Romulus My Father Scaffolding

Technique: Switching between first and third person narrative/point of view

Thesis: Gaitas memoir seeks to reflect n influences one has in life that help shape a sense of
identity and a world view
Family:
In order to protect his grandfather from a beating, my father threatened to shoot his uncleConflicting responsibilities for belonging within family unit
Control your wife, she is stealing our husbands-Christines infidelities betray the natural
family unit
She did not care properly for me, andher careless spending undermined his capacity to do
so-Her neglect of her children
A photograph of the period shows Mitruwith me sitting on his chest, my mother beside us
with the demeanour of a young woman with her man and child.-Betrayal of family unit, yet
despite her infidelities she has a sense of connection to family unit
I was glad of her physical, feminine presence, which comforted me more than food-Despite
neglect, Raimond lovingly describes his mother and this reflects the strong nature of
belonging within a family unit
Alone, small, frail, walking with an uncertain gait and distracted air-accumulative
description to convey Christines isolation
I was nervous riding with Mitruwhen I rode with my father, no matter how fast he drove,
I always urged him to drive faster.-Belonging fosters a sense of security within people and
shows Raimonds more secure familial link with his father
My love for Hora and for my father caused confused emotions in me towards either.
Like most Europeans. this phrase sets Romulus apart from the authors perspective.
Our life at Frogmore was Spartan, but I never felt that we were poor-Find example where
rich language is used to contrast Frogmore
If you were to do anything badthe disappointment would kill you father-In close
relationships, the other parties actions can deeply impact the other
strong, bare, sun-darkened arms on either side of me-symbolism of Romulus protection of
Raimond
Working together, our sorrow lightened by the presence of a young girl representing new
life and hope, we came together as son and husband with the woman whose remains lay
beneath us. Juxtaposition of fixing a headstone and the innocence of a child playing suggests
the deep ties that exist in family
I did not resent him for beating my mother. -Distorted family situation, non blood
connections overriding the natural family
Contrast between Mitru and Christines relationship-tending ones wounds one week and a

week later, Mitru driven to suicide

My father wrote only when necessary, addressing my mother, Dear Madam, and signing
himself, R.Gaita. Letters a device to represent the breakdown of family unit and strained
communication. The formal addressing of the letters represent isolation. This communication
breakdown again occurs by the inclusion of Mitrus letter. Romulus relationship with letter
and after his trust is broken, his struggle to compose a letter.
It offended his ideal of respect owed by children to their elders-conflict between first and
second generation migrants
In locu parentis-Term used to indicate the strong family bond with Hora, despite not being
blood relatives
I felt awkward with her/The pathos of it embarrassed and saddened me-Sad tone and
mood to represent detachment
The perspective provoked in me a pity that was both intense and disturbingly detachedLooking in through window to his mother provides a symbol of detachment
In my heart, I still loved her.-still belonging as Romulus still cared deeply for her despite
separation
Disconnection with mother is explored through negative connotation and by a non emotive
description
told that in law he was as nothing to the children-societies notion of family
I felt for him as though he were part of my family
I was later tormented with guilt...for having denied my father
My relationship with my father had changed because I had asserted my independence.
no sense of extended family
growing isolation/alienated potential visitors
My father was buried close in the Maryborough cemetery, close to my mother.
Culture:
My fatheralways considered himself a Romanian.-Sense of belonging towards a culture
Childhood as we know itdid not exist in that part of the world at that time-this helps to
explain the difference between the first and second generation migrant perspective, as there
were differing expectations of children when Romulus was growing up.
Children contributed to the maintenance of their families and to the welfare of the villagecommunal sense of belonging
A little embarrassed by his dark complexion, he called himself a gipsy and later in Australia,
an Aborigine.
made him acceptable to my mothers very German middle class parents, who would have
looked down on the foreigner with his Slavic features
For immigrant men only/Only the Australians could live in it-Separation and different
circumstance than Australians
New Australians given menial manual tasks
They were called the Balts by most Australians-their race is their identify, reflects the lack
of individual identity assigned to immigrants
responding with the instinct of an immigrant unused to the tinder-dry conditions of an
Australian summer./The local newspaper ridiculed the New Australian for his folly

I heard someone speak contemptuously of how Aborigines slept with their dogs for comfort
and warmth-A comfort for Raimond and ties to their association to another marginalised
group in Australian society
A culture whose limitations were partly the reason she could not overcome hers
the concept of self-deception goes so deep in our culture
He thought it a weakness in me.-differences in ideas about changing paths due to first +
second generation gap
Yugoslav divorcee
The division he knew from his childhood, between womens and mens work, played little
role in his life
His respect for her independence was unusual in husbands of his vintage
essential as being truthful about ones identity
his changed status in the community...partly because attitudes to New Australians had
changed.
Im good for nothing.-Low sense of self worth and lack of identity now that Romulus can
no longer work
European custom
Memory:
The novel is a memoir, so it is written with hindsight.
Non linear narrative
But he still longed, and longed all his life, for the European conviviality he knew as a young
man
Shows Raimonds childhood perspective versus his experienced perspective
Very detached narrative style, only poetic when describing landscape motif
Juxtaposition of Christines neglect and Raimonds feelings for her
Uses reported speech for emphasis
Place:
Though the landscape is one of rare beauty, to a European or English eye it seems desolate,
and even after forty years my father could not become reconciled to it
He longed for the generous and soft European foliage, but the eucalypts of
Baringupseemed symbols of deprivation and barrenness.-Landscape symbolic of isolation
A dead red gum stood only a hundred metres from the house and became for my mother a
symbol of her desolation
Peppercornswere planted as though to mediate between local and European landscapes./
The mid green of their herringbone leaves evoked the colours of colder climates while their
gnarled trunks and branches introduced one to the starkly delineated silhouettes of the native
landscape.
Frogmore-potential place of belonging for Raimond
A troubled city girl from Central Europe, she could not settle in a dilapidated farmhouse that
highlighted her isolation.
She longed for company-Human instinct to crave belonging
In the vast landscape, with only crude wire fences and a rough track to mark human
impression on it she appeared forsaken.

The key to the beauty of the native trees lay in the light which so sharply delineated them
against a dark blue sky./My perception of the landscape changed radically as when one
sees the second image in an ambiguous drawing-move to teenage independence and to
experience. The scraggy shapes and sparse foliage actually became the foci for my sense of
beauty-The landscape symbolic nature is used to demonstrate the cultural and generation
barriers between Raimond and Romulus
He felt like a prisoner in Australia-Simile to show Romulus feelings of isolation
immigrants were tolerated
It never seriously occurred to them to call my father his name, Romulus. They called him
Jack.
provided the wrong conceptual environment for her to find herself and for others to
understand her-notions of self identity and place shaping belonging
Trade in for normal life away from Frogmore in Maryborough
gave colour to my freedom
Spartan disposition-same adjective used to describe place and personality
open forms of conviviality that characterised European hospitality as he knew it.
After what we had shared at Frogmore, no quarrel could estrange us.
Relationships:
After she gave birth to me, she showed signs of an illness-Tension placed on all Christines
relationships with others due to her mental illness
lifelong friendship-between Hora and Romulus, forged by having similar contextual
backgrounds
Their individuality was inseparable from their talk/I learnt from them the connection
between individuality and character-a strongly formed identity is needed before you can
meaningfully engage with others
Both troubled by identity-Romulus and Hora
Plato allusion those who love and seek wisdom are clinging in recollection to things they
once saw-Meaningful friendship due to sharing core values, and Raimond experiencing this
Work used as a metaphor to describe Romulus character
...he belonged to a long tradition of European thought which celebrated a community of
equals-found a sense of belonging through his character, shown by his workmanship
Prayer for the Dead allusion
under its sway should be prepared to be destroyed by it
Victoria Market where he savoured the bustle.
His strength of character needed the right kind of nurturing to function...I believe that was
given to by the relative stability of his life with Milka.
Spirituality:
nourished his deeply religious spirit throughout his life
instinctive reverence for the solemnity of church ritual and artefacts, even when he later
became suspicious of institutional religion and prone to anti-clericalism
Foreshadowing: that he would lose his wife an suffer greatly
Jesus who appeared to her bloody and showing the wounds of his crucifixion/ This child I
am carrying will suffer-Ideas of fate expressed

ferociously anticlerical. He spoke, however, with respect and affection for Christianitys
ethical vision-Hora having similar values to Romulus
no one remained as steadfast as my father in his disdain of superficialities, in his honesty
and his concern for others
He believed that those who were genuinely religious felt no need to distinguish themselves
from others in such ways.

Barriers to belonging:
She was only sixteen years old and he was twenty two/My father cared for none of these
and mistook my mothers enjoyment of them for snobbishness, a fault he detested even
then-disparity between backgrounds and age of Christine and Romulus
Denied university study because they refused to join the Communist Party-Choosing to not
belong
My father, Hora and, I think, Mitru, did not appreciate the degree to which my mothers life
and behaviour were affected by her psychological illness.-lack of understanding of mental
illness was a barrier to belonging. Ties into the 1950s context of novel and expectations of
women at this time.
In his sighs I heard our isolation and for the first time I felt estranged from the area
growing desire to lead a normal life/strengthened by the conformist aspirations of
teenage culture
dependent on institutional living
Unconformity to school rules