swallow the air.docx

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SWALLOW THE AIR

BELONGING SYLLABUS POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND

Belonging can be to

People

Places

Communities

The Wider World

Belonging is affected by

Relationships

Identity

Acceptance

Understanding Common experiences

CHAPTER ONE

Chapter one begins with May and Billy by the ocean

Simile – “the stringray’s body looked more like a caricature of a ghost” – since a ghost is

usually a human idea, it humanises the stringray and suggests the presence of a soul. The

soul acts symbolically of value and importance. She values nature because she says the

stingray has a soul basically.

o Furthered by simile – “it looked exhausted, like a fat man in a tight suit after a

greedy meal” o She calls it “an angel fallen” – which is a metaphor that suggests innocence and

purity

o Wow, she really likes nature

“Aunty leapt off the porch and shuffled us inside, just as Mum had earlier shuffled us out” –

this parallel is didactic and works as a representation of these relationships. Their mother

cut their relationship entirely when she committed suicide, shown us she “shuffled *them+

out”. Their aunty is now put into a position where she must develop that relationship hence

she “shuffled *them+ inside”.

o Keep in mind the way belonging changes based on their surrounding people and

places Speaking about aunty: “I thought she looked like Jesus, with her arms holding the rest of her

up” – this is a powerful biblical allusion that explores ideas of suffering for forgiveness and

belonging. This whole text is about the way May suffers and undergoes difficulty to

eventually find places she fits in.

CHAPTER TWO – GRAB

Contrast of “Everything through Aunty’s tired eyes, was bad luck” and “I’d have to be one of

the luckiest people around”. This change sent her identity of the downward spiral of

gambling and drinking, seen in the metaphor “Aunty drowned out”.



CHAPTER THREE – CLOUD BUSTING

In this chapter, the story of May’s mother and the saucepans is shared. We can see that her

and Samuel had shared experience in her working to repay the debt for the pans and a

relationship formed because of it.

Metaphor “they smell of friendship” when referring to the saucepans. They act as arepresentation of the relationship that was built between their mother and Samuel. The fact

that it took her “three years and seven months” to purchase them shows the lasting

significance of them.

o “She would hock everything we’d ever own, except the only thing that mattered” –

Hyperbole shows the importance of the pans

o Note that “when Mum passed, she gave the pots to me”. They become a motif of

connectedness and by passing them down to her daughter, we see there will always

be belonging there.

“Samuel was much like a cloud buster… and when those clouds burst open, he got to feel

the rain. A cleansing rain”

CHAPTER FOUR – MY BLEEDING PALM

This chapter begins with what seems like quite a poor relationship between Aunty and her

new boyfriend. A poem is inserted that suggests it is quite a violent one causing pain “I’d

hear Aunty cry all the time… Don’t know when my real aunty is gunna come home” – the

irony of “real aunty” shows how detached they have become, that she seems like a

completely different person.

o This is an important point for IDENTITY – her identity shifts which affects her

belonging to relationships.

o Supported through contrast shown in Grab

Strong not belonging to community in this chapter. Oxymoron of Paradise Abattoir. The

place “paradise parade” and exclamation of “Paradise, Ha!” both show that paradise is an

ironic word for the place.

“The cycleway was the only thing that bound us to the estate properties” – we can see the

only connection they have to them is a physical one. We get the idea that it is very detached

between different economic statuses. Despite being in the same area, they don’t belong

together because of those identity differences.

“Big terracotta storage boxes” – this metaphor is referring to the estate houses, and the

storage boxes suggest little life, emotion or movement. It is a stagnant environment where

there is no sense of belonging or home.

“Here is my wife and these are my children and this is Bingo the dog” – this italicised excerpt

shows us that all the estate residents fit an archetype of identity (a “traditional” family). This

is juxtaposed to the protagonist family which is dynamic and different to traditional family

environments.

“We began to feel like we didn’t belong on that side of the creek either” – the physical creek

acts as a symbol of the division between them. There is not belonging in this quote because

she says they didn’t belong. Genius, I know.

“I began to hide my skin from the other beach” – her skin is a synecdoche of her cultural

identity. The use of something non-human like a setting shows the lack of empathy and

understanding of her differences.

“I am earth, I am sand” this metaphor links her intrinsically to her Aboriginal heritage



CHAPTER FIVE – BUSHFIRE

“There were no leeches anymore; they left when Mum left – traded for the bushfire’s

arrival” – their mother was the connection to their cultural identity.

But she does extend the natural imagery – “I imagined all the other animals that survived

the fires would’ve been hiding too, waiting for the right time to come out and start again”.It’s all very symbolic of her own culture being hidden until she can fully embrace it. It’s

hidden because it causes her not to belong.

CHAPTER SIX – LEAVING PARADISE

We get a lot of figurative language (similes mainly) that are based around some natural

imagery. An example here is “stomach started to swell like the full moon” -> They link events

in their lives to the natural environment to show that they are intrinsically connected to it.

“Billy’s dad ran away, he was the right skin for Mum too” – this is a metaphor that

represents culture. There is a tone of surprise because the persona believes that two people

of the same culture should belong together.o Her Mum believed “boys needed their dads” the high modality forced her to find “a

white fella”. There is the implication that the white fella wasn’t a perfect match,

simply that he was there out of necessity. Another example of how belonging is

cultural in this text

About Billy: “We didn’t talk about Mum or our dads or all the booze and shit around us, we

knew the world in the same way that we knew each other, in the quietness we shared”.

Quietness is a symbol of shared understanding.

CHAPTER SEVEN – TO RUN

May refers to the postcard as “a piece of me”. This metaphor links her to the only part of herdad that she has (a message from him). The familial belonging is strong here.

“Serving dish in my belly; it fires and burns with an aching for my father” – this is a

metaphor, but it’s best to focus on the fire as a symbol of passion. Her need for familial

belonging is very strong.

Constant links to nature keep coming back – “Feeling like a seagull, taking the air into my

wings” – simile links her to the natural environment

CHAPTER EIGHT – THE BLOCK

The Block is a living area in Sydney where May stays for a while with Joyce and Johnny

“I felt Aboriginal because Mum had made me proud to be, told me I got magic and couragefrom Gundyarri, the spirit man. It was then I felt Aboriginal, I felt like I belonging, but when

Mum left, I stopped being Aboriginal. I stopped feeling like I belonged.” We can see here

how her Aboriginal identity gave her acceptance and understanding with that cultural group,

but her identity and belonging shifted

Joyce has the inclusive language “We’re all one mob”

CHAPTER NINE – CHOCOLATE

More comparison between nature and people “They return home, like us, to nests. Their

nests are like houses”. “We dig hollows in the wet sand and become snakes”.



We can see through this chapter that May finds a relationship and strong sense of belong to

Johnny – “He says he is my brother, always”. It’s a metaphor, as he is not actually her

brother, and the use of a familial relationship suggests a very strong one

CHAPTER TEN – PAINTED DREAMING

While May is in Sydney, multiple times the word “boxes” comes up. “The boxes they put you

in”. The box is a motif of being trapped and isolated and not belonging to

people/places/groups/larger world. We can see she does not belong trapped and confined

like this.

CHAPTER ELEVEN – MAPPING WATERGLASS

“Mum’s stories would always come back to this place, to the lake, where all Wiradjury would

stop to drink. Footprints of your ancestors” – The footprints are a metaphor. May has a

connection to the larger world, because wherever she goes, she finds belonging to the

natural environment. It is always a part of her and always present.

CHAPTER TWELVE – JUST DUST

Aboriginal identity gains strength in this chapter – “She’s says that our people are born from

quartz crystal, hard water… water people, people of the rivers and lakes” – it is an allusion to

Aboriginal dream time stories that shows the Aboriginal identity and belonging within their

community.

Personification of the lake – “The lake works like a heart, pumping its lifeblood from under

the skin” by making the land seem human, it suggests a strong connection to the land

Metaphor of “they want to dig up the hearts, free out the veins, dam up the values” when

referring to the white miners taking over the land that the lake is in. We can see that there is

no understanding or acceptance between the groups.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – BILA SNAKE

Issy (an Aboriginal minister in parliament who is directing May to her family) and May are

both Aboriginal and so find a relationship and sense of belonging together. Metaphor “it

leaks from her, that once she too was lost” – we can see that shared experience allow these

issues to “leak” out and become collectively understood.

As May arrives in Euabalong trying to find her family she meets Graham. He tells her a story,

saying “when we born, we got all our past people’s pain as well”. It shows that through

family and culture, they are intricately connected through all of their experiences and

histories.

FINAL CHAPTER – HOME

Lots of natural imagery as she comes home to suggest belonging to place “the raindrops are

gentle and cold… the salt smell of the ocean air”

“We have flowed down the rivers to estuaries to oceans” – metaphor for the way they are

all united eventually by the water and environment.

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