Flames

Question 1

…reasons for returning – unfinished business, old grudges, forgotten chores. Once they’d done what they came back for they trudged back to the landscape they had re-spawned from…” (2-3)

Answer 1

Chapter: Ash

P.O.V: Levi (first person)

Idea: Grief and Trauma

Context: Levi is recounting the McAllister women’s family tradition of cremation and reincarnation. Their return suggests a deep connection with the natural world, in both life and death.

Question 2

While this event upset us -…I got over it quickly…But Charlotte struggled to move on. (3-4)

Answer 2

Chapter: Ash

P.O.V: Levi (first person)

Idea: Grief

Context: Levi reveals reactions to the death of their mother. While Levi cites a pragmatic reaction to death, it becomes apparent that he struggles to process grief, both his and Charlotte’s.

Question 3

…the more Charlotte struggled the more I worried; so I did what I thought was right. I started looking for a coffin, and I swore to bury her whole and still and cold. (4)

Answer 3

Chapter: Ash

P.O.V: Levi (first person)

Idea: Grief

Context: Levi’s reaction to grief. He is unable to identify Charlotte’s grieving as her personal reaction and responds by doing what he believes will help her. His actions are perhaps of more benefit to him than his sister. A conversation is needed, but neither know how to talk to the other.

Question 4

Charlotte will burn, tomorrow or in half a century, but she will burn. And she might return. Though that isn’t the point. (27)

Answer 4

Chapter: Sky

P.O.V: Charlotte (third person/inner monologue)

Idea: Change/Transformation

Context: Charlotte has found her measurements recorded by Levi and is ‘running’. His behaviour is an attempt to control Charlotte’s fate (death) and choice. Charlotte’s need to run when feeling trapped.

Question 5

Talking to Levi would have done zilch…he is the one who needs help, because what is she doing but grieving…her spine-straight brother who has shown no sorrow, no pain…(30)

Answer 5

Chapter: Sky

P.O.V: Charlotte (third person/inner monologue)

Idea: Grief

Context: Charlotte is justifying her reason for running without warning, and reflects how little they understand about each other and the need for communication. As much as Levi doesn’t understand Charlotte’s grief, Charlotte doesn’t recognise Levi’s.

Question 6

…and somewhere she feels a burst of heat that blazes for a volcanic moment before disappearing. (33)

Answer 6

Chapter: Sky

P.O.V: Charlotte (third person/inner monologue)

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: Charlotte’s reaction when she becomes aware of the sinister intent of the two miners. It is the first sign of her flames, revealing Charlotte’s reactions to extreme emotions.

Question 7

The wide river beyond the street is steely, placid and unstoppably … calm. And Charlotte is calm too, just for being here. (36)

Answer 7

Chapter: Sky

P.O.V: Charlotte (third person/inner monologue)

Idea: Natural World

Context: As Charlotte moves further south and away from the restrains of home and city, the quiet spaces of the natural world (Franklin) become a physical/emotional comfort to her.

Question 8

With his blunt nose he could smell their foul industries; with the balanced tip of his tail he could feel their intrusions in the water; with his black eyes he could see the iron they sunk into his rivers, building dams, dropping anchors, hooking fish. He had learned the colour and shape of their callousness, but he could not stop them, for his power was limited to the rivers, while they swamped over everything. (39)

Answer 8

Chapter: Iron

P.O.V: Esk God – Rakali (third person)

Idea: Natural World / Industrialisation

Context: The Esk God enters the Esk river, noting how humans have changed his world. Iron is the most prominent sign of humanity’s intrusions into nature, which creates a direct link between human industry and the decay of the natural environment

Question 9

The source of his rivers, the source of his world, the home of his high-living love: The Cloud God. She as his creator, his meaning, his life…he had never seen her. (41)

Answer 9

Chapter: Iron

P.O.V: Esk God – Rakali (third person)

Idea: Love / Connection

Context: The Esk god speaks of his love and commitment to the Cloud god, and despite never having seen her face, adores her. Reflects the vastness of nature.

Question 10

…how in years past everything in the land and water had consisted of a wider grandness; how blood-tasing tang of iron had filtered into all that he saw and smelt and touched. (43)

Answer 10

Chapter: Iron

P.O.V: Esk God – Rakali (third person)

Idea: Natural World / Industrialisation

Context: He notes a hierarchy of the natural world (the presence of many natural gods, those who still exist or have been eradicated) who respect him, unlike the ‘pale apes’ who have had the greatest impact on the natural world

Question 11

…my sister is struggling to cope with the loss…I cannot allow her pain to continue. (51)

Answer 11

Chapter: Fur

P.O.V: Levi (first person – letters)

Idea: Family/love/grief

Context: Levi writes to Thurston Hough asking him to build a coffin for Charlotte. Outwardly his intentions are genuine, however the neglect to recognise his sister’s intentions or how each are grieving

Question 12

I don’t need this coffin to bury her in; I need it as physical proof that she won’t be cremated. (54)

Answer 12

Chapter: Fur

P.O.V: Levi (first person – letter)

Idea: Family/love/grief

Context: Levi seeking assistance from a renowned coffin maker, reflects his stubborn nature to pursue this task under the guise of helping his sister to cope with her grief, without talking to her about her intentions.

Question 13

…you should know that different varieties of timber have wildly different reactions when they are filled with corpses and interred into the earth. (55)

Answer 13

Chapter: Fur

P.O.V: Thurston Hough (first person – letters)

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: The way Thurston reveals the magical properties of wood, reflects his arrogance. But the properties also suggest the natural world’s influence in life and death (??)

Question 14

But you shall not be taking the glorious water rat pelt with you; it has become my sole comfort in these troubling times … The only grave it shall adorn is my own. (64)

Answer 14

Chapter: Fur

P.O.V: Thurston Hough (first person – letters)

Idea: Grief/Trauma/Magical realism

Context: Thurston is under attack and therefore unable to complete the coffin which Levi must collect, without the pelt (Esk God). The comfort it brings him is false, and stirs retribution from the natural world.

Question 15

Weird kid…Like his private-school manners were paved over something that had cracked. (65)

Answer 15

Chapter: Ice

P.O.V: Detective (first person – Detective Noir)

Idea: Connection/Disconnection

Context: The detectives first impression of Levi. Insight to Detectives nature – she is able to see through the façade people present to her. She is aware Levi is hiding something.

Question 16

When the Last Graham told me about Jack McAllister, I twinged. I twinged so hard I thought I was going to fall through the window. (76)

Answer 16

Chapter: Ice

P.O.V: Detective (first person – Detective Noir)

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: The Detective’s reaction to the mention of Jack McAllister as part of investigation to finding Charlotte. Is her twinge part of the novel’s magic realism, or is this intuition (something we all have)?

Question 17

You might find it hard to believe, but I used to be normal…I don’t feel bad when I hurt a few feelings, bruise a few heads, crack a few bones. I don’t feel much at all. (84)

Answer 17

Chapter: Ice

P.O.V: Detective (first person – Detective Noir)

Idea: Grief/Trauma

Context: The Detective recounts her tragic past and how her life has changed, where she has become jaded, pragmatic, logical and task orientated to the world around her.

Question 18

… I find it hard to describe him. Even now, after all I’ve seen this man do, after all I know he’s capable of, I can’t put my finger on his features. (91)

Answer 18

Chapter: Ice

P.O.V: Detective (first person – Detective Noir)

Idea: Natural World

Context: The Detective witnesses Jack in the form of fire at Melaleuca, and at first is unsure who he is – speaking to him she is affected by his ethereal presence. He leaves with the warning to ‘stay away from my daughter.’

Question 19

While Nicola cries over the fresh corpses, Charlotte cannot look at them; she retreats to the farthest part of the farm to scream, and scream, and scream. (97)

Answer 19

Chapter: Feather

P.O.V: Diary of Allen Gibson (first person)

Idea: Grief/Trauma

Context: The reaction from both Nicola and Charlotte represents the close connection humans have with the natural world. Note that Nicola is able to deal with her grief, while Charlotte grieves privately.

Question 20

Floods, fire, pestilence, disease; farmers always find a way to push on. I will not let a few dead marsupials conquer my spirit. (100)

Answer 20

Chapter: Feather

P.O.V: Diary of Allen Gibson (first person)

Idea: Natural World

Context: Allen notes how nature can influence and control, but humans prevail – constant clash. He notes this just prior to his discovery and assumption the large Black Cormorant is causing the troubles.

Question 21

Where I once admired them, now I regard them with suspicion. (101)

Answer 21

Chapter: Feather

P.O.V: Diary of Allen Gibson (first person)

Idea: Change/Transformation

Context: The presence of feathers leads Allen to believe a cormorant is to blame for the deaths, while Nicola and Charlotte have doubts about Allen. The deaths suggest an unbalance in the ecosystem.

Question 22

…since I found the feathers my dreams have changed…I no longer feel horror when they swamp my sleeping mind, only curiosity. (103)

Answer 22

Chapter: Feather

P.O.V: Diary of Allen Gibson (first person)

Idea: Change/Transformation

Context: Allen begins to align himself with the cormorant, becoming more suspicious and territorial (similar to the cormorant). He is becoming a danger to the women.

Question 23

He fell into the South Esk and tried to sue the water company; he got into arguments over the price of potato cakes at the fish-and-chip shop; he challenged the milkman to a duel at high noon … (p. 123)

Answer 23

Chapter: Cake

P.O.V: Memoir of Mavis Midcurrent (chapter 28)

Idea: Disconnection (natural/human world)

Context: Mavis’s perspective allows the reader to understand how those around Thurston view him: not only is he at odds with his natural environment, but he’s also remarkably antisocial and suspicious of
the motives of people who seem to get along with one another.

Question 24

The local wildlife had broken into his house and gnawed upon his body – water rats, in particular, had taken a liking to him, feasting upon his toes, fingers and face. (p. 124)

Answer 24

Chapter: Cake

P.O.V: Memoir of Mavis Midcurrent (first person)

Idea: Natural World

Context: Mavis recounts how Thurston was discovered alone in his home – there is a sense of retribution for both the natural world as well as Mavis and the local of Avoca.

Question 25

He also took a golden-brown pelt that had apparently been clutched by what was left of Mr Hough’s fingers. (p. 125)

Answer 25

Chapter: Cake

P.O.V: Memoir of Mavis Midcurrent (first person)

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: Unaware of who Levi is, Mavis recounts his arrive and leaving with the Pelt. Her observations are the first we hear of Levi’s declining health. We later learn the Pelt’s effect on Levi, propelling him forward.

Question 26

For two and a half hours every afternoon he’d climb trees, follow tracks, build shelters and swim through the dense green, always feeling a buzz of belonging in his throat and chest. (p. 127)

Answer 26

Chapter: Grass

P.O.V: Third person (ranger perspective)

Idea: Natural World

Context: The Ranger’s relationship with the natural world is one of love and respect that has come from his mother’s forceful encouragement and the Ranger’s persistence.

Question 27

How the charred humps of buttongrass would already be gleaming with morning dew, hours after burning to their roots. How new shoots would spring forth, green and vital, stronger than before. How these bright blades would summon wallabies and potoroos, and with them would come wombats. (134)

Answer 27

Chapter: Grass

P.O.V: Third person (Ranger’s perspective)

Idea: Natural World/Connection and Reconnection

Context: As the Ranger watches Melaleuca burn, he marvels at the reality that it will recover, reflecting the Natural world’s ability to overcome the impacts of humans.

Question 28

…she felt it waver, slow, and die, and in that instant she knew: she had done this. (137)

Answer 28

Chapter: Snow

P.O.V: Third person (Nicola)

Idea: Love / Magical Realism

Context: Driving to the cabin in retreat, Nicola reflects on the influence she has on Charlotte, to calm her flames.

Question 29

It wasn’t pure selflessness; she drew pleasure from how she could affect others, and when they showed her gratitude she bathed in it, glowing in the knowledge that she, and only she, had made them feel that way. (145)

Answer 29

Chapter: Snow

P.O.V: Third person (Nicola)

Idea: Connection / Love

Context: Nicola reflects on the positive impact she has on those around her – suggests that she is a selfless person who is attuned to the emotions of others, and is prepared to help them.

Question 30

Hot touch. Wild flicker. Cold fade. (151)

Answer 30

Chapter: Snow

P.O.V: Third person (Nicola)

Idea: Love / Magic Realism

Context: While she sleeps, Charlotte begins to leak blue flames, burning her sheets. Nicola runs to her assistance, controlling the flame but also burning herself in the process.

Question 31

Sometimes she could click her fingers and a perfect lick of fire would snap out of her thumbnail, like a fleshy Zippo lighter. Other times she would hack and cough for hours with no results, only to get the hiccups later on and accidentally spit fire all over her lap. (152)

Answer 31

Chapter: Snow

P.O.V: Third person (Charlotte)

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: Isolated in a cabin in the snowy mountains of Cradle Mountain, Charlotte can practice her calm and control her flame. It is here she begins to understand her nature.

Question 32

When it comes free it slides snugly into his palm, warm and plush, and suddenly he no longer feels ill…Levi is filled with confidence and a renewed sense of purpose. (158)

Answer 32

Chapter: Wood

P.O.V: Third person – Levi

Idea: Magic Realism

Context: Levi is unwell, yet when he holds the pelt and begins to feel its effects, he is suddenly rejuvenated and confident to face his father.

Question 33

…he had sourced a calming coffin for her…that in the face of their sorrow he had gone to great lengths to have it built; that he couldn’t go another day knowing she was in such pain; that he cared for her this much; that he loved her more than words could ever show with words; that this coffin represented this. (159-60)

Answer 33

Chapter: Wood

P.O.V: Third person - Levi

Idea: Grief / connection

Context: Levi is starting to doubt his original intentions for building the coffin, perhaps realising his reasons were more about his own inability to deal with grief. Instead he focuses on Charlotte.

Question 34

Levi is not well. Levi is not realising: he could have just spoken to her. In a mind like his, grand acts will always trump honest words. There was a chance he’ d understand this … the moment he saw the coffin … But this chance was destroyed the moment Levi picked the golden-brown pelt from Hough’s nibbled fingers. (160)

Answer 34

Chapter: Wood

P.O.V: Third person - Levi

Idea: Grief

Context: Note the use of verbs, similar to Charlotte’s chapter ‘Sky’. Here Levi is trying to convince himself that his actions are reasonable – the pelt is reassuring him physically and mentally.

Question 35

Your sister will come home, eventually, and you need to be reliable. Strong. The brother you normally are. (164)

Answer 35

Chapter: Wood

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Connection/reconnection

Context: Jack appears to Levi, after many years of absence. Now Edith has died, and Jack is not present, the siblings only have each other. Jack behaves as a father – to reconnect his children. The pelt prompts Levi to refuse his father.

Question 36

…her wooden jacket will be crafted out of something much more personal. And he will build it himself. (165)

Answer 36

Chapter: Wood

P.O.V: Third person - Levi

Idea: Grief / Connection

Context: The pelt controls Levi’s mood – he now believes he should be the one to complete Charlotte’s coffin, using materials familiar to them, as this will be more personal.

Question 37

And as he did all this he realised he had a purpose; that she had called him into life for a specific set of reasons; that he could do so much more than eat and grow. (167)

Answer 37

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Magic Realism / connection

Context: The chapter is set back to the origins of fire, reflects that nature is just as dependent on the care and respect of human beings as humans are dependent on nature for warmth and food—it’s a reciprocal relationship.

Question 38

It was people, always people; only people that he really cared for. He had helped them cook, create, shape and heat themselves, and had come to think of them as not so much as a family but as part of himself. (172)

Answer 38

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Connection

Context: As fire begins to develop more independence and ability, he feels most connected to human beings, bridging the gap between the natural world and human civilization.

Question 39

They brought pain to the people he’d been helping for centuries – pain that he initially responded to by burning down their buildings, their docks, their great bird-like ships – but they also came with a vast multitude of new purposes for him. (175)

Answer 39

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Change / connection

Context: The arrival of colonials brought grief to Indigenous peoples, the ones who created him, et fire finds the new use for him with the new arrivals more enticing.

Question 40

All that his son had inherited from him was his love of purpose and his strength of resolve…distance grew not because they were different but because they were so alike – flames or not. (183)

Answer 40

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Connection

Context: Jack recognised that while he and Levi look nothing alike, they are similar in manner. We see this in Levi’s reaction to his sister.

Question 41

His feelings for her were of the purest, awe-blinded kind of devotion…From his right eye a drop of fire descended, globular and hot, straight into the gurgling mouth of his daughter. He saw it falling at the last moment, but it was too late – straight onto her fat tongue it landed, sizzling against the saliva. Charlotte blinked. She swallowed. (184)

Answer 41

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Love / Connection

Context: When Charlotte, is born, Jack feels an instant connection to her. It’s a moment that physically proves Jack’s connection to the humans he loves, though that sign of connection also shocks and scares him.

Question 42

How he learned of her death: in the moment he crackled to life around her funeral pyre…He could barely manage it because he knew that it was what she wanted. (188)

Answer 42

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Grief

Context: After Edith excludes Jack from her life and contact with his children, the next time he is with Edith is when he is called up to cremate her body. This is how he learns of her death.

Question 43

She burned out, bright and loud and then gone. Gone forever. And she took with her the most human parts of him. (189)

Answer 43

Chapter: Coal

P.O.V: Third person – Jack (Fire God)

Idea: Grief

Context: Recognition of the connection between natural and humans. The death of Edith has a profound impact on Jack. She was he reason he wanted to take human form.

Question 44

I have met siblings with almost unconscious understandings of each other … It is like meeting aliens. Levi and I have never understood each other…So when I ran after I found his note, I did not do it out of fear or anger; I did it out of love…too much death to deal with. I could have spoken to him, but he would not have listened. (192-93)

Answer 44

Chapter: Grove

P.O.V: First person - Charlotte

Idea: Grief / connection

Context: Charlotte reveals her true intention of running was not just to avoid her brother’s intentions, but more out of a need to control her own emotions.

Question 45

Levi couldn’t see it, but I could. I’d been burning ever since out mother had. (193)

Answer 45

Chapter: Grove

P.O.V: First person - Charlotte

Idea: Grief / Love

Context: Despite their sibling bond and shared grief of their mother’s death, Charlotte recognises her need to leave as her way of dealing with her grief, and that she is very different to her brother.

Question 46

Only I see the flames recede into smoking coals. And only I see the man step out of them…He smiles at me…I’ve always found his smile unforgettable. (212)

Answer 46

Chapter: Grove

P.O.V: First person - Charlotte

Idea: Love / Reconnection

Context: Amidst the chaos of the fires that threaten them, Jack appears in his fire god form. Charlotte’s surprise at identifying the smile, suggests she is unaware of his dual self. But the moment is intimate and special for both father and daughter.

Question 47

He mouths something to me and holds a hand over his chest. Then he looks up, into the sky, and releases a long heavy sigh. His eyes are closed. That’s when the rain starts falling. (212)

Answer 47

Chapter: Grove

P.O.V: First person - Charlotte

Idea: Love / Connection

Context: This is the last act of a father, protecting his children. It is also Jack choosing to adopt his true nature and form, rather than inhabiting the human world as a man. It is a moment of love rather than sadness.

Question 48

… it was the smoke that fizzed out of a small, golden-brown pelt in the heart of the fire. A special pelt: a river pelt. A pelt that had belonged to the other half of the cloud’s heart. (215)

Answer 48

Chapter: Cloud

P.O.V: Third person – Cloud God

Idea: Grief

Context: The burning of the pelt signals to the Cloud god the death of her love the Esk God (Rakali). The grief is pure and deep, as she floods the land – a cleansing.

Question 49

A cloud’s sorrow: you cannot imagine it. But you can feel it, whenever a storm hits the world with uncommon force. When mountains crack and forests flood. When rivers surge and oceans bloat. When there is no true shelter left in the world. For the hardest storms are made of sorrow. Such sorrow came to the island, and tried to drown it. (216)

Answer 49

Chapter: Cloud

P.O.V: Third person – Cloud God

Idea: Grief

Context: The overwhelming nature of grief.

Question 50

I had not cried since I was a small child – not even at our mother’s cremation. But now my howl was joined by a rapid gurgle of other sobs, and tears, and the occasional moan. (222)

Answer 50

Chapter: Sea

P.O.V: First person – Levi

Idea: Grief / Connection

Context: Levi presents at the hospital where Nicola is being cared for. He tried to find the words to express is feelings, and in this moment his grief overwhelms him, and Levi cries.

Question 51

And in that rising moment I held on to the seal, and kept my eyes locked on his, and waited to fall back beneath the waves. But out there in the salt, that something kept swelling. It has kept me afloat ever since. (226)

Answer 51

Chapter: Sea

P.O.V: First person - Levi

Idea: Reconnection / Magic Realism

Context: This is Nicola’s idea, Charlotte encourages, and Karl takes him out – this is Levi’s moment to final purpose and connection with the natural world. It brings closure to the novel for he (and Karl) in their grief.