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Abel’s Father
Costello is the new abalone diver who comes to Longboat Bay the year after Mad Macka dies. Costello is cruel and vicious. He has a bad reputation of being a “reef stripper,” which means he’s known for damaging reefs by overfishing. In Longboat Bay, Costello takes too many abalone, illegally catches undersize fish, tries to spear Blueback, and causes great suffering for a tiger shark by being careless with his equipment. He lacks respect for the sea and doesn’t care about how his actions harm marine ecosystems. In the end, Costello is caught and fined for overfishing. From Costello’s misdeeds, Abel learns that human greed is terribly destructive against nature.
Costello Quotes in Blueback
The Blueback quotes below are all either spoken by Costello or refer to Costello. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“Things aren’t the same, Abel. It’s getting harder to hold on to good things.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Abel poured the tea. “Are you lonely here on your own?”
“I miss you,” she murmured. “I miss you terribly. But no, I’m not lonely. Sometimes I feel I should be. But this place is a kind of friend to me. Maybe I’m a bit odd.”
The deck of Costello’s boat was awash with blood. Abel had speared fish nearly every day but he had never seen such slaughter as this. Fish lay in huge slippery mounds and so many of them were under-size.
Chapter 8
Quotes
Abel went back to school in the new year feeling older, different. That summer he learnt that there was nothing in nature as cruel and savage as a greedy human being.
Get the entire Blueback LitChart as a printable PDF.
Costello Quotes in Blueback
The Blueback quotes below are all either spoken by Costello or refer to Costello. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“Things aren’t the same, Abel. It’s getting harder to hold on to good things.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Abel poured the tea. “Are you lonely here on your own?”
“I miss you,” she murmured. “I miss you terribly. But no, I’m not lonely. Sometimes I feel I should be. But this place is a kind of friend to me. Maybe I’m a bit odd.”
The deck of Costello’s boat was awash with blood. Abel had speared fish nearly every day but he had never seen such slaughter as this. Fish lay in huge slippery mounds and so many of them were under-size.
Chapter 8
Quotes
Abel went back to school in the new year feeling older, different. That summer he learnt that there was nothing in nature as cruel and savage as a greedy human being.
