How Is Tracy Presented In A Property Of The Clan

Nick Enright’s, A Property of the Clan, effectively positions the audience to respond to ideas and perspectives of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Tracy. Ideas and perspectives such as the concept of powerlessness, the marginalisation of gender expectations and the strength of mateship are all explored throughout Enright’s play and gives a glimpse inside the schoolies culture.

Enright uses the concept of powerlessness in his work, A Property of the Clan through the use of dialogue and a silent character. The character Tracy is never seen or heard from by the audience. With Enright’s use of a silent character, the audience can only portray Tracy through the perception of others. With no dialogue of her own, Tracy is described in numerous

ways depending on who is talking, whether it is the female characters, the male characters, or society as a whole. The male characters diminish Tracey’s power, and instil it on themselves through their crude labelling and derogatory language, such as when Ricko took it upon himself to claim that Tracy was a “real little cock-teasing whore” and expressing disbelief at the doctor’s report that she was a virgin before the attack, saying, “There’s gotta be something wrong somewhere […] People have to act the way they are” or in the readers view, the way they are named. This vastly contrasts the representation of Tracy by females such as Jade, who see her lack of power and voice. In their dialogues, Jade consistently sticks up for Tracy and always speaks of her in a positive light. This is highlighted through the use of a polyptoton hyperbole in “She saw. She sees everything,” and the repetition of “She is my friend” and “That’s a real friend” throughout the script. The contradictory force and inadequacy of language is strongly felt in the play: language is used to discriminate and oppress at the same time as it fails to make sense of tragedy. With varying efficacy, the characters in the play try to use language to deal with the situation through naming with Jared and Ricko, conjuring the language of Tracy herself with Jade and through the act of not speaking at all in Tracy.

Enright’s play employs the motif of marginalisation to persuasively educate the audience about the notion of gender expectations.

Enright delineates the metaphorical effigy of the title to demonstrate the collective dominance of the male gender. The word ‘property’ has connotations to ownership, illuminating how men are superior by portraying women as rightful property to men. Enright portrays an assertive tone in “because he’s a boy, right? Right?” to emphasise to the audience the stereotypical differences in the ideology between males and females. Another representation of gender expectation is read in Jades conversation with her mother asking, “Mum … what’s it like, when they do it to you? Having sex. What’s it like?” This conversation highlights that she as a girl already has a skewed perception of intercourse. The thought of sex being one sided, the fact that they do it TO you. This line highlights to the audience a twisted view on the roles and expectations for men and women in society. Through the use of these quotes and many more, Enright’s aim is to offer the audience an opportunity to engage in responding to these skewed ideas of gender roles, with the twisted question asked by Jade, this makes the reader feel uncomfortable and understand that this idea of men being the dominant is common and should be

stopped.

Mateship is another important perspective employed in Enright’s play. Mateship is apparent throughout the whole play, even in the first scene it is shown when Ricko arrives home from Queensland and Jarod greets him with a, “your back mate.” How a community caught up in an aggressive, male-centred beachside culture can hang around rapist and murderers and still protect them in the name of close mateship is truly a feat that only friendship can bring about. During Jared’s line, he explains to Ricko who it was the he saw raping Tracy, and Ricko yells out “They’re your mates. Forget about it.” He agrees to tell no one what he saw on the beach and Tracy’s story was never exposed. Jared would rather lie to the police about a murder and label a young innocent girl, just to protect his mates, again linking to the concept of mateship. Many techniques are used by Enright throughout the play such as emotive language; seen when Jared is having a heated discussion with Ricko, quoting, “I had to let it out, its eating into me.” Imagery is also seen when Enright describes the scene that occurs at the beach with the boys and Tracy. Through the use of these, Enright aims to disclose to the audience the friendship held between the males of the play and emphasise a strong empathetic understanding as to why the mates did not want to expose each other to fellow classmates or police.

Enright’s, A Property of the Clan did more than offer different perspectives on ideas such as the concept of powerlessness, the marginalisation of gender expectations and the strength in the bond of mateship. The script’s dramaturgical construction makes the audience think through what is not said. The major events such as the party itself, the rape, the murder is represented in short elliptical scenes that provide an intimate insight into the story itself and the tense interactions between pairs of central characters such as Jared and Ricko and Rachel with Jade. Although fictional, the play provides the audience with both impetus and the means to speak. The text contemplates an audience which has been directly or indirectly affected to respond to a play not about rape, sex and violence, but a play about community fracture, family fracture and the emotions/decisions of a young person being divided.