Walkabout
...sts her. Mary feels uncomfortable around the aboriginal and wants Peter and herself to leave him. When she tells Peter she wants to leave, Peter eyes her suspiciously. When the aboriginal becomes very ill Peter wouldn’t leave his side because there was a mutual liking and understanding. He was the first to realise the aboriginal was dying. He was upset when the bush boy died as he had become very attached to him. In the beginning Peter depended on Mary all the time, but when they met the bush boy Peter started to depend on him as he seemed to know more about surviving in the outback than Mary. When the aboriginal was dying Mary wanted to leave him and tried to get Peter to come by lying to him, but Peter would not believe her. At the start he probably would have believed her. Mary had grown up to believe that blacks are not as civilised as whites and are not treated equally in her society. When the aboriginal started to touch and feel Mary she thought to herself back home a darkie would be lynched if they manhandled a girl, but really he was just curious because he had never seen a white person before. Mary only follows the aboriginal because she knows without him Peter and herself have no chance of survival, but she hates the fact that she has to rely on a black person. We also learn she is embarrassed of her body and is appalled to see the aboriginal walking around naked. The aboriginal does a dance because Mary gives him a pair of pants as a present. Mary is scared by this because she thinks it’s a war dance. At this point she goes from resenting him to feeling disgust and fear. When Mary is swimming in the billabong and the aboriginal finds her swimming naked. Mary is scared he is going to rape her, but really he just wants to see her hair. When the aboriginal sees the fear in Mary’s eyes and her snarling mouth the will to live drained from his body. He goes and lies under the mugga-w...