The Divine Wind

In Garry Disher's 'The Divine Wind,' it sends across a strong and important message that in a time of horrific war, everyone loses-including the so-called 'winners'. This message is conveyed throughout the text as Hart's mother loses her life in the surrounding circumstances of war. Hart also loses his life-long love, Mitsy, not by death but by the alienation of the Japanese.

Even though Hart is labelled as a 'winner' because he belonged to Australia, which was one of the allied forces. Hart still loses his mother in war so he does not see himself as a winner but more a loser. His mother, Ida Penrose, left for England just before the war in Europe began. Ida had no involvement in the war but being in the wrong place at the wrong time during such terrible international circumstances leads to her manner of dying. This is an example of why war it not the answer because innocent people and their loved ones are effected. The loss of his mother deeply affects Hart and his feelings of pain and grief led him to try and imagine her death and what she was thinking at the time. "I imagined the bomber and the whistling bomb, the flame-rip and the obliterating noise, and I told myself that surely she was thinking about us as the walls toppled and the roof beams came crashing down." Throughout this time of sorrow and anguish, mixed feelings race through Hart's head including the hope of him being the last thing on his mother's mind before her agonising death. At Hart's age, it is a difficult thing to lose a mother, but it had a greater effect on him due to the situation of her death and the fact that he did not have a chance to develop a stronger relationship with his mother.

Throughout the early chapters of the text, Hart begins to lose hope of ever being with Mitsy, the one he truly loves. Since the first day he laid eyes on her, he started to fall in love with her and as the friendship or relationship progressed, the love grew more and more each day. Finally, Hart got what