Cadets are members of the Australian Defence Force Cadets, a youth-development organization linked to the Australian military with over 20,000 members. While the cadets train in camping, outdoorsmanship, and other activities, the organization’s function as a feeder for the military has been historically controversial, particularly during Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War. In 1975, the left-wing Whitlam government disbanded the cadets, but the succeeding Fraser government restarted the organization the following year. Since then, the cadets have undergone periodic reforms.
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Cadet Term Timeline in The Turning
The timeline below shows where the term Cadet appears in The Turning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Fog
...incline on a hunch, he is joined by an adolescent girl, a journalist, and a cadet.
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Immunity
...is mostly boring. She asks about the uniform, and he explains that he is a cadet. She presses him about the militarism of the cadets, asking if he was worried about...
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Vic tells the narrator of “Immunity” a story about a fellow cadet who was accidentally electrocuted. Continuing on the subject of death, he tells her about his...
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Defender
...skeet trap and invites Vic and Gail to shoot. Vic admits that he was a cadet and is familiar with guns but is wary of the shotgun; he tells them he...
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...never fired a shotgun, only rifles. He reflects on his time as a boy and cadet, and the weapons the state trained him to use. He notes how they used to...
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