Neighbours
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| Tim Winton |
Introducing the Author
Neighbours
Introducing the Author
- Tim Winton, full name Timothy John Winton (1960 - ) is an Australian author of both adult and children’s novels that deal with the experience of life in and the landscape of his native country.
- He competed with 35 other novelists for The Australian Literary Award presented for the best unpublished novel manuscript and won the prize in 1982 for his manuscript An Open Swimmer.
Central Idea of the story
‘Neighbours’ is a story about a newly married couple living in a multicultural and multilingual suburb neighbourhood. It shows that cultural and linguistic barriers cannot stop people from bestowing love and compassion.
Setting
The setting of the story, ‘Neighbours’ is a multilingual and multicultural neighbourhood. It is a diverse community with migrants from several countries, European countries. The street is full of European migrants. The Moreton Bay figs in the park can be seen from the house of the newly-weds. It sets the natural sites of the place. The location is an expansive outer suburb where the main characters of the story dwell. The story offers the scene of autumn, winter, summer, and spring. The dwellers’ seasonal activities reflect their lifestyle and spiritual height.
Characters
The young couple (the young man and woman)
The young couple, who was arrogant, were newly married. They lived in a multicultural and multilingual suburb/neighbourhood. Their house was small, but its high ceiling and paned windows gave it the feeling of an elegant cottage. At first, the couple was terribly irritated by their neighbours’ daily activities like spitting, washing and daybreak watering. The neighbours offered help in kitchen gardening and building a henhouse.
The young man worked steadily at his thesis on the development of twentieth century novel and cooked dinner for his wife who worked in a hospital. The neighbours watched their every activity and showed their sympathy to the newly-weds but they simply ignored them. Overall, they had an air of superiority and were proud of their lifestyle that was quite different from that of the people living in that community.
The young man and woman realized the importance of neighbours when the young woman was in labor. While she was in extreme labor pain in the dark night, the whole neighbours were watching to their house and waiting for good news. After the baby was born, some of their neighbours cheered watching from the fence. Finally, the neighbours’ love and care greatly touched the young couple. The misunderstanding was caused solely due to the cultural and linguistic differences. The young man, at the end of the story, began to cry realizing the importance of the neighbours at the time of difficulty.
The Polish widower
The polish widower was one of the neighbours of the young couple. He lived on the right. He spent most of his day hammering nails into wood only to pull them out again. He slid through the fence uninvited and rebuilt the henhouse for the new couple after he watched it fall down. He built two car-garage, but he didn’t have any cars. He gave the young man a barrowful of wood scraps for their fire.
The Macedonian family
The Macedonian family lived on the left of the young couple. They shouted, ranted, and screamed. Their act made the young couple feel terrible. They stood on the side of the fence until late night waiting for the news from the young couple when the young woman was in labor. After knowing that the young couple had a baby, they looked up, cheering.
Summary
The short story ‘Neighbours’ has been written by Australian author Tim Winton on the theme of people’s life on a multicultural and multilingual society. It is a story about a newly married couple living in a neighbourhood where people from different countries and cultures are migrated. Despite the cultural and linguistic diversity, the inhabitants seem to be able to bestow love and compassion.
The main characters of this story were a newly married couple. They moved to a multicultural and multi-lingual neighbourhood. They were wary of their neighbourhood. They feel like sojourners in a foreign land since the street was full of European migrants. The young couple was living in their small house with a high ceiling and paned window. Next door on the left lived a Macedonian family and, on the right, a widower from Poland.
The young couple had lived all their lives in the expansive outer suburbs where good neighbours were seldom seen and never heard. The sound of spitting, washing, and daybreak watering came as a shock. The Macedonian family ranted, screamed, and shouted at each other. It took the couple six months to understand the fact that their neighbours were simply talking but not murdering each other. The Polish widower keeps hammering into wood just to pull the nails out. The relationship was uncomfortable for many months. The young man watched in disgust as the little boy next door urinated in the street. The child’s head was shaved regularly for making his hair grow thicker.
In the autumn, the young couple cleared rubbish from their backyard and turned and manured the soil for kitchen gardening. They planted leeks, onions, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broad beans. The neighbours came to the fence and offer advice about spacing, hilling, and mulching. The young man resented the interference but listened carefully. A big woman with black eyes and big arms gave the young woman a bagful of garlic cloves to plant.
The young couple built a henhouse, but the neighbours watched it fall down. The polish widower slid through the fence uninvited and rebuilt it for them. They did not understand his language.
As autumn was passing, the relations between the neighbours began improving since they began smiling back at each other’s. The young man worked steadily at his thesis on the development of the twentieth century novel. He cooked dinner for his wife who worked in a hospital. He enjoyed listening to her stories of eccentric patients and hospital incompetencies. The young couple felt superior and proud. They never walked in the street with their eyes lowered.
The Macedonian family helped the slaughtering and plucking ducks in the winter. The neighbours watched whatever they did and offered help. Though they did not understand each other, and the young couple disliked the neighbours, they seemed to be helpful from the very beginning of their life in the multicultural neighborhood.
The newly-weds had not planned on a pregnancy. It stunned them to be parents so early because their friends did not have children until several years after being married. The young woman arranged for maternity leave. The young man kept on working on his thesis.
The polish widower began to build. His working style disturbed the young couple, so cursed him behind his back. The young man suspected that the widower was deliberately annoying them.
When the neighbours knew of the pregnancy, they smiled tirelessly at them. The man in the deli gave her small presents of chocolates and him packets of cigarettes. In the summer, the Italian woman began to offer names. Greek woman stopped the woman in the street, pulled her skirt her up and felt her belly, telling her it was bound to a boy. By late summer the woman next door had knitted the baby a suit, complete with booties and beanie. The young woman felt flattered, suffocating, grateful and upset.
The young man abandoned the twentieth century novel after the labour came. His wife felt extreme pain. The midwife came and helped her. Going outside for wood, he saw the faces at each fence; they were his neighbours. The man helped his wife by rubbing her back, feeding her ice and rubbing her lips with oil.
The young woman went through the hard labour. Feeling extreme pain, she shouted and screamed. Finally, she gave birth to a baby boy. The neighbours shouted outside at each fence. They cheered and congratulated the couple. By this moment, the young man knew the importance of neighbours, so he began to weep. The neighbours’ sympathy and love made him realize his mistake for being arrogant.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions. (About 75 words)
a. Describe how the young couple’s house looked like.
The young couple’s house was small with high ceilings and paned windows which gave it the feel of an elegant cottage. It is beautiful and cozy for the couple. The rooftops and used car yards the Moreton Bay figs in the car park could be seen from the study (room). The house lay between the house of Macedonian family on the left and a polish widower on the right. It seemed fit for the couple by its looks.
b. How did the young couple identify their neighbours in the beginning of their arrival?
The couple identified their neighbours boring and irritating in the beginning of their arrival. They couldn’t comprehend for six months whether their neighbours were murdering each other or merely talking because they ranted, screamed, and shouted. The sounds of spitting and washing and daybreak watering came as a shock. Speaking from their perspective, good neighbours were seldom seen and never heard in the suburbs. To be specific, the couple identified their neighbours annoying and disgusting.
c. How did the neighbours help the young couple in the kitchen garden?
The neighbours helped the young couple on kitchen gardening. The couple started planting vegetables such as leeks, onions, cabbage, beans and so on under the open gaze and measured gaze of the neighbours. The neighbours couldn’t stand watching what they were doing. They came to the fence and offered advice about spacing, hilling and mulching. A big woman with black eyes and butcher’s arms gave the young woman a bagful of garlic cloves to plant. Though they don’t understand each other, the neighbours can stand helping the couple.
d. Why were the people in the neighbourhood surprised at the role of the young man and his wife in their family?
The people in the neighbourhood surprised at the role of the young man and his wife in their family because their role was just opposite of the common practice in their society, i. e. female doing household work and male going out for earning. On the contrary, the husband seemed busy in the household work and his wife seemed responsible for earnings. The young man worked steadily at his thesis and cooked dinner for his wife. His wife worked in a hospital and told him stories of patients and hospital incompetence. This appeared to be unusual in their neighbourhood.
e. How did the neighbours respond to the woman’s pregnancy?
The neighbours responded differently and positively to the woman’s pregnancy. They smiled tirelessly at them. The man in the deli gave her small presents of chocolates and him packets of cigarettes. An Italian woman began to offer names. Greek women stopped the young woman in the street, pulled her skirt up and felt her belly, telling her it was bound to be a boy. The woman next door had knitted the baby a suit, complete with booties and beanie. The Polish widower offered wood scraps for making fire.
f. Why did the young man begin to weep at the end of the story?
The young man began to weep at the end of the story because of the unexpected positive attitude of his neighbours to him. In other words, the unyielding support, unconditional love and compassion of his neighbours made him weep. Only at the end, did he realize his mistake in his opinion towards his neighbours. The neighbours attempted to help manage the pregnancy even in the condition that the young couple didn’t want. They appreciated the woman and showed their constant concern about her pregnancy and safe delivery. Even at the dark and late night the birth was attended as a small queue of neighbours looked, cheering on the Macedonian side of the fence. The love and compassion of the neighbours made the young man weep.
g. Why do you think the author did not characterize the persons in the story with proper names?
I think the author’s intention was to generalize the case. He discussed the lifestyle of people living in a multilingual and multicultural community not about a particular couple like the newly-weds. The main argument is that cultural and linguistic differences bring complication among neighbours. There were many people coming across the obstacle in terms of language, tradition and culture like the couple was doing. The couple is just a representative of such a diverse community. In this era of globalization, most of the neighborhoods are multicultural and multilingual. One has to be adjusted in such diverse communities.
Reference to the context
a. The story shows that linguistic and cultural barriers do not create any obstacle in human relationships. Cite examples from the story where the neighbours have transcended such barriers.
The central idea of the story lies in the statement “linguistic and cultural barriers do not create any obstacle in human relationship”. There may not be mutual intelligibility among the residents in a multilingual community. Despite linguistic differences, there can be strong spiritual ties between neighbours. Spiritual height crosses linguistic and cultural differences. They do not understand each other’s language, but they understand each other’s sorrow and hardships. They learn to live in harmony irrespective of their culture, tradition, and languages.
In the story the young man and the woman built a henhouse which immediately fell down. The neighbours watched it. The Polish widower slid through the fence uninvited and rebuilt it for the couple. But they could not understand a word he said. This is a vivid example of transcending linguistic barrier by the neighbours. The way Macedonian family talked, Macedonian’s disapproval at the young man’s staying home to write thesis and preparing dinners while his wife worked in a hospital, the little boy urinating in the street, the Polish widower hammering nails into wood only to pull them out again and so on really irritated the young couple. Such irritation and feeling of disturbance are due to cultural differences. The newly-weds failed to understand their neighbors’ lifestyle. Such behaviour was their way of life. It was automatic rather than deliberate. Such misunderstanding was the result of cultural differences. In spite of cultural differences, the young couple experienced the unexpected positive attitude of their neighbours towards their every adversity. The birth was attended even at dark late night. The neighbours’ constant help, concern, and kindness to the young couple irrespective of their culture and language proves linguistic and cultural barriers do not create any obstacle in human relations.
b. The last sentence of the story reads “The twentieth-century novel had not prepared him for this.” In your view, what differences did the young man find between twentieth-century novels and human relations.
The young man worked steadily at his thesis on the development of the twentieth-century novel. He wasn’t prepared for his wife’s pregnancy and didn’t spend a minute to understand their neighbours. When labor came abruptly, he abandoned the twentieth-century novel for the telephone. His wife struggled with the pain. The midwife came and helped her for safe delivery while he ran about making statements that sounded like queries. Going outside for more wood, he saw, in faces in each fence. He counted twelve faces. The Macedonians family waved and called out what sounded like their best wishes.
The neighbours were their well-wiser, but the couple failed to notice it. The young man was busy writing twentieth-century novel. His concern was on writing thesis. He did not bother to understand the neighbours. He found them shocking. Despite their help and positive attitude, he didn’t change his mind about the neighbours. When he was in extreme difficulty. i.e., his wife was in labour, he realized the importance of the neighbours who stood at fences to give him best wishes and to cheer him after having baby. Such activity of the neighbours added him courage. He did not feel that he was alone even at late night. The presence of neighbours at fences developed some sort of sense of security.
University offers technical knowledge, but community or society offers practical knowledge. The young man found that human relations is stronger than adversity. The twentieth-century novel had not prepared him for his wife’s safe delivery. Knowledge gained from the study no longer helped him for managing birth. The young man realized the fact that human relation is minimum requirement of life in the hardships and even at ease.
c. A Nepali proverb says, “Neighbours are companions for wedding procession as well as for funeral procession.” Does this proverb apply in the story? Justify.
The proverb, “Neighbours are companions for wedding procession as well as funeral procession” evokes the importance and necessity of neighbours. Neighbours are needed at the moment of difficulty and also at ease. A wedding procession refers to not only joining wedding but also other blissful situations when people enjoy or find it pleasant. So is the case of funeral processions. Funeral procession indicates sorrow and hardships as well. It refers to the situation when people need support, help and accompaniment.
This proverb applies in the story, ‘Neighbours’. Though the neighbours are living through linguistic and cultural differences, they gathered at each fence uninvited to know about the delivery, to wish good luck and to cheer. They showed their full concern about the young woman’s pregnancy and for managing birth. The neighbours stayed until late night.
The neighbours were curious about every activity of the newly-weds. They offered advice for kitchen gardening, offered names for the baby who was waiting to be born. They predicted it to be a son, gave the couple presents, some knitted clothes for the unborn baby. The birth was attended and celebrated despite linguistic and cultural barriers. The author is able to reveal the true meaning of human relations among neighbours.
d. The author has dealt with the issue of multiculturalism in the story. Why do you think multiculturalism has become a major issue in the present world?
The term, ‘multiculturalism’ simply refers to the existence of two or more cultures in a community. Multiculturalism is one of the major issues in the present world. It has been created due to the trend of migrating people to different parts of the world and also due to the formation of technology led global village. If one migrates, his culture also migrates with him/her. One of the major arguments is that today’s human must be able to adjust in a multicultural and multilinguistic community. People who migrated to different countries and also different parts of a country are living through linguistic and cultural differences, but they are not deprived of accompaniment. Human relations exist everywhere irrespective of their language, culture, nationality, religion, and origin. Linguistic and cultural barriers can’t stop people sharing hardships and happiness. Human relations are stronger than differences. This is evident in the story ‘Neighbours’ where residents having different linguistic and cultural background enjoying mutual help. Every neighbour is willing to help the young couple though they don’t understand each other’s language. But there is some sort of misunderstanding between the couple and the neighbours particularly the Polish widower and the Macedonian family.
The author attempts to convey the message that modern people must learn to live through differences. Multiculturalism is everywhere. People migrated to different countries for better facilities, quality education and employment. They must be adjusted sooner or later to the existing culture like the young couple accepted their neighbours at the story. Adjustment is one of the requirements of migrated ones. Technology has created a global village. People have been brought onto the same ground in one or another way. Only cultural adjustment ensures digestion of differences.
Nice piece of work
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