Friendship and Human Connection Theme Analysis

The relationships that Jim Saddler establishes throughout Fly Away Peter exemplify the fact that friendship often arises when people share something in common. For instance, when Jim first gets to know Ashley Crowther, he appreciates the respect Ashley has for birds—a respect Jim shares. Once the two men discover this mutual fascination, their friendship is able to take form. A similar thing happens when Jim meets Miss Imogen Harcourt, who is a photographer and bird hobbyist; he feels connected to her because she also enjoys the beauty of these small animals. With both Ashley and Miss Harcourt, Jim finds himself drawn toward friendship because of a shared interest or mindset. In addition, these relationships blossom according to the surrounding context, meaning that Jim connects with Ashley and Miss Harcourt in a manner that makes sense for the environment in which they interact. Indeed, Ashley’s sanctuary is a tranquil setting, and so both of these relationships develop quiet and assured qualities. Later, when he goes to war, Jim discovers that even unfavorable circumstances can lay the groundwork for friendship, since the battlefield forces a common experience upon people, which they can use to connect. Throughout the novel, Jim’s social interactions exhibit the fact that human relationships are shaped and informed by the environments in which they develop.

When Jim and Ashley first meet, they have very little in common. At least, this is true of their backgrounds. After all, Jim is from the lower-middle class and has never left Australia, whereas Ashley is wealthy and has just returned to the country after many years of attending school in England. As if the differences between the two men aren’t already noticeable, the mere fact that Ashley—only three years Jim’s senior—owns so much land is indication enough that these two men have led very different lives.

Despite this, they still manage to connect. This is because Jim finds a way to bring Ashley into his own world by pointing out a bird and giving him some information about it. Ashley stumbles upon Jim looking at a “Dollar bird” on his property, and rather than picking up and leaving, Jim directs his attention to the animal. “Ashley followed his gaze. The land shifted into a clearer focus, and he might himself have been able, suddenly, to see it in all its detail […]. He was intensely aware for a moment how much life there might be in any square yard of it,” Malouf writes. By helping Ashley see the beauty that he sees, Jim effectively invites him to share an appreciation of the land. In turn, Ashley suddenly sees everything in “a clearer focus.” This, it seems, is how Jim views the world, and so the two men begin to share an outlook. In turn, their mutual appreciation for the land and the birds turns into a quiet friendship made up of long and mostly silent expeditions into the wilderness.

Like his relationship with Ashley, Jim’s friendship with Miss Harcourt is built upon mutual interest and understanding. At first, though, Miss Harcourt isn’t sure if they’ll get along. When Jim comes to her cottage after seeing her take a picture of a bird that he was also looking at, she wonders about the nature of his visit: “She couldn’t tell for the moment whether they would be friends or not; whether he had come here to share something or to protect a right.” Miss Harcourt worries that Jim hasn’t come to “share” his interest in birds with her, but to claim it as his own. She worries that he is going to tell her to stop taking photographs in Ashley’s sanctuary. Fortunately, this isn’t Jim’s way. In reality, he only wants to connect with her based on what they have in common. Jim, for his part, quickly feels a sense of kinship with her because they both appreciate the same things: “He found he understood almost everything she said straight off, and this was unusual.” Later, when they have firmly established their friendship, they enjoy each other’s company on trips into Ashley’s wilderness, where they sit “silent for the most part” and wait to catch a glimpse of a bird. This easy and “silent” companionship not only shows how comfortable they are with each other, but also the extent to which they take cues from their surrounding environment, relaxing into a kind of tranquility that aligns with both the land and their friendship itself.

The stress of war makes it easy for Jim to relate to his fellow soldiers, since they’re all in the same predicament and therefore have something in common. However, he still finds himself at odds with a man named Wizzer, who makes a point of tripping him one day in the trenches. For whatever reason, Wizzer refuses to see Jim as a potential friend. When Wizzer picks a fight with him, any kind of shared experience that might otherwise bond them together slips away. Malouf writes that “Jim had found himself defending whatever it was in him that Wizzer rejected, and discovered that he needed this sudden, unexpected confrontation to see who he was and what he had to defend.” In this scene, a sense of wartime animosity has trickled into Wizzer’s treatment of Jim. Although Jim doesn’t necessarily invite this kind of antagonism, he comes to see it as a valuable thing, something that helps him understand himself.

Interestingly, though, the dynamic of Jim’s relationship with Wizzer changes later on, when the immediate context surrounding their interactions suddenly shifts. Indeed, Jim’s platoon gets separated one night on the battlefield as Germans ruthlessly fire at them. Unable to see in the dark, the soldiers run frantically about, desperately trying to find their way back to the group. At one point, Jim drops into a pit for cover, and just as he’s about to run back into the mayhem, a man grabs him and starts fighting with him. After several moments of struggle, Jim realizes that this man is Wizzer. “Wizzer!” he shouts, “it’s me, you mad bugger. Jim. A friend!” The fact that Jim calls himself “a friend” proves that human relationships depend heavily upon the surrounding context. Whereas Jim and Wizzer were once adversaries, now they see one another as friends. By emphasizing this abrupt transformation, Malouf solidifies the notion that interpersonal connections don’t exist in and of themselves, but in relation to circumstance.