Genre
A novel
Setting and Context
The events of the story take place in Jigalong’s community in Western Australia and at the Moore River Native Settlement. The year when the most important events take place is 1931.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told from the third point of view by an omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
Tone is contemplative and mood is uneasy, worrying but hopeful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Molly Craig is the protagonist of the story while the Western Australian Government and the white men in general are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is person vs. nature and person vs. society. Molly and her cousins have to prove that the fact that they are of mixed race doesn’t make them less humans. The conflict person vs. nature is revealed to readers through the girls’ journey.
Climax
“You poor silly girl, you could have died in the bush somewhere and no one would have known.”
The emotions of Molly’s relatives when they see their girls are the highlight of the story.
Foreshadowing
Eventually the Western Australian government decided to establish two institutions for Aboriginal children with white fathers.
This sentence foreshadows the events that are about to happen. Molly and her cousins are going to be sent to one of the camps.
Understatement
Within this strange and temporary marriage, the father was Thomas Craig; the mother, like most aborigines, had just one name – Maude.
This sentence shows that it doesn’t really important who Molly’s mother is, for there are many women like her, those who believe the white men and then are left with children.
Allusions
The novel alludes to Carralup Settlement near Katanning in the south-west and the Moore River Native Settlement, Gracie Fields.
Imagery
There is an imagery of desert and wild nature.
Paradox
Everyone – white and native – looked upon these children as “others”.
Those so called “others” are just like them, but people behave as if they are monsters.
Parallelism
They ate grass that fed the animals that fed the men.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
He tried to explain to her mother that the patrol officer was a government representative and an officer of the Crown. (The Crown is metonymy which stands for the royalty).
When the white men came to Australia, they brought many new things. (The white men are synecdoche which stands for people of the Caucasian race.
Personification
The rain was threatening.
