Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Deadly, Unna?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Injustice, and Action
Courage and Masculinity
Duty and Sacrifice
Teamwork and Family
Summary
Analysis
Blacky’s football team has progressed to the final game of their league. His entire hometown, the Port, is ecstatic because, according to Blacky, the town doesn’t have anything else to be excited about. Blacky’s team is also excited, including the coach, Mr. Robertson, whom Blacky calls “Arks” behind his back because of the coach’s thick accent. Arks’s son, Mark, is team captain.
This opening sets up the major conflict of the first half of the novel: the external pressure Blacky feels with the upcoming football game. This also establishes Blacky’s dissent from the mainstream opinions of his community, which will become more important as he further challenges his town’s norms.
Themes
Blacky is the second ruck. The first ruck, the most important position on the team, is Carol Cockatoo. Carol is strong and tall and an excellent football player, meaning that Blacky doesn’t need put a lot of effort into his job as second rook.
Carol embodies the masculine ideals of strength and physical stature that Blacky aspires to. Carol’s impressive ability also allows Blacky to avoid duty, as he often does in the beginning of the novel.
Themes
Half the football team comes from the indigenous community known as the Point. Blacky and the other white players call the indigenous players Nungas, whereas white people from the Port are called Goonyas. While the Point players play very well, Arks often yells at them because they do not follow his strict directions. Blacky remarks that the Point players act as if they are playing a completely different sport when they pass the ball between them.
Though the indigenous players are talented, their abilities are rejected for being different from the white players. This shows how the Port in general discriminates against the indigenous community for having different customs. Arks’s objections also show how although a team is supposed to support its members, division is already brewing on the Port’s team.
Themes
The football league discovers that the player known as Carol Cockatoo is actually Colin, the real Carol’s 18-year-old brother. As a result, Colin is disqualified and Blacky becomes the first ruck. The whole town constantly questions Blacky about his physical ability as the team prepares for the important game.
Blacky is confronted with one of his biggest fears, the expectations of others and a sense of duty. The community’s questioning of Blacky’s physical ability also feeds into gendered expectations that he should be strong and tough.
Themes
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