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A Multicultural Clash
In James Vance Marshall's novel Walkabout, two young Americans find themselves marooned in the Australian wilds, mindlessly wandering to their doom, when they meet a naked Aboriginal boy, who kindly allows them to follow him on his walkabout, the rite of passage into manhood required of all young boys; weeks of solitary survival in the wild.
Marshall's novel serves as a geographic and biology primer for the continent, to the point that social studies teachers might want to integrate the book into relevant units, but also covers larger themes, such as the clash between two differing cultures and distrust of the unknown. I, for one, will happily discuss the gratuitous overuse of the term "darky" that the white children use to describe the unnamed Aboriginal boy - a conscious choice by the author. This book can facilitate asking the hard questions, such as:
- How would you respond to meeting the Aboriginal boy if you were in Peter and Mary's situation?
- What would be your reasons to trust and distrust the stranger?
- How does the way in which the Americans regard the boy reflect racial attitudes in this country?
- Could you get along without your cell phone?
YA readers might identify with the characters, who are navigating a strange situation and must communicate with a person who both frightens and mystifies them, given the prevailing cultural attitude towards dark-skinned people in the United States at the time the book was published. They'll be forced to examine their own beliefs and attitudes, and how they would respond in a similar situation. Will they rise to the challenge or flounder in their own prejudices and fears?
Boring Stuff
Walkabout
Hey, there's a film version! The kids are being shot at for some reason. That's not in the book.
Walkabout (1971) film trailer.
My son, an avid reader, absolutely hated this book when he had to read it in 8th grade. I don't remember why now but any ideas? And, if a student really didn't want to read a book, what do you do? He also objected to reading Anne Frank's diary. He asked "Didn't any boys live during WWII?" I prepared a whole list of books with boy main characters in WWII but his teacher wasn't interested and said everyone had to read the same book. What are your thoughts on that?
ReplyDeletere Walkabout: It's a slow burn of a cultural study, rather than an action-packed race against the elements. I think to maximize buy-in for this book for readers avid and otherwise, as I wrote in my post, Walkabout would be best paired with some world geography studies that bring alive the environment that is so richly detailed in the text. This has the added benefit of bringing literacy into the social studies classroom. I am licensed for both, and I teach language arts and social studies in combination in my classes, which provides more options for incorporation of sources across the curriculum. Possibly the reason he hated the book is because he "had to read it," which leads me to...
Deletere Rigid Teacher: I find it kind of funny. I find it kind of sad. I have assigned a single book to a class before, but there are always alternatives - usually a series of shorter pieces on the same topic/theme. Students have a choice: read the assigned book, one of the alternatives, or if they make the effort to propose their own alternative, I'll hear it out. I firmly believe that offering choices creates the greatest amount of buy-in, but it's not without pitfalls - if students choose not to decide, they still have made a choice. So, in a sense, not everyone has to read the same book in my class. As for boys living during the Second World War, just wait for my next post. I'm ashamed to say I'm reading this book for the first time. Somehow it wasn't on my radar when I was a little tiger.