Dougy

The fictional novel ‘Dougy’ by James Moloney deals with a range of issues that are faced in the Aboriginal community. These themes correspond with the main theme of crossing boundaries. Boundaries such as physical, mental and racial are shown throughout the book with many heroic qualities shown by the characters. This book also demonstrates the good and the bad qualities of the indigenous and the non-indigenous people. As well as the impact that the aboriginal people’s culture and behaviour has to the way others approach them.

An important theme of ‘Dougy’ that corresponds with crossing barriers is crossing physical boundaries. Crossing physical boundary is impossible unless you have the talent, skill and courage to accomplish this very hard task. An example of this taking place in the book, is when Gracey went to Brisbane for a very important race but then ‘she found out at the last minute that she wasn’t allowed to wear her usual running shoes for the race, so she ran in her bare feet’. Against everyone’s belief in her skill and all the negativity given to her by the ‘whitefellas’ in her region, (except for her coach, Mr Jenkins and her only white friend Brett) she attempted to take the title and “she won, Gracey had won the state championships!” Gracey had crossed physical boundaries by her determination and will power to accomplish this difficult goal. Due to her victory ‘Gracey became the most important person in the whole town. People who usually never looked at her said hello.... She kept the medal in her pocket so she could show other people and they were all so impressed of her’. This would startle the reader to think more deeply about how people’s mind could be manipulated and change so dramatically. Before the race, no non-indigenous people believed in Gracey and thought she was an evil person that gets things for free, to knowing that she was a caring young girl who deserved it. Another important theme that was shown in this event was the amount of