Neighbours (1985) Tim Winton (1960- )

1. Neighbours (1985)Tim Winton (1960- ) Questions & Answers Theoretical Perspective

2. Questions & Answers 1. When and where did the story take place? How do you know? 2. Why did they move into this new neighbourhood? 3. What annoyed them in the new neighbourhood? How did their neighbours feel about them when they moved in? 4. What made them interact with each other? In what way did they interact? 5. What was the function of language in their interactions? 6. Find the phrases or sentences describing the couple's changing feelings and attitudes toward their neighbours ranging from "wary" to "proud". 7. Why does the author elaborated on the wife's "labour"? 8. Why is the young man's working on his thesis repeated many times? 9. Why doesn't the author name his characters in the story? 10. What do you think of the story? understandable or not? Like it or not?

3. 1. When and where did the story take place? How do you know? • The story might take place in the spring in the southeast of Queensland, Australia. I find the clue to them as following: 1) When? “It took six months for the new comers to comprehend the fact that their neighbours were not murdering each other, merely talking” (p299-pa3) “Relations were uncomfortable for many months,”(p299-pa4) and "In the autumn, the young couple cleared rubbishe from their back yard and manured the soil under the open and measured gaze of the neighbours".(p300-pa2) So, “many months” may be about six months. 2) Where? The story took place in the southeast of Queensland, Australia because "the Moreton Bay figs （大叶榕），a native plant in Queensland, in the Park betrays its location.

4. 2. Why did they move into this new neighbourhood? 2. Before they married, they might have lived with their parents respectively "in the expansive outer suburbs"(p299). After they got married, they should live by themselves, which is conventionally expected in western culture. As for their choosing this neighbourhood with many European migrants, there must be financial reasons. The young man was working on his thesis rather than earning for their bread, and his wife's salary might not be enough for them to afford a larger house in a less noisy neighbourhood.

5. 3. What annoyed them in the new neighbourhood? How did their neighbours feel about them when they moved in? 3. A lot of things annoyed them. First, the sounds and shouts of their neighbours, then the child’s urinating in the street and his staring at fence. Also, the young man resented the neighbours’ interference with their planting activities.(p299-pa4) Their neighbours also felt cautious about their dog, raised eyebrows at their getting up late in the morning and disapproved of the young man staying at home while his wife working outside.(p299-pa4)

6. 4. What made them interact with each other? In what way did they interact? 4. Two activities made them interact with each other. One was their planting vegetables in their backyard, which drew the attention of their neighbours who offered advice about it. (p300-pa2) The other was their building of a henhouse. It fell down and the Polish widower built it for them uninvited.(p300-pa3) Ever since then “the young couple found themselves smiling back at the neighbours.” (p300-pa4)

7. 5. What was the function of language in their interactions? 5. They didn’t know each other’s languages so it seems language had little use in their communication although the young couple seemed learned to shout as their neighbours. (p300-pa5)

8. 6. Find phrases or sentences describing the couple's changing feelings and attitudes toward their neighbours ranging from "wary" to "proud". • Wary (p299-pa1) shock (p299-pa3) uncomfortable (p299-pa4) disgust (p299-pa4) resented (p300-pa2) smiling back (p300-pa4) superior and proud (p300-pa4)

9. 7. Why does the author elaborated on the wife's "labour"? 7. The wife’s “labour” is both literal and symbolic. It’s literal because a new-wed couple is expected to give birth to a new life; it’s symbolic because the whole process of labour is a vivid recap of the process the young couple get mixed with the new neighbourhood. The “contractions” (p301-pa6), the “pushing” (p302-pa2), and finally “it was smashed and she was through”, these stages of giving birth is just like the couple first felt “uncomfortable”, (p209-pa4) “resented”, (p300-pa2) and finally “smiled back” (p300-pa4) and “felt superior and proud” (p300-pa4) about their new neighbourhood. In addition, the new-born baby leaves reader with a rich imagination. How will it feel about this neighbourhood?

10. 8. Why is the young man's working on his thesis repeated many times? 8. At first, I list all the sentences with the similar meaning: 1) …his staying home to write his thesis while his wife worked. (p299-pa4) 2) The young man worked steadily at his thesis on the development of the twentieth century novel. (p300-pa4) 3) The young man ploughed on with his thesis on the twentieth century novel. (p301-pa1) 4) The young man abandoned the twentieth century novel for the telephone.(p301-pa5) 5) The twentieth century novel had not prepared him for this.(p302-pa2) There are 5 sentences describing the same thing, acting as a motif that structures the whole story. It seems “the young man’s working on his thesis” is a thread that helps sew all the anecdotes together, forming a larger canvas. Also, his work is compatible with his mood and feelings, serving as a foil for the progress of the plot.

11. 9. Why doesn't the author name his characters in the story? 9. In a multi-cultural community, one’s name is both important and unimportant. It is important because one’s name is usually a unique one though it might not be so in one’s own country. But it’s also not so important because one’s ethnic identity seems more important than his/her name. The author may want to put the story into a generic category referring to any such kind of happenings. Additionally, the author may want to demonstrate their ethnic identities are more important than their individualities. Last, the story is not very long, so Tim may not want his readers to go deep into the characters, but just display a living panorama of a certain mixed neighbourhood.

12. 10. What do you think of the story? understandable or not? Like it or not? 10. At my first reading, I didn’t feel anything about the story. Not normal daily life happening everywhere. But the more times I read it, the more it made think about our life and our relations with our neighbours, and the more I like it.

13. Theoretical Perspectives • Multiculturalism (or ethnic diversity) relates to communities containing multiple cultures. • As a descriptive term, it usually refers to the simple fact of cultural diversity: it is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, sometime at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighbourhoods, cities, or nations. • As a normative term, it refers to ideologies or policies that promote this diversity or its institutionalisation; in this sense, multiculturalism is a society “at ease with the rich tapestry of human life and the desire amongst people to express their own identity in the manner they see fit.” • Two main different and seemingly inconsistent strategies have developed through different Government policies and strategies: • The first focuses on interaction and communication between different cultures. Interactions of cultures provide opportunities for the cultural differences to communicate and interact to create multiculturalism. • The second centers on diversity and cultural uniqueness. Cultural isolation can protect the uniqueness of the local culture of a nation or area and also contribute to global cultural diversity. A common aspect of many policies following the second approach is that they avoid presenting any specific ethnic, religious, or cultural community values as central.

14. Australia • The next country to adopt an official policy of multiculturalism after Canada was Australia, a country with similar immigration situations and similar policies, for example the formation of the Special Broadcasting Service. • The White Australia Policy was quietly dismantled after World War II by various changes to immigration policy, the full political introduction of official policies of multiculturalism was not until 1972. • The election of John Howard's Liberal-National Coalition government in 1996 was a major watershed for Australian multiculturalism. Howard had long been a critic of multiculturalism, releasing his One Australia policy in the late 1980s. • Contact between people of different cultures in Australia has been characterised by tolerance and engagement, but have also occasionally resulted in conflict and rifts. • Indigenous people were denied rights, settler communities have been victimised, and in recent times the effects of cultural identity and assimilation have caused riots, street violence and the formation of ethnic gangs.