Break Of Day Themes

In the novel Break Of Day, Tony Palmer depicts the themes of Family, Bravery and Death, Palmer

shows these themes in Murray Barett’s childhood and war experiences.

In the novel Murray believes his a coward, just like his Uncle Jack. Sid Archer says he is a coward,

but in fact Murray is brave. He shows bravery when his father asked him to shoot their dog Paddy

but he refuses to “ He [Dad] had demanded courage but all i’d had to offer was weakness.” He

believed he was weak and cowardly because of what he was told, he was told he was a coward

just like his Uncle, but Uncle Jack wasn't a coward either, he had gone to war to fight for his

country “Murray was confused because Uncle Jack had a medal and they don't give models to

cowards.” How could someone who was a coward be given a medal
Tony Palmer displays family in many was, when Mrs Barett refused to tell Murray about Uncle

Jack’s time in the war because Uncle Jack was very closed off about hie experiences and she

didn't want it to effect him anymore, also when Murray stopped Will from shooting Sid because it

was the wrong thing to do and he cared about Will and didn't want him to be accused of murder. It

was very brave of Murray to stand up against the person his looked up to most.

Also sadly death is a big part of life and it effects your family and how you see the world, but

sometimes you see death so often it stops effecting you. When Frank and Murray were burying

the young soldier in the war it didn't seem to effect them because of all the deaths in the war, it

changed them. When Murray was at home in Hammersley, the sad occurrences of Uncle

Jack’s and Murray’s father passing away. Murray and Will were greatly saddened they their

deaths, but was it because they knew and loved these people that they were so deeply