security benefits. Consequences such as these were not seen before Australia agreed to send troops to war. In ‘Fly Away Peter’, we see this through the excitement in the air described before Jim left for war.“…planted a seed of excitement in him whose sudden blooming here in the open air cast its own reflection on things.” (Pg 36)Over 50 years after the war, and with few survivors of the war Jim and Ashley were involved in, it is difficult for us to come to terms with the fact that the was actually happened. Malouf assists the reader in the by occasionally referring to actually places and battles that took place.“They went up to Bailleul in cattle trucks, forty to a car.” (Pg 65)“He had fought in every part of the line around Armentieres: at Houplines on the L’Epinette salient, at Ploegsteert, at le Bizet.” (Pg 96)In conclusion, with the backgrounds of World War One and Australia, Malouf manages to give the reader an idea of what the war was like by focussing on the horror and absurdity of war. At the time of the First World War, Australia was still strongly tied to Britain, hence her supposed unnecessary involvement in the war. Although, being involved in the war gave the Australians something to be proud of. I feel that to be part of such destruction is shameful. The war was hoped to lift Australia’s identity, but with characters like Ashley coming from England it would have taken a lot more than a war to break ties. The change in Wizzer’s character demonstrates to the reader that wars really did change men in ways we could not imagine. It is understandable that Wizzer was close to losing his sanity. This understanding came from Jim’s descriptions of the war and from our previously gathered knowledge, which suggests that Malouf expected the reader to already have gained information on the war. As a reader, it could be seen that the war, through Jim’s e...
