Bertie’s Mom Character Analysis

Although she initially insists that he is making a mistake by trying to enlist in the military, Bertie’s mother agrees to forge his birthdate when he insists, but promises him that his time in the war will be like the circus show he used to attend as a kid: exciting but not willing to accept Aboriginal people as equals. After he writes her a coded letter requesting that she reveal the truth about his age, Bertie’s mother comes to retrieve him from Europe, but he is already overcome with shell shock (PTSD) and essentially nonresponsive. Back in Australia, she laments that he is “not coming back from the world of the grown-ups.”