Year 11 English – “A New Kind of Dreaming”

Task: As you read through the novel write down notes on the characters/action/themes inherent in each chapter.

The themes and issues in this novel could include:

 sense of place/outback/survival (how the physical world often challenges the human world to create spiritual
strength)
 the abuse of authority and power (which affects a person’s dreaming)
 corruption (affects people with no sense of dreaming to commit evil)
 justice (what goes around comes around, karmic justice)
 The treatment of refugees (the human right to a better life/kind of dreaming)
 Conflict and confrontation (through pain there is psychological growth)
 The different faces of isolation (identity crises through the lack of a sense of place in the world)
  Stereotyping and labelling (how you can affect another person’s dreaming by not understanding their
circumstance/context)
 spirituality (how our ‘dreaming’ must contain a sense of spirituality/morality in order for us to be fully-aware
individuals)
 Transition to manhood/Masculinity – dominant, complicit and diverse masculine behavior.
 Living a lie (facades) – the falseness of identity, hiding behind a façade that is not true.

Novel Chapter Character/s Summary of action Thematic concerns Textual evidence of theme
motivation (why
do they do the
things they do?)

Awakening - Prelude Mike – 20s. Mike is A fishing cruiser The abuse of “Hell, with modern forensics, they’ll soon
challenged to come encounters a refugee boat power/perverting justice. work out that he died a few days later than
with Elliot to the with 40-50 dead people on all the others, and then there’ll be all sorts of
boat. He is complicit. board. A refugee is killed The treatment of refugees
awkward questions.” (Page 11.)
Elliot – late 20s. Elliot by Elliot (self-defense?) (the human right to a better
claims to have saved and his body thrown to the life/kind of dreaming).
Mike’s life when he sharks. Someone witnesses
hits the refuge on Elliot’s’ crime.
the back of the head
and kills him.
Dominant.
Gerry – skipper.
Arrival - Chapter 1 Jamie Riley, 17, on a Jamie arrives off the bus Sense of place: Jamie feels “Something bad, something evil had reached
2 year isolated care and meets Loraine his case that something is very wrong out and touched him as he crossed the road”
order has to go to worker. He feels a sense of in Port Barren and it affects (p. 23)
Port Barren, a evil as he crosses the road. him physically
remote small town in She informs him this is his
 the north-west last chance as the next step
corner of Western is adult prison. She
Australia, bordering illustrates the dangers of
the Great Sandy this by revealing Eddie’s
Desert, Lorraine, 40s, beatings in jail to Jamie
his case worker, is a
social worker who
comes from Karratha
and has sympathy for
him

Chapter 2 Archie – 70s/80s an Lorraine introduces Jamie Sense of place: Jamie feels “It was as though some unsettling energy
old time local takes to Archie, his carer in Port that something is very was rising from the landscape, oozing up out
Jamie into his care Barren. Walking to his wrong in Port Barren and of the dusty ground and decrepit shacks,
for the duration of house a drunken cop yells it affects him physically drifting in the dirty, glowing air.” (p. 35)
his stay. Jamie also at Jamie to watch out for
(nausea) and
encountered a himself. At the front steps
physchologically.
drunken cop of Archie’s run down home,
Jamie is again accosted
with feelings of dread and
nausea, that something evil
permeates the place as a
car pulls up

Chapter 3 Sgt E Butcher warns The policeman in charge of Abuse of power: the police “There was another one like you. Problem
Jamie not to put a Port Barren – Sgt Butcher should be protectors of the kid from the city. Thought they send him up
foot wrong in Port abuses Jamie physically by community, not abusers. here so’s he’d be our hassle and not bother
Barren. grabbing around the throat Butcher abuses Jamie and all those judges and lawyers down there. All
and choking him. He warns threatens him with physical sorts of trouble he turned out to be.”
 Jamie to ‘watch out for
himself’, but also says
another boy like Jamie
disappeared from the town
too.
and verbal violence.
Conflict and Confrontation:
Butcher confronts Jamie to
take power over him, so that
Jamie will be compliant and
not poke around at Butcher’s
secrets.

Port Barren - Chapter 4 The young cop is on Jamie takes a stroll at 2 Sense of place: AT night Port “In the dark, Port Barren was a different
the admin verandah am and feels uneasy in Barren is like a ghost town, place. It had the same eerie atmosphere, but
smoking and the quiet streets. At the dead, soulless. He is the absence of light made everything seem
watching Jamie. Why admin building he sees dislocated by the stillness of closer, more stifling.” (p.46)
does he wave to the town
the young cop smoking
him?
on the verandah. The cop
smiles and half-waves at
him, as Jamie runs home.

Chapter 5 Lorraine is motivated Lorraine says that Butcher Isolation: how secrets can be “Sometimes people just disappear.” (p.54)
to make sure Jamie is is worried about Jamie’s kept in remote places far
behaving himself in role in some apparent from anywhere else.
Port Barren. vandalism around town.

Jamie is upset that Jamie lets it slip that he

he is being knows about the missing
scapegoated for boy. Lorraine lets it slip that
these crimes. it wasn’t the first time and
that a girl also disappeared
too.
Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9 Jamie is pulled again Jamie can’t concentrate on Sense of place/spirituality: “”Through a bewildered haze he realized
back to the boat on school as the images from Jamie is drawn back to the that he was going back to the beach,
the beach – his his dream keep repeating. boat on the beach – the returning to the boat.” (p. 83)
uneasiness settles as He leaves but is drawn back beacon of the mystery of the
he gets nearer to it. to the wreck on the beach. disappeared girl?
He doesn’t’ seem to As he explores the interior
have a choice in the of the boat, he hears
matter. footsteps outside on the
deck

The Boat - Chapter 10 Cameron is The person is Cameron Stereotyping: Cameron “Closing his eyes, Jamie was somewhere
motivated to check who followed Jamie out to thought Jamie was doing else. Gunshots, screaming, laughter and the
up on what Jamie is the boat. Cameron reveals drugs or drinking as Butcher voice, always there, soft and scared,
doing at the boat – that Butcher warned them lied about his record. speaking strange words.” (p. 90.)
informs him of against having anything to
Butcher’s warning do with him – and reveals Sense of place/Spirituality:
the other kids of that all new residents Jamie hears the girl’s voice
(particularly kids) feel the again inside the boat –
 Jamie uneasiness of Port Barren. laughing, gunshots,
A car is heard approaching screaming.

Chapter 11 Robb’s possible Butcher and Robb arrive at Justice: Jamie gets a break, “There’s nothing here except dust. Can I
motivation is to hold the boat. Robb explores Constable Robb is the only come out now?” (p. 103.)
power over Jamie the boat and finds Jamie authority figure that is
and Cameron. Robb and Cameron but does not sympathetic to Jamie, so far,
may be sympathetic snitch to Butcher. besides Lorraine and Archie.
to Jamie? Robb may
be working against
Butcher’s injustice?

Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Cameron also reveals Cameron tells more of the

that McPherson was story of the boat, how a 9-
on the fishing boat 10 year old refugee girl was
too with Butcher and found alive and how
discovered the Butcher was in trouble with
bodies, then a live immigration authorities
witness – a young over letting her into the
girl. So he warns country
Jamie that Butcher
might be protecting
his career/secret of
the boat and that’s
why he’s so abrasive
Chapter 14 Jamie goes to the Jamie goes to the pub, Abuse of power/corruption: “
pub to find out what talks to McPherson and If McPherson is right then
exactly happened on finds out that the murder Butcher, a cop, is a multiple
the boat with on the boat wasn’t the first murderer
McPherson and murder that day.
Butcher. McPherson
warns Jamie off
asking questions
because McPherson
will go to jail. Maybe
McPherson is trying
to protect him

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17 Archie tells Jamie the Archie tells Jamie the story Spirituality: Wanderers and “A lost one comes yet still remains lost. Then
story of the and gives him a quest to fix lost ones turn up at Port the balance is interrupted. Their pain settles
wanderers and the what is broken in Port Barren, sometimes there is across the land. When this happens, the
lost ones because Barren. Jamie walks into an imbalance which must be people must wait for another to come, a
Jamie is a bit of both the desert and starts to fixed. Jamie has to fix it. wanderer or lost one who can balance the
and has to fix the feel at home because he pain. Can restore the land. Can bring peace.”
imbalance in the has a direction. Sense of place: Jamie starts (p. 143-144)
to feel at home in Port
land.
Barren “For the first time since arriving in the town
 Jamie felt at ease.” (p. 147)

Chapter 18

Flaherety’s Curse -
Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Desert - Chapter 25 They are motivated They begin their trip Sense of place: Jamie has a “Again Jamie was picked up and carried by a
 to survive this ordeal through the desert hauling
the water can and the girl’s
skeleton by night. Jami
feels a sense of doubt
about whether they are
going ion the right
direction. The water can
splits.
Chapter 26 They are motivated Jamie gets the feeling that
to survive they are going the wrong
way and they change their
direction.
Chapter 27 They are motivated The boys find a hidden
to survive gorge with a stream and
lush oasis at the bottom
valley.
Chapter 28 The backpackers The boys come to the end
have heard about of the gorge and find a
the missing boys and waterhole. They hear
offer their support voices and meet a British
backpacking couple.
feeling of belonging in the feeling of belonging. Of oneness.” (p. 203)
desert, but this is gradually
replaced by a feeling of
doubt. “The girl’s presence filled Jamie,” (p. 203)
Spirituality: The girl’s
presence is felt by Jamie.
Survival: The Jerry can crcks
and they lose most of their
water
Sense of place/survival: The “They sprawled on a rock and slurped
boys find salvation in the greedily at a seemingly endless supply of
desert in a hidden gorge water.” (p.224.)
oasis. His spiritual
connection with the girl has
saved them
Sense of place: The “And there nestling at the base of the cliffs,
gorge/swimming hole has a was a deep-green pool of water, almost a
good energy about it and perfect circle.” (p. 227)
people go and visit.
Chapter 29

Chapter 30 Jamie is trying to Archie wakes Jamie up with
survive Butcher’s an urgent phone call from
rage. Jamie tries to Cameron. Cameron tells
understand him that Butcher is coming
Lorraine’s motives in after him. Jamie flees the
not telling the truth house just in time and ends
and letting Butcher up at the admin building.
get away with it. Inside he finds Lorraine
talking to Butcher on the
phone who is blackmailing
her again.
Abuse of power/Corruption: “I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
Lorraine continues to be He’d have to killed me too.” (p. 240)
blackmailed by Butcher and
can’t escape his clutches.
She knew about the boy and
the girl and did nothing to
stop Butcher.

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Epilogue – a new kind of

dreaming