Black Diggers
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Foreword Introduction Act One Act Two End Matter
Themes
All Themes Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Racism War, Violence, and Shell Shock History, Memory, and the Archive
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Nigel Harry Ern Archie Laurie Mick Bertie Tommy Norm Bob Taxidermist A Ghost Bertie’s Mom Bertie’s Grandad Stan
Terms
All Terms Abbeville Aborigines’ Protection Boards ADF AIF Allied Forces Amiens ANZAC Anzac Day Australian Museum, Sydney Barambah Beersheba, Palestine Bellender Ker, Queensland Boundary Hotel, Brisbane Bullecourt Callan Park Canaan Castlereagh Street Cherbourg Coniston Massacre Dardanelles Diggers Erskineville Forest Lodge, Sydney Frying Pan Creek, NSW Glebe George Street Gwyndir River Half-Caste Iron Cove Jordan River The Light Horse Maranoa Maori – Messines Mount Gambier Murgon Murrumbidgee New South Wales No Man’s Land Palarver Passchendaele Petrie Terrace Picaninny Polygon Wood Pozieres PTSD Queen Street Queensland Red Cross RSL Soldier Settlement Commission South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Southern Cross Torres Strait Islanders Villers-Bretonneux Western District, Victoria Woolloomooloo Ypres Zössen POW Camp
Symbols
All Symbols Bertie’s Circus Show The Lock of Frank’s Hair Ern’s Bullet Shards Letters
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Black Diggers

by

Tom Wright
Download this LitChart! (PDF)
Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Black Diggers makes teaching easy.

Tommy Character Analysis

A soldier who fights with Bertie at Pozieres. They watch another Indigenous soldier, Frank, get shot and cut a lock of his hair, knowing they cannot give him a traditional burial. Later, they both get buried alive for more than three days and return to Australia extremely traumatized. Back home, Tommy ends up a homeless and anonymous drunk, known only as “Tank Stand Tommy.” In a later scene, a minister gives his eulogy at a funeral that nobody attends. Tommy’s story shows how combat was an often life-shattering experience during World War One, which was only made worse by Australia’s failure to provide its Indigenous soldiers with the services they needed to cope with their trauma.

Tommy Quotes in Black Diggers

The Black Diggers quotes below are all either spoken by Tommy or refer to Tommy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon
).
Act One Quotes

Your folks do something, over in the West? [BERTIE shrugs] I wouldn’t know where to begin. His you know, his soul will be stuck here. You know what I mean. With all these trees, they will grow here one day all these—what do you call them? Elms and oaks and all that. And all these hedges and the flowers and we don’t know the names of any of them. And when they burn the smoke is different and will lead him a different way.

Related Characters: Bertie (speaker), Tommy
Related Symbols: The Lock of Frank’s Hair
Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Black Diggers LitChart as a printable PDF.
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Black Diggers PDF

Tommy Quotes in Black Diggers

The Black Diggers quotes below are all either spoken by Tommy or refer to Tommy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon
).
Act One Quotes

Your folks do something, over in the West? [BERTIE shrugs] I wouldn’t know where to begin. His you know, his soul will be stuck here. You know what I mean. With all these trees, they will grow here one day all these—what do you call them? Elms and oaks and all that. And all these hedges and the flowers and we don’t know the names of any of them. And when they burn the smoke is different and will lead him a different way.

Related Characters: Bertie (speaker), Tommy
Related Symbols: The Lock of Frank’s Hair
Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
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