Dougy by James Moloney

The novel 'Dougy' by James Moloney is intended to capture the attention of young readers. It talks about Racial Conflict, Racial Discrimination, Family support, and Determination which is experienced by all the people in the world especially in multi-cultural countries. The story also deals with a range of issues facing Aboriginal society. It tells the readers the fear and misunderstanding between Aboriginals and white Australians that has existed for decades.

In the first chapter of the novel, the first sentence says "There's always one picture in my head when I think about what happened to our town." It shows that the story is shaped from Dougy's own perspective because of the use of first person "I". This technique is used so that it makes us feel that Dougy is talking to us and making us part of the story. He also uses colloquial language to communicate with young readers. In this chapter, Dougy talks about his family and the Moodagudda. Much of this story revolves around the retelling of the Aboriginal legend of the Moodagudda, an evil spirit that lives in the nearby river.

Dougy is a thirteen year old aboriginal boy who lives in a small Queensland town comprised of both black and white communities where racism is the main cause of all conflicts. The Aboriginals live mainly in houses that are financed by the government which causes some angst amongst the whites. Although there is an uneasy harmony in place, there is an obvious division between the two cultures. In the beginning of the novel where we first met Dougy, he introduced himself with the use of language with negative connotations that shows his feelings of worthlessness, "My name's Dougy. I'm nobody much". It shows that Dougy has a very low self-esteem. He sees himself as a "nobody" and believes that he is "irrelevant" in this world. He also criticises his poor academic ability and social skills by saying 'I am not good in reading nor writing eh! Not much good at anything.’ He doesn't