Character Analysis: The Stone Boy

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The Stone Boy by Gina Berriault and Episode Six of Redfern Now - Pretty Boy Blue, have explored the themes of grief, guilt and authoritative roles through a variety of different techniques. Each protagonist feels varying degrees of guilt and grief for an incident involving the death of a person close to them. They also react differently in response to the community’s poor perceptions of them and in-particular, the judgment of authoritative figures.

The theme of grief, conveyed through setting, strongly differs between the two texts. The Stone Boy is set on a family property within a close community. The use of contrasting temperature and colour symbolises the mood changes and creates a sombre, gloomy tone - foreshadowing a future of crime …show more content…
In The Stone Boy, Arnold is alienated from everyone he is close to, including figures of authority such as the Sheriff, his Uncle Andy and his father. The Sheriff’s questions were implying that Arnold was guilty by stating that duck hunting was out of season, and that the brothers may have been quarrelling. “It’s come to my notice that the most reasonable guys are mean ones. They don’t feel nothing” (p.6). The Sheriff further states that he doesn’t want to arrest Arnold now, but “maybe in a few years” (p.6), implying that Arnold will commit a crime in the future. Afterwards, Arnold considered the words of the Sheriff accusing him of being cruel and not caring about his brother, and felt ashamed as he “lowered his eyelids” (p.6). Later that evening when Arnold eats with his uncle he feels secluded. “Arnold saw that his uncle’s eyes had absorbed the knowingness from the Sheriff’s eyes” (p.6). Arnold was “afraid that they did not want him to eat supper with them” (p.6). Arnold guilt is indicative of how a person can be made to feel guilty and how figures of authority have a large influence on others. Pathetic fallacy is also used throughout the text to associate the time of day with Eugene’s death. The author uses the sun as an object which determines when the grief begins and when it ends. The author contrasts the morning with night when he implies guilt “heavier with the sun” (p.4) and at night, when Arnold lay in bed and “felt nothing, not any grief” (p.8). In Pretty Boy Blue - Aaron’s police partner and Mona are the most significant authoritative figures. However, in contrast to Arnold, Davis is also an authoritative figure who makes an unprofessional decision and so is actually somewhat guilty for the death of Lenny. Unlike the The Stone Boy, each of the authoritative figures are supportive of Aaron. It is ironic that although Davis is guilty of making a wrong decision, he is supported by his co-workers in
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