Down at the Dump by

Patrick White

Nur Syuhada binti HusainiNurul Izzah Khadijah binti Ishak

Biographyof

Patrick White

• Name: Patrick Victor Martindale White• Nationality: Australian• Born: 28 May 1912, London, England• Died: 30 September 1990, Sydney, Australia• Homosexual• The major English-language writers of the second

half of the twentieth century• Grand old master of Australian literature.• There are no easy answers in his stories. He gives

the reader food for thought. (the same as in this ‘Down at the Dump)

• Education:• B.A, King’s College, Cambridge (1935)• Intelligence Officer in the R.A.F during WWII

• Awards:• Nobel Prize, 1973• Miles Franklin Award, 1958, 1962

Summary of

Down At The Dump

• ‘Down at the Dump’ counterpoints two families, and their journey on an afternoon.

• One family which is the Hogben’s family is off to the funeral of Mrs. Hogben’s sister, Daise Morrow.

• T.E : “I came here to the funeral” (Literature English, pg 205)

• Another family which is the Whalley’s family is heading to Sarsaparilla dump, for business and pleasure.

• T.E : “When your dad’s got a nice idea. We’re goin’ down to Sarsaparilla dump”(Literature English, pg 105)

• Whalley’s family went to Sarsaparilla.

• Resurrection and dumping of Daise Morrow.

• Meg met Lummy Whalley at the dump.

• They both kissing and starting to fall in love with each other.

• Meg’s mother, Mrs Hogben found them kissing in the wire.

• Mrs. Hogben did not like very much they both to fall in love.

• Both families went back home after they finishes their business.

• Lummy Whalley and Meg Hogben meet at the back of the ute, starts to budding their relationship.

Literary Criticism in

Down at the Dump

•New historicism• Feminism •Sociological

•Cultural studies

New Historicism• May approach a text from numerous perspectives, but all

perspectives tend to reflect a concern with the period in which a text is produced and/or read.

• Historicism is concerned with relating the idea of a text to other key concepts: culture, discourse, ideology, the self, and history. New Historicists examine intersections of text, reader, and history and with a special emphasis on literature as a cultural text. New Historicists also examine the relationship of literature to the power structures of society.

• The ideology of White in his story:• Presents on isolation in the midst of bourgeois life (belonging to

middle class). In all of them, simple and orthodox situations are transformed by White's ability to render both the surface boredom of life and its inner intensity.

• Patrick White detested what he saw as the emptiness and materialism at the heart of Australian life yet it inspired his visionary literature with its characters searching for meaning. He wanted to convey a transcendence above human realities, a mystery and poetry that could make an ordinary life bearable.

• Emptiness:• T.E: “She always had to be doing something. It made her

feel better.” (Literature English, pg 102)• T.E:: “So Meg Hogben was, and felt, altogether awful.”

(Literature English, pg 102)

• Searching for denotation:• the forbidden love between Lummy Whalley and Meg

Hogben. Both it seems are destined for more then what is expected of them.

Feminism• To raise the awareness of sexual politics of language and

style.• To analyze women writers and their writings from female

perspective.• To interpret the symbolism of women from the male point of

view.• Develop and uncover a female tradition of writing

Women in Australia

• Women have made significant contributions to every aspect of Australia’s development, including its society, culture and economy.

• However, women in Australia, as in other countries, have had to battle institutional and social barriers as they struggled for equality of opportunity.

Shows the strength of women

• T.E: “..and she went on chopping in the yard. Her right arm swung, firm still, muscular, though parts of her were beginning to sag. She swung with her right, and her left arm hung free. She chipped at the log, left right. She was expert with the axe.Because you had to be. You couldn’t expect all that from a man.”(Literature English, pg 100)

Women are meant for house chores

• T.E: “She was glad she hadn’t girls. Boys turned into men, and you couldn’t do without men,..”

• T.E: “..Stuck at home with a lot of kids”

Cultural Criticism• middle-class lifestyle

- 'Down at the Dump' is also a modern day Australian Romeo & Juliet, the forbidden love between Lummy Whalley and Meg Hogben.

- Both it seems are destined for more then what is expected of them. The story is also a comment on the staid middle-class lifestyle, the petty bourgeois existence of the suburbs.

Sociological• The rich and the poor

'Down at the Dump' counterpoints two families, and their journeys on an afternoon. One of the families is off to the funeral of Mrs. Hogben's sister Daise. The other family the Whalley's, off to the Sarsaparilla dump, for business and pleasure.

• T.E: 'I thought the beer was an excuse for comin'.' (Isba pg.8)