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Yes, childhood and young adulthood can indeed be a happy period in one’s life, but it can also be filled with worries and anxiety.

Synopsis: Hema and Janey live in an impoverished inner city project with their parents, both of whom have drinking problems. The children’s father frequently spends time with other women and, when confronted about this by their mother, gives her a severe beating. He abandons them to go and live with his new girlfriend. Not long afterwards he is replaced by Uncle Pera, their mother’s new boyfriend, another violent man with a drinking problem. The children see their mother sink even further into a destructive lifestyle with Pera and, when Pera takes out his frustration by beating Hema, they decide to leave and go and live with their grandmother.

About the author: Witi Ihimaera is a New Zealander, who, on his mother’s side, is of Maori descent, and is the first Maori-New Zealander to have become an established international author. Starting his professional career as a diplomat in the 1970s, he quickly switched to literature and is currently Professor of Maori literature at Auckland University. His published works of literature now exceed twenty volumes, of which roughly half are collections of short stories and the other half novels. Much of his work deals with multicultural aspects of life in New Zealand and the relative situations of Maori and Pakehas (Europeans). In a recent interview Ihimaera spoke about diversity in New Zealand, saying that, ‘cultural difference is not a bad thing, it can be very exciting, and it can offer a different view of the world, value system, and interpretation of events. This is what I would like to offer: a personal vision of Maori life as I see it, the Maori side of New Zealand’s dual heritage of culture.’

Themes and topics: Family life, povery, father and son relationships

Synopsis: This extract, which is called ‘The Young Life of Paul’ and which is the fourth chapter of the novel, focuses on the conflicts in the family between the father, Mr Morel, and the rest of the family. After drinking, Mr Morel often gets violent and beats his wife, and after one such occasion, William, the oldest son, stands up to his father. We find out that Paul, one of the sons, hates his father and wants him dead. We also learn that the father can sometimes spend a lot of time drinking, something that distances him even further from his wife and children. The children often hear their parents quarrelling, and Paul associates these fights with the sound of the ash-tree outside. However, we also get to see another side of Mr Morel. When he is in a good mood, he spends time with his children and tells them interesting stories about his work down the pit. On these occasions, the family seems happy and calm.

The novel: Published in 1913, Sons and Lovers is D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence’s third novel. While it did not initially receive glowing reviews, it is now often seen as his greatest achievement as a novelist. The novel focuses on the Morel family, living and working in a mining community at the end of the 19th century. Although describing most of the family and its situation, the novel particularly zooms in on one of the sons, Paul. The relationship between Mrs Morel and Paul is central to the novel and has been the focus of much critical discussion, which has seen their relationship as a representation of the Oedipus complex, that is, when the son falls in love with the mother and symbolically tries to kill the father.

Social critique: The novel can be read as a social critique of the mining industry, in particular, and the industrialization, more generally. The mining industry often resulted in early deaths and severe injuries of the miners who had to work under difficult conditions with low pay. The novel suggests that such a life is not worthy of one of the leading nations in the world, and leads to alienation. Therefore, many critics have viewed Paul as an example of the modern man, who feels lost and dislocated.

About the author: D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was early on perceived as a controversial writer, who criticized society and who tried to reform it. Born into a working-class family, he was able to see the shortcomings of English society, the injustice, the poverty and the abuse of power by the privileged of the under-privileged. Controversial though he was, he is now considered a very important novelist. In fact, his complete works is an assault on conventional thoughts and behaviour, challenging traditional norms.

One of Lawrence’s most appealing features as a novelist is his use of natural surroundings and animals to express states of experience that are difficult to describe in ‘ordinary’ language. This ‘poetic’ quality of his novels and short stories is also visible in his poetry. (The poem ‘Snake’ is a good example.)

Setting: A mining town in the UK, early 20th century
Themes and topics: Domestic abuse, childhood

Synopsis: Description of the sound of an ash-tree beaten by the wind; a metaphor for domestic abuse. In Sons and Lovers, Lawrence uses the ash-tree to describe Paul’s anxiety when he hears his parents’ quarrels downstairs. In this short poem, the author returns to this image. It is a tree of fear, and stands as a metaphor for Paul’s state of mind. It is dark and, as for many children, the tree almost becomes alive and takes on a near-human shape, hunting and haunting Paul, trying to hurt him, in what might be a nightmare. This threatening image is linked to the two angry voices he hears, reaching a climax when he seems to hear someone being beaten, followed by silence, a silence accompanied by the merciless sounds of the ash-tree.

The fear in the poem is emphasized by the use of several s- and sh-sounds, imitating the noise of the wind outside. The use of words like ‘terrible whips’, ‘lash’, ‘Shrieked and slashed’, ‘hideously’, ‘anger’, rage’, ‘bruising’ and ‘blood’ further indicate that what is described is a child’s traumatic experience of wife-beating in a violent and an unhappy home.

About the author: See above ‘About the text: Sons and Lovers’