The Reservoir
“It was said to be four or five miles along the gully, past orchards and farms, paddocks filled with cattle, sheep, wheat, gorse, and the squatters of the land who were the rabbits eating like modern sculpture into the hills. The Reservoir was the end of the world; beyond it, you fell; beyond it were paddocks of thorns, strange cattle, strange farms, legendary people whom we would never know.” From this description, we get a clear picture of what the surroundings of the reservoir looked like. There is also a picture of why the reservoir was considered dangerous to children in the line that talks about the strangeness of cattle and farms. The description also emphasizes the extent of the danger by comparing the reservoir to the end of the world.
Coming of Age
The children were coming of age as illustrated by their growing curiosity about intimacy. The description gives us an idea of how much knowledge they had regarding the topic. It amplifies where their interest was at that particular stage of their growth. It also explains their innocence in the topic as they were just becoming teenagers: “We liked to find a courting couple and follow them and when, as we knew they must do because they were tired or for other reasons, they found a place in the grass and lay down together, we liked to make jokes about them, amongst ourselves. 'Just wait for him to kiss her,' we would say. 'Watch. There. A beaut. Smack.' Often we giggled and lingered even after the couple had observed us. We were waiting for them to do it. Every man and woman did it, we knew that for a fact.”
The Heat and Restlessness
“…the February sun dried the world; even at night the rusty sheet of roofing-iron outside by the cellar stayed warm, Day after day the sun still waited to pounce. We were tired, our skin itched, our sunburn had peeled and peeled again, the skin on our feet was hard, there was dust in our hair, our bodies clung with the salt of sea-bathing and sweat, the towels were harsh with salt. School soon, we said again, and were glad; for lessons gave shade to rooms and corridors; cloakrooms were cold and sunless.” This imagery emphasizes the magnitude of the heat and how it dried the world. From the description, we also learn of the damage the heat caused to their skins causing them to itch. Their restlessness is seen when they kept hoping that the schools would be reopened since it was much colder there.
The Disease
The description gives an idea of how deadly the disease was according to the number of deaths and cases that were listed in their local papers. It also shows how the disease affected their learning which was now done from home. This kind of learning was boring and tiresome given the heat was still too much. The imagery also depicts how the children had little understanding of the disease by envying the boy with the iron lungs. It was like they did not understand how lucky they were to have not contracted the disease. “Then, swiftly, suddenly, disease came to the town. Infantile Paralysis. Black headlines in the paper, listing the number of cases, the number of deaths. Children everywhere, out in the country, up north, down south, two streets away. The schools did not reopen. Our lessons came by post, in smudged print on rough white paper; they seemed make-shift and false, they inspired distrust.”
