ISBN: 9780732296971 Notes by: Jess Black Contents Introduction About the author/illustrator Study notes on themes and curriculum topics: Curriculum Topics: English: Texts in Context, Responding to literature, Language for interaction, interpreting, analysing and evaluating, Creating texts, Text Structure and Organisation. History: Historical questions and research, Perspectives and interpretations Themes: Identity, isolation, coming of age, relationships, home, class, culture, land ownership, primary industry. Example of: Historical fiction, Australian setting Questions for reading and discussion Bibliography About the author of the notes Introduction The Sundowners is the epic tale of the outback Australian family, the Carmodys. Set during the 1920’s, this is the story of one family, the Carmodys, and their journey to find a place they can all call home. They live in the outback, travelling around, shearing, droving, making ends meet and looking for that one special place they can settle down in. Along the way, Paddy, his wife, Ida and their son, Sean, meet some of the most memorable characters in fiction. The Sundowners is a book filled with kindness and happiness, as well as toughness and danger and is set against the magnificent backdrop of the wild, harsh and beautiful Australian landscape. It is superbly written, deeply moving, and showcases one of Australia′s most talented authors at the height of his powers. About the author/illustrator Best-known as the elder statesman of Australian crime writing for his Scobie Malone mysteries, Jon Cleary is the author of a total of 55 books, seven of which were made into films, including the bestselling classic The Sundowners, which has sold over three million copies worldwide. Jon Cleary received a number of awards, including the 1950 Australian Literary Society Gold Medal, the 1974 Edgar Prize as regional winner in a world contest for the best crime novel, and in 1995 the Ned Kelly Awards Lifelong Contribution to the Crime, Mystery and Detective Genres. Study notes on themes and curriculum topics The Book Cover Based on the cover and title and what do you think this book is about? How do you think it will begin and end? Where is the book set? What genre is it? After you have read the book go back to your initial impressions and see how they differ from the actual story. Imagine that the publishers were not happy with the title The Sundowners and asked you to come up with an alternate title for the book. Choose a title which conveys your understanding of the book’s themes, characters or mood. Design a new cover for the book. Poems and Ballads Lots of books have been written about droving, particularly balladic poetry. An idealised image of the droving life is described in the poem Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Patterson. How does the life of a drover depicted in the poem differ from the life Paddy lives? Use examples from the novel to illustrate. Drawing Inspiration The book is based on stories Jon Cleary’s father told him about running away to Queensland when he was a teenager. Think about stories your father and mother have told you about your childhood and how you could turn this into a short story of your own. You could interview a parent about their childhood and turn this into a story. Language The book is filled with descriptions of the wild land, the untamed bush and the lonely roads. The beauty and savage nature of the Australian bush is a constant presence throughout the story and sometimes used as a dramatic tool. As a creative writing exercise, write a story from your own life where you have felt the force of nature and both its beauty and power. Visual Literacy Visual Arts activities might include: creating a diorama of scenes described in the text; painting a picture or creating a collage suggestive of any one of the many themes it contains. A nearby art gallery or museum might house artworks depicting the shearers, farmers, drovers of the era. Culture ‘Oh, you beaut Carmody!’ Venneker was roaring. ‘To coin a phrase, you bloody bobby- dazzler!’ p. 275 On p.275 Venneker uses an Australian phrase and is accused of ‘talking Australian.’ What is a colloquialism? Find some examples of the colloquialisms used by both Venneker and Paddy. List some other examples of colloquialisms from Australia still used today There is plenty of friction between Paddy and Venneker based on Venneker’s nationality. Research why Irish Paddy would be prejudiced against the English and talk about why was commonplace at the time. Literature Write a book review on The Sundowners. What did you like/dislike about it and why? Who would you recommend this book to? Is it similar to any other books you have read? Re-write the final chapter of the novel so that Ida and Paddy have enough money to buy the farm. Write in the same style as The Sundowners using the voices of Sean, Paddy and Ida. Compare and contrast the two endings. Setting What markers of the era can you identify in the text? Think of events, pop cultural references, the characters’ habits. Did you notice these in your initial reading, or did you forget that the story was set in the past? How did it affect the way you understood the story? ‘Stone the bloody crows!’ Paddy was horrified: she couldn’t be serious. ‘And live in the city? Sydney or Brisbane or one of them places?’ p. 11 Paddy is very suspicious of life in the suburbs, and even more so of life in the city. In fact, ‘the city’ is referred to almost as a dirty word throughout the book. Give examples of attitudes to the city you remember from various characters and how they differed. Creating Texts Write a letter from McKechnie to Sean that has been dictated. What do you think Mac would write about? What kind of style would he use? Try to imagine how losing your sight would affect your ability to capture news and to tell a story. Write a diary entry from one of the shearers that illustrates a regular day while working at a sheep shearing season. Write a media release for the newspaper advertising the book to bookshops and libraries. Life in 1920 The Sundowners is set in rural Australia in the 1920s. The dialogue does much to set the scene and evoke the era. It needs to be read out loud in order to properly hear the rich descriptions and the unique, Australian colour of the landscape. Have students choose a passage to read out loud to the class. Ask them why they chose that particular passage. Research life in rural Australia in the 1920s. Look at clothing, food, transport, housing and employment. Jon Cleary began writing The Sundowners in 1950. Research how life would have changed for rural farmers by the 1950s. Most Australians live in the suburbs. Take a walk around your own neighbourhood. Does the style of the houses tell you a story about their history? Write the history of your own house. Find out when it was built, and if possible, who has lived in it before you. The Notion of Place and Belonging Through Sean’s eyes, Jon Cleary gives us a very vivid description of the McKechnie’s farm on page 4. Draw a picture of what you think it looks like. Record what emotions come up for you as you draw. Ida suffers from a lack of a house — a home to take root in and settle; a place to hang her things. Sean too yearns for a home. Discuss what the difference is between a house and a home. Paddy argues that as long as they are together it doesn’t matter where they live; they are home to each other. Do you agree with him? If a home is more than mortar and bricks then what is it? Discuss. If you had to live a nomadic lifestyle and you could only take a large duffel bag with you, what would you pack and why? Discuss. Primary Industry Examine the wool industry and how it has evolved from these times until the present day, and what effect it had on Australia’s growth. The decline of the wool industry has been caused by a number of factors. Research this topic and deliver a classroom address on the subject. Themes Ask your class to suggest some of the themes in the book. Remind them that a theme is not the story or plot, but a subject within the story. Among others that could be explored, The Sundowners has themes such as identity, isolation, coming of age, relationships, home and class. Put the class into small groups, each group choosing one theme. Ask them to look closely at the theme. How is it presented in the novel? Write down examples of where the theme is discussed and explored. Family Think of another book you have read which involves the adventures of a nuclear family in modern life. Compare and contrast. What happened in Paddy’s childhood to make him need to be constantly on the move? Coming of Age The Sundowners traces the journey from child to young adult for Sean. He challenges his father for the first time and is also let down by his father. Seeing ones parents as humans and therefore able to make mistakes is one of the defining characteristics of growing up. Discuss. Hope Despite losing their entire farm and stock to the bushfire, the Bateman family choose not to give up. ‘I still own the land,’ says Bateman on p.85.