Australia's coming of age as a nation is dependant upon a readers personal values and attitudes towards the context of World War One. Discuss. Written By: Sarah Hilliard

Essay by spookie_lil_sarahHigh School, 11th gradeB, March 2004

download word file, 11 pages 4.8

Downloaded 94 times

Australia's coming of age as a nation is dependant upon a readers personal values and attitudes towards the context of World War One. Discuss.

By: Sarah Hilliard

Australia has not always been a mature nation but through inclusion in World War One, the state of Australia's maturity was developed. Fly Away Peter by David Malouf illustrates this when the author discusses Australia being a coming of age nation. Fly Away Peter has both social and historical contexts. The social context in the novel was the coming of upper-class English aristocrats to Australia, clearly developed gender roles between males and females, the new age 'squattocracy' , as well as the laws that regarded aboriginals owning the land. Fly Away Peter also includes a historical context which was Europe, the reason that World War One began was that the Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. This was the catalyst. Australia as a coming of age nation was defined by the adulthood and maturity of the nation.

The readers values and attitudes are important in developing an influence to whether Australia is a coming of age nation or not using the context of World War One. The readers values and attitudes are influenced through the construction of Australia's coming of age, the nation as were at the beginning of the twentieth century, the context of the novella, both socially and historically, as well as the affect that World War One has on the reader in general. Another important issue is also the dependency that all of these characteristics of the novella have on the reader's values and attitudes.

World War One shaped Australia's future by presenting her with an opportunity to become a coming of age nation. The war is a catalyst for Australia's coming of age, because of our acceptance into...