Sexuality In The Book And The Movie Walkabout - Essay Example

SEXUALITY in the book and the movie WALKABOUT The Walkabout novel is a fictional story written by James Vance Marshal while the film is by Nicolas Roeg and their setting is the jungle. They both involve children abandoned in the jungle for different reasons. According to Marshal’s novel, the characters who are Peter and Mary find themselves stranded in a desert in Australia after their plane crushes (Marshal 7). In contrast, the movie shows two children also stranded in a desert (Roeg). The unfortunate happens as their father goes haywire and starts shooting at them, points a gun to the head, and then ultimately commits suicide in an explosion, in the automobile. Similarly, the two stories show how the children attempt to survive in the desert. Evidently, the sexuality theme portrays all through the film and the novel, which will be the essence of this paper. Sexuality is the capacity at which a human being reacts sexually to members of either their sex or the opposite sex. Additionally, the objective of this paper will be to draw comparisons between the two as per the sexuality theme. In the novel, Mary is at her puberty stage that explains her shyness when she saw the Aboriginal boy naked. In a cover up attempt, she gives him her inner wear for him to conceal his nakedness that might have aroused her sexually. The many times shared at the pool created desirability between the two although they do not act out. This is seen when Mary has grown up, but daydreams of what could have been if they were at the pool naked with the Aboriginal male. To the Aboriginal Male that Peter and Mary encounter, the wilderness experience was a temptation on his manhood. As a right of passage, an aboriginal boy had to go through the wilderness for them to qualify to be male adults. For instance, Marshal in his book states that “a selective test which weeded out and exterminated the weaker members of the tribe, and ensured that only the fittest survived to father children”. For the boy, it becomes challenging to encounter Mary without feeling any form of sexual attraction. The swimming incidences stirred deep sexual emotions for both ‘the darkie’ and Mary. It was important that he remained celibate for his own good. According to the novel, the temptation feelings he harbors never surface but his intensions make it clear for one to identify them. However, there was the option of the boy to kill Peter and keep Mary to himself but the boy did not think this as wise (Marshal 25). In essence, the Aboriginal people loved and treated all people with love and respect. This is the main reason why the Aboriginal boy saved the children’s lives. The boy’s nakedness terrifies Mary, as it was unacceptable for anyone to walk naked back from where they came from. This sends ‘the darkie’ into utter shock as it was the only way of life known to him. The level of attraction between the boy and Mary accelerates when the boy is about to die. Initially, Mary harbored remorseful feelings towards ‘the darkie’ after he invaded her privacy at the pool. On the contrary, these feeling changes over time as she lets the boy die on her lap. The boy in the comfort that Mary had forgiven him dies with a reassuring smile on his face. Essentially, the author writes, “it was the smile that broke Mary’s heart: that last forgiving smile.”The two appear to be at peace with each other due to the bond that emerges between them. Before his death, ‘the darkie’ teaches Peter how to survive so as to get out of the wilderness and eventually get back home. Initially, Mary viewed the boy as primitive, which made her quite prejudicial. She distrusts ‘the darkie’ for she only views him as one who is only after satisfying his sexual pleasures. Her dislike heightens and becomes resentful to anything related to the boy. Ideally, she does not change her stand till she finally sees the boy at his death bed (Marshal 36). In the long run, she comes to understand that the boy only lived as per the Aboriginal people’s way of life. Unfortunately, she arrives at this realization too late but takes up the boy’s kind nature for the rest of her life. The Walkabout movie contradicts the novel but the sexuality theme is a striking similarity (Roeg). In essence, the children’s father and the Aboriginal boy commit suicide using rifles. The father’s reason for committing this heinous act does not emerge but ‘the darkie’ does so because he realizes that he cannot have the young girl to himself. This emerges when the Aboriginal boy spends the whole night outside the young girl’s place of sleep dancing as a way of trying to make her give in to his sexual interests. As a result, his efforts bear no fruit and he commits suicide as an act of despair. Despite her childhood experience, the girl in the movie grows up and marries a man who replaces the manly figure robbed of her. This portrays her remarkable adaptation of what life has to offer by seeing the man in her life as a reputable figure. The presence of the husband figure in her life depicts her being comfortable to the extent of even fantasizing of past events with the Aboriginal boy as she knows her present is secure. In contrast, this fantasy does not capture the actual feeling that existed at her puberty stage. In her hay days, such a scenario sent chills down her gut as she had never undressed around any person from the opposite sex and vice versa. Her puberty was a symbol of purity and innocence as per the values instilled by her culture. In summary, the sexuality theme is evident in both forms of Walkabout despite their plots being different. It is evident that attraction between the older girl and the indigenous boy in both stories was in existence despite the language barrier involved. The feelings exhibited gave a clear indication that attraction is mutual and need not said to prove its existence. This theme worked out well in helping the children survive in the wilderness as shown by the boy because of the sense of attraction that the boys had for the girls. These classical pieces strive to show that even in the most remote of regions and to the most primitive of people, relationships can thrive. Works Cited Marshall, James V. Walkabout. New York: New York Review Books, 2012. Print. Roeg, Nicolas. Walkabout, 1971. Web 7 October, 2012. From, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgWrVIPAzJo Read More