, and Angel Day started it up again over an old clock and a statue. Probably all wars start by a bit of taunting like this."
The narrator understates the causes that lead to the violent fight at the garbage dump. The main issue at hand is a longstanding argument about land ownership on the Westside. The narrator's understatement of this fight underscores the humorous character of the situation, since Angel is willing to go to war just to salvage a few prized pieces of garbage.

At the outset of the novel, Armageddon is an allusion to the battle between good and evil before the final Day of Judgment in the New Testament.

The novel contains significant imagery of seagulls, which are viewed as spiritual beings that help guide the dead to the spirit world.

"Mouth agape, hoarse throat yelling nothing but silence, he kept on chasing the black wind before losing his memory forever." Paradoxically, Elias is only able to yell silence, since his battle with the sea storm has left him exhausted and speechless.

The author establishes a parallel between the beginning of the novel, in which Angel Day decides to build her family's home on top of the serpent's nest on the Westside of Desperance, and the end of the novel, in which Norm decides to to build a new home for his family in the same spot.

"White hands" is a synecdoche for white people and white oppression.

"She had given the whole town the heebie-jeebies just listening to her whistling, her ghostly crying." The narrator personifies the storm that hits the town of Desperance.