Divine Wind - racism
Uploaded by bilwani on Aug 06, 2001
The Divine Wind describes an Australia that is tarnished by racism, hatred and distrust, and yet the novel ends on an optimistic note. Do you agree?
The novel is set during a World War. The tension and separation of races during a war seemed evident in Australia. As a multicultural country including Japanese and Aborigine population, conflicting attitudes towards these races had to be imminent. I entirely agree with the above statement due to the unequal treatment of the aborigines, tension between the Japanese population and characters such as Hart showing lack of trust over his lover Mitsy
With a war against the Japanese was the trigger for racism in Australia. All throughout the novel elements of separation are presented. The Japanese are somewhat divided from white Australians. First of all Broome has a “Register of Aliens”, this was a register or list that kept track of foreign people. This implied that foreigners were seen as aliens and that they didn’t really belong in Australia. The Sennosukes’ names had to be changed because their original names seemed “…too foreign to our ears.” The Japanese living area is Chinatown shows the reader that perhaps whites have put the Japanese into their own little area. Chinatown contains houses that are far smaller and in general with little fortunes unlike the white Australians. It is the broad attitude towards the Japanese that creates a war and endlessly kills Alice.
Aborigines are treated unequally and are downgraded in Broome. The jobs of aborigines are in majority dirty (cleaning jobs), they work for the whites. Also when Mr. Killian is talking about purity at the dinner, he declares that black workers will do all the work while ‘we’ (whites) sit inside. Aborigines do not even get equal opportunity, an example is when Derby’s interview with the officer is forged and consequently Carl Venning simply lets Derby to fight his case without any support. Aborigines have been replaced with stereotypes and generalisations from the Broome community especially all aborigines being alcoholics and inferior. Racism has the significance in the future of Broome in that it will become extremely hard to reverse.
Hart’s lack of trust for characters in the novel such as Mitsy and Jamie are just some signs of Disher showing an Australia that is tarnished from distrust. Mitsy and Hart are close friends and at one time lovers. Nevertheless, Hart still has thoughts about Mitsy secretly seeing...