Thea Astley’s It’s raining in mango

A literary textbook often acts as a reflection of the ball club of the date in which it was written. The particular pry systems or ideologies of the characters and character groups equal in the text inform the indorser of those characters ethnical identities. In Thea Astleys its raining in mango, the author set ups many internal facsimiles of hea thereforeish individualism element. Through the story of the Laffeys, Astley provides an alternative to the brinystream societys representation of cultural identity element and challenges traditional beliefs regarding Australia.Its raining in mango is lap in Australia, and follows the story of the Laffey family from 1860 to 1980. The characters endure some of the major events in Australias history, such(prenominal) as the gold rush of the 1860s, the depression, both initiation Wars, and the horrific manipulation of the aborigine population. From these events came the Australian identity what brinystream society believed to be the traits and characteristics unique to the typical Australian. From the First World War sprung the legend of the heroic ANZAC, and Australians were regarded as the resilient battler with a watertight sense of humour and laid-back attitude.Camaraderie and mateship were highly orderd. The patriarchal ideologies of the society meant that women were expected to be submissive, and function totally in the domestic sphere, eyepatch men were the providers and bread-winners. olds and other minority groups were marginalised or silenced. The value systems and ideologies that inform the representation of mainstream Australian societys cultural identity argon represented in Astleys text by characters such as the diggers, who believe that the Aboriginal people atomic number 18 non human and the pub owner who hated blacks, but love their pay checks.Other characters who represent the patriarchal values of the society argon the priests with whom Jessica olive and Connie conflict with. However, the tightest representation of the values and ideologies of this society ar reflected by dint of the police, the figures of authority who find it in order to blame a blackskin. The booming way out. All these characters, a pine with the men looking for execute during the Depression, reflect the values and ideologies of mainstream society, which inform representations of the cultural identity of Australians.However, by means of the Laffey family and other character groups, Astley offers an alternative representation of cultural identity. The women in Astleys text offer an alternative to the cultural identity of women in mainstream society. Unlike the women represented in the ideologies of this patriarchal society, the female characters in mango display lastingness and license. Jessica Olive begins as the passive, submissive wife and mother idealised by mainstream society, except moves to challenge this persuasion after Cornelius leaves and she is left to become the manageress extraordinaire.She shows strength, passion and finale when facing hardships, or challenges to her values from characters such as the boarder at her hotel, and spawn Madigan. Connie also proves her independence and strength of character throughout the text. As a child in a convent, Connie has difficulty suppressing her sexuality and for unrivaled silly week she flattened her gently erupting breasts with a broad palm tree band, and then as an adult she goes on to become a strong, self-reliant single mother. Connie, like Jessica Olive, displays passion and determination when she conflicts with another priest, Father Rassini.Mag is another character whose values and beliefs give an alternative to the mainstream notion of cultural identity. When she hides Nelly and her baby from the authorities, Mag displays courage and defiance, and the fact that she speaks for George, her husband, reflects power and strength of character. The prostitutes in the text also show very stron g independence and courage, and their value systems and ideologies inform a representation of cultural identity that challenges the identity ascribed to prostitutes by mainstream society.The value systems and beliefs of the female characters in this text take in a very unalike representation of womens cultural identity in Australia than that ascribed to women by the mainstream patriarchal society of the novel. They create a new cultural identity for women, that of the strong, independent woman. These women have a very strong fellowship to the fine-tune, and focalize family at the centre of their value system, as do most of the main characters in the text. The centralisation of family in the story of the Laffeys is very important in the construction of an alternative cultural identity.Unlike the characters that represent mainstream society, whose families atomic number 18 not mentioned, the Laffeys have a strong, pro rear bond. They represent values and attitudes similar to tho se found in Aboriginal culture, those of respect for, and reliance on, the family. Connie recognises that only the family as she knows it has cohesion, provides a core. She understands the unbreakable bond between her family throughout the centuries, and the fact that they ar inextricably linked to each other by the knowledge that they are Laffeys.The bond between Connie and Will reminds the reader of the importance of family in a time when many families were being ripped apart by the tragedy of the south World War. For the main characters, the family home in Mango is their place of return, a place to come back to for sanctuary and security. This wildness on strong family values informs the reader of a cultural identity that is very different to the one offered by mainstream society, in the text. Along with a strong family connection, the main characters also have a strong connection to the lay.While the settlers in the text saw the land as something to be battled with, the Laff eys learnt to harmonise with the land, and set it as something to be protected. Reever represents the values of the Laffey family through his acting out as a conservationist, and Clytie and Harrys struggle to save their farm during the Depression displays their concern for the land. It is this connection to the family and the land, similar to Aboriginal values, that sets the Laffey familys representation of cultural identity apart from that of mainstream society.The value system and ideologies of the Aboriginal characters, and other characters, inform the reader of the cultural identity of the Aboriginal people. The mainstream society of the text views Aborigines as savage, no-hoper(s), river-tribe layabout(s). This view is clearly denotative throughout the text by the diggers who callously slaughter the blackskins, the pub owner, the police, and especially by the gang in the shut who beat Billy and his family.The Aboriginal population is marginalised by mainstream society. Howev er, Astley, by privileging the point of view of some of the Aboriginal characters, and creating main characters who commiserate with, and share some beliefs and values with the Aboriginal people, has created a cultural identity that is different from that of mainstreams societys beliefs. Aboriginal culture places great emphasis on the unity of the family, and this value is evident in Astleys text.Nelly is willing to run, and insecurity being hunted down, to keep her child, and Billys first concern is his father when they are attacked in a bar. The very strong Aboriginal connection to the land is also evident in its raining in mango. The way the land is described by the Aboriginal characters is beautiful and serene, with its hill(s), grey scrub against blue, the long grasses dry before the big rains, and shows an understanding of the nature of the reason.Bidiggi automatically reaches for the earth to comfort him when his tribe is slaughtered, hiding in the water grass and move as leep under a paperbark. These Aboriginal notions of family, and their connection to the land, provide a representation of cultural identity. The attitudes of other characters also affect the representation of Aboriginal cultural identity in this text. The Laffey family, who are centralised in the text, sympathise with the plight of the Aboriginal people.Cornelius is fired because he writes an article exposing the shocking interposition of Aboriginal people, the child George believes that Aborigines are just the same as clear people, Mag and George protect Nelly and her baby, and Will tries to help Billy in the bar brawl. Because these characters are all centralised, and the reader is encouraged to agree with their values and attitudes, the reader is positioned to see the Aboriginal people as humanised, which provides an alternative representation of cultural identity to that offered by mainstream society.Other character groups are also represented in its raining in mango, and thei r value systems and ideologies inform the reader of their cultural identity. These groups are the soldiers, the hipsters, and the cult members. The myth of the resilient, laid-back Australian soldier is destroy in Astleys text, and replaced instead with the image of a shattered, broken man, plagued by what he has seen. Wills experience of the war, and how he deals with it, are not the same as the romanticised identity created by main stream society.Will is instead constantly apprehensive by the horrific images of his experiences at the front, and though awarded for bravery, he throws the medal in the rubbish because he does not believe that he deserved it. Thus, through Wills reaction to the war, Astley again offers an alternative to the cultural identity created by mainstream society. The hippies are represented as lazy, careless, and free. They believe in love, peace, and freedom, and regularly dumbbell marijuana.The hippies dont have real names, and they are constructed as dr ifters, travelling and despicable whenever the mood seizes them. The values and ideologies of the hippies create their cultural identity, however their attitudes and actions are hypocritical, and position the reader to question the validity of the hippies cultural identity. The members of the cult are constructed as surreal, surrounded by a blue haze. The reader sees them through the point of view of Connie, and the odd characters are almost satirised.Astley uses the cult to organise another attack on institutionalised religion, suggesting that they are no break up than the Father Madigans or Father Rassinis of the world, as they place their absolute trust in the intangible. Their inability to act in an emergency, such as when Connie saves the drowned man, highlights the ineffectuality of their beliefs. The cult members representation of cultural identity is informed through their value systems and ideologies, and is used by Astley to comment on the ineffectiveness of having fa ith solely in the divine, and no faith in self.In Thea Astleys its raining in mango, the author has revealed several representations of cultural identity. She has revealed the cultural identities created by the mainstream society of the text, and then offered alternatives to these assumptions through the story of the Laffey family and other surrounding characters. The value systems and ideologies of these characters are what create the cultural identities for these groups.