Astley\'s IT\'s Raining in Mango:

¶ … Astley's it's Raining in Mango: Question - in 500 words answer - in general, how successful are marriages and heterosexual relationships in Astley's it's Raining in Mango? What conclusions about Australian gender relationships does the novel invite?

In Thea Astley's it's Raining in Mango, Astley tackles two of Australia's most complicated relationships; the historical relationship between Aborigines and white settlers and the relationships between men and women. She portrays four generations in a family, which shows how stereotypes and cultural expectations have shaped lives over a series of several generations, as well as helps demonstrate how gender and racial norms transform over the course of the novel. Like most Australian literature, it's Raining in Mango takes a seemingly grim view of male-female relationships, demonstrating the relative powerlessness that women historically experienced in Australia. However, Astley also demonstrates how the people in the novel are impacted by circumstances, so that otherwise strong relationships are rendered fragile and destroyed by circumstances. What she demonstrates is how the Australian environment helped shape individual heterosexual relationships, just as those individual heterosexual relationships helped shape traditional Australian gender norms.

The patriarchal couple of the novel, Jessica Olive and Cornelius begin the novel as a couple. Cornelius is a hard man and a demanding father, but he is also a highly principled journalist. Appalled by what he witnesses the white settlers doing to the Aborigines, Cornelius reports the violence, only to lose his job as a result. The resultant turmoil eventually causes the breakup of the marriage, and Cornelius abandons Jessica Olive to raise their son George and their grandson, Harry. The message conveyed is that Australian men, despite their tough exterior, are actually vulnerable. Jessica Olive, though not portrayed as a symbol of strength in the earlier parts of the novel, is left alone to raise the children, and manages to do so.

Astley also focuses on Jessica Olive and Cornelius's daughter, Nadine. Nadine has a baby as a teenager, and then abandons that baby to run off and join a brothel. The fact that she joins a brothel reveals significant information about male-female relationships in Australia. Prostitution on the Australian frontier was a fact of life, but most mentions of prostitutes in literature are as supporting characters. Nadine gives her perspective as a prostitute, which allows the reader to see that she gained from the business transactions, a viewpoint that is largely ignored in the traditional male-oriented approach to the problem of prostitution. Although it cannot be said that prostitution made her happy, it was portrayed as a choice that she made. It also seemed clear that she understood the business nature of her transactions with her various clients, while some of them did not seem to understand it as simply a business transaction. The message conveyed appeared to be that while life was hard for women in Australia, the women were better equipped to survive it than the men.

The final heterosexual relationship that is really explored in the novel is the relationship between George's children, Connie and Will. Connie has an unsuccessful short-lived marriage with a member of the American military. Will has a homosexual relationship during that same period of time. However, both siblings appear to have a romantic interest in one another. Although the novel does not thoroughly explore the possible incestuous attraction between the siblings, the fact that they each appear to be the other's most significant long-term romantic interest is a condemnation of traditional heterosexual relationships.

Question 2 is based on Malouf's Great World: Question - in 500 words answer - What image of Australia and Australians before, during and after World War II, is projected in the Great World?

World War II had a transformative impact on Australia in many ways. First, it changed how Australia was viewed by the global community; Australia was recognized as having the location, size, and resources to make it a global power, while lacking the size or might that would turn it into a threatening superpower. This resulted in Australia having a different diplomatic role after World War II. More significantly, World War II changed the domestic face of Australia. David Malouf uses World War II's transformation of Australia as a major element in his novel the Great World.

David Malouf's images of Australia and Australians prior to World War II help portray the image of Australia as a frontier. Prior to the war, the novel's two protagonists, Digger Keen and Vic Curran lead very different lives. Digger grew up in a home with strong feminine and masculine influences. The fact that Digger's mother is portrayed as a strong feminine force is interesting because women are frequently marginalized in literature about Australia. Some have suggested that this reflects the sexism of Australian authors, while others suggest that it merely reflects the realism of these authors, who are confronting an inherently sexism in Australian society. Regardless of the reasons, Australian novels have tended to avoid the strongly feminine. The portrayal of Digger's mother as a character who is profoundly feminine and still strong reflects an Australia that is dependent upon its women, while, at the same time being dismissive of them.

The images of Digger's childhood also reinforce the idea of a hard-scrabble existence. During that time, many Australians were struggling financially, and the novel captures those struggles. Digger's family is incredibly impoverished, but they do not regard their poverty as a sign of character or lack thereof. Vic's birth family was also impoverished, but, along with that poverty came other problems, such as alcoholism. Vic is adopted into a well-to-do family, but this sudden increase in financial fortune, because it is not accompanied by a change in other circumstances, does not make Vic happy. This reflects an appreciation of the self-made man and the notion that people are measured by who they are, not simply what they have.