Quote context
"the crisscross of lights of the suburbs... Newtown, Erskineville, Alexandria, across Redfern to Botany..."
Motif repeated several times in both timelines from several perspectives - shows continuity of the city from one timeline to the next, and also links to the idea of community (often refers to "all the people out there in their houses", with the implication that they need to come together).
Name the technique and two more examples from the text.
Allusion.
Answers may vary.
Full street address including numbers of the tenants' and landlord's sides of the terrace house.
What is the significance of juxtaposing these two residences?
203 Liberty Street (tenant) and 201 Liberty Street (landlord); these two settings are juxtaposed frequently to highlight themes including community/isolation and class/privilege.
Lizzie's hero.
Alexandra Kollontai, a Bolshevik revolutionary.
"Traitor, traitor, we all hate her, boil her in the pot with choko and potater..."
Children's chant sung outside Mrs Weston's door; symbolises both her isolation from the community, and the children's mimicry of the adult protest.
"I'll stick with your side. Our side."
Nobby, talking about what he'll do if he can't talk his mother around. He chooses loyalty to the Cruise family and their cause over his own "side" by birth.
It was a male voice this time. Reminded Ted of the Deputy Principal, back at high school.
...
"Poor cove," the old man thought. There was a dejection in Ted that the old man recognised.
Evie's old suburb: a place where the houses are new and detached and the streets are wide and quiet.
Tudor Grange. (Irony in a historical name attached to a place with no history.)
What experience of the author's prompted the novel?
Studying a postgrad degree in history and writing her thesis on the UWM.
Hallelujah, I'm a bum
Hallelujah, bum again...
Song sung by pickets--brought back by Wes Dacey from the US. Signifies (a) the pickets as a community making the best of adversity (b) their role in a larger worldwide community.
If I write it differently, it happened differently.
The Despot. Suggests her guilt over what she has done, positioning the reader to see her actions as misguided. (Any other significance?)
Use of two or more timelines intertwined.
Parallel or non-linear narrative.
"Wet hessian, damp blankets, soggy tarp, dripping hair."
The Happy Valley camp at La Perouse: the end of the road. Signifies the result of an inadequate safety net on a societal level.
The UWM stands for ______ and its leader in 1931 was ______.
Unemployed Workers' Movement; Jack Sylvester.
Rain, rain
Pelts again
Rushing down
The stormwater drain
Lizzie singing to herself at Happy Valley; demonstrates both the poor conditions which shortly lead to her death, and her struggles to maintain her mental resilience. (Lizzie's focalised narrative associates the rain with the loneliness... "especially since the rain these last days. Especially since the loneliness these last days.")
Evie felt like writing: Forever.
Evie completing the form at the dole office asking how long she's been unemployed.
"We, the undersigned residents of Liberty Street, Newtown, New South Wales..."
This use of epistolary narrative emphasises the community support provided to the Cruises and the solidarity with which they faced the eviction.
Admirable but not enough.
The novel ends here. What is its significance?
Symbolises connection/unity, both on an individual (Noel/Evie/Nobby) and societal level (Nobby imagines all the people in all the houses he can see, all "struggling for their rights".)
The almost-immediate outcome of the Newtown Riot
The Lang government introduced legislation making eviction of the unemployed more difficult.
Name any song (not already revealed) sung by the pickets in 1931.
Answers will vary.
"Well if you want my opinion, they should bring back conscription. Send them all to boot camp!"
The talkback radio Ted hears on hold while talking to BankCard. Part of the motif of media/public opinion shaping the debate (see also Sharnda comparing Ted to someone on talkback radio, and the epistolary narrative using newspapers.)
They don't have these at Evie's house.
Serviette rings, symbolising wealth/class privilege.
"Tequila sunrises and jackpots down the .... This joke was getting worn."
Ted's joking about the "Dole Bludgers' Club".
Who is Job and why is he relevant?
The Despot's parrot, named after the story of Job in the old testament. Job was tested for his faith. She initially called it "Job's comforter", characterising herself as Job (p289), meaning she felt that she was an innocent victim. Her focalised narrative suggests she changes this perspective as her sense of guilt grows ("Yes, she was Job early on...")
Also an intertextual link to The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck's classic American novel of the Great Depression.
Music that signifies the Despot's alignment with the Magistrate, against the Cruises and the working class.
Comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan