The Turning

The Turning

by

Tim Winton

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Turning makes teaching easy.

Melanie Character Analysis

Melanie is a 16-year-old girl who is missing a finger, which she lost in a farm accident. Vic’s first kiss and childhood love, Melanie encounters him on the beach in White Point, where she is also on vacation with her family; they, however, are prepared to leave abruptly for the harvest. Melanie suffers from a deep melancholy, the origins of which the book never explains.

Melanie Quotes in The Turning

The The Turning quotes below are all either spoken by Melanie or refer to Melanie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma and Memory Theme Icon
).
Abbreviation Quotes

But the blitz truck was gone and the tractor, too. A great mound of coals smouldered on the sand. Where the big tent had been there were bottles and cans and the smooth imprints of mattresses and bodies. The harvest, he thought. There must be rain on the way. He took the hook from his pocket. It was blunt and misshapen. It shone in the sun. Vic’s leg throbbed and burned. He looked out across the sea for the first sign of cloud, for any kind of signal of a change in the weather, but the sea and the sky were as pale and blue and blank as sleep, as empty as he felt standing there on the lapping shore.

Related Characters: Vic Lang, Melanie
Related Symbols: The Beach, The Open Sky
Page Number: 35-36
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Turning LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Turning PDF

Melanie Quotes in The Turning

The The Turning quotes below are all either spoken by Melanie or refer to Melanie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma and Memory Theme Icon
).
Abbreviation Quotes

But the blitz truck was gone and the tractor, too. A great mound of coals smouldered on the sand. Where the big tent had been there were bottles and cans and the smooth imprints of mattresses and bodies. The harvest, he thought. There must be rain on the way. He took the hook from his pocket. It was blunt and misshapen. It shone in the sun. Vic’s leg throbbed and burned. He looked out across the sea for the first sign of cloud, for any kind of signal of a change in the weather, but the sea and the sky were as pale and blue and blank as sleep, as empty as he felt standing there on the lapping shore.

Related Characters: Vic Lang, Melanie
Related Symbols: The Beach, The Open Sky
Page Number: 35-36
Explanation and Analysis: