Cloud Street Flashcards
What is the context of the house??
An old lady tries to do well (Daisy Bates) and help the young native girls “set a standard for the rest of their sorry race” by taking them away from their families and basically treated like slaves. “They had been taken from their families and we’re not happy” until one girl committed suicide and the old lady died alone in the library
How is the house in CS personified??
Act in a human manor according to events
- “held its breath”
- “who was she to argue with a living, breathing house”
How is the “evil” symbolised in house?
“The walls were blotched with shadows”
- fish could see the shadows and hear their cries due to his connection to the spiritual realm
- “the house sad, Lestah… It talks”
What gets rid of the evil??
“The spirits on the walls were fading, fading, finally being forced on their way to oblivion, free of the house, freeing the house, leaving a warm, clean sweet space among the living, among the good and hopeful.”
- birth of wax Harry, bringing harmony and unity
What is fish’s role as a character in regards to:
- ) the other characters/mission
- ) audience/ plot
- ) mission to bring unity and harmony between 2 dysfunctional families
- responds purely on instinct and emotion - ) omniscient narrator
- gives insight into events and other characters
- connects spiritual and physical realms
Why is Fish’s suicide not seen at tragic?
- Fish is stuck between life and death
- Suicide is his release from tragedy and struggle
- “I burst into the moon, sun and stars of who I really am. Being Fish Lamb.Perfectly. Always. Everyplace. Me.”
- unity of his spiritual and physical restored
- seen as celebration
Purpose of the aboriginal man
- lead characters to rightful place where they belong
- representation of rich/wise aboriginal culture
- positive: spiritual, magical, mysterious
- represented as spiritual/surreal being
Aboriginal man as a Christlike figure
- represent Christ through abilities and actions
- e,g) last supper and fish&loaf distribution
- “bread and wine seemed inexhaustible”
Aboriginal man as a protector
- save Oriel from Nedlands monster
- “and in the street, right under the light as he comes running, is a black man with black arms akimbo…the gunman stops”
Aboriginal man as Fish’s guardian angel
Represents a happier life and the promise of death/afterlife to come
- “a dark man comes flying by your tree, you see the whites of his eyes and tingle with rumours of glory”
Aboriginal man as guide
Guides quick back home, his rightful place
- “go home…this isn’t your home”
- guides the lost
the river as a spiritual source of enlightenment
- brings bonding and unity
- “will you look at us by the river” (central metaphor)
- source of healing and reflection
The river: symbolic of life and contrast to busy lifestyle
- can be calm or rough
- “the city had begun to pile up over it as the old buildings went and the ugly towers grew. But it resisted, all the same, having life, giving life, reflecting it.”
- open and free
- life is beautiful
- “the beautiful, beautiful river”
The river: contrast to evil (house)
- “it (the river) was so much more peaceful than the teeming house.”
The river and Fish
- metaphor for soul
- constantly wishes to be free and reunited with the river (soul)
- “He hears nothing but the water, and the sound of it has been in his ears all his life”
- brings unity to fish
- “I recognise myself whole and human
