Sorghum is a plant substitute for wheat or grain which is often used as fodder for farm animals. In the novel, Teddy, Tilly’s lover, dies when he jumps into a vat of sorghum and suffocates.
Sorghum Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Sorghum or refer to Sorghum. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 14
Quotes
Winyerp sits smugly to the north of Dungatar in the middle of an undulating brown blanket of acres and acres of sorghum. The farms around Dungatar are golden seas of wheat, which are stripped, the header spewing the grain into semitrailers […] The wheat will become flour or perhaps it will sail to overseas lands. The famous Winyerp sorghum will become stock fodder. The town will be quiet again and the children will go back to the creek to play. The adults will wait for football season. The cycle was familiar to Tilly, a map.
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Sorghum Term Timeline in The Dressmaker
The timeline below shows where the term Sorghum appears in The Dressmaker. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 14
...away from the silo, which is visible from the Hill. Around Winyerp, the fields grow sorghum, whereas the fields around Dungatar are covered with wheat crops. Children play near the silo,...
(full context)
Chapter 19
...Sergeant Farrat writes that Teddy slipped and fell into the truck, which was filled with sorghum instead of wheat. Sorghum is slippery and fine, like sand, and Teddy suffocated on it....
(full context)
