Black Diggers

Black Diggers

by

Tom Wright

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Bertie’s Circus Show Symbol Analysis

Bertie’s Circus Show Symbol Icon

When Bertie asks his mother to forge his birthdate so that he can appear old enough to sign up for the military, she reluctantly agrees only after comparing the war and the world to the circus show he always tried to attend as a child (but was never allowed to see because of Australia’s racism). Later, after he is buried alive under the soil with Tommy, Bertie writes home to ask his mother to reveal his real birthdate—but he is not allowed to say this literally because outgoing mail is censored; instead he writes about being “in the Show” and finally understanding “what the grown-up world is like.”

While Bertie’s mother sees his exclusion from the circus show as symbolizing his inevitable exclusion from white-run Australian society, Bertie inverts this meaning. He says in his letter that he is now in the show to indicate his inclusion in the white world only insofar as he shares the horrific trauma his fellow white soldiers also experience. An exciting spectacle associated with childhood, the circus show actually symbolizes Bertie’s loss of childhood, showing that the seeming excitement and fanfare of the war were actually cover for profound cruelty. In short, the inversion of the meaning of the circus show demonstrates how the meaning of the war itself was inverted, turned from an opportunity for men to prove themselves, see the world, and win glory into a site of horrific trauma.

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Bertie’s Circus Show Symbol Timeline in Black Diggers

The timeline below shows where the symbol Bertie’s Circus Show appears in Black Diggers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act One
Australian Nationhood and Indigenous Dispossession Theme Icon
Racism Theme Icon
War, Violence, and Shell Shock Theme Icon
...her son that—just like when, as a child, he and his sister would go to the circus show and never get in, the world will never accept him. Bertie is excited at the... (full context)
War, Violence, and Shell Shock Theme Icon
History, Memory, and the Archive Theme Icon
...dressing it up in seemingly positive language. Instead, Bertie writes that he is “in the Show” that they had discussed before he left, that he now sees “what the grown-up world... (full context)