Keneally's Novel The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith example essay topic

Two-Way Monologues An examination of Keneally's The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith throughFriel's Translations If medium is the message, as suggested by Marshall McLuhan, much can be said about the difference between a novel and a play. As he explains, the medium is an extension of human facility, "The wheel... is an extension of the foot. The book is an extension of the eye... Clothing, an extension of the skin... ". (McLuhan).

Thomas Keneally's novel The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith explains this phenomenon as Jimmy's chant. It is not only what drives Jimmy, but it is a manifestation of proven and perceived social malfunctions. This chant is an extension of Jimmy, and it is therefore his message. Where Keneally is able to flesh out a complex main character with intense actions and conflicting inner monologues in his novel, Brian Friel is restricted to the format of a play in Translations. Using this medium, Friel must elaborate different emotions through different characters, many of whom have attributes similar to Jimmy Blacksmith. At their core, both stories are fictionalized accounts of true events.

British imperialism is the similar theme in each, and both elaborate on the destruction of society and the reaction of the indigenous peoples. Translations illustrates the attempted dissolution of the Irish culture by British solders. Map makers are sent to survey and re-inscribe the entire island of Ireland. This is clearly an attempt at revising history, and erasure of the Irish's sense of the past. In this case, the existence of culture acts as the medium, and is an extension of their way of life. More specifically names of towns on the maps are quickly being translated from Irish to English, effectively changing both the medium, and the message.

This cultural genocide is something that is comparable to the human genocide that prefaced The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. After a large percentage of aboriginal tribes were destroyed by the British in Australia, the remaining natives were subject to horrible treatment; effectively killing their spirit and their history. The result of these actions are reflected upon Jimmy Blacksmith. He is pulled between different factions, but is truly guided by an ominous and treacherous voice.

Keneally is able to develop an extremely complex character within the breadth of the novel, where as Friel had to work within the limits of writing a play. He is unable to express deep narration or inner monologues within the confines of a stage, so his solution is to represent different perspectives through naturally one sided characters. Many of these characters can be directly related to Jimmy and his evolution from reluctant Aborigine and pining white to savage killer, and finally to introspective prisoner. A plot device employed by both authors is having characters speak in different languages. Jimmie converses in Mung indi with Aborigines and half-casts, and heavily colloquial English with the White characters. In Translations, the Irish characters speak Gaelic, Latin, and English through the play.

There are points of confusion when bridging the language gap in both stories, further emphasizing how unique and frustratingly different cultures can truly be. In one such transaction, Jimmy Jack is misunderstood when speaking Latin to an English solider; "None Latin loquitur? (Does he not speak Latin? )". To which the solider responds "I do not speak Gaelic, sir". Painted as the polarized half-caste, Jimmy Blacksmith doesn't seem to mind when he and his relatives all receive Anglicized titles.

Similarly, Friel shows Owen as reluctant to argue with his newly branded name Roland. Both examples are used to emphasize the effect a ruling class can have over the ruled. There is an inherent respect born out of fear as a result of occupation. Both Jimmy and Owen are torn between two cultures, and as a result, find it difficult to communicate completely with either.

As the Englishman at the Department of Agriculture explains to Jimmy, "It's a hard country. Lower ways of life give way to higher". When a man is beaten down to the brim of death, his only way of identification is his name. Manus confronts Owen on his reluctance to correct the misspoken English soldiers, he sheepishly states, "Easy, man easy. Owen - Roland - what the hell. It's only a name.

It's the same me, isn't it?" The true irony in this statement is that while it is physically still him, his identity is changed, and a part of him is lost forever. Jimmy Blacksmith, on the other hand, was never sure of his true identity. He was born to an aboriginal mother, without true recollection of his father. He is branded with the name of a man he never met, and he has found it hard to establish a true name for himself on either side of his ancestry. It is quickly made clear that this presents a problem within Jimmy's character. Keneally succinctly makes this clear in one sentence, "Suspended between the loving tribal life and the European rapture from on high called falling in love, Jimmy Blacksmith held himself firm and soundly despised as many people as he could".

This internal confrontation is a thesis for both of the works, showing that to be a compassionate and understanding person, you first have to understand your true roots and what made you what you were. Jimmy Blacksmith is distant from either culture, but is sure that to adjudicate his life; he must marry a white woman. He is quick to find out that the best laid plans often go awry, and his plan for a quarter-black, three quarter-white child is thwarted at the arrival of a completely white baby. It could be argued that this was the turning point in his troubled optimism, and it eventually results in his death. Similar circumstances surround Yolland, as his forbidden love turns tragic as he is murdered by the Donnelly Twins.

Without true justification, the misguided rage accomplishes nothing but trouble for the town. Similarly, Jimmy Blacksmith's rampage is injudicious and ends badly for not only him, but Jackie Smolders and Mort. The medium here is the rage, and the message takes unintended and tragic turns. The struggle between cultures is the source for Jimmy's chant.

His wavering identity leads him to act upon compulsion, without fear of consequence. Translations' infamous Donnelly twins assumedly used strong nationalism as their underlying reasoning for murder, but Jimmy's frustration with his place in an outcast purgatory led him to destroy. These justifications parallel the tone the authors chose for each work. Friel is Irish tried and true, and his love for his country is shown by the favorable light he casts on his native characters.

The conversation to begin the play between Manus, Sarah, and Jimmy Jack is a romanticized depiction of contemplative Irish caught in a sparring match of quips. Keneally on the other hand shows Jimmy having two backgrounds; two voices; two inner-monologues. This is executed to perfection as we see his transformation from idealistic, to bitter, to introspective by the stories end. As pointed out in The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith's Publisher's Preface, Keneally's cognitive remarks about writing the story from the perspective of a black man show that Jimmy is grounded by nothing but social boundaries.

Where there lacks a positive light to shine on Australia, Jimmy's final impression he leaves on the reader notes that things are headed in the right direction. The metaphor "Jimmie, on the second last day of life, had the prisoner's thirst for novelty and eye for small changes", is brilliantly inquisitive and yet easily relatable.