That Deadman Dance Literary Elements

Historical Fiction

The novel is set in Albany, Western Australia, in the early 19th century.

Narrator: Omniscient speaker

Point of View: Third person

Playful, Critical, Optimistic

Protagonist: Bobby Wabalanginy Antagonist: The negative changes brought by the new arrivals (European settlers and American whalers)

With the arrival of European settlers on the native land of the Noongar people, good relations and mutual agreements are created. However, as the settlers impose strict rules and establish their colony discrepancies crop up among the natives. Caught between the two worlds Bobby witnesses the impact of colonization as the native culture and way of life is gradually suppressed.

The climax occurs when an elderly Booby attempts to express the spirit of the native land through the dance but no one understands its significance.

The takeover and colonization of the native land by the European settler is foreshadowed in the initial contact that was too friendly and benevolent.

N/A

The novel alludes to the ‘friendly frontier’ where the Noongar people had their early contact with the Europeans and the whalers from the Western world.

“And then they were in a narrow channel, grey rock sloping either side and ribbons of seaweed waving from a fathom or two below the sea’s skin. There were figures on the shore, and a white sandy beach, dense and willowy trees … A few grey-roofed, white buildings huddled in the cleft between two hills shone warmly in the last moments of a falling sun.”

Bobby’s reality becomes a paradox once he is caught between the native tradition and western culture introduced on their land.

N/A

“A jig, they said, his feet springing up from the deck again and again”

“The campfire flames, barely noticed, leapt and crackled.”