David Malouf brings his representation of patriotism in Australian culture to life in the early chapters of Fly Away Peter. His idea that Australia was a young but patriotic nation in 1914, when the book was set, is seen when he introduces a minor character, a young girl in chapter 6, which in many ways, reflects the ordinary people within that society period. When she meets Jim in Brisbane in a shoe shop, she asks if Jim is going to join the army, and when Jim asks why, she passionately and patriotically says to Jim ‘If I was a man I’d want to be in it [War].’

At first, the strong patriotism of Australians seems to be shown in positive light in ‘Fly Away Peter’, however in depth it seems that Malouf tries to create a negative view. His representation of patriotism shows how it can influence a person’s life, and in this case it is the influence of Jim’s dec

It is possible to say that Malouf subtly accompanies negative connotation with the representation of the Australian-English ties through the two characters. Ashley Crowther is the wealthy land owner of the bird sanctuary, and employs Jim to work for him as a bird observer. This suggests slightly that an Australian is inferior to an Englishman. Furthermore, from the quote “They had always had in mind a picture they had brought from ‘home’ – page 11”, Ashley Crowther constantly refers England as ‘home’, and viewing Australia as a nation stemmed from England. And as a result other older Crowthers regard the Australian bush as alien, and presumably inferior to the English countryside.

Leading on from patriotism, the book revolves around the theme of war. It takes the Anzac culture of battles, young boys, and diseases in trenches, and weaves it into a different perspective of Australian Anzac culture. Malouf makes a graphic retelling of the war scenes through the eyes of two young men, Jim Sadler and Ashley Crowther, creating his own Anzac ‘myth’.

This negative representation of Australian’s war culture is indeed accurate, because referring to statistics of the Gallipoli war, a total of 8709 Australian soldiers lost their lives which include those who died in action, died of wounds, and those who died of disease. Malouf clearly depicts all these aspects in his negative view of our war culture, through the examples of soldiers blown apart on the battlefields, and the disturbing descriptions of the dirty trenches. Through his portrayal of our war culture, his message becomes clear even as the world moves into the 21st century. Malouf tries to say ‘no’ to war, ‘no’ to retaliation, ‘no’ to violence, and looking at the example of September 11th’s twin tower tragedy, his message in ‘Fly Away Peter’ tells us to not engage in another war to retaliate, as this would lead once again to countless casualties.

Some topics in this essay:
Ashley Crowther, I’d War’, World War, Historically Malouf’s, David Malouf, Ballarat School, Fly Peter, Jim Ashley, Ashley Ashley, Europe Europeans, ashley crowther, ‘fly peter’, war culture, jim sadler, war book, david malouf, sadler ashley crowther, sadler ashley, representation patriotism, anzac culture, negative view, influence person’s life, australians lower class, jim sadler ashley,