Red Back Spiders POV
...udes and values into the readers understanding. What this worker is showing us of the man is that this harsh and isolated environment has turned at typical Australian man into a ‘fire’ that has accepted an ’exterior of irritability and harshness’. The father is now unable of showing his emotion in a physical sense as has become a fearful object to his family especially his son. This is symbolized through the repeated mentioning of fire, this father has become a fire destructing anything in it’s path and showing no emotion in doing so. Being that the father is revealed through this critical method it positions the reader to empathize and by doing this they are discovering additional meaning in this character resulting in an enhanced meaning in the text. The discovery of the son’s character is just as vital to the perception of the meaning as the fathers. Since the farm hand condones many of the father’s ideals in parenting, the way in which the son is represented is to some extent restricted. The reader is led to believe that the boy is naïve and is unable to understand the adult way of life. However as the boy is often defying his fathers orders and playing in a garbage dump in particular with tin cans within that dump his personality is seen as somewhat warped and childish. Despite this fact the narrator soon discovers that this is only a skin and that a lot more lies upon these tin cans. This boy will often build himself a sacred castle which is symbolic of the boys need to rebuild his confidence due to his fathers ‘fire’ like character. The boy feels the only way to ever become a ‘man’ is to ‘force…himself’ to understand the real world. Though as a result ‘is doing something…forbidden’. This construction of the son’s character leads to the death of the father through red back spider bite due to the boy. Though because of the manor in which the narrator expresses this information the reader is placed to side with the motive of the boy, bringing the knowledge of what may come of the harsh Australian environment. Even though the women of this text are almost never mentioned the role that they play may be as important as that of the males in constructing meaning. Being that these women are also being revealed through a males point of view is somewhat limiting though was chosen by Cowlan very intentionally to position the reader in a 1940’s frame of mind. This traditional role of women is introduced at the very beginning of the story where the father is depicted hitting his daughter, though the narrator assures the reader that it is not the ma...