The Golden Age Revision

Question 1

[The Golden Age] “…their voyage had been…”

Answer 1

“…ill fated.” [Referencing The Gold Family]

Question 2

[The Golden Age] “…the community…”

Answer 2

“…we belong to.” [Meyer Adapts To Australia]

Question 3

[The Golden Age] “…self…”

Answer 3

“…contained world.” [Golden Age Facility]

Question 4

[The Golden Age] “…way back…”

Answer 4

“…into the world.” [Golden Age Facility]

Question 5

[The Golden Age] “…it was nursing…”

Answer 5

“…that sustained her.” [Sister Olive Penny]

Question 6

[The Golden Age] “…longed for her…”

Answer 6

“…like a mother.” [Patients - Sister Olive Penny]

Question 7

[The Golden Age] “…felt a hunger to…”

Answer 7

“…know why he was alive.” [Frank]

Question 8

[The Golden Age] “…he too…”

Answer 8

“…had died.” [Frank Over Sullivan’s Death]

Question 9

[The Golden Age] “…Home…”

Answer 9

“…her place in music.” [Ida]

Question 10

[The Golden Age] “They’d listened…”

Answer 10

“…to every note.” [Ida Performs At Concert]

Question 11

Name the main themes that appear throughout the novel ‘The Golden Age’ written by Joan London.

Answer 11

• Family (Related)
• Family (Situational)
• Old World
• New World
• Survival
• The Human Condition

Question 12

Name the main symbols that appear throughout the novel ‘The Golden Age’ written by Joan London.

Answer 12

• Poetry
• Home/Going Home
• Water
• Light
• Windows/Verandahs
• Music
• Trains
• Birds

Question 13

Character Summary: Frank Gold

Answer 13

Frank is a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy who is struck by polio after immigrating with his parents, Ida and Meyer, to Australia as Holocaust refugees. Frank is intelligent and mature as a result of experiencing and surviving the Holocaust. He’s much more cultured and knowledgeable than his fellow patients at the Golden Age, and he interacts with and understands adults more easily than children. Frank vacillates between distancing himself from his parents as a mature adolescent and clinging to the dependence upon and trust in them he had as a child. During his stay at the Golden Age, Frank is motivated by his desire to write poetry, for which he’s felt a vocation since the onset of polio, and by his devoted love for Elsa. In the novel’s end, Frank appears as an elderly and successful poet; through his art he’s managed to confront and move past the two traumas of his youth.

Question 14

Character Summary: Elsa Briggs

Answer 14

Elsa is Frank’s best friend and love interest. Like Frank, Elsa is mature for her age, which manifests in her gravity and judicious reserve. Elsa is a beacon of calm for all the children on the ward—especially Frank, who sees Elsa as a rare repository of beauty and tranquility in a tumultuous and frightening world. Frank is devoted to Elsa from the first day he glimpses her; while Elsa is less forthcoming, she eventually decides that she lives for Frank, relying on him to parse the emotions she feels but cannot express. Before polio, Elsa was extremely close to her mother, Margaret; one of her main concerns now is the distance she feels creeping between them while she’s away from her family at the Golden Age. Elsa emerges as staunch and independent. Despite her disability and the fact that she has three children, Elsa has a long career in medicine. Her sons also call her “E.B.,” the initials of her maiden name, suggesting that she’s maintained her autonomy after marriage; even though she has trouble walking on the beach or climbing hills, she prefers to complete these tasks alone, rather than rely on her family for help. Elsa’s independence and her respected position at the center of her family show that as a woman she comes to resemble Ida Gold much more than her own subservient and subjugated mother.

Question 15

Character Summary: Ida Gold

Answer 15

Frank’s mother and Meyer’s wife. Ida was once a lauded and diligent pianist looking forward to a brilliant career. The onset of the Holocaust, however, annihilated her family and put an end to her life as a musician. While Ida often appears as a flustered and anxious mother—for example, chain-smoking and finding fault with the hospital staff—it’s her ingenuity and persistence that safeguarded her family throughout the Holocaust. Ida loves Frank fiercely and, her general faith in humanity having been destroyed by the war, lives mostly for him. Ida’s feelings are quite similar to Frank’s simultaneous desire for intimacy and distance from his mother. Ida also vacillates between snobbery and humility. Ida’s recital at the Golden Age shows that both these attributes stem from the same source: her pride in her talent as a pianist and her reverence for music as a discipline. Ida’s grave and unstinting performance at the Golden Age exonerates her from any hints of pretension while highlighting the strong sense of self, derived from her craft, that has enabled her to face nearly insurmountable challenges.

Question 16

Character Summary: Meyer Gold

Answer 16

Frank’s father and Ida’s husband. Meyer is much more relaxed and personable than his wife; even Frank would rather his soft-spoken father visit than his frenetic mother. However, Meyer himself sees his purpose in life as standing between the world and Ida, whom he respects as a musical genius. This is an unusual perspective for a man in the patriarchal 1950s, and establishes him as a touching contrast to Jack Briggs, the notably self-centered husband of Margaret. While both of the Golds are hardworking, Meyer adjusts more easily than his wife to his new life as a working-class laborer; he feels at home in work clothes. Having lost most of his siblings in the Holocaust, Meyer is frequently troubled by flashbacks to their deaths, as well as by an inability to feel at home after being so violently expelled from the society he once thought of as his own. It’s his connection and (unconsummated) attraction to Sister Penny, and the contented solitude she embodies, that teachers Meyer it’s possible to be alone without feeling isolated.

Question 17

Character Summary: Sister Olive Penny

Answer 17

The director of the Golden Age, Sister Penny is a firm and competent nurse, managing not only the physical but also the social and emotional needs of the children in her care. It’s largely due to her influence that the children see the hospital as a cheerful place. Sister Penny is at once ascetic and very sensual; she routinely takes lovers, an unconventional practice for a woman in the 1950s. Sister Penny’s lovers show her desire for human connection, but her refusal to marry any of them indicates the value she places on solitude and freedom. Ultimately, Sister Penny is most fulfilled by her work, which she views as a calling and an art, comparable to Ida’s vocation as a pianist. Although she has a comfortable relationship with her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, nursing feels more natural to Sister Penny than motherhood; this is an interesting sentiment in a novel that largely lionizes relationships between mothers and children, and shows that while motherhood is often the most fulfilling aspect of a character’s life, it by no means has to be.

Question 18

Character Summary: Sullivan Backhouse

Answer 18

Frank’s close friend in the IDB, Sullivan is completely paralyzed and lives in an iron lung. While Sullivan is the son of an affluent and powerful Australian family and Frank is a poor refugee, the two boys are immediately drawn to each other. Sullivan is remarkably cheerful despite his situation and retains his passion for reading and composing poetry. It’s Sullivan who awakens Frank’s love for poetry and makes him realize he wants to be a poet. Sullivan’s death from fever is a big blow to Frank; as an adult, he publishes a memoir about his friend and some poetry fragments he had transcribed, showing Sullivan’s lasting influence on Frank’s character and art.

Question 19

Character Summary: Maragaret Briggs

Answer 19

Elsa’s mother, characterized by a fierce love and strong instinctual connection with her daughter. A dowdy and scatterbrained woman who wears too-big shoes and always concedes to her overbearing husband, Jack, Margaret isn’t as outwardly imposing as other female characters like Ida or Sister Penny. However, her constancy and protectiveness toward Elsa belie her appearance. At the end of the novel, likely against her husband’s wishes, Margaret facilitates Elsa’s reunion with Frank and decisively tells her overbearing sister-in-law Nance Briggs that polio won’t limit Elsa’s prospects. These incidents show that her daughter’s illness hasn’t defeated Margaret; in fact, it’s strengthened her character.

Question 20

Character Summary: Jack Briggs

Answer 20

Elsa’s father and Margaret’s husband, Jack is a gruff and bad-tempered man. He’s unable to comfort his wife and unsympathetic to her requests that he take her to see Elsa more frequently. However, Elsa names her son after him, suggesting that during her adulthood they’ve arrived at a more comfortable relationship.

Question 21

Name the key events in ‘The Golden Age’ written by Joan London.

Answer 21

• Sullivan dies; tragic for Frank- inspiries him for life
• The Concert - Ida finds self-worth; connects everyone
• Jack visits Frank; still loves Elsa but can never do so
• The Visit - displays everyone’s development
• Frank hides - life-long trauma and maturity
• Meyer walks; compares Budapest and Perth
• Albert attempts to escape the facility

Question 22

[The Golden Age] “If you listen long enough…”

Answer 22

“…to a bird call, it tells you something.” [Frank About Birds]