Dougy - James Moloney
How is the concept of change explored in your prescribed text DOUGY by James Moloney?
Change is a process and refers to the act or instance of becoming different. Dougy, the protagonist in James Moloney’s novel Dougy, undergoes a personal transformation of character resulting in growth, maturity and resolution. Moloney employs a range of techniques to chart the natural and positive transition Dougy experiences.
Dougy tells the story of an Aboriginal boy and his journey to a positive self-identity. It is set in a small contemporary Queensland town and recounts the racial tensions between the Aboriginal and the Anglo-Australian population. Resentment and ignorant attitudes result in a racial war, developing, rising and receeding within the parallel action of the flood. Within this framework we follow the personal changes Dougy undergoes as he adopts strategies to deal with the escalating violence and ensuing tragedy.
Dougy experiences personal problems that leave him feeling worthless, hopeless and socially inadequate. The first person narrative structure means our understanding of Dougy is shaped from his perspective. Dougy does not introduce himself until chapter two and the use of truncated sentences and the language with negative connotations establishes his low self-esteem and the lack of identity, ‘My names Dougy. I’m nobody much. ‘Dougy is critical about his physique, academic ability and social skills, demonstrated through the personal voice and repetition of ‘I’ and the emotive use of ‘still’ – ‘I’m the tallest kid in the whole school but I don’t like that much… I’ve always been skinny, specially my arms and legs’.
Dougy exposes his poor academic ability through the repetition of negative connotations towards himself and his identity. – ‘I am not good at reading and righting eh! Not much good at anything. Me I stay here in town for school, Even though I just turned thirteen, I’m still in Grade six, still in primary school.’’
Furthermore, Dougy
Change is a process and refers to the act or instance of becoming different. Dougy, the protagonist in James Moloney’s novel Dougy, undergoes a personal transformation of character resulting in growth, maturity and resolution. Moloney employs a range of techniques to chart the natural and positive transition Dougy experiences.
Dougy tells the story of an Aboriginal boy and his journey to a positive self-identity. It is set in a small contemporary Queensland town and recounts the racial tensions between the Aboriginal and the Anglo-Australian population. Resentment and ignorant attitudes result in a racial war, developing, rising and receeding within the parallel action of the flood. Within this framework we follow the personal changes Dougy undergoes as he adopts strategies to deal with the escalating violence and ensuing tragedy.
Dougy experiences personal problems that leave him feeling worthless, hopeless and socially inadequate. The first person narrative structure means our understanding of Dougy is shaped from his perspective. Dougy does not introduce himself until chapter two and the use of truncated sentences and the language with negative connotations establishes his low self-esteem and the lack of identity, ‘My names Dougy. I’m nobody much. ‘Dougy is critical about his physique, academic ability and social skills, demonstrated through the personal voice and repetition of ‘I’ and the emotive use of ‘still’ – ‘I’m the tallest kid in the whole school but I don’t like that much… I’ve always been skinny, specially my arms and legs’.
Dougy exposes his poor academic ability through the repetition of negative connotations towards himself and his identity. – ‘I am not good at reading and righting eh! Not much good at anything. Me I stay here in town for school, Even though I just turned thirteen, I’m still in Grade six, still in primary school.’’
Furthermore, Dougy