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Resilience
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sister Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Annie and the other children at the nameless Australian residential school in Sister Heart are there against their will—colonial authorities like the ominous and nameless policeman who imprisons Annie at the very beginning of the book have stolen them from their families. School authorities like Teacher make rules about what language the children can speak (English only), what and when they eat, what they wear, and what they do (mostly classes and chores). But the children repeatedly find ways to assert their autonomy—the freedom of their souls. Nancy plans to run away. Janey steals Teacher’s glasses. She and Annie and Tim share a secret place—the crying tree—where they can express their true thoughts and feelings. Tim and Annie openly defy Nurse’s orders to avoid the quarantine ward after Janey falls ill. For the most part, the book brings attention to the trauma that stolen Aboriginal children faced in Australia’s residential schools. But it also points to the ways that their captors are in bondage, too—tied ideas about the superiority of their language, culture, and religion. And this hidden form of bondage is damaging, too. Teacher’s hateful racism makes her miserable because it turns the children into enemies and causes her great fear of contamination. Nurse allows fear to overpower her empathy, and she regrets it in the end. And despite their best efforts, these authority figures cannot break the children’s spirits. Thus, the book suggests that imprisonment can be physical or mental. And although the children suffer greatly under the care of the close-minded adults who control them, their resilience in the face of horrific mistreatment and dehumanization suggests that there is less hope for freedom for those mentally trapped in hateful ideas.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Freedom and Bondage ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Freedom and Bondage appears in each chapter of Sister Heart. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Freedom and Bondage Quotes in Sister Heart
Below you will find the important quotes in Sister Heart related to the theme of Freedom and Bondage.
Chapter 1
Quotes
Policeman yanks my chin up
Look at me!
No tricks
do you hear me?
I – will – not – look – at – him
If I look
I hear myself screaming
to be let out of the store room
hear Aunty Adie begging
hear policeman telling Boss
Thank you for confining this child
He straightens up
About time!
My heart jumps
Mum?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This last story is my favourite
It is about a man named Jonah
who is flung into the sea
and swallowed by a whale
Reverend rests the bible on his knees
stretches his arms wide
A whale is like a giant fish
He loves the story so much
he starts to read it again
I slip my hands
under my curls
cover my ears
block his whining voice
I am not listening
In my head
I’m someplace else
I hear the crack of flaming wood
smell smoky campfire burning
lean against Mum’s knee
listen to grannies tell stories
In my head
I’m home
Chapter 2
Quotes
Hmph
says Teacher
Annie looks too wild to be in school
Help her comb her hair
flatten it down
This is not the bush!
I don’t want flat hair like Teacher!
And Janey
make sure Annie
does her after-school jobs properly
If she doesn’t get them right
she must do them again
The sooner she gets used to the routine here
the better
Yes, Teacher
Outside
Janey says
You like school?
Teacher hates my language
Teacher hates my hair
I can’t read
I can’t write
I shake my head
Janey sighs
Me neither
I like writin’ stories and singin’ songs
Sums make me brain hurt
Everythin’ else makes me tire
Come on, we got jobs!
Janey laughs
then winces in pain
I got them glasses
real sweaty and foggy
When Teacher yelled
at me to give ’em back
I dropped the stinky things
right into her hands
Shoulda seen her face
thought she might spew
You reckon she wear
them mucky things now?
Nancy laughs
You a smart little sou’wester!
Janey is smart
Tough too
But Janey is hurting
I pick up my blanket
I lay it softly over her
Janey groans
What Teacher gunna do without glasses?
Told ya I’d make her pay, Annie!
Chapter 3
Quotes
But I’m still not the Annie
they want me to be
They call me Annie
I answer to Annie
but they don’t know
who I really am
They don’t know Janey
Tim
Nancy
Emmy
Dot
Inside
we are all secrets
dreaming secret dreams
of another life
My language name
is still hiding
When I go home
and see Mum
it will spring out
like a seed sprouting
Till then it’s a secret
Me on the inside
is a secret
to the outside world
Only way to stay safe
form the world of this place
World of school
work
bossing
World of forgetting
World I don’t understand
I am like Janey
I keep my secrets hidden
Nurse finds me and Tim
crying in the crying tree
She kneels
opens her mouth
closes it
shakes her head
I am sorry
Janey’s illness
stole her away
I wish I had let you see her
I didn’t want you to get sick
Her voice is kind
but her thinking is crooked
If we could sit with Janey
if we could make her smile
we wouldn’t care if we got sick
