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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Deadly, Unna?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Injustice, and Action
Courage and Masculinity
Duty and Sacrifice
Teamwork and Family
Summary
Analysis
Back in present day, Blacky leaves Pickles and walks alone along the coast. He enjoys looking at the rocky shore because the rocks house a community of diverse sea life. He stops beside Black Rock, a rock he and his siblings have claimed as their own because it is near their home. Blacky thinks the rock looks like an indigenous person’s bum, so it should therefore be called Bum Rock (but no one agrees with him). His siblings are already on the rock, playing football. Blacky realizes, hopelessly, that his little sister Jenny is better at kicking the ball than he is.
Blacky Rock/Bum Rock is an important object for Blacky and his family and Blacky’s attitude toward the rock symbolizes his relationship toward his family. Right now, he is attempting to claim the rock for his own by naming it himself, showing how he prefers independence over community; right now, he doesn’t care that the rest of his family prefers the name “Black Rock.”
Themes
Blacky goes inside to see his mother, who is reading a book and doing laundry. Blacky notes that his mother spends a lot of time in the laundry room, not just because their large family produces a lot of dirty laundry, but also because the room offers her a brief escape from her children. His mother is currently reading a romance book, the only kind of book she reads. Blacky reads her romance books from time to time when he finds them lying around the house, but he never finishes them. He worries this is a bad sign for his future dating life. His mother, being a fast reader, always finishes the books.
Once again, Blacky encounters his mother while she’s doing a domestic task, showing that her entire life is consumed by her duty to her family. Her preference for romance novels suggests a lack of romance in her own life, given that her husband is absent and volatile. What’s more, her fast reading suggests that she might be particularly intelligent, making one wonder what opportunities she sacrifices in order to devote herself totally to her children. All of this paints a dismal picture of duty for Blacky.
Themes
Blacky and Mum discuss the big game on Saturday. Mum tells him the whole town is coming to watch the team play. Blacky wonders if his dad will come. The old man has never shown any interest in football. Blacky doesn’t know why, but he hopes his father will come to the game, maybe so he can show his father he’s not a coward after all. Mum assures Blacky that his father said he’s coming. Blacky says he’ll probably forget because of all his drinking. Mum tells him not to talk like that.
Blacky’s desire to impress his father with his courage shows his internal motivation to perform well in the grand final. Blacky’s mother is still loyal to her husband, even though her husband doesn’t appear to show her any care. Once again, Mum sacrifices herself for her duty as a mother and wife without receiving anything in return.
Themes
Blacky wonders why his mother ever married and had kids with his father. He remembers an old photo he saw of his father as a young man on a motorbike where he looked tough. He thinks that maybe a girl would fall for that man. The picture reminded him of a boy at school named Jimmy Downes. Blacky knows there are three types of tough: those who act tough but aren’t, those who don’t act tough but are, and those who both act tough and are tough. Downes both acts tough and is truly tough.
“Toughness” is the ultimate ideal that bosy in Blacky’s community are expected to embody. This standard also appeals to Blacky’s internal desire for closeness to his withholding father, as he sees his father as tough. Here Blacky emphasizes one of the key aspects of his community’s expectations: toughness is not just an internal trait, but something one must perform externally.
Themes
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Jimmy Downes is always in trouble at school and often gets into fights. He dates a rich, smart girl. Blacky has heard Downes brag about what he’s done with this girl. Blacky realizes that Downes talks with the same incorrect grammar as Blacky’s own father.
Downes exposes the flaws of Blacky’s community’s masculinity by portraying violence and misogyny as positive traits. Blacky’s sense that his father and Downes might somehow be similar suggests that he might be starting to accept how flawed his father is, even though Blacky still badly wants to impress him.
Themes
