Pauls Dad

Where do your sympathies lie? Select one of the characters listed below and write a detailed paragraph explaining how you see them in a sympathetic way. This is not easy. You will have to think seriously about the person before writing.

(Consider the personality of the character in the novel and try to suggest possible reasons for these traits)

- Paul's Dad

- Mr Riggs

- Eric the Red

Paul's Dad

The character out of "The Bamboo Flute" I sympathise most with is Paul's Dad, because he was stern and a very hard worker. Paul's Dad lived during the great depression and as a result times were hard, there was no work around, and very little money. He was always working on the farm to try and keep it going but with all his hard work and determination he was still slowly losing the farm. Also, he was always grumpy and depressed due to the fact that he was a return soldier from World War II and he would still be trying to cope with what went on in the war and what he experienced as a soldier. He had no time for fun, games or music with his family as he was always trying to maintain the farm so he could provide for his family. Even though he could not devote a lot of his time to be with them, he still loved his family dearly and would have done anything to protect them. Also due to his sternness and depression was the fact that he was suffering great financial difficulty as he was not making enough money from the farm to make ends meet. Paul's Dad was a very loud person, probably because he has some sort of hearing damage from bombs, grenades and other explosives going off in the war. He was also unsympathetic, because when he fought in the war and was hurt he would have been told to get up and carry on with his duties and what he was doing. Paul's Dad has a huge amount of responsibilities to carry out so he can provide for his family and due to this he has no time for nonsense and his opinions are to the point. His personality is harsh because his life has been rather harsh to him as he has had to go to war, then try and keep his farm going, and keep his family and life together through the many years of "The Great Depression". Rounding up Paul's Dad really is a good man and all these various reasons is why I sympathise most with Paul's Dad because he has had to struggle with a lot of life's difficulties and has still managed to keep motivated.

Q3. Different people will read the text in different ways. One reading of this novel is that it is about a young boy growing up in rural South Australia during the Depression years. From the list below select one person and person and explain how their reading of the text will be different to yours. Explain what particular interest the person might have in the story. Which characters and events in the novel could these people relate to and why?

- A man who was a swaggie during those years

- An ex-soldier

- The wife of a battling farmer in those days

The wife of a battling farmer in those days

It is after WW11 and during the depression, the wife of a battling farmer in those days when reading "The Bamboo Flute" would most relate to Paul's Mum. Different people read text in different ways, she would read the text differently to me because our discursive backgrounds are totally different. She would read it differently because her husband would most likely have gone to WW11 and she would have been left to care for her children like Paul's Mum but she may have had to care for many more than 1 child. Then like Paul's Dad (her husband) would have come back from the war to find himself working non-stop struggling in-order to keep their farm running and this may have applied to the farm wife who has reading the text. Paul's Mum being a house wife would have been expected to cook, do the laundry, look after the gardens, look after Paul and do many others of the house jobs and the wife reading the book would have also had to carry out these jobs. As this was all during "The Great Depression", Paul's Mum was continuously trying to brighten her family's lives, one example is when she traded a cartoon of eggs for a tin of yellow paint so that she could paint the dinning room chairs just to cheer them all up. The wife of a battling farmer who has read this text would relate to this as she would have attempted to brighten her family's lives in a similar way. Paul's Mum had given swaggies food when they had asked for it on numerous occasions even though her husband didn't

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