Jamie Riley changing for the better throughout the novel 'A New Kind of Dreaming' is thanks to many of the events throughout his stay in Port Barren. The courts sending Jamie to Port Barren on Isolated Care, I find, is the best thing they have done for him. Even though he was targeted, threatened and set-up, he managed to endure it, and come out the other side a better person. He can only owe it to Port Barren and its people for the turnaround in his life.
Jamie's poor attitude and behaviour issues are no fault of his own. They are at the fault of both his father and late mother. His mother had passed when Jamie was quite young, and his father was of no use either, '…usually too pissed to worry about …show more content…
He was attending school, and had become quite close with Cameron, who was becoming more and more like a brother as the story unfolded, and had settled at Archie's. Often, of an evening, Jamie would go for long walks, to think, and occasionally to release some 'steam'. However, on the way back from one of his regular walks, after seeing Butcher burning the school down, Butcher followed him home, and just before Archie's stopped Jamie; blamed him for burning the school down. Jamie tried to defend himself, but Butcher just smacked him over the back of the head with his Nightstick and threw him in the back of the police truck. After a torturous ride in the back of the police truck, Butcher deserted Jamie at an old Mining Station, Flaherety's Curse, handcuffed to a retaining pole. Cameron managed to decipher where Jamie was, however, another visit from Butcher, he smashed Cameron's Father's car into the Mining Hut, and left. Which meant if the boys even wanted a chance of survival, they'd have to hike it back to town, a very strenuous journey, especially after all of Jamie's experiences. The boys found the previous person Butcher had left out there, who was unlucky enough to have died out there, and they bought her skeleton back too. After their near-death experiences on their travels, and being struck with pure luck, of finding a watering hole and two recreational hikers, who gave them a ride back to