Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Turning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Memory
Family, Violence, and Love
Addiction
Belonging and Escape
Regret and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
The Lang family arrive at their destination, White Point, after dark and much later than planned, in a state of tension. Vic is frustrated with both his domineering grandmother, Nanna, and his Uncle Ernie, who he blames for their lateness. A flashback shows that when Vic’s family and Nanna arrived at Ernie’s to leave for their trip, they found Vic’s cousins waiting outside while Ernie and his wife Cleo fought. Vic is not fond of his extended family, describing Ernie’s daughters as his wobbegong cousins. Despite Ernie making them late with both his domestic squabbles and, later, reckless driving, Nanna will not let anyone criticize him; Ernie is her favored son, and she refuses to hear him spoken ill of.
The narrative immediately establishes the Langs as a family in conflict, and their behavior foreshadows a difficult vacation together. The story portrays Vic as the odd one out in his family, or at least his extended family. The family’s conflict clearly has deep roots, stemming from repeated behavior rather than a single incident, with grievances building up over time.
Themes
Having arrived at White Point, the Langs set up their tents and campground along the beach, and Vic drifts off to sleep. When he wakes up, Vic’s father and Ernie are already preparing craypots; Vic goes out with them in the dinghy to set the traps offshore, though Ernie’s steering of the dinghy is as careless as his driving. Feeling alienated from his family, Vic wishes he had been able to bring a friend with him on this trip, as they are celebrating the new year, 1973. Back on shore, Vic observes Ernie and Cleo, whose real name is actually Cloris, and how different they are from his parents. While Ernie is “a live wire,” Vic’s father, a policeman, plays the role of the responsible brother and frequently cleans up after him, even doing his job delivering milk for him.
The story further underscores Vic’s sense of not belonging as it provides context for the Lang family’s trip. The beach on which the family sets up camp anchors a number of “turnings” to come: most obviously the new year, but also Vic’s adolescence.
Themes
Vic leaves the others to surf, walking far away down the beach. Not a particularly good surfer, he is unembarrassed to be struggling alone until he sees someone is watching him from the shore. Waiting for them to leave, Vic does not see large waves behind him, and is knocked down and thrown up on the beach. The stranger, an attractive, slightly older girl (Melanie), is amused, but apologizes for surprising him. She asks to use his surfboard, which he allows, and also struggles to surf. As they talk, Vic reveals his family recently moved to Angelus from the city. He then notices that she is missing a finger, which she reveals she lost in a hay baler accident; she goes to boarding school on a farm.
Vic’s solitary walk down the beach both expresses his alienation from his family and his introversion. As a young teen, he is continuously on the threshold of significant changes—in his life, personality, and body—which continuously catch him by surprise. Such is the case with Melanie’s arrival, which Vic does not expect and which throws him mentally and literally off balance. They soon discover, however, that they have much in common, not least a deep sense of dissatisfaction with their families and where they live.
Themes
Vic asks the girl if her accident hurt, and she replies that it did, but pain is what makes an event important. She then abruptly pinches his ear, hard, and then kisses him, telling him he will not forget his first real kiss now. As they keep talking, she refers to her missing finger as her “abbreviation,” and reveals her conflict with her parents. Her name is Melanie, and she is staying nearby with her family, who are carefully listening to the weather reports as the harvest may be imminent, at which point they will leave. They part ways, Vic filled with both excitement and disappointment.
Melanie’s missing finger is one of the most explicit examples of the function of trauma in the book, as the physical reminder of an old wound both molds her personality and affects the way others perceive her. Melanie herself explicitly connections this “scar” to her emotions and self-perception; she is acutely aware of how both her family and life on the farm have made her who she is, even as she desperately wants something different. Ironically, the painful first kiss she gives Vic will come to play a very similar role to Vic, functioning as a defining memory of his adolescence.
Themes
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Later that day, Vic fishes with Vic’s father and Uncle Ernie. That evening, they light a bonfire and the family eats and drinks together. Vic goes to look for more firewood, sees Melanie’s family’s bonfire, and goes to take a look unobserved. Melanie surprises him once more, sneaking up behind him. As they walk on the beach together she asks him to cheer her up, and he tells her about his family. Melanie has a bottle of cheap alcohol, which they drink together, but her melancholic mood does not dissipate; she is going back to the farm for several months before school. They kiss again, both on the lips and on her hand and missing finger, but as Vic touches her, Melanie begins to cry.
The confusing—especially to Vic—combination of desire, physical pain, and psychological pain that Melanie feels and shares with him extends into their second meeting. What is hardest for Vic is his inability to truly know or understand the pain Melanie feels, let alone to help her heal. Vic’s frustration with this foreshadows much of his future behavior, in which he will strive to defend and heal other people, even at the expense of his own well-being.
Themes
Vic returns to his family’s bonfire at midnight, where the celebrations are ongoing. No one asks where he has been. Eventually they all sleep, but Vic is woken up by the sounds of Ernie and Cleo loudly having sex nearby. Vic listens, full of both longing for Melanie and confusion, unable to understand her sadness.
Vic’s desire for—and to help—Melanie only becomes sharper and more impossible when it is contrasted with Ernie and Cleo’s inappropriate behavior. Vic’s confused combination of sexual desire for Melanie, his empathy, and his repulsion toward Ernie and Cleo amplify his struggle to find a sense of belonging.
Themes
Vic’s father wakes Vic up first thing in the morning, and they go out with Ernie to draw in their craypots. The first pot has a full catch and they begin to celebrate, but suddenly realize a large wave is bearing down on them. The dinghy is rocked but does not capsize, but the next wave is even larger. Ernie ignores Vic’s father’s instructions and steers the boat the wrong way, and the wave picks them up into the surf; for a moment the boat rides the wave like a surfboard, but then is abruptly flipped over. Vic finds himself stuck underneath, with a fishhook in his leg. With difficulty, his father and Ernie, who has lost his shorts and is now naked, flip their dinghy back over and row back to shore, the motor no longer working.
Ernie ignores his brother’s instructions and inadvertently causes Vic to get hurt. There is no room for apologies, however, both because of the nature of the accident—saving the boat takes priority—and because of the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Langs, who refuse to acknowledge conflict.
Themes
Back on the shore, Vic’s family extract the fishhook from his leg, painfully. As they remove it, Vic thinks of Melanie, and afterwards set off to give her the extracted hook. When he reaches her family’s campsite, however, it is clear they have already departed for the harvest, with only empty bottles and cans and the remains of a bonfire left. Vic looks at the hook in his hand and out to sea, trying to observe the change in the weather that would have prompted their departure, but he can only see clear, empty sky, and he feels empty, too.
The fishhook in Vic’s leg is another instance adds to the story’s theme of trauma, with the physical wound on Vic’s leg reflecting the psychological pain that his family causes him. Vic sets out to give Melanie the hook because he knows that she will understand this, even though he is not fully aware of its significance himself. Finding her gone, however, he must reckon not only with his disappointment, but also with the fact that the only person who can truly face—let alone resolve—his trauma is himself.
Themes
