Outside of these moments of grieving, Arnott explores the background relationships between family members as well. Arnott is thus exploring many processes of grieving, from solitude and callousness to physical and emotional labour. The death of the South Esk god is also explored as causing grief, this time in the form of divine emotional outpouring, “a cloud’s sorrow”. Another standout is the passing of Karl’s seal, after which he becomes haunted by “clicks” he subsequently leaves tuna-hunting behind. Between the three of them, there are three very different expressions of grief.īut Edith McAllister is not the only death of significance in the novel.
Their divergent responses suggest that there’s no one way to cope with death, and their father’s reaction on top of that introduces further complexity: he disappears from their lives altogether, “not want to be close to them when they ”. It’s what defines this central point of tension between Levi and Charlotte throughout the novel, since it starts with their divergent responses to their mother’s death (and reincarnation etc.). Let’s move more closely into Flames, starting with its central theme of death and grief. A prominent Australian example is Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. It’s a hallmark of Latin American literature (Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez), and it’s also been picked up in Japan by the likes of Haruki Murakami. If you’re liking the sound of this genre and/or if you enjoyed Flames, there’s plenty more to discover in the way of magical realism. For example, the voice of the South Esk god is used to highlight the impacts of colonialism and the “blood-tasting tang of iron” that was brought with it. These elements also contribute to the story in other ways: in particular, they open up new possibilities for commentary. This helps to create a sense of wonder, as if these elements could be real and as magical as described. Within this familiar setting, Arnott lets his own imagination run wild and leaves the reader to figure out the rest. All we know is that in many respects, it looks like our own. This blurring of the lines between real and magical is primarily supposed to suspend our disbelief: we can’t really be sure what’s real about the novel’s world and what isn’t. We, as readers, enter a world where the existence of these magical things is taken for granted by the characters. The fact that these examples are narrated as perfectly normal is another element of magical realism: the author usually operates as if the fantastical elements are perfectly real. Less obvious examples of fantastical elements include the wombat farm at Melaleuca (fortunately nobody actually skins wombats) as well as the Oneblood tuna and (unfortunately!) the pet seals. In Flames, the most obvious example is gods: gods don’t exist as far as we know, but they walk among humans and play key roles in this text. The most important element of magical realism is that it blends the real world with fantastical elements. Let’s unpack the genre a bit more, in particular, what it involves and why it’s used. This is because authors in this genre will typically set their stories in the real world (in this case, in Tasmania), but they’ll add supernatural elements, which vary wildly from story to story. Magical realism books tend to be extremely confusing if you’re not familiar with the genre (and sometimes even when you are!). What Is Magical Realism?īefore we get stuck into the text itself, it might be useful to first discuss its genre. If you’re writing creatively, you may want to play around with this sort of structure as well in your piece. Our job when studying this text is to follow these shifts in perspectives and make sense of how they contribute to the overall text. Some of these perspectives are surprising and unexpected, ranging from a hardcore private investigator to a river god in the form of a water rat, but each of them earns their place in the story. Charlotte doesn’t really want a coffin so she runs away from home, as far as she can while still remaining in Tasmania at least, and Robbie Arnott takes us on this adventure through interweaving perspectives and rich imagery of his home island. Neither of them is that close to dying - both are young adults. Summaryįlames is a bit of an out-there story right from the beginning: Levi is attempting to build a coffin for his sister Charlotte because the women in their family come back to life after dying.
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