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Act 4, 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
Mary stumbles into the Long Pool Camp, where Milly, Sam, Jimmy, and Gran are going about their day. Milly can immediately tell something is wrong; she sits Mary down and lifts her shirt to see the welts on her back. Gran gathers some medicinal leaves and the two women comfort Mary. Jimmy threatens to kill Neal, while Sam wonders if they should take Mary to the hospital.
The Millimurra-Munday family has completely adopted Mary as one of their own. They care for her wounds and provide her with what medical attention they can, in the same way they cared for Cissie, and in the same way they would care for any other member of their clan.
Themes
Mary doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Gran tells her that she delivered Joe, and she can deliver also deliver Joe’s child.
Mary knows that other Aboriginal women who had babies out of wedlock had their babies killed, and is afraid of what will happen to her child.
Themes
Cissie and David enter. They have a letter from Joe, who is still in prison. Cissie reads the letter out loud. Joe asks after the family and about Mary and the baby. When Joe gets out of jail, he syas, he wants to marry Mary at the same church where his parents wed. He says prison isn’t that bad; there are other Nyoongahs around and the food is better than at the Moore River Settlement. Cissie finishes the letter and Milly gets Mary to lie down and rest.
Although no one in the family can read especially well, everyone has had enough education that they can communicate through the written word. The family often comments on the awful quality of the food provided to them—ironically, prison food is better than the sustenance Moore River claims to provide.
Themes
