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Chapter 13
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
Blacky wakes up and becomes incredibly nervous when he realizes today is the day of the big game. He wonders why he’s putting himself through so much stress when he doesn’t even have to play football. Arks would say that one plays football for the glory of the sport, but Blacky doesn’t feel glorious.
Blacky reemphasizes the he finds expectations of duty to be unfair burdens that others place upon an individual. He dissents from his coach once again by being unable to feel the glory associated with sports.
Themes
Mum has made a large breakfast for Blacky, but he’s too anxious to eat. He says he will go lie down for a while. His mother reminds him that they have to be early to the game. Blacky goes and lies down on the couch. His siblings, excited for the game, run around him. They all crowd into the car to go to the game. The old man is still asleep from coming home late the night before, but Mum assures Blacky he will be coming later.
This scene further emphasizes Blacky’s anxious mood, building up the tension of the plot leading up to the big game. His mother continues to express love and care for her children through domestic tasks like cooking. Meanwhile, Blacky further craves his father’s approval, despite the fact that once again, his father fails to show up for his son.
Themes
The grand final is in another town called Wangaroo, because this town has a nicer football field. This also means that the opposing team has the hometown advantage. The family arrives early to the field. Team-man suggests that he and Blacky play a while to warm up. On the first kick, Blacky successfully scores a goal. He decides he should quit while he’s ahead, so he doesn’t run out of good kicks before the big game. He explains to Team-man that football is all about probability, and he must save his good chances for the actual game.
The superiority of the Wangaroo’s football field emphasizes the poverty of the Port. Blacky attempts to approach the game through an academic perspective, which is the perspective he’s more comfortable with. Notably, his thoughts on probability are incorrect, as previous results do not affect future probability. This shows that one cannot approach football (or indeed, life) from a purely rational standpoint, much as Blacky would like to do so.
Themes
People from the town begin to arrive. Pickles’s parents, Shirl and Mick, begin to grill, smoke, and drink. Blacky notes how the couple looks cleaner than usual, but still worn out and frail. Arks arrives with the Point players. Blacky worries that he doesn’t see Dumby in Arks’s car. Clemboy tells him Dumby is arriving with his family.
Blacky’s worry over Dumby’s absence shows how much both Blacky and the whole team depend upon him as a player and a friend, despite the racial divisions in the town.
Themes
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Dumby’s family arrives and parks far away from the townspeople. Blacky walks past the opposing team’s cars alone to meet Dumby. Dumby looks handsome as usual and is sitting with his younger sister, Clarence. Blacky realizes he’s seen Clarence before because she plays netball with his sisters. He remembers Clarence because she is such a good player. Blacky also meets Dumby’s father, Tommy, who is as stylishly dressed as his son, and Dumby’s uncle, Sid.
Dumby’s family’s physical distance from the other families shows the Point residents’ cultural distance from the Port. Blacky’s walk alone to Dumby’s car foreshadows the important walk from the Port to the Point he will take later in novel for the sake of his friendship with Dumby.
Themes
Arks calls the players together. Clarence wishes Dumby and Blacky good luck and Blacky blushes. As the team gathers around, Blacky sees other players’ fathers but not his own. Blacky and Dumby sit together to watch the first game of the day. Thumper walks by and everyone on the team remarks how big he is. Dumby calls out to Thumper, despite Blacky’s protests, and smiles at him, saying, “Best team win, unna.” Blacky thinks this is typical of Dumby’s behavior, doing something reckless just for the sake of recklessness.
Here the reader sees the beginnings of Blacky’s romantic feelings for Clarence, feelings which challenge the racial divides of their society. While Blacky sees Dumby’s interaction with Thumper as reckless, Dumby’s words also show the sportsmanship and consideration essential to Dumby’s character. However, recklessness will later get Dumby into trouble during the robbery.
Themes
The team goes to the locker room and Blacky realizes that all his teammates, even Dumby, are nervous. Arks is the most anxious. He writes plays across the blackboard, but Blacky knows the only strategy Arks has is to go directly down the field. On the wall of the locker room, Blacky sees a sign that reads: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” Blacky’s father is always talking about how the world is made of people who are either winners or losers.
Once again, Arks disapproves of the indigenous players’ indirect style of play just because it is different from his tradition. Blacky remembers his father’s strict expectations of success in football and other physical activities. This moment calls back to his insult about Blacky being a “gutless wonder,” reminding the reader of the stakes of this game for Blacky and how much pressure he feels to live up to others’ expectations.
Themes
Arks gives the team a pep talk, saying how the whole town is there to support them and the team won’t let the fans down. He says this isn’t just about a game. Blacky wonders if winning really matters, since no matter what happens, his town will still be rundown and poor and his father will still think he’s a coward. Blacky knows, however, that for Arks this game means more than just football. Arks tells them to play for their team, their town, and for glory, because glory can never be taken away. Even Blacky begins to feel excited and hopeful after the pep talk.
Once again, children (the players) are expected to live up to the wishes of adults (the spectators). This duty is a burden unfairly placed upon them. Blacky realizes the absurdity of this expectation when he acknowledges that winning will not change the actual conditions of the town or his relationship with his father. But because of the pressure of his community, even Blacky gets swept up in the excitement for once.
Themes
Arks reminds them to play the game straight down the middle of the field, rather than wasting time on the sides. The teammates come together and egg each other on before going out onto the field. Blacky feels swept away by something bigger and more powerful than himself.
Blacky begins to realize that perhaps, when teammates actually come together and encourage each other, a team really can be a source of support and solidarity. This realization of the emotional power of putting in effort for one’s team foreshadows Blacky’s devotion to his family later in the book.
Themes
The game begins. Blacky sees Thumper and feels sorry for him, because Blacky feels so confident in that moment. Blacky runs toward the ball and jumps, believing that he has outplayed Thumper, who is now nowhere to be found. Then Thumper throws Blacky to the ground and steals the ball, scoring the first goal. Blacky loses all his newfound optimism as the opposing team scores again.
Blacky’s optimism turns out to be shallow, as it’s easily shattered by the reality of Thumper’s superior size and strength. This reinforces his previous pessimistic attitude that he doesn’t stand a chance against Thumper’s innate ability and will fail his team and his community.
Themes
By the end of the first quarter, the team feels completely hopeless, and Blacky knows this is his fault because he is the first ruck. His younger sister, Jenny, comes onto the field to talk to him. Jenny tells him that their mother’s advice is for him to run at the ball from the side and then jump later than Thumper. Blacky follows this advice and his team begins to score, because his mom is a genius at football. With the help of Dumby and Mark, the teams are tied by the end of the third quarter.
Despite the fact that Mum is a woman who has never played football, her advice is successful, showing the foolishness of Arks’s misogyny. When the team actually works together and all members are controbuting, they are able to improve their performance as a whole, thus reinforcing the ideal that teammates must actually put in effort to help each other.
Themes
With only a few minutes left in the game, the teams are still tied. Mark kicks the ball too far and the Wangaroo players are about to take possession. Then Dumby, running fast, climbs over the other players. He jumps higher than anyone Blacky has ever seen and catches the ball. All the spectators, even the Wangaroo fans, cheer. Everyone waits for Dumby, the best kicker on the team, to score the winning goal. But instead, he passes the ball to Clemboy. Arks cusses at Dumby. Clemboy kicks the ball and scores only one point, meaning that the game is won only if the team can stop the Wangaroo team from scoring another goal.
Dumby proves here that he’s a better football player than Mark, which will make the racism of the following scene, where Mark is awarded the best player trophy, even more apparent. Dumby also shows his inherent morality as a teammate and a friend by passing to Clemboy, who otherwise wouldn’t get to be involved in the win. Blacky will learn from this generosity when he too must fulfill his duty to his friend later on in the novel. For now, however, the act puts more pressure on Blacky to succeed as the first ruck.
Themes
Thumper catches the ball and Blacky knows he is the only one who can stop Thumper from scoring. Blacky sees the gigantic Thumper barreling towards him. He thinks about how he shouldn’t get himself killed over a stupid football game. He plans to do his special Thumper tackle, where he won’t actually stop Thumper but also won’t look like a coward. He hears Shirl screaming for him to stop Thumper and Arks begging him to win. Then the field goes silent. Thumper is almost there.
Blacky has not yet grown as a character, because he still wishes to avoid the responsibilities placed upon him while also still appearing to be as tough as a man should be in his community. Tension grows as time runs out for Blacky to either stick with his plan or change his behavior and try to win the game at personal cost to himself.
Themes
Blacky looks toward the beer tent but doesn’t see his father. Blacky steps out of Thumper’s way, but at the last second, Thumper unexpectedly turns. The boys collide and Blacky is knocked unconscious. He wakes up to find Mum, Team-man, and Arks standing around him. They tell him that his tackle slowed Thumper down enough so he couldn’t score until after the final siren, meaning that Blacky’s team won. Suffering from a concussion, Blacky passes out again.
Blacky’s father’s absence is the deciding factor in Blacky not making a sacrifice for his team. By chance, however, Blacky manages to stop Thumper while injuring himself in the process. The fact that he does not intend to make the sacrifice that everyone will later praise him for shows the flaws in the expectations his community places upon him. That is, it doesn’t matter whether a boy like Blacky is truly brave; it only matters that he looks like he’s being brave.
Themes
