Nine Days Themes

Nine Days depicts four generations of the Westaway family in Melbourne, Australia between 1937 and 2006, told non-chronologically through nine different days and narrated by nine different family members. Family plays a critical role in each narrative, but although society in the mid-20th century and early-21st century expected that a family would follow the traditional structure of one mother, one father, and several children, the successive generations of the Westaway family rarely fit such a…

In Nine Days, the reader’s perception of each character changes constantly as they are viewed from different angles and perspectives. Although initially the reader is inclined to judge characters like Jean, Charlotte, or even a local bully named Mac as one-dimensional, antagonistic characters, as the narrative develops the readers sees that there is more to everyone than first meets the eye. By forcing the reader to continuously shift and develop their perceptions…

Mothers play a key role throughout Nine Days, both as sources of care and affection as well as antagonistic and domineering figures in their children’s eyes. By exploring multiple points of view from both sons and mothers, the novel examines the relationship between them from both sides, arguing that although sons often resent their mothers’ control over them, mothers are ultimately operating out of a love for their children and desire to provide safety…

War has a near-constant presence in the context of most of the narratives in the story, though combat is never directly depicted—it is always an event happening somewhere else in the world. Even so, the effects of war are constantly felt, whether through anxiety over imminent conflict, rationing, or the painful loss of loved ones to war. By setting the various narratives in relation to several different wars and observing the impact they have on…