Literature Entry Week 5
Both in the lecture and in the tutorial we touched on the importance of the photograph of Grandma Rennie and the three Bigges girls ‘taking tea’ (page 107) at the Ranna homestead. The description of ‘May wearing a pinafore, standing holding a tray in the shadow of the doorway behind them’ (page 107) and ‘Iain Rennie touching the back of Katherine Bigges’ chair but his gaze on Grandma’ (page 108) are two crucial and foreboding moments in Bo’s re-telling.
Both descriptions are brought sharply into focus again on page 329 when Bo states ‘Grandma always said the whole story’s in that photograph, if only there was someone could tell it”. I believe Bo and Annabelle were unknowingly on the journey to tell that story. The photograph was a way of story telling for Grandma Rennie, beyond the grave, to spur Bo on the way to the stone country. It also served as a catalyst for Annabelle to rediscover herself, through unlocking the key to some disturbing stories about her past. You could almost view each element of the photograph, every story it yields (interracial marriage, jealousy and hatred, genocide etc) as a powerful and purposeful ‘story’ on the road to reconciliation. As MG stated, the power of story telling in this novel is its ability to merge the past and the present into a new harmony.
There are more journeys which are crucial to the novel. Miller’s pitting of these journeys against the backdrop of an unbound and regenerative landscape is also symbolic. These might be long bos to draw but they came to me while reading the novel:
Trace and Matthew’s journey of falling in love is almost reminiscent of Grandma Rennie and Iain Rennie falling in love. Although it is not tabu for Matthew and Trace, their relationship would still be questioned by some and so Miller could be commenting on the still-present limits of society’s mentality in the journey to reconciliation. Have we really progressed that far as a society?
Although the ‘stone’ Annabelle finds is not round, it has curved features, and such features are traditionally associated with the notion of continuation and regeneration. Maybe there is symbolisim in Annabelle finding a remnant in this shape, suggesting the continuation of our journey to reconciliation?
Grandma Rennie witnessed a murder alongside Panya, and yet Grandma Rennie discovered an ability within her self to not generalize the wrong doings of some against a whole people. In other words, Panya’s hatred has never left her and it has festered, yet Grandma Rennie married a European man and judged people by their character, and not their ethnicity: “The way my Grandma seen it, brothers and sisters don’t kill each other. And that’s the way she lived. There was white kids from among them strays come with us to the playgrounds….” (Page 360). Could these two characters who are both central to the story, yet appear only in one chapter (Panya) or through Bo’s stories (Grandma Rennie) be symbols of the two camps of opposition which exist in the journey to reconciliation?
I have thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I have learnt so much about what I believe to be essential steps towards reconciliation in Australia.
SIDE BAR ALERT
This piecemeal way of telling the story adds depth and creates a strong interest for the reader. Is this novel a story of Annabelle’s journey into her future through a rediscovery of her past, or Bo’s journey to the stone country, or is it an allegory of societies journey from a history of blood shed and killing, to one of hopefully, a shared appreciation (we are a long way off, but Bo’s comment to Arner ‘’them days is over. If we don’t live together now we gonna do it all again in years to come’’ (page 360)gives us hope. This is also the first point of direct, meaningful dialogue in the book from Bo to Arner, and this is on 5th last page, symbolizing a climax and a section of huge importance!) and to a future of peace? I believe it is all of these journeys and more. Miller has also made this book a journey for the reader. As the reader discovers these new things about each character along the way, the reader has to piece together the missing parts of the story as they come into focus, and this has the effect of forcing the reader into introspection about their own life and their role in societies journey from a history of bloodshed, and into the future.