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Chapter 27
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
The next day, Blacky goes to meet his friends and the campers on the jetty. As he approaches, he hears Cathy excitedly telling the McDermott boys about the squid. Blacky begins to set his towel down next to Mark, but then Cathy tells him to move over by her. Blacky helps one of the McDermotts define a difficult word and Cathy remarks that Blacky is pretty smart for someone who lives in the country. She says he should go to Kings College. Blacky asks how one gets into college and Cathy says anybody can go if one pays the fees.
Exposure to the city people teaches Blacky about the economic inequality present in his society, just as exposure to members of a different race teaches Blacky about racism in his community. The growing bonds between these various groups of young people show that connection and friendship with people who are different from oneself broadens one’s perspective.
Themes
Cathy asks Blacky to apply tanning oil to her back. He thinks that if he were to die right then, he would die happy. Deano approaches and says that a group from the Point is coming their way. Usually people from the Point come into town, buy their supplies, and immediately leave, but occasionally a big group will walk over to hang out at the beach. Blacky has heard some of the pub patrons talk about the “good old days” when white people and indigenous people used to fight on the jetty.
Blacky’s memory of the pub patrons’ words shows that the Port has a historic problem with racial tensions, as well as a current one. This fond memory of fighting foreshadows the violence that will later take place in the pub, particularly in the lighthearted way the white people remember something that may have been horrific. It also frames the jetty as a battleground for the community’s racial tensions.
Themes
Cathy asks if indigenous people are allowed on the jetty. Pickles says they are allowed but they shouldn’t be, since the jetty belongs to the Port. The Point group begins swimming in the water. Blacky realizes that Clarence is among the group. Cathy comments on how all of them are swimming in regular clothes instead of bathing suits. The group walks up the jetty. Blacky hides his face so that Clarence won’t recognize him.
Here, Cathy shows urban Australians’ general ignorance of the racial tensions present in rural Australia. Blacky participates in the racism of his community by pretending not to know Clarence, because doing so may affect his good relationship with Cathy. He is not yet willing to make personal sacrifices for his friends.
Themes
When the group begins climbing on the lighthouse at the end of the jetty, Mark says that they should call the cops. Pickles says that he sees Blacky’s girlfriend, Clarence. Cathy asks if Blacky is really dating “that Abo.” Blacky tells her that Pickles is only joking; he doesn’t even know who that girl is. Blacky goes back to rubbing oil on Cathy’s shoulders, but he no longer feels perfectly happy.
Blacky is beginning to realize that when he refuses to make sacrifices in order to be loyal to his indigenous friends, he ends up feeling worse. It’s at this point that Blacky realizes how deeply uncomfortable he is with participating in his town’s racism.
Themes
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