1. Does the long foreword to "Wild Cat Falling" by Mary Durack enhance, or detract from, your appreciation of the novel?
The foreword of "Wild Cat Falling" is written by non-Aboriginal Writer, Mary Darack.The long foreword is included the novel to attempt to explain the book to non Aboriginal readers.
The inclusion of the foreword in this particular novel enhanced my appreciation of the novel, because it was a starting point in my understanding towards the narrative.
Durack's foreword shows the difficulty for an Aboriginal person to find their true identity while others try to create one for them. She also outlines the differences between the Aboriginal community and the White-Australian community. Her comparisons focus on non-Aboriginal modes of correct behavior and outline Aboriginal ones.
The book was "important, both for its literacy quality and as the first attempt by someone of Aboriginal Blood to express himself in this form".
Aboriginal flag
Aboriginal Cave Art
Aboriginal Burial Poles(Page xvii).
Mary Durack outlined an important point in the structure and the language of the novel which helped make the reader aware of the type of language and layout of the novel. This foreword has enhanced my reading of the novel for all the reasons above and for the simple reason that it gave me a background of the novel and the writer in order to establish my understanding of the events and attitudes of the narrator.
Even though the forward has helped me understand the events in the narrative it has also made me appreciate this novel as a whole because of its significance to Aboriginal people and their recount of events which leads to a description of their treatment by the white society.
2. To what extent is the main characters "so what?" attitude to life simply a pose?
The narrators 'so what?' attitude...