Stolen 8 sample essay 2

Reading & Responding - Unit 1 Â

By Jane Harrison

Sample Essay 2 PROMPT "The lies, deception and cruelty of the authorities crushed all sense of hope for the characters of the play Stolen". Do you agree?

The play 'Stolen' written by Jane Harrison demonstrates the fact that the secrets, deceit and inhumanity of the white bureaucracy have enhanced the resilience in a majority of the characters, patently evident in Shirley, Sandy and Anne. Although they were subject to unrelenting denigration, abuse, contempt and exploitation, their sense of hope failed to fade.

For instance, Shirley endured not one separation, but three. Her continued attempts to get in touch with her children and her undiminished yearning for reunion show her to be a hero. In the case of Sandy, we sense resilience, an ability to persevere through any horrific circumstance. While Anne had to cope with the shock of discovering her Aboriginal heritage with her positive attitude and the support of her relatives, she has adapted quite well. However, in the unfortunate case of Ruby and Jimmy, they sought oblivion - in madness and death respectively.

Shirley is shown to be a battler through her persistent efforts to contact her stolen children. Having been taken away from her mother, she then had to suffer the pain of having her own children, taken from her. Despite the adversities imposed on her by the blinkered hostility of the white authorities, she strives to be reunited with her children. "You people have been putting me on hold for twenty-seven years..." Shirley's knitting obviously represents her determination to be with her children again. She is depicted as a fighter as she clings to her old sepia photo album and protests in a battle against the bureaucracy.

Similarly, Sandy has resisted the worst of the traumas of being 'stolen' because of his naturally resilient personality and his ability to dip into his cultural identity for solace. His itinerant life eventuated from a despicable can of peas.

Ironically, a can of peas past its use-by date (ostensibly given to his mother from the Welfare) was used as justification for taking him away from his mother. "I hate peas ...a can like this one ruined my family." Distanced from his mother, his nomadic life ceased as he decided to return to "that bit of red desert" to reconnect with the land: Upon his re-visitation to the children's home, he slams the filing cabinet shut in an act of defiance.

VCE ENGLISH UNIT 1&2

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Reading & Responding - Unit 1 Â

One further example of hope displayed through Anne, exemplifying that the policy of ‘separation' wasn't always an unmitigated disaster. Adopted by solicitous, if not patronising, white people, she was given a 'good upbringing'.

"We'll give her the best of everything." In her situation, we are given a glimpse of the first details of adoption, which predisposes us to think that all white adoptions were as benign as this. This is extremely far from the case, which is made apparent when her adoptive parents are forced to tell the truth of her Aboriginal heritage which they withheld.

She resorted to encouragement from her relatives and her confidence in order to adjust into her black and white dimensions.

Ruby epitomises the worst excesses of what was a brutal policy. She's one of the characters whose pain finally became beyond endurance. The continuous abuse, contempt and exploitation have finally resulted in her nervous breakdown. She descends into a state of sheer madness as she rocks back and forth clutching a doll. "Where are you?" Ruby's sad question is a plea to her mother and to her lost childhood self. When Ruby is visited by her dad and sister, she is beyond caring as her traumas have left her psychologically damaged.

Although Jimmy was lost, it was not a case of quick victory for the forces oppressing him. He's confronted with the bureaucracy's callous and expedient lies "Your mother's not coming. She's dead" and the deliberate suppression of the plaintive letters (filed away forever). The filing cabinet is a cold symbol of official indifference. He's in and out of goal, hardening himself to endure life's blows. Knowing that he can never be reunited with his mother after hearing of her death, he is broken in spirit and becomes another "Aboriginal death in custody'. "Don't let them take babies from mother's arms. Someone's gotta fight." Jimmy's words are indeed an echo of modern Aboriginal activism.

Harrison uses Shirley, Sandy and Anne to offer qualified positives, Shirley maintains her hope in her reunion with her family, with the patience of a natural "earth mother' while Sandy seeks comfort in his cultural identity. Likewise, Anne's willingness to embrace the support of her relatives and her optimism allowed her to surmount her predicament. In stark contrast, in Ruby and Jimmy we see individuals utterly destroyed.

'Stolen' shows that the lies, deception and cruelty of the white authorities didn't deprive the Aborigines of hope.

Paradoxically, the play points out their many admiral qualities more clearly perhaps because of the overwhelming burden of what happened.

VCE ENGLISH UNIT 1&2

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