Growing Up In Australia Character Analysis

“It is difficult growing up in Australia” Discuss
Growing up is difficult no matter who you are of where you are from. Adolescence is a time of great change and each individual faces their own challenges. This is explored through the novel “Growing up Asian in Australia” edited by Alice Pung and the mockumentary “We can be Heroes” created by Chris Lilley. In both texts, we are presented with people and characters who provide evidence that the journey through adolescence is difficult particularly when faced with bullying, parents with high expectations and the obstacle of developing a cultural identity.

Parents who have overly high expectations of their children make the transition into adulthood difficult. This is shown in many parts of the

Aditi Gouvernel has captured this in her story “Wei-Lei and me” from “Growing up Asian in Australia. Aditi “met Australia in the playground” through the form of Barry the bully. Until Wei-Lei came, Aditi was constantly picked on and abused for her differences. Barry’s lack of knowledge leads him to make false judgements about Aditi, he shouts out rude remarks like “you wipe your butt with your hands” which turns the other children against her. When Wei-Lei arrived he experienced the same form of bullying Aditi did, however, he experienced a lot of physical abuse, the kids mauled him “the way a cat would maul a toy”. This lead the pair to stay in the library at lunchtimes and hide in the gym. These children grew up in fear that their differences would be used against them, as shown when Aditi says that there were so many things that “could be used as evidence for (her) difference”. The pair lived in fear throughout their child hood and did not feel comfortable until they reached their mid-teens proving that the bullying had and impact and made growing up an unpleasant time. The character of Ja’mie is similar to Barry the bully, they both had little understanding of culture which their victims were from and, therefore, made racist judgements about them. Lilley has created Ja’mie to represent the society we live in, a society in which we are driven by a selfish agenda. Ja’mie tries to conform to the ‘compassionate Australian’ stereotype by sponsoring children and completing the 40-hour famine weekly, this, however, is a strategy to advance her own ambitions of becoming Australian of the year. During this period one of Ja’mie’s sponsor children, Sonali, is being housed in the Villawood detention centre, she is visited by Ja’mie and her friend who is ‘good at taking photo’s” and used as a means to gain popularity. Ja’mie clearly lacks knowledge of the culture in which her sponsor children are from and it