In the beginning, it was about 3 different people with different aim of journey. First it was Lady Sarah Ashley who travelled from London down to Australia to sell her property Faraway Downs. Then it was Drover who was Sarah’s husband helper and he is a drover who does not work with anyone so one can hire or fire him. Last was Nullah who was an aboriginal child, his aim was simple, and that was to go for walkabout to become a man. 3 of them were never related until Sarah arrived at Darwin and she met Drover and later on, Nullah. In the end, they led the same journey of taking the cattle across the desert to Darwin to sell to the Army.
When people share the same aim of journey, they tend to stay together. As a result, Sarah started to fall in love with Drover as they came across different kinds of life obstacles. Nullah, on the other who had lost his mother has found motherly love and care from Sarah. Throughout the whole journey, the relationship between 3 of them had changed from complete strangers to beloved family members.
What is the main issue of the text?
There are 2 main issues been reflected through the text. First it was the assimilation policy for indigenous Australians in northern territory that forces the aboriginal children to be taken away from their families and were placed in mission to phase out their culture. They were to service the white society in the future. Because of that, the aborigines were been looked down on and discriminated by the white society.
The other topic was about the consequences of war. The story sets in around the time of World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army struck on Darwin, a city in the northern area of Australia. The movie shows how the Japanese army mercilessly bombed the whole Darwin into ashes even the holy missions were the first to be invaded. Many people died. This shows that war brings only despair, not peace.
What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?
In the story, I dislike Neil Fletcher the most. Being the main antagonist in the story, Neil was an extremely cunning man. First, he interfered the drive of cattle by Sarah by lighting flame around the bush that caused a stampede. This led the cattle running towards the cliff. Then he cut off a safe place by igniting another fire. Out of a sudden, Flynn’s horse broke a leg and he was thrown down. In the end, Flynn was trampled and died.
In addition, Fletcher killed Sarah husband using a glass tipped arrow in order to frame King George for the murder because glass tipped arrow was known to be found with King George. Besides that, he killed Carney by purposely pushing him into a river with alligators and Carney was eaten by them. His objective was to take over the whole Carney Cattle Corporation.
The text highlights war and discrimination. It let us know that war brings only despair and destruction of human kind. From the movie, we could see all the buildings in Darwin were bombarded and reduced to ash. Thousands of innocent lives were killed during the war. Therefore, it is wiser for nation politicians to solve international problems through diplomacy and not bloodshed.
Next is the discrimination of races. In the movie, Nullah was been caught by the authority in northern Australia because of an assimilation policy. The policy forced the aboriginal children to be taken away from their families and send to missions where they were taught to provide services to the white society in the future. As a human being, we should treat everyone equally regardless of their races, skins and cultures because we are all God’s creation. Continuity of discrimination will only cause hatred among people and we should stop that as far as we could.
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