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Act 3, Scene 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in No Sugar, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence
Government, Civilization, and Religion
White Australians vs. the Aboriginal Family Unit
Language and Culture
Summary
Analysis
Sergeant Carroll calls Miss Dunn. She connects him to Neville. Neville wants to know how many Aboriginal Australians are in Northam, but the Sergeant insists it is only Mary and Joe. The Sergeant says they’re not bothering anyone, and he doesn’t have a warrant to arrest them, but Neville points out that Mary is a minor and Joe will get six months in jail for eloping with her. Feeling as though the issue is resolved, Neville hangs up.
Neville frames his concern about Joe and Mary’s return to Northam as a legal issue—Mary is a minor and needs protection. But in fact, she and Joe escaped Moore River because she was unsafe there with Neal—a man who was supposed to protect her.
Themes
In Northam, the Sergeant ropes the Constable into helping him pick up Joe and Mary. He struggles to remember her last name and calls her “Darg…something.” The Constable doesn’t understand the rush to arrest the couple, but the Sergeant explains that “some mob of do-gooder women are kicking up about them being shifted out before the election.”
The Sergeant is unwilling to take even a few seconds to correctly pronounce Mary’s last name. This is a result of personal bigotry, and a lack of desire to understand the language and culture of a group of people he has coexisted with his entire life.
Themes
