Rasta's Necklace Symbolism

Nukkin Ya goes into complicated messages about teenage years, and sometimes feeling different among others at school. Symbols revolve around messages of belonging and self-knowledge. The main symbols are a Rasta neckless, a ketch a beached whale and the tides. These symbols support the messages about, having to move on and feeling like an outsider.

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The Rasta’s necklace has an important place in the novel, due to how it symbolises belonging and moving on. The necklace belongs to a secondary character, Clarence. Clarence is forced to come to terms with having to move on. The necklace has a cultural resemblance to Jamaican identity, but Clarence has an aboriginal background. She wants to remember her culture,

but she is little confused. In the final scenes of the text the reader sees the necklace on the neck of Gary Black. Gary is also moving on. He is on a bus out of town. Feeling like an outsider is something that he has struggled with. He has struggled with participating with a number of things in his home town, the Port. The necklace symbolises the relationship with Clarence who is in Adelaide and that they have both gone their separate ways. Clarence has taken herself out of the picture and she has left the necklace with Blacky, who is leaving the town as well. The necklace resembles the relationship between Clarence and Gary, moving on, and aboriginal identity.

The Ketch is another important plot device, which has a lot of implications for the reader. It reflects not just the past of the port, but the agriculture and also the settlement. This all plays into a white supremacy message. The Ketch is seemingly seen that Black is the one who burned the boat, out of spite. This raises the theme of choices and responsibility, which arguably plays a great deal into growing up. Lovely didn’t like the ketch, as it represented the history of the migrants and the locals more or less taking over. The ketch also symbolises Gary being stuck in the town, as it is unable to go anywhere, this being until it burns or in Gary’s case dies. This has a great effect reader and it once again forces the idea of growing up and the growing problems and responsibilities come when you grow older and make your way in the world.
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Last of the symbols used in the novel, was the beached whale.

To elaborate, it is meant to represent Gary’s self-esteem, the utterly strange sensibilities, his weirdness and Aboriginal tradition/knowledge and so forth. Evidence of this is when Blackley finds this whale and it connects the pieces in their head about how it’s got more of a personal value, instead of a whale. It shows Blacky coming to terms with himself, and this is definitely a part of growing up. When the message gets older, they start to learn about yourself and the whale helped this message. In support of this is when Blacky says, “When you think of somebody all the time it means one of two things - either you hate their guts or you like them a lot.” This quote clearly represents his self-esteem and his sensibility to be a little cynical towards others. The effect on the reader is that Blackey is growing up and that he’s not only trying learn about himself, but the world around him. This is important, as it shows real character development throughout the

novel.
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In conclusion, the main message of Nukkin Ya is coming to terms with growing up and really learning about yourself.

Supporting this message is Rasta’s Necklace, the Ketch and the Beached Whale. This is because each of these items has a Signifnact level that teaches the reader about the characters and the story. The novel really effectively applies symbolism. Rasta’s Necklace shows that Clarence has moved on, which happens when you get older. The beached whale shows that Blackey is out of place, and that he’s learning more and more about himself. Finally, the Ketch is reflecting the responsibilities he had and failed to follow. Nukkin Ya is about not being afraid to take risks, which really pays off in the

end.