Attitudes and Values English Essay
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Australia has a very important literary heritage. A lot of its culture, beliefs and way of life are expressed through their language and writing, most prominently in novels. Australian novelists provide their audiences with a rich, but varied reflection of Australian attitudes and values. Some famous Australian novelists who do this well include Patrick White, Thomas Keneally, Tim Winton, Frank Hardy, Randolph Stow and Xavier Herbert. Some Australian attitudes and values will be discussed in this essay with examples from 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith', by Thomas Keneally and 'Dougy', by James Moloney.
According to the 'Collins Australian Dictionary 1999,' an attitude is a disposition, resulting in some sort of opinion towards something, and a value is anything of person or cultural importance.
In the novel 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith', very racist attitudes are expressed by white people towards the Aboriginal people, particularly Jimmie Blacksmith. This is demonstrated through derogatory comments directed at his race when and Irish farmer named Healy gave him a job putting up a fence around his paddock: "Then I'll give yer me Christian promise I'll cut yore bloody black balls out if yer mess this job. And every post that's out of place an inch, I'll dock yer a shillin'." (p22)...