Referat Walkabout By James Vance Marshall - Plot, Characters, Interpretation

Walkabout

By James Vance Marshall

The book Walkabout, which is based on a true story, was first published in 1959 by Michael Joseph with the name 'The children'.

A walkabout is a test for Aboriginal boys. At the age of 13 or 14 they have to leave their tribes for about six to eight month to show that they are able to survive in the desert. Only the strongest boys survive and are able to get back to their families. When they come back they are men.

Plot

The story takes place in the Australian desert. Mary and Peter, two American children, are on their way to Adelaide to visit their uncle when their plane crashes. They are the only survivors of the crash and find themselves all alone in the Australian desert. The children decide to walk to Adelaide not knowing that the town was fourteen hundred miles away. After a time without food they meet an Aboriginal boy on his walkabout. He doesn't understand what they are doing in the middle of the desert, but he sees that they wouldn't survive without his help and takes them with him. Peter gets into contact with the bush boy easily and learns a lot about surviving in the Australian bush from him, but Mary has prejudices against him because he is black and naked, so in her eyes not civilised. The Aboriginal boy catches a cold from Peter and because he has a different immune system he can't protect himself from the fever. A few days later he gets too weak to move on and he wants to explain to Mary how to make his burial table, but she refuses to listen to him, still afraid of his nakedness. Peter stays at his side the whole day long and the bush boy shows him the way they have to go to be save. Meanwhile Mary thinks a lot about her relationship to the black boy and when Peter tells her that the boy was going to die, Mary changes her opinion and stays with him for his last few hours. After his death Peter and Mary bury their friend close to a billabong and move on in the direction the Aborigine had shown Peter. After a few days the children meet an Aboriginal family who describe the way to the next white men's village, where the children are finally saved.

Characters

Mary: She is a 13-year-old girl with long blond hair. When getting lost in the desert, Mary doesn't get in panic and tries to protect her little brother. She feels like having to be more for him than a sister and tries to behave like a grown-up. When meeting the Aborigine Mary is shocked by him being naked. She gets jealous when Peter and the boy become friends and feels left out because of being a girl. Mary's opinion towards the Aborigine changes just before he dies. She starts accepting that their culture is totally different and notices the she is not superior to the Aborigine at all.

Peter: He is an 8-year-old boy and gets into contact with the bush boy quite easily. Peter is impressed by his way of living and tries to imitate him. The little boy learns a lot about life in the desert and how to survive. In the beginning of the story Peter would do anything Mary told him, but in those days alone in the desert he notices that she is not always right and starts making his own decisions. In the end it's him leading Mary back to civilisation.

Aborigine: The bush boy is on his walkabout. When finding the helpless children he is quite surprised by them being white for he had never seen any white people before. He helps them by taking them with him. At first he doesn't understand why Mary stays away from him, but he cares for Peter anyway. When he gets ill he sees the Spirit of Death in Mary's eyes and knows that he was going to die. Trying to save the children he moves on for another two days, but finally he is too weak to walk on, so he tells Peter how to get over the hills where they could find food and water. He is afraid of dying because the Aborigines don't believe in life after death. At first he tries telling Mary how to bury him but soon he understands that she doesn't want to talk to him. The boy is happy when she finally decides to look after him until he died.

Interpretation

In the book one of the problems, which appeared when whites came to Australia is shown. The Aboriginal boy has to die because his immune system couldn't fight the fever. That happened to a lot of Aborigines after the whites came.

The book also tells a lot about the Aboriginal culture and their way to survive in the Australian outback. Things like the walkabout, the Spirit of Death and the burial platform, which should save the dead bodies from the evil spirits coming out of the earth, are very important to the Aborigines.

There are also some Aboriginal words are also mentioned in the story, like arkooloola, larana and kurura.

The book shows how children from two cultures start communicating and getting to know each other. At first the culture clash is quite shocking for the white children as well as for the Aboriginal boy, but after getting to know each other better, they notice that it's worth learning more about the other culture and that both cultures are worth existing.

For the older white girl it's harder to accept the fact, that the Aboriginal also has his right to exist and that he's not just uncivilised. I think that's because of her age. On one side it's the age of protesting against everyone and everything who wants to tell her what to do, on the other hand she has already been influenced by all sorts of prejudices and can't help believing them. She is shocked to see a naked boy because she has never been in this situation and she resist the feeling that this just isn't right.

Her brother acts totally different. On the one hand he is a boy, who, like most boys of his age, is easily impressed by older boys. On the other hand he notices pretty soon, that his sister, who always seemed to know everything, is as lost as him in this totally new surrounding and so he feels saver with the black boy telling him what to do. He also isn't that influenced by any sorts of prejudices because he is much younger and so not as much in contact with older ones than his sister. He accepts knowing less than others because he is used to be told what to do so he stars communicating with the Aborigine quite fast.

The Aborigine hasn't ever seen or been in touch with white people, so he is prejudice-free. He doesn't know what to do with the two helpless children, but he notices that they couldn't survive without his help. The two kids act quite strange, at least it seems so to him and he can't imagine where they come from. He just sees that they need help and so tries to do everything he can for them, even when he notices he was going to die, he made sure they would find their way back home.

The Aborigine lives like he was used to live. He eats whatever he can find: fish, plants, insects and roots. He is able to find water in the desert, he believes in the spirits and in the land being part of him. The Aboriginal boy follows the traditions and customs of his people and is shocked when he notices, that he won't be buried on a burial platform and that the evil spirits will be able to take him away when he died. He would have been even more scared if he had known that he was going to be buried under the earth and that it was even easier for the evil spirits to reach down there. Mary and Peter couldn't have known that and so nobody can make them responsible for their actions. That's just another aspect of the culture clash.