Fly Away Peter - David Malouf

Fly Away Peter (1982), by David Malouf is a novel which I recently read in class.. It follows young Jim Saddler, an archetypal ANZAC, as he 'migrates' from the idylic Queensland bird sanctuary which he has made his home, to the hellish trenches of the European front of WW1. However, this is not the whole story. There are many underlying themes which Malouf has cleverly woven into the plot, or more accurately, the plot serves only to justify his ideas about human nature and essentially, the meaning of life. I really enjoyed this novel, and more so each time I read it - the mark of a good novel in my opinion. Below is my literary analysis essay I write for my yr12 English Studies exam (1000 words).

David Malouf – ‘Fly Away Peter’

“How does Malouf use a variety of literary conventions to make meaning in ‘Fly Away Peter’?”

Fly Away Peter by David Malouf is a philosophical novel, deceptively simple in plot and structure, which delineates Australia’s involvement in the First World War, not for its historical implications, but for the exploration of human nature. Through the development of Jim Saddler, the protagonist, Malouf explores the place of the individual in the mass of humanity and, by extension, the very meaning of life. The atrocities of war enlighten Jim to the duality of human nature, his confrontation with chaos allowing him to develop a new and deeper understanding of himself. Malouf’s philosophical approach to the meaning of life is effectively conveyed through contrasting setting construction, symbolism, imagery and characterization.

The duality of human nature is a prominent theme in the text, articulated primarily through imagery, symbolism and structure. Malouf explores the very best and worst of human nature, portrayed effectively in the conflicting landscapes. Queensland, the setting of the first half of the novel, is an idyllic, fertile swampland evocative of the Garden of Eden in the story of Genesis. Here, people are in balance with nature and live harmonious, orderly lives. They are largely naïve and believe the world to be mostly good and that violence is a rare occurrence. As Jim later acknowledges, this was a ‘state of dangerous innocence’.  Europe, located on the other side of the world, is an ‘old country’, ravaged by centuries of war. This is the setting of the second half of the novel; it is the reverse of ‘paradise’. The soldiers bury themselves in ‘pits’ (reminiscent of pits of hell) and are under the constant threat of attack, surrounded by the swollen corpses of their comrades. The presence of rats directly contrasts to the birds: ‘they were the familiars of death, creatures of the underworld, as birds were of the life and the air’. Malouf is brutal in his depiction of the dehumanizing cruelty of trench warfare, portraying graphic images of death and misery – the dark side of the human nature. Malouf relates this duality of nature to Imogen’s photography: ‘the light and the dark’ is necessary to develop a photograph. Humans are capable of great feats, to love, hope and imagine; however they are also capable of great evils. This concept is represented by the biplane, a ‘double-edged sword’ in itself: ‘After just a few seasons of gliding over the hills …new toys of a boyish but innocent adventuring had changed their nature and become weapons’. These ideas are central to Malouf’s philosophy, conveyed effectively through a number of literary conventions.

The violence and desolation of war threatens to destroy Jim physically and emotionally. However, despite the cruelty of war, Malouf maintains that individuals must confront and adapt to change in order to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the wider world. This idea is conveyed through the notion of mapping, imagery and characterization. In Queensland Jim is complacent; he has ‘a clear map of everything’. This is conveyed through Malouf’s delicate description of the environment, accentuating ‘Jim’s knowledge of every blade of grass and drop of water in the swamp’. However, as is observed in his encounter with the Dunlin, his vision is narrow. Jim’s trip to Brisbane initiates his ‘fall from innocence’. The metaphor of the ‘tilting slope’ of the streets towards Europe suggests that his involvement in the war was unavoidable. Jim acknowledged to himself: ‘If he didn’t go… he would never understand, when it was over, why his life and everything he had known were so changed’. This idea is further developed in Jim’s encounter with Wizzer Green, a soldier from another company. This confrontation reveals to Jim his own capacity for ‘black anger’, ‘he needed this sudden, unexpected confrontation to see who he was’. He sensed his father’s savagery in himself, and resented it. This experience is pivotal in Jim’s understanding that ‘he had been living, till he came here, in a state of dangerous innocence’. Jim has no map for what is happening around him: ‘they never saw a map’. When Jim is under the imminent threat of death on the battlefield, he comes to the realisation that difficulty in life is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of himself and ‘broaden his view’. ‘He saw the long view of their lives’; the map he contained in his head had ‘immensely expanded’. Malouf has successfully used literary conventions to convey his ideas about the human experience.

The final chapter serves as an epilogue, perfectly capturing Malouf’s philosophical approach to the meaning of life. Imogen watches the waves, grieving for Jim; she remembers his intensity and reflects on his brutal and senseless execution. Imogen considers the significance of life: ‘That was what life meant, a unique presence, and it was essential in every creature… a life wasn’t for anything. It simply was’. This idea is central to the Novel, perfectly articulating Malouf’s attitude towards life. The waves serve as a metaphor for life: ‘[she] watched the waves, one after another, as they rose, gathered themselves, stood poised a moment holding the sun at their crests, then toppled, there was a rhythm to it’. It implies that whilst, in the perpetual nature of time, life is brief, it is beautiful and has significance, and should thus have value above all else. Malouf has conveyed, through the use of metaphor and imagery, his perspective of life and the place of the individual in the mass of humanity.

In Fly Away Peter the author uses setting, imagery, symbolism and characterisation to convey his ideas. Whilst the novel may initially appear a simple narrative about The Great War, a deeper reading reveals that it effectively explores the complexity of human nature. Malouf presents through powerful imagery the duality of human nature and his belief that one must confront difficulty in order to gain a deeper understanding of ones self. The clever metaphor described in the novel’s final chapter perfectly captures the central theme of the text – the meaning of life.