John Vance Marshall

Walkabout

First published in 1959 by Michael Joseph as The Children. Currently available in Puffin paperback.

Walkabout is typical of the best writing for children since, although the writing is clear and lucid so that it is fully accessible to an older child, adults will also find it a worthwhile and stimulating read. The story opens soon after a plane crash in the Australian outback. The only survivors are two white children from the American South who are forced to deal with pressing problems of staying alive. This is difficult for them in the absence of civilisation and its many material trappings. They are only able to survive at all in Australia's outback due to a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy on walkabout, the important rite of passage which, according to the author, is " the stage immediately preceding the proving-of-manhood".

There are barriers of language and culture, and these contribute to misunderstandings. Significantly, the primary barrier is not that of spoken language, but of body language. While some gestures and behaviours are common, such as laughter and clowning, others have more profound significance. A key cultural difference is the attitude to nudity. The younger child, an eight-year-old boy, needs little incentive his clothes, but his thirteen-year-old sister has had substantially more indoctrination by her society. Unlike her brother, she also has the beginnings of awareness of sexuality - although this does not trouble the Aboriginal, since he has not yet reached manhood, and is therefore a non-sexual person.

Another factor in the relationships is that the white children are used to blacks doing the menial tasks, so they unconsciously expect that the Aboriginal will go out of his way to provide them with food and water. Conversely, in the Aboriginal society, males regard females as the menials, and the girl finds herself in the position of beast of burden.

All of the above aspects of this excellent tale can be found in the extracts. They also exist, often in subtly or substantially different presentations, in Nicholas Roeg's film Walkabout, which stars Jenny Agutter, David Giupilil and Lucien Roeg. For example, instead of Southern Americans, the white children are upper-middle-class Brits. As in his film of Castaway, Roeg does a good job of presenting nudity, which in both books can be simultaneously sexual for one character and non-sexual for another. He also considers the serious issue of sunburn in both - conveniently ignored by James Vance Marshall!

Recommended.

Last updated 2003 April 9.
 
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