Gracey (novel)
Gracey is the second book in The Gracey Trilogy by the Australian author James Moloney. It is a young adult novel and was published in 1998.[1]
Plot
Gracey and her friend named Angela are spending their last holidays in Cunningham. Gracey and Angela have been best friends ever since Gracey started attending Hamilton College in Brisbane on an athletics scholarship. She is a very talented runner and her family has a list of sporting achievements. For example, her brother (older), Raymond, is a star rugby player who has a contract with a club in Sydney. Dougy, Gracey's other (younger) brother, saved Gracey from losing her life in the floods that raided their town of Cunningham. Dougy and Gracey have a complicated relationship but mostly, Dougy loves his sister and Gracey is ever-thankful for Dougy when he saved her life.
While playing in some trenches dug up for the building site which is building the new town hall, Dougy comes across some bones. He finds two arms and a skull. The bones appear to Dougy to be human bones. As a collector of many things, Dougy takes the bones with him in his billy cart to show his friends. He does not reveal to them where he found them as he does not want them to go looking for more. His friends are very interested and they tell Dougy not to take them to the police. Dougy was never thinking of such.
When he takes the bones home and shows Gracey and Angela the next morning, they are horrified and disgusted. Gracey strongly suggests that they take them to the police and Angela agrees with her. Dougy is hesitant of the idea and protests that they will take them away from him but Graceys tell Dougy that she and Angela will come with him to the police station. Dougy agrees to go and they take them to the police. The bones are taken away from him and after many arguments, Dougy admits that he found them at the building site. The police investigate and discover more and more bones.
Cunningham instantly becomes the number one destination for the news crews, reporters and is on the front page of any media. Gracey is annoyed at Dougy's discovery and is eager to leave Cunningham and go back to Hamilton with Angela on the train Angela protests and is enjoying the whole discovery of the bones.
As Gracey and Angela leave for Brisbane, Dougy is nowhere to be seen at the train station to wave them off and Gracey is very sad at the fact. She is glad to be back at Hamilton and escapes into the community of the white girls. Gracey's English teacher gives, upon request, a few books on aboriginal history and deaths. Gracey is, at first, not very interested in these books, or really, aboriginal history in general. All she wants is to fit in and be a "white girl". However, Gracey's perspective soon changes as she skips one of her special athletics trainings at QE II Stadium to go to the Oxford Library to search for more information. She finds out that the bones were from a group of Australian Aborigines who were living in a small camp near the town of what is now Cunningham. These men had been shot by a man named Stan McNamara and his men. They shot these men as they had been "stealing" from them. They had buried the men in a pit and that was he bones that Dougy and the police had uncovered. She realised that Bert Mc
Soon after Dougy finds them Gracey and Angela go back to Hamilton College in Brisbane. Gracey does some research and finds that a white man named Stan has killed the aboriginals. Gracey also finds out that Stan's son, Burt, still lives in Cunningham. Gracey also realised that Bert was the man who had been watching over the building site as it progressed, she thought that he must have know that the bodies were they and that there was a chance the builders would discover the bones.
Gracey begins to be increasingly interested in the bones situation and she realises that she doesn't fit in with the other white girls and when news that Gracey's mother died, it pushes Gracey to leave Hamilton and return home to Cunningham.
Raymond and Dougy are involved with the police when a violent outbreak occurs over a feud when information about Bert and his grandfather Stan murdering the Aboriginals results in both the men bought to the watch house. Raymond, confused and deeply depressed, hangs himself with a football sock, all that if left of Gracey's family is Dougy and herself. Gracey soon finds out that she is, in fact, Bert's great-granddaughter. Berts son was Dougy and Gracey's mothers' father. It turns out that Gracey and Dougy are half white, half aboriginal.
The story ends with Gracey returning to Hamilton college to greet Angela and the others she left behind.[2]
Characters
Gracey
Gracey is the black girl from the black town who wants to fit in with all the white girls at the predominantly white school. Gracey is kind and loving, but she can also be nasty and rude. Graceys character changes throughout the novel and is manipulated by the events that occur around her. Gracey is not your typical Aboriginal girl. She wants, like nothing else, to fit in with all the other white girls at Hamilton College. With the support of Angela and some other friends Gracey has made during her time spent at the school, she feel like she fits in well at first. Until after Gracey discovers the true meaning on what happened to the people whose bones were found at the building site in Cunningham, she turns on Angela and her friends and gets mad at them for no apparent reason. She feels like she doesn't belong anymore at Hamilton, contrary to the relief she usually found once arriving back at the school. She used to feel like she fit in and now she wants mostly to leave. By near end of the novel, Gracey is no longer your innocent girl, she has explored aspects of her personality, driven by the lust of finding information, discovering it, and dealing with the consequences. When Gracey's mother dies, Gracey feels lost and confused, she is shaken up by the event but is deeply sad and sorrowful about herself not noticing her mothers sickness getting worse. Gracey takes her mothers position after she dies and takes care of her only (known) family left; Dougy and Raymond. When Raymond commits suicide, Only Dougy and herself are left and she does all she can to take care of Dougy.
Dougy
Dougy is the younger brother of Gracey and Raymond. With no sporting talents (to make Gracey's athletics and Raymond's rugby) Dougy prefers to keep to himself and sit back and listen rather than personally contribute to the events happening around him. It is not until Dougy discovers the bones that the first bit of real attention is paid to him. Before, Dougy could sit back and watch and listen to people, and as the didn't take much notice or concern of him, they would not fully realise how much Dougy actually find out. Dougy stopped going to school as he earns himself a job collecting and delivering lunch to the workers at the building site.
Angela
Angela is the "white" best friend of Gracey. Caring and affectionate, Angela quickly bonded with Gracey at Hamilton College. Eventually becoming the best of friends, Angela has led Gracey through hard times and the pair of them have been through allot together. Although Angela tries as hard as she can to help Gracey "fit in" with the rest of the white girls at their school, there are matters that Angela cannot control and eventually the interest Gracey had into her Aboriginal history drew them apart. However, Angela and Gracey are reunited together at the end of the book when Gracey returns to the school.
Raymond
Raymond is the troubled older brother of Gracey. Once a star rugby player with a contract with a leading club in Sydney, Raymond turns to alcohol to solve his problems and eventually, due to depression and other influencing factors (such as the death of his mother), ultimately results in Raymond's suicide.
Trent
Little is known personally about Trent but his view on the events occurring around him is described through the telephone calls he attempts to make to his father using a 1800- number for his fathers company (Foster Promotions). At first his view is unbiased meaningful, however, as the story draws to a close, his view changes. He starts blaming the Aboriginal people for all the problems the town of Cunningham seems to have. Trent's life has fallen to pieces and his police service transfer to Cunningham seems to have made a very large impact on his life, whether that is a good or a bad one is unknown.
Mother
Mother is the loving mother of Gracey, Dougy and Raymond. She is at first, a very loving and caring mother to her three children but she turns into a woman who wakes up to cry everyday and who doesn't really care if her children are arrested in trouble. When she dies, Gracey feels lost, and is driven back home to Cunningham by her death. Gracey loved her mother and was very sad to see her leave. However Gracey acted as her mother and took the role in looking after her brothers; Dougy and Raymond.
The Gracey Trilogy
The Gracey Trilogy includes:
- Dougy (Book 1)
- Gracey (Book 2)
- Angela (Book 3)
References
- ↑ Gracey at Fantastic Fiction
- ↑ University of Queensland Press, University of Queensland press. "Gracey by James Moloney; Teachers' Notes" (PDF). upq. Retrieved 27 July 2011.