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Jasper Jones Moral Speech Essay

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Craig Silvey engages us with Jasper Jones in order to convey a certain moral message in hope to make us stop and think. No one in this novel is truly accepted into the community, which tells me as the responder, that in order for this society to succeed differences need to be tossed aside. Jasper Jones is a credible recollection of the injustice, racism and social exclusion that exists in the Australian society. It also tackles growing up, first love, family unity, and a sense of belonging in a community. It is not hard for me to forget that this novel is set in 1965, in a rural town known as Corrigan. It is very similar to the one Silvey grew up in, although he denies writing the book purely on his personal experience, wanting to …show more content…

Jeffrey is regularly abused although he seems to accept this and overlooks it. In light of these issues, historical references are used throughout to remind us of the characters' significance to multicultural Australia. In chapter three, Charlie is found in the library reading about past crimes and interviews with murderers such as Eric Edgar Cooke. He feels empathy towards the victims, and anger towards the people who let the torture go on, never speaking up. This is what has been going on in Corrigan, and these historical references help us to feel the same emotions as Charlie does, as well as the novel being in first person. Another way of getting this message across, are the allusions used quite frequently in Jasper Jones, including directly naming To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, many reviewers have coined it as 'an Australian To Kill a Mockingbird'. It is essentially a book about books. The author allows the reader to understand this difficult concept by relating it to an already familiar story. The moral message apparent in this coming-of-age novel questions each of the teenage boys, who in various ways show us what it's like to grow up in rural Australia if you are smart or poor or of a different race. This moral message makes me question the past of the Australia I have came to

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