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Warr - The Narrow Road to The Deep North (Motifs/Imagery/Symbols (Light…
Warr - The Narrow Road to The Deep North
Characters
Dorrigo Evans
Ella Lansburg (fiance)
Amy
Keith Mulvaney (uncle)
Tom Evans (brother)
Joe and Gracie
Bonox
Darky Gardiner
Jimmy Bigelow
Rabbit Hendricks
Lizard Brancussi
Maisie
Rooster MacNeice
Tiny
Jackie Maguire
Mrs. Jackie Maguire (left bc she had an affair with Tom)
Nakamura
Colonel Kota
The Goanna
Themes
Connection to Basho
Traveling through nature/Japan like Basho did
Japan's lowest point and Japan's highest point
Connection to Tennyson
Keeps thinking of his time as a POW, he can't leave the memories alone
Dorrigo's family and what it means to him
He visits his brother often as a youth and reads to him and Jackie, however he attends school in Australia and after associating with more upper crust people with long pretentious pedigrees he acts ashamed of his family. When his mother is dying he doesn't go to her, and doesn't cry at the funeral. It is only later that he finds out that most of the family trees were made up for attention and prestige.
Juxtaposition of horror/violence and beauty
The water being poured on the sword for beheading is one of many examples throughout the book
Colonialism
Tasmania's dark history
Australia and Tasmania settled by British colonists and convicts
Settlers had horrific living conditions and worked as slaves. Convicts were sent there to serve long sentences as labor slaves
The local Aborigines were all killed in a genocide committed by colonists and soldiers
Japan colonized parts of China and the countries to the east of India such as Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and others. They used the POWs to help them build the Burma railroad as part of a colonization effort
The lies that Keith tells Amy and that Ella tells Dorrigo
Plot
Engaged to Ella Lansburg, is having an affair with Amy, who is actually his uncles wife
He is getting shipped out soon to go fight in the war
Shortly after getting shipped out he is captured, and being a surgeon, is in charge of the other prisoners of war
POW camp run by Japanese and Korean soldiers
Feels a strong moral sense of responsibility for the soldiers, feels personal loss for each prisoner that died
Darky Gardiner is beaten by the guards
If he does not intervene in the beating, the soldiers will give him the medicine he needs for the POWs
He debates, knowing it would be trading Darky's life for the medicine
After pleading for Darky's life Dorrigo finally gives up and walks away, Darky is beaten for hours and eventually makes it to the hospital
Darky is found dead the next morning, he was going to the bathroom and did not have the strength to stop himself from falling in the pit and drowning
1 more item...
Big moral challenge for him
8 of the POWs snuck away while he was in the hospital, and though he is innocent, the guards blame him
Nakamura gets sent new orders from the Railroad Command Group, delivered by Colonel Kota, they have a deep discussion about the Japanese spirit, poetry, and the beheading of men
He serves as a surgeon
Dorrigo runs all the sick houses in the POW camp
Many men died of chorea and have to be burned along with everything they own
Rabbit dies but Dorrigo manages to save his sketchbook of paintings after an internal battle
He has to operate on Jack Rainbow, and amputate his leg, however before he can finish, Jack dies of blood loss, gangrene, and malnutrition
Every day he has to decide which men are well enough to send out to work on the line to meet Nakamura's quotas, knowing that many of them will likely die from the work
The war ends
Some of the soldiers visit the fish shack that Darky always talked about
They smash the window and free the fish in the tank
They meet the owner and spend hours talking to him
Lots of the soldiers go to bars and get drunk every night
After procrastinating for as long as he can, Dorrigo returns and marries Ella
He has kids with her, but never loves her the way that he loves Ella
1 more item...
He finds out from Tim that Darky was his nephew, Tim's son with an indigenous woman
Many Japanese and Korean camp leaders are being deemed prisoners of war and being hung
The Goanna is hung and killed, and he died believing he did no wrong
Nakamura is on the run from soldiers looking for him
2 more items...
Meets Amy in a bookshop, begins an affair with her shortly after getting to know her at his uncle's hotel
They meet up whenever possible, in hotel and on beach
Keith finds out about the affair
Dorrigo gets shipped out and has to leave Amy and Ella behind
Keith lies and tells Amy that Dorrigo got killed in the war out of jealousy, thinking to win Amy back
The inn then explodes/catches fire, killing Keith, Amy is assumed dead
Years after, Dorrigo is walking on a bridge and sees Amy with two children
He sees her and assumes she is married so he doesn't reach out
Amy sees him and assumes he's a rat and a liar bc he didn't contact her and faked his death
Ella lied to Dorrigo, Keith lied to Amy
Amy survives because she fled to the beach to mourn Dorrigo after Keith tells her he is dead
Motifs/Imagery/Symbols
The Line
descent into madness, dying on the line, on or off the line
Railroad - Japan's hopes for the war, for success as a country and a people
The Football game - foreshadowing his role in the war, how he stood out from the rest
Light and dark imagery
The church in his youth
darkness of sky in war - lighter sky gave hope
Innocence vs. experience
There is a lot of contrast between the dark of the war and the light after, the good soldiers and the bad
Man time vs sea time
Dorrigo vs Keith
Shisui's circle - we leave the world the same way we enter, with nothing more but ourselves, empty-handed.
-Also seems to touch on the evanescence found in Basho's writing, never-ending but constantly ending, going in a circle forever
The steak - Dorrigo gives it up to go to the other POWs even though he was their leader, he felt it demonstrated camaraderie and virtue, that he wasn't taking to best for himself and that he would sacrifice for the men
Duality of love
Heroism and virtue
Dorrigo has conflicting ideas about this, he is hailed as a hero, but to himself he's nothing special, the men he looked after in the POW camp gave him the push he needed to become something more, the best version of himself, but in his own thoughts he's a cheater and not that courageous
"Man time" and "Sea time"
Man time is kept by the clock, strictly routine and regular, sea time is freedom, kept by the waves, man time is the oppressive life Amy led with Keith, and sea time is the freedom that Dorrigo gave her
Dogs
Keith's dog Beatrice is given more freedom and pure love than Amy is, and she resents the dog for this
The dog on the beach that killed a penguin
The rose in the mud - beauty and love in war
The bush fire - Dorrigo again shows heroism under duress, when he is acting on instinct