“BIG WORLD”
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
REVISION
• How does the narrator describe the place at the
beginning of the story? The middle (their roadtrip)?
• As homework (WRITE THIS DOWN IN YOUR RECORD
BOOKS), you should look at how place is
represented at the end. Please bring in a quote
that describes the place.
• What does the narrator say about his future at the
beginning of the story?
• More homework: find a quote that describes how
the narrator views or thinks of his future at the end of
the book.
LAST WEEK’S HOMEWORK
• You were asked to find three quotes that describe
Biggie & three quotes that describe the narrator.
• What did you find? Please direct the rest of the class
with a page number and paragraph number.
BEGINNING: BIGGIE VS. NARRATOR
Biggie
Unattractive
Abusive parents
Country boy
Narrator
Presumably not hideous as he
made out with his dream girl
Pushy/supportive mother
City boy
END: BIGGIE VS. NARRATOR
In the end, the narrator has an epiphany in how he views his
relationship with Biggie. Let’s see if we can outline any
descriptions of their relationship—changes from beginning to end.
Take a few minutes and closely read the end of the novel
(QUIETLY)
Beginning
End
WEDNESDAY
FINAL REVISION: QUOTES
REVISION: THE JOURNEY’S
SIGNIFICANCE
There are three “movements from one place to
another” in “Big World.”
1. Superficial: they drive from Angelus to outside of
Perth.
2. Relationship: The physical journey enlightens the
narrator regarding the makeup of his relationship
with Biggie.
3. Future: the journey helps the narrator realise the
possibilities.
PHYSICAL: THE DRIVE
• At the beginning, the narrator complains about
Angelus
• “Week after week an endless misting drizzle wafts in from
the sea. It beads in our hair and hangs from the tips of our
noses while we trudge around town in the vain hope of
scaring up some action. The southern sky presses down
and the beaches and bays turn the colour of dirty tin.” (1)
• “Some days I can see me and Biggie out there as old
codgers, anchored to the friggin place, stuck forever.” (2)
These quotes use the following language features:
THE DRIVE: MIDDLE
• Then, they finally take off on a drive together,
• “We’d be like all the other poor stranded failures who
stayed in Angelus. But now we’re on the road…” (4)
• “The longer we drive the more the sky and the bush open
up” (4)
• “When Perth comes into view, its dun plain shimmering with
heat and distant towers ablaze with midday sun, we get all
nervous and giggly, like a pair of tipsy netballers” (4)
• “The sunlight is creamy up here…We’ll move with the
seasons. We’ll be free” (6-7)
THE DRIVE: END
• Finally, at the end, when their drive is complete, he
describes their setting as,
• “waiting for the VW to explode. But it just smoulders and
hisses a while as the sun sinks behind us” (14)
• “The sun flattens itself against the saltpan and disappears.
The sky goes all acid blue and there’s just this huge silence.
It’s like the world’s stopped…The horizon fades” (14)
• “In the hot northern dursk, the world suddenly gets big
around us, so big we just give in and watch” (15)
PHYSICAL: RELATIONSHIP
• In the beginning, we learn that the narrator and Biggie are
best friends.
• “I dream of escaping, of pissing off north to find some blue sky…Until
now, out of loyalty, I’ve kept it to myself” (2)
• “Mum thinks Biggie’s an oaf, that he’s holding me back. She doesn’t
know that without Biggie there’d be nothing left of me to hold
back…If you believe him on the subject he acted more out of animal
irritation than charity” (7-8)
• “Friendship, I suppose, comes at a price” (9)
• “For five years I worked my arse off. I really did all our work. Our of
loyalty, yeah, but also from sheer vanity. And the fact is, I blew it” (11)
• In the middle, the narrator has an epiphany about their
friendship.
• “the thing that eats at me, is the way he’s enjoying being brighter than
her, being a step ahead, feeling somehow senior and secure in
himself. It’s me all over. It’s how I am with him and it’s not pretty” (13)
• At the end,
These quotes use the following language features:
OPPORTUNITIES/FUTURE
• In the beginning, the narrator tells us about his failing the
exams,
• “heading to work every morning in a frigid wind in the January
of our new lives, still in jeans and boots and flannel shirts, with
beanies on our heads and the horizon around our ears” (2)
• Page 5, top paragraph.
• “Two made southern boys still wearing beanies in March” (5)
• At the end, after the journey, we learn that,
These quotes use the following language devices:
WHY SO MANY QUOTES?
• Writing quotes out by hand serves a number of
purposes:
1. When it comes time to write an essay, you
have a list of the most important pieces.
2. So that you pay very close attention to and
analyse small bits.
QUOTE LIST
• You should have/make a list of quotes that details
the changes (beginning, middle, end) in the
physical setting of their road trip, their relationship,
and how the narrator views his future.
• Remember, when you use quotes in your essays you
must cite them. Insert quote and follow with
(author name, published date, page #)
For “Big World” it should generally look like,
(Winton, 2005, #)
JOURNEY PROVERBS
Please open your journey booklets to Page 7
Rewrite the saying, and state it in your own words.
Then, say how the “journey” is used in the saying.
Does it describe a trip? Life? Education?
A process? An end? A beginning? A goal?
HOMEWORK
WRITE THIS IN YOUR RECORD BOOKS!
Complete the writing exercises, collect
one from my desk as you leave the
classroom. All pages and all questions
must be completed by tomorrow.