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
The Point, the local aboriginal community, used to have their own successful football team, but the team ended after the spectators started too many fights. Now Arks travels out to the Point to recruit aboriginal players for the Port’s team. Though the Point and the Port are only a half hour from each other, the children of each town do not socialize outside of football. Even when the players from the two towns meet at the beginning of the season, they instinctively sit on opposite sides of the changing rooms.
Here, the novel introduces the extreme segregation between the two communities, which will become more apparent as racial tensions escalate as the plot progresses. This also sets up the significance of Blacky and Dumby’s friendship, because they overcome the status quo of racial division. The locker room separation also shows how, though a team is supposed to unite all its players, a team alone cannot overcome racism.
Themes
Blacky thinks back to the beginning of the season. In the memory, he is sitting waiting for his friend Pickles. Mark Arks is confidently strolling around the changing room in his jockstrap. Someone sits down in Pickles’s spot. Blacky notices that this stranger has perfect teeth, an athletic build, and very nice “boots” (football shoes). Blacky asks the player what position he plays. The stranger says he doesn’t know because they do not have positions out on the Point. Blacky notices the stranger is wearing the jersey of a famous footballer. The stranger introduces himself as Dumby Red.
Dumby defies Blacky’s preconceived notions of what an indigenous player should look and act like, thus showing how contact with a member of another group can broaden one’s perspective. Dumby’s major character traits, his stylish appearance and his nontraditional playing style, are introduced here.
Themes
Arks instructs the players to run laps to warm up. Mark is usually the fastest runner on the team, but now Dumby outruns him. Blacky decides that Dumby is annoying. Arks tests Dumby’s shooting ability. Dumby proves that, in addition to his speed, he’s an incredible goal scorer. When Arks posts the team’s roaster, Mark’s name is first, Dumby’s name is second, and Blacky and his friends’ names are further down on the list.
Despite the fact that Dumby runs faster and plays better than Mark, Mark’s name comes first on the list, foreshadowing how Mark will be picked over Dumby at the end of the year awards because Mark is white. Blacky’s name being lower down on the list sets up his initial resentment of Dumby and highlights how being part of the same team doesn’t necessarily unite people.
Themes
After the first practice, Arks is cheerful, knowing his team will have many skilled players this year. As Arks drives the indigenous players back to the Point, Dumby yells goodbye to Blacky. Dazza and Pickles, Blacky’s friends, question Blacky about this and Blacky says he hates Dumby.
This scene establishes the obstacles in the way of Dumby and Blacky’s friendship, mainly the disapproval and judgement of Blacky’s community. Later, Blacky and Dumby will overcome these obstacles to establish a genuine connection.
Themes
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A couple of months into the season, the team is in another town playing a game. The opposing team has a player named Mad Dog who is an unskilled football player and who beats up other players during the game. Dumby scores many goals and the Port’s team wins the game.
Violent and unpredictable players like Mad Dog explain Blacky’s general fear of being hurt in football, a fear he cannot express because of his society’s expectations of courage.
Themes
After the game, Blacky and the other Port players are walking around the opposing team’s town. They pass by Dumby and Clemboy, another Point player, and Blacky tells his friends he still hates Dumby, even though he’s actually started to like Dumby. Blacky is beginning to think he was just jealous of Dumby; he realizes now that Dumby is a skilled player and a good teammate, even if he is vain. Blacky also appreciates that Dumby makes life interesting.
When talking to his friends, Blacky must deny his secret approval of Dumby because it goes against the racial divisions of his community. However, this scene suggests the foundations for the friendship that will later allow Blacky to challenge the racism of his community, which currently keeps him from expressing his genuine thoughts.
Themes
Blacky and his friends run into players from the opposing team, including Mad Dog. Pickles bickers with one of the players. Blacky grows bored and tries to walk away, but Mad Dog attacks him. Mad Dog holds Blacky in a headlock he can’t break free from. Blacky yells for help while Mad Dog spins him around and threatens to throw him into a nearby concrete pole. But just as Mad Dog is about to throw Blacky into the pole, he suddenly lets go. Blacky sees that Dumby has pulled Mad Dog into a headlock.
Blacky’s friends and teammates who do not help him show that being a team does not inherently mean its members will support each other. Notably, Dumby, who is an outsider because of his race, is the one who helps Blacky, showing that being a supportive teammate depends on the strength of one’s inner character.
Themes
Dumby lets Mad Dog go. Mad Dog tells Dumby there’s no hard feelings and offers to shake hands. As Dumby goes to accept, Mad Dog punches him in the face. Mad Dog says he doesn’t shake hands with “boongs.” Dumby punches Mad Dog and breaks his nose. All the members of Blacky’s team walk away with Dumby. Blacky thanks Dumby and decides that now they will be friends. Blacky even uses slang from the Point, “Nukkin ya,” to say goodbye to Dumby.
Mad Dog’s use of a racial slur and violence against Dumby shows how racism against indigenous people extends beyond the Port. Blacky’s use of Dumby’s community’s slang also shows the beginnings of Blacky’s character development where he embraces his friend regardless of his society’s racist divides.
Themes
