Death as a Theme of Initiation: An essay on the autobiographies 'The Twelth of Never' by Louis Nowra and 'To The Is-Land' by Janet Frame

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2+ (B), The University of Sydney (Anglistics), course: Life Writing (Biographies and Autobiographies), language: English, abstract: In almost any story of childhood and adolescence the topic of death plays a majorrole. Especially in autobiographies that begin with early childhood, death is usuallyaddressed at some point within the story and can often be seen as central to thechild s initiation process. It is in a child s first confrontations with death that itlearns about loss and sorrow and begins to understand the finiteness of life. However, experiences with death tend to be very different for each individual childand each child has different ways of addressing death, and coming to terms with it. This essay will examine death as an experience of initiation in the autobiographiesTo the Is-Land by Janet Frame and The Twelfth of Never by Louis Nowra. Lookingclosely at both of the authors early confrontations with death the essay will thenseek to examine common themes of death (e.g. the power of death, the mystery ofdeath) and will then look at the different ways that death becomes significant toboth characters individually. In To the Is-Land it is the loss of Frame s Grandmother that first confronts youngJanet with the reality of death. However, it seems questionable whether Janet at thispoint already grasps the finality of death. Her grandmother s death seems toprovoke curiosity rather than grief. This is illustrated by the fact that Janet s concernis more directed towards the decision of whether to look at her dead grandmotherlying in her coffin, or not, than it is towards actually feeling sorrow at the loss of aloved person. Her refusal to look on the face of the dead 1 at the same timeconfronts her with the connection of death and power, even if this connection isdrawn in a childlike and slightly bizarre way. When Myrtle came out of the room, I could see in her face the power of having looked atthe dead. 21 Janet Frame, To the Is-Land, p. 232 IBID