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My Place and Australian Son

The document provides a summary and comparison of the books "My Place" by Sally Morgan and "Australian Son" by Gordon Matthews. Both books depict Australia from the 1950s to early 1990s and explore the experiences and identity of Aboriginal people. While "My Place" focuses on Sally Morgan's family in rural Western Australia and her quest to learn about her Aboriginal heritage, "Australian Son" follows Gordon Matthews in Melbourne and also examines the practice of unmarried mothers giving up their babies for adoption. The document analyzes key differences and themes between the two memoirs, such as their settings and the challenges faced by the main characters in establishing their Aboriginal identities and family histories.

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Lesly Bries
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136 views3 pages

My Place and Australian Son

The document provides a summary and comparison of the books "My Place" by Sally Morgan and "Australian Son" by Gordon Matthews. Both books depict Australia from the 1950s to early 1990s and explore the experiences and identity of Aboriginal people. While "My Place" focuses on Sally Morgan's family in rural Western Australia and her quest to learn about her Aboriginal heritage, "Australian Son" follows Gordon Matthews in Melbourne and also examines the practice of unmarried mothers giving up their babies for adoption. The document analyzes key differences and themes between the two memoirs, such as their settings and the challenges faced by the main characters in establishing their Aboriginal identities and family histories.

Uploaded by

Lesly Bries
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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070148MHB1 My Place (Sally Morgan) and Australian Son (Gordon Matthews) Sally Morgans My Place and Gordon Matthews

Australian Son both showed a different side of Australia during the 1950s up to the early 1990s. During these times Australia My Place was situated in Australia Manning, suburb of Perth in Western Australia. Their place is filled with wide variety of plants and animal. The story of My Place revolves around Sally Morgans quest to reveal her true identity and how Australia treats the Aborigines. It also revolves on the lifestyle of their family wherein they preferred to stay in their home. This is evident whenever Nanna tries her very best to impress their landlord so as not to be evicted. Australian Son on the other hand is situated in Melbourne; the place is more developed because there were more buildings like commercial stalls and hospital. The story depicted the social stigma in the society of Australia. People still discriminated Aborigines despite the special treatments that they received like scholarships. The story of Australian Son also revolves around the status of Aborigine in Australia and Gordons quest in finding his real identity but unlike Sally he did not have a hard time convincing his parents. Unlike Sallys family, the Matthews are exposed to different culture because they had travelled to different parts of the world like in England, Singapore, Malaya, Scotland and Canada. Aside from the fact that both stories tackle Aborigines in Australia, the Australian Son opened another chapter in their history about unmarried pregnant woman letting their child be adopted since the society in the 1950s thinks that they dont deserve their child. Thus, adoption contributed a big part in their history and how their society works. The story showed the period of change in Australia especially in the 1960s. The ethnic diversity produced by post-war immigration, the United Kingdoms increasing focus on Europe, and the Vietnam War (to which Australia sent troops) all contributed to an atmosphere of political, economic and social change. This is evident in chapter four where Gordon mentioned that they can see Italians in their place and later on Indians. Also being an Aborigine in the story of Australian Son became an advantage to Gordon because it was counted as an additional point for him to become a diplomat. In contrast to My Place wherein

being an Aborigine does not give you much incentive aside from the scholarship that one can avail. The main characters -Sally and Gordon- of both stories showed perseverance and diligence in searching for their true identity. They were not contented with the small details that their family provided. Both were eager to know who they really are that it came to the point that they hurt the feelings of their family. For instance, Sallys Nanna Daisy was disappointed that she is insisting to know their history and Gordons birth parents (Collete and Vivian) who were also disappointed because they do not want their story to be published. Their only difference is that Sally accepted everything with open heart while Gordon harbored ill feelings towards her birth parents. He was not emotionally ready to openly communicate with them. In Sallys case, she is not contented with the confirmation of her Nanna that they are of Aborigine descent. She really wants to know every little detail of their family history but Sally had a hard time looking for evidence since official papers regarding Aborigines were not available until 1960. After knowing everything she wants to know, she was at peace and started living her life happily because she knew who she really was. While in Gordons case, unlike his adopted siblings he is not contended with the only fact that he is adopted. In chapter five of the book, he says that none of their adopted mothers willingly surrender them they are just victims of the circumstances. Unlike Sally who is sure that she really is an Aborigine, Gordon assumed that he is an Aborigine because a lot of people say so. Even when they went to London, his classmates assumed that he is an Aborigine. Also he did not have a hard time collecting documents because he had met people like Margaret Campi and Dick Rutenberg who helped him. Although he found out later on that he is not really an Aborigine he still continued incorporating his life with the culture because he was thankful to the Aboriginal society for giving him a race. Sally Morgan and Gordon Matthews both told their story well but the story of Gordon Matthews is more appealing to me because it showed the other side of Australia apart from its Aborigine history. The adoption of babies from their unmarried mothers is much better than aborting the baby I still think that the society should not be the one who dictates these things. The mother or the parents should be the one who will decide. Also the story of Gordon shows that ones race is not a hinder to achieve a higher career because who would have thought that being

an Aborigine is an advantage in his application to become a diplomat.Another thing is that the Australian society in Gordons book shows the diversity and maturity of the Australians towards other race and nation.

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