Comparative Analysis: Film Jasper Jones and the Novel Deadly Unna

“Jasper Jones”, a story of adolescence and discovery, our heroic protagonists have to rebel against their society in order to uncover the truth of the ‘missing girl’. While Charlie is helping Jasper with the investigation, he slowly discovers untold truths throughout his experience.

The novel “Deadly Unna”, written by Phillip Gwynne, consists of the story of Garry Black coming to the realisation of the amount of racism and discrimination of his home town of Prospect Bay. No one plans to stop or attempt to prevent the disrespect. Blacky steps up to say no against the racism towards the Aborigines. Although these two stories are different, both protagonists have to experience what really goes on in their town.

In the novel/film Jasper Jones, Kevin Long wanted to train and play in the cricket team, but none of the other boys even liked him being there. When Kevin and Charlie showed up at the cricket pitch you could hear in the background the other kids were complaining that he is there. They even bully him and steal his brand new cricket ball.

“Pickles was a hopeless footballer. There were plenty of Nungas not in the team who were better than him. But Pickles was from the Port.” 

This is a great example of how racism was demonstrated throughout the story. There were plenty of Nungas (term for Aboriginal) that were prepared and excited to play, however, Pickles was chosen over them. Even though he plays very poorly, he was chosen over the Nungas because of his skin colour. The town favoured the white people over the Aboriginals even though the Nungas may be more skilful.

Both these Texts resembles racism through Australian sport, and although the film and novel was set in the 1960’s, this problem is still relevant to today. As an example, on 27th of December, 2018 at 5:07pm, ABC News posted a report claiming that during a soccer match, racial slurs were hurled at the player Roly Bonevacia. The following Wednesday of the soccer match, Bonevacia tweeted out,

“Next time keep the racist comments to yourself @AdelaideUnited fans!! Don't ruin the game!”

The club that Bonevacia plays for has confirmed that they have spoken to him about the slurs made in Dutch and the incident has been reported to the FFA (Football Federation Australia).

“Jasper Jones has a terrible reputation in Corrigan. He’s a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a Truant. He’s lazy and unreliable. He’s feral and an orphan, or as good as. His mother is dead and his father is no good. He’s the rotten model that parents hold aloft as a warning: This is how you’ll end up if you’re disobedient.” Jasper Jones was seen as nothing more than a thief and a thug. Almost no one believed Jasper could be a good person because of his stereotype. Charlie was the only one to believe that Jasper wasn’t bad. He believed that he could be a good person.

“People in town say he’s dangerous. But I've always wondered what he’s really like.” 

In the novel ‘Deadly Unna', Mad Dog says, “don’t shake hands with no boongs”. This quote shows that he and almost everyone in the port has no respect for the Nungas. Blacky was the only one in Prospect Bay to respect the Aboriginals and treat them equally. As his story continues, he starts to notice the amount of racism that goes on in the port.

Blacky claims that he is “getting more and more ashamed”.

“Everyone’d heard the one about the Nunga and the priest. But Big Mac started to tell it anyway.” Blacky says, “I don’t know why, I’d laughed at the joke before. I’d even told the joke before. But tonight it didn’t seem so funny anymore. And I knew it had to do with Dumby and Clarence and Tommy.” 

Both these texts can relate to each other due to the fact that both towns discriminates against the aboriginals. Although there are small groups of people who respect them and treat them as equals, the majority of people still believe that they should be treated as animals. Even today there are still countless acts of racism. These few stories that were collected from NITV news are examples of how serious racism can be and how it can impact the person’s life.

Maddie – Gomeroi

“I remember working as a dental assistant and one day, some dental students came in to see if the dentist on duty could do a survey. One of the students was Aboriginal, and the receptionist said that she couldn’t believe it. I asked her why and she said ‘because Aboriginals aren’t that smart’.”

Luke – Yalanji

“It’s hard to think of just one time to talk about because it becomes so normal that it happens on a regular basis. But for me, just last week, I was on a packed train and an older white lady wouldn’t sit next to me, even when I asked if she’d like a seat she gave me a filthy look and just wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t until the couple in front of me got up, that she went and sat down. She clearly did want to sit, but not next to a blackfella…”

Danny – Gomeroi

“In primary school when anything went missing or stolen – who do you think got the blame? Every single time, from such an early age, me and the two other Indigenous kids would always be taken aside and asked if we were the ones that stole it… imagine being the one to be constantly picked on and blamed… I’m now 41-years-old and still to this day, when things go missing I get anxious because I was always the first one to blame.”

In the beginning of the film, Jasper had discovered Laura’s death and was most likely traumatised by it. Later, he then discovers how his mother died, that Mad Jack Lionel had accidentally killed her. He had to experience the death of two of his loved ones.

“I always wanted to say how sorry I am, I’m just so sorry” – Mad Jack Lionel. 

In Deadly Unna, Dumby was killed by Blacky’s father who hates the Aboriginals.

The Aboriginals had held a funeral for Dumby, his family was mortified that they had lost their son in one night. Being his only white friend, Blacky had attended his funeral, even though his friend told him not to go.

“Mum, Arks, Pickles, Dazza and Darcy – they all had different reasons, but they all said the same thing: don’t go to Dumby’s funeral.” 

Both film and text, aborigines have a story about the loss/separation of a member in their family. This was known as “The Stolen Generation”. The descendants of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders were removed from their families by the Australian Federal Government.

In conclusion, Racism can be represented through sport, discrimination and disrespect, separation and and loss of family as well as how these texts represent very similar perspectives of Australian identity and racism.