Plot
Whose perspective starts the story?
Jacky's
List 4 Settlers from the novel.
Johnny, Sister Bagra, Father Grark, Devil, Sergeant Rohan, Sister Mel
Provide an example from the novel that explores the theme of homeland.
Possible answers:
Many scenes describe "Jacky is running" towards his home. When he reaches it, they are all dead but he continues with the Star Gang. When he reaches Esperance's camp, he doesn't run because he has realised his home is with those people now.
Sergeant Rohan is searching for Jacky and narrating how he desires to find him so that he can go 'home'. He describes home is the planet his parents are from, even though he was born on Earth.
Johnny has a flashback sequence that explains how he ran from authority and went into the swamps, emphasising his sense of homeland on his planet, but also how technology has destroyed the peace of it.
What 3 genres can be used to describe this novel?
Historical fiction, science fiction, speculative fiction
What is the first line of the novel? (After the epigraph)
Jacky was running.
How should you format the title of the book in your essay?
Single quotation marks and capital letters. E.g. 'Terra Nullius'
Whose perspective ends the story?
Esperance
List 4 human characters from the novel.
Jacky, Esperance, Grandfather, Tucker, Dead Eye, Crow Joe, Mick, Dip, Dap, Livia, Paddy
Explain a scene in the novel that shows humanity
Possible answers:
Jacky gives water to Johnny without knowing him
Jacky dies for the people in the camp
Johnny fires Esperance's last bullet so that she will run and survive
The Star Gang save Johnny without knowing him
Provide an example of an allusion from the novel.
The story alludes to Australia's colonial history in the title 'Terra Nullius' which is a legal fiction used to claim land as 'nobody's'.
The story alludes to the Frontier Wars through the few massacres in the novel--of Esperance's parents, of Paddy's group, and eventually of Esperance's camp.
The story alludes to the Stolen Generations through Sister Bagra's missions and Jacky's displacement and search for home.
The story alludes to the Stolen Generations through the baby factories as the Settlers try to 'breed out' the 'rebellion' of the natives.
Who says this and when?
‘Let me guess the government or the Church don’t want me reporting. Which is it?’
Father Grark right before he is killed at the end of the novel
How many sub-arguments (body paragraphs) should you have?
3
What is the inciting incident of the novel?
Jacky reaches the mission and identifies where his home is.
What are the seven characters whose perspectives/stories are narrated in the novel?
Jacky, Esperance, Sister Bagra, Father Grark, Johnny Star, Sergeant Rohan, Devil
Describe a scene/s that best shows "hope" in the novel.
Examples:
The novel ends with Esperance living. She wanted to die to avoid being locked in a baby factory, but after Johnny fires her weapon, she goes looking for those who have survived and starts to believe that people can eventually rise up against the Settlers.
Esperance's name means 'hope' and 'hope' is the thing that survives at the end of the novel.
Jacky spends a large portion of the novel 'hoping' that his home and people still exist. That 'hope' momentarily disappears when he learns they are dead. However, he begins to hope again when he sees the camp surviving.
Rohan spends a lot of the novel 'hoping' to catch Jacky, believing their technology will give them the one-up.
An allegory is a story that stands in for deeper messages about moral, political, religious, or philosophical ideas. 'Terra Nullius' is an allegory for colonisation of Australia and also current injustices in Australia towards First Nations people. The story tells of an invading people who take land, take language, and take culture, much like the British. The story also makes references to the Stolen Generations and dry communities--which is a nod to current issues faced by First Nations Australians.
Who says this and when?
‘You can’t enslave an animal. It is not slavery when we ride a mount, when we keep pets. It is not slavery because the Native is an animal.’
Devil when Grark confronts him about what he has found and will report it home.
What is the structure of an introduction?
BAT
Background
Arguments
Thesis
What two chapters reveal the genre-shift to the reader from historical fiction to science-fiction?
Chapter 9 and Chapter 10
Chapter 9 refers to 'grey' people and Chapter 10 explains the invasion.
What is Father Grark's role in the story and why does he die?
Grark's role is to attempt to expose the injustices of the colonisers on Earth while failing to change it using the system he has. He dies to show that change from within corrupt systems is near impossible and is often silenced.
Explain a scene that shows colonial violence.
Possible scenes:
- Sister Bagra locking children up without food or water
- The massacre scene
- The baby factories
The fact that this novel is set up as a historical fiction before eventually revealing to be science fiction is an example of what aesthetic feature?
Delayed Revelation.
The novel concludes with the following:
We think of the Settlers, who we call Toads, as inhuman. They are not – what they are is nonhuman. In all other ways they are more like us than we would like to admit. There is nothing in their behaviour that humans are incapable of: we have invaded cultures more peaceful than us, we have murdered and enslaved. There is nothing in their hearts and minds that does not also exist in the hearts and minds of the human species. – TRANSLATOR’S NOTES, THE TALE OF JACKY JERRAMUNGUP
What does 'translator notes' imply about the novel as a whole?
That the whole story has been translated and therefore what the readers have read is a story about a story.
What is the structure of a body paragraph?
TREACL
Topic sentence
Representations
Evidence/Example
Aesthetic Feature
Cultural Assumption
Link
Four key characters die in the massacre scene at the end of the novel. Who are they and what order do they die in?
Rohan > Jacky > grandfather > Johnny
How are Johnny and Jacky's characters linked? Must they both die?
Jacky and Johnny are similar characters of different species. Both ran from authority after doing something bad and get caught. Johnny is sent to Earth as a trooper and Jacky dies.
They exist to emphasise the similarity between the races through their shared experiences, despite their supposed differences.
They both must die to emphasise one side is not better or more advanced than the other--that both are willing to die for those they care about.
Provide 3 examples of how 'freedom and bondage' is explored in the novel.
Jacky runs from his 'bondage' as he longs to be free.
Esperance avoids bondage by keeping a gun on her to take her life if she is caught by Settlers.
Sister fights the children's hope for freedom (inspired by Jacky's escape) by continuing to implement further bondage by locking the children up.
This novel uses a lot of symbolism. Explain each of the below:
Esperance's name
Johnny's surname
Water
Esperance: symbolic of hope. She lives on at the end of the novel, suggesting hope lives on.
Star: Star is symbolic of hopes and dreams. He has a lot of hopes and dreams about Settler and Native uniting
Water: Settlers consume a lot of water and humans not so much, though both need it. Water is symbolic of selfishness and pride. Settlers hoard lots of water in their cities, and struggle to go where the humans can because they aren't resourceful about their water. Meanwhile the humans can find water in all sorts of places and share their water with others.
Who says this, who to, and when?
‘Run, we are all dead, I would run if I had somewhere to go, something to live for, RUN!’
Johnny Star to Esperance during the massacre scene.
What should you do in planning time?
Write a thesis statement
Write your three body paragraph topic sentences
Plan out your examples for each paragraph
Consider each criteria linked to the example (Rep, Aesthetic, Cultural)
What is the purpose of the epigraphs at the start of each chapter?
To build the world and demonstrate that the stories of these characters are only a sample of many resisting colonisation.
Devil only has a few scenes. Why and what is his purpose in the story?
Devil represents the nameless authority that oversees and manipulates the system. He only has a few scenes to a) show his character and the view he has on the world he is in and b) loom as a presence over the other characters to assert the authority of the institution and its systemic power over Earth.
Explain a scene that shows institutional oppression.
When Father Grark is killed--though the killer doesn't state whether it was the government or the Church--for attempting to expose the colonial violence.
The novel can be described as heavily didactic (intended to teach, instruct, or convey a moral or practical lesson). How explicitly does the novel do this and what other aesthetic features does it use to achieve this?
The novel is very didactic in multiple ways to emphasise its commentary on Australian colonisation.
Delayed revelation: the delay in revealing the genre forces readers to understand the historical context of the novel and focus on its commentary of Australian colonisation before taking it in as a sci-fi novel.
Allusion: the story uses many obvious allusions to Australian historical events
Diction: the story uses purposeful word choices to emphasise similarities between this novel and its historical context. It avoids naming a religion or even the planet the aliens come from.
Symbolism: It is obvious with its symbolic use of names--Esperance--to emphasise what the message of the story is: that hope prevails.
Who is 'he' and what aesthetic feature/s is used?
Why was he still alive, what was driving his clear, ridiculous, desire to stay conscious, keep moving? Covered in blood, the blood from the ground where so many had died, the blood from corpses, Settler and Native, Toad and human, that were nothing more than obstacles on his path to who knows where, who knew why, he kept moving. There was so much blood it had flooded the dirt under him turning it into dark red mud.
Johnny Star.
Repetition
Imagery
Rhetorical question
List 10 cohesive ties (linking words)
also, in addition, moreover, furthermore, besides, therefore, consequently, as a result, thus, hence, however, although, whereas, on the other hand, nevertheless, despite, similarly, likewise, in the same way, compared with, for example, for instance, such as, namely, in particular, first, second, next, then, subsequently, finally, etc.