Rainbows End
Good afternoon teachers and year 12 students, today I will be discussing how a sense of belonging and not belonging is portrayed in Rainbow’s End along with my related text Stolen From Myself. The concept of belonging is conveyed through the representations of personal, cultural, historical and social contexts in both texts.
Rainbow’s End is a contemporary indigenous play by Jane Harrison and she conveys her ideas about belonging through the use of characters, events, places and relationships. Rainbow End is a drama that follows a narrative structure. It essentially revolves around the conflict of Dolly and Errol’s relationship between an Aboriginal girl and a white boy in the setting of 1950s Australia.
Errol’s plan for Dolly scene represents how closely belonging in Rainbow’s End is linked to the strength of the family and the relationships within the families. Errol thinks to take Dolly away from her family in order to give her a better life. He creates an ironic image of a small flat in the city with a sitting-room and a ‘real-stove’. He says that although there would be no room for visitors to stay, it would be better then what she has now. These material possessions are used in the play to portray that Errol has misinterpreted what a ‘real home’ means. Dolly is horrified at the thought of leaving her rive and her family. To her, a home is not defined by the objects in it, but by the people she loves and spends time with. She rejects his offer, saying in a definite tone that “this is my place. I am staying right here with my mum and my Nan.” Later, when Errol returns, he demonstrates his understanding of her family bond, saying “where you belong, and your family, is important.”
In scene five, the sale of the encyclopedia is a symbol of education, also an obstacle/opportunity that Gladys sees as necessary to Dolly establishing a sense of belonging in the white society. The anglocentric white society of the 1950s does not value Aboriginal knowledge which
Rainbow’s End is a contemporary indigenous play by Jane Harrison and she conveys her ideas about belonging through the use of characters, events, places and relationships. Rainbow End is a drama that follows a narrative structure. It essentially revolves around the conflict of Dolly and Errol’s relationship between an Aboriginal girl and a white boy in the setting of 1950s Australia.
Errol’s plan for Dolly scene represents how closely belonging in Rainbow’s End is linked to the strength of the family and the relationships within the families. Errol thinks to take Dolly away from her family in order to give her a better life. He creates an ironic image of a small flat in the city with a sitting-room and a ‘real-stove’. He says that although there would be no room for visitors to stay, it would be better then what she has now. These material possessions are used in the play to portray that Errol has misinterpreted what a ‘real home’ means. Dolly is horrified at the thought of leaving her rive and her family. To her, a home is not defined by the objects in it, but by the people she loves and spends time with. She rejects his offer, saying in a definite tone that “this is my place. I am staying right here with my mum and my Nan.” Later, when Errol returns, he demonstrates his understanding of her family bond, saying “where you belong, and your family, is important.”
In scene five, the sale of the encyclopedia is a symbol of education, also an obstacle/opportunity that Gladys sees as necessary to Dolly establishing a sense of belonging in the white society. The anglocentric white society of the 1950s does not value Aboriginal knowledge which