Deadly Unna

1181 Words3 Pages

As a result of what happens, Garys perspective of life and people of the Port changes.

Deadly Unna is a novel written by Phillip Gwynne about fourteen year old Blacky and his life at the Port. The novel is based around the game of football but deals with many issues facing adolescents such as racism, human behaviour, courage and morals, violence, sacrifice and relationships.

What Blacky learns is that his town is racist, learns to stand up for what he believes in

Blacky discovers how racist his town is.

It seemed that Blacky was not aware of how racist his friends were. The footy team's attitude between the Nungas and Goonyas was very serious. They always made racial comments among themselves and Blacky's reaction was to go along with his friend to be racist. This is shown when Pickles asks him whether he is friends with Dumby.

"Mate of yours now, is he?" "No way. Not him. I hate his guts." Page25.

But the truth was that Blacky was friends with him but because everyone hated the aboriginals, Blacky felt like he had to hate them as well.

Though clearly the best player on the day, Dumby Red did not receive the ‘Best on the ground’ award.

"Mark Arks getting Best On Ground. It's bullshit. That's Dumby's Trophy." Page133. When the winner of the trophy was announced, Blacky reacted very angrily because he believed that Dumby deserved the trophy because he passed the ball. Blacky realized how racist his town was against the Nungas. This was the turning point of Blacky's view of the town.

Funeral

Blacky realized how much the Goonyas in his town hated the Nungas. When Blacky told Pickles and Darcy about Dumby funeral both of them thought he deserved to die.

"The old man reckons he got what he deserved." "Yeah" Page 206. ...

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...his also express stereotype about the Aborigines when they say that all aboriginal girls have the clap. Other discrimination is evident when the Nungas are expected to used the back bar of the pub.

There are many racists’ people in the novel. The story has people that definitely had racism in their younger years, such as the butcher, but by the end of the book they are not directly being racist. They still make jokes and comments, but have ‘matured’.

Exclusion only really happens in the football team. The team all like Dumby, and so do the parents, but when it came to the award night, Gary thought that Dumby would get the award, I am unsure if anyone else thought that, so when he didn’t get the award Gary thought it was because he was Aboriginal, but maybe it wasn’t.

As a result of all these racist activities, there is a clear border between the two communities.

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