Playing Beatie Bow
What does Abigail learn about the importance of the family? Discuss how Ruth Park represents her characters and ideas about the family using (3) novel and language techniques
In the novel Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park, the protagonist Abigail learns about the importance of the family. She is a headstrong fourteen-year old girl who has had troubles in her own family, but when she is transported to the Rocks, 1873, and meets the Bow family, she realizes her selfish ways. From her experiences with them Abigail learns that in any situation every family member, including herself, must demonstrate the key elements of keeping a family together. These include love, forgiveness, support and understanding. Ruth Park uses many techniques that illustrate the main theme of the novel – how Abigail learns about the importance of the family.
In Playing Beatie Bow Abigail learns that love and forgiveness are vital elements in keeping a family together. Abigail is an unforgiving child, especially towards her divorced parents. To Abigail, “her father was a king” and the metaphor emphasizes how much she adores him. However when her father “went off with another lady”, Abigail is so outraged that she hits him and refuses to forgive him. Abigail’s unloving attitude was causing the family to fall apart, and she realizes this with “sickish surprise” when she meets the Bow family in 1873. Gibbie Bow is an ill boy; a “self-important little monster” to Abigail. The metaphor emphasizes Abigail’s dislike for “unlovable and obnoxious” Gibbie, so when she realizes “Dovey’s devotion to the child, her sleepless nights and endless patience”, she is hit with “embarrassed astonishment”. The continuous descriptive language emphasizes the shock Abigail feels when she recalls her own attitude towards her family compared to the loving and forgiving Bows. When she returns to her own time, Abigail forgives her parents and realizes how much she loves them. She displays love and forgiveness which she
In the novel Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park, the protagonist Abigail learns about the importance of the family. She is a headstrong fourteen-year old girl who has had troubles in her own family, but when she is transported to the Rocks, 1873, and meets the Bow family, she realizes her selfish ways. From her experiences with them Abigail learns that in any situation every family member, including herself, must demonstrate the key elements of keeping a family together. These include love, forgiveness, support and understanding. Ruth Park uses many techniques that illustrate the main theme of the novel – how Abigail learns about the importance of the family.
In Playing Beatie Bow Abigail learns that love and forgiveness are vital elements in keeping a family together. Abigail is an unforgiving child, especially towards her divorced parents. To Abigail, “her father was a king” and the metaphor emphasizes how much she adores him. However when her father “went off with another lady”, Abigail is so outraged that she hits him and refuses to forgive him. Abigail’s unloving attitude was causing the family to fall apart, and she realizes this with “sickish surprise” when she meets the Bow family in 1873. Gibbie Bow is an ill boy; a “self-important little monster” to Abigail. The metaphor emphasizes Abigail’s dislike for “unlovable and obnoxious” Gibbie, so when she realizes “Dovey’s devotion to the child, her sleepless nights and endless patience”, she is hit with “embarrassed astonishment”. The continuous descriptive language emphasizes the shock Abigail feels when she recalls her own attitude towards her family compared to the loving and forgiving Bows. When she returns to her own time, Abigail forgives her parents and realizes how much she loves them. She displays love and forgiveness which she