B Facey's A Fortunate Life example essay topic

A. B Facey's a fortunate life traces the extraordinary life journey of a boy growing up in early rural Australia and the adversities he must overcome. I feel that this book is one of the most emotional and powerful Australian pieces written purely because of Mr. Facey's strong and positive outlook on life during these trials and tribulations. A. B Facey's book is a classic piece of Australian literature, which all Australians will thoroughly enjoy. A Fortunate Life is an autobiographical novel centred around the life of A.B. Facey (1894-1982), the classic "Aussie battler". Widely acclaimed, it has been described as "a microcosm of the earlier life of Australia" in its personalised accounts of events close to the heart of Australian cultural identity such as Gallipoli, the Great Depression, and early rural settlement. A Fortunate Life was first published by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press in 1981, and has been reprinted in several other editions since then, as well as being adapted for the stage and various movies. This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man.

It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. A parent less boy who started work at eight on the rough West Australian frontier, he struggled as an itinerant rural worker, survived the gore of Gallipoli, the loss of his farm in the Depression, the death of his son in World War II and that of his beloved wife after sixty devoted years - yet felt that his life was fortunate. Facey's life story, published when he was eighty-seven, has inspired many as a play, a television series, and an award-winning book that has sold over half a million copies. A quote to sum up the power this book possesses is one, which was written in the Adelaide adviser in 1992, "I am stunned by the horror this man endured in his childhood. I am humbled by his gentle acceptance of the good and bad...

This is an extraordinary and moving book". Bert Facey was put through hell. He lost his father when he was two and lived with his mother until she abandoned him. Bert was forced then to live with his grandmother with his brothers and sister. They then moved to Western Australia where at the age of 8 was sent to work in the bush, he was sent to four farms in the Western Australian Wheat belt all of which he was abused and never paid, he was forced walk home from these, by himself and on some occasions he walked 100 kms (keeping in mind he was 8). The fifth settlement was one which words cannot adequately describe the atrocity and disregard for human rights.

He was sent to a farm 100 kms away where he worked from 6 in the morning to 9 at night doing hard manual labour, which he was never paid for, he slept in the stable with the horses and on Christmas night was flogged with a horse whip for trying to stop a fight. This savage flogging left Bert with no skin on his back and gashes 2 inches deep and 30 centimetres long. He was told by the doctors he may not live as he had lost so much blood, however he had the strength and determination to get up in the middle of the night and with bags on his feet as shoes and walk the 100 kms home. It was a tough, lonely and sometimes brutal life.

He was a lonely boy who never went to school. After disastrous jobs with little or no pay Bert was enlisted in the Australian Army and Sent to Gallipoli in World War One, described by many as hell on earth, he was blown up and destroyed by shrapnel and told he had not long to live again, however in the typical Facey courage, he looked death in the face and overcame this adversity. Back home, he was ruined by the Depression and left for broke for years. What misery he went through. And yet, when he was 87 he published his autobiography, of which the last two lines read: "I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back.

' ' What on earth was there in his life to be thrilled about? How was he able to be so happy, after what he had gone through?