A+Bridge+to+Wiseman's+Cove+-+Themes+in+the+text

The novel lends itself well to an examination of many relevant themes and issues including:
 * Family
 * Love
 * Belonging
 * Body Image
 * Rites of Passage
 * Symbolism: The osprey
 * Preconceptions

**__Family __**
Carl Matt wants nothing more than to be a part of a family, something he has never experienced. He is acutely aware of the fact that everyone else seems to have what he never has. For all that she is related to the boys, Aunt Beryl does not welcome them as family. She is only interested in letting the boys stay so that she can obtain their social security payments.Because of his own upbringing, Carl has little understanding of how families work. He is horrified when Skip tells Joy about Beryl chaining Harley up. //Skip already told her //. //He shouldn’t have //
 * //Carl floated in a sea of families where everyone, it seemed, walked, spoke and laughed with at least one other – a daughter, a father, a mate. //**** //(p23)// **
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl, they’re a family. That’s what families do. Talk about things. (p147) //**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Love __**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl Matt is crippled by the belief that his mother doesn’t love him. Carl himself is a gentle person with a lot of love to give. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Harley is suspended from school for fighting with Liam Wilson, Beryl says he is Carl’s responsibility. To enable Carl to keep working on the barge, Joy takes Harley back to her house. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy helps Harley to bake a cake which he proudly offers to all of the passengers. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy is amazed at the type of life Carl and Harley have had. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">In contrast, when Beryl is in charge, Harley rides off on his bike and spray paints the town. She hits him across the face.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He goes to Nugent’s store every afternoon to meet the bus, hoping that his mother will get off it.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He buys reflectors for Harley’s bike and a coffee plunger for Beryl, even though he receives and expects nothing in return.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He constantly looks out for Harley and tries to protect him.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl searched back through his memory for a time when anyone considered Harley in need of care rather than watching. Nothing turned up. (p107) //**
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">It’s not the cake. It’s Joy. She’s the only person who’s been good to him since we came here. (p132) //**
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">I didn’t think there’d be a kid in the world who didn’t know what to do with the beaters from a cake mix. (140) //**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Carl returns home to find Harley chained up like a dog, he says
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">“What are we going to do, Harley? Mum’s gone, Sarah’s gone, everyone hates us. “(p119) //**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Throughout the novel Carl is haunted by Beryl’s comment **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Who’ll love you if your own mother doesn’t? (p112) //** <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl says of Harley //He’s miserable and hurt. He’s not a wild creature, just a little boy. (p115//).

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Maddie Duncan feels unloved by her gruff, distant father.She is in an unsatisfactory relationship with Nathan in the misconception that it is love.Justine tells Carl that Maddie needs friends rather than a boyfriend. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Justine tells Carl to //stop going on like there’s something weird about you.// **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Maddie’s just trying to work out who really loves her, same as everyone else on the planet. (p184) //**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy is angry with her son Graham for dying **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">. **
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">It was because I had all this love and he was gone, like he rejected it. (p281) //**

**__<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Belonging __**
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Carl arrives in Wattle Beach he doesn’t fit in as he is neither a local nor a visitor. He watches the other teens from a safe distance, but he never joins in. When he goes to work on the Duncan ’s barge, A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, for the first time in his life he feels as if he belongs.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Consider the significance of each of the following passages from the novel **<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">:
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">“//It’s sort of my hat. I don’t want you to pay for it.” Skip knew men well enough. He slipped the note back into his pocket. Stared at Carl. Saw what he hadn’t thought to find. Not in someone called Matt. (p91)// **
 * **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl slumped against the hull, shivering in the evening breeze. He was exhausted but happier than he’d been since he arrived in Wattle Beach, happier than he’d been since his mother disappeared.(p99) //**
 * **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Though his breath had returned, he kept his mouth shut to keep in the relief. And his heart which felt so light it might well float straight up his throat and out with his words. (p100) //**
 * **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">He couldn’t explain to the boy how he loved working on the barge, how alive he felt between its rusting sides. (p127) //**
 * **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">You and Skip both. You’re a pair. I don’t suppose he’s told you how important you are to us. We need you. The barge has stopped losing money these last few weeks – it’s all because of you and the rinsing off you do. (p 141) //**

**__<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Body Image __**
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl is big and awkward and very aware of his body. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He is too self-conscious to swim, afraid of what others might say. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">In contrast, Justine is quite comfortable in her own skin. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Carl removes his t-shirt and swims with the girls it is a huge turning point for him (p195)
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">He wore a t-shirt as a paltry ruse against public humiliation. (p44) //**

**__<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Rites of Passage __**
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">During the course of the novel the self conscious, awkward Carl matures and begins to stand up for himself. Consider the changes in Carl throughout the novel. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Each time Carl starts to get a little more self-confident another secret is revealed and he slips back into his self-doubts.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Carl first arrives in Wattle Beach he is miserable and lonely. //Alone in the park, Carl wished he was a concrete statue, set there for the birds to sit on. No thoughts, no cares, no pain, just years of weathering in the sun and rain until there was nothing left.// //(p29)//
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He is extremely naïve and hands over all of his money to Beryl. Then, once he starts working, in an effort to have her keep him and Harley he gives her all of his pay.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Gradually, Carl learns to stand up for himself and his brother
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Beryl chains Harley up, Carl finds the courage to confront her at the bowls club where she has been all day playing the pokies. //If you’d stayed with him, kept an eye on him, if you cared about him, he wouldn’t get into trouble. (p122)//
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl is amazed by Justine’s confidence. She is big and awkward like him, but happy and contented, and able to poke fun at herself.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">How did she let her feelings come so quickly to the surface?(p148) //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl refuses to go to the island with the others when they go to release the osprey.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy couldn’t understand that it was better to be by yourself than embarrassed by what you were. (p177) //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When he rubs the sunscreen on Justine’s back, Carl has //never touched anyone like that before.(p196)//
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl refuses to work for Bruce. He doesn’t approve of his corrupt methods of doing business.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl protects Maddie by standing up to Nathan at Justine’s party.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The others regard him as a hero. //No-one’s ever told him off like that (p215)//
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">He had never been at peace with the touch of another as he was that night. He was awash with it, afloat and drifting happily. (p221) //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">You’re coming alive. You’ve been playing dead all this time and now you can’t keep yourself down any longer. (p224) //

**__<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Symbolism : The Osprey __**
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy keeps the injured bird safe until it is healed and ready to be released back into the world. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Carl joins Joy and the others in setting the osprey free he feels an overwhelming sense of elation and freedom. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Joy remarks
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">“Wasn’t it brilliant. It must be great to be free again, like that. I almost know how the bird feels.” (p193) //**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The need for ‘freedom’ is a reoccurring theme in this novel. Make a list of the ways in which it is shown in each of the characters.


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Preconceptions __**

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Carl suffers from the behaviour of his family – “the curse of the Matts”. Everyone assumes that because he is a Matt he will cause problems. Even Skip Duncan doesn’t want to employ Carl once he realises who he is.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">I lost so much that day ‘cause of your grandfather. ‘Cause of you Matts. Why should I care what happens to any of you? Bloody Matts. Rotten to the core. Every one I’ve ever laid eyes on. //****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;"> (p157) **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove

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