10ENG Exam #5: Burning Eddy

If there's anything you're not sure about from Burning Eddy, I suggest re-reading parts of it. The main themes of Burning Eddy that we studied are:

• Animals


• Life Experience


• Work


• Friends


• Family


• Death

If you want to explore these further, you can download Scot Gardner's study notes here (1.4MB PDF from http://www.scotgardner.com/).

PRACTICE ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Using examples, discuss three themes dealt with in Scot Gardner’s novel Burning Eddy.

2. Discuss the role of animals in relation to the characters, events and themes of Burning Eddy.

3. Discuss how three significant events in Burning Eddy reflect the novel as a whole.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

1. Spider
Background to Dan Fairbrother's family. Spider medicine = "the courage not to be paralysed in frightening situations" (p6).

2. Snake
Dan loves snakes and marvels at the dance of 'Cain & Abel'. Toby shares Dan's love for snakes. Graham & Tina hate them and always shoot them. The snakes' shedding of their skin represents the cycle of death and rebirth (p11) -- an important underlying theme of the novel.

3. Yellow Robin
Dan meets Eddy, a strange farting old woman with a strong Dutch accent. She pays Dan $40 for cleaning her garden.

4. Wombat
Dan's father, Steven, is always grumpy from his work. Dan sees some wombats crashing into the house. Wombat medicine = be hard-headed (p27).

5. Scorpion
Dan sees Eddy half-naked; she tells him, "My body has been with me for so long that I sometimes forget that I'm wearing it". 2 scorpions: a real one and the Mitsubishi car. Scorpion medicine = "keep a sting in your tail" (p35).

6. Panther
Dan goes to the Ammets Creek shack to spy on Michael Fisher (Fish) and his friends. They see him and beat him up. The 'panther' turns out to be a cow. Dan feels crushed and hopeless.

7. Fox
A fox breaks into the chicken coop and kills all the chicks but one. Dan sees the fox as "a person stuck in a dog's body" with a wise look: "Eddy's eyes". Fox medicine = speed and cunning (p50).

8. Cat
Dan tells Eddy his life story. Eddy tells Dan about her spiritual experiences.

9. Possum
Dan is cleaning the Mayor's yard and burning off. Fish and his father arrive in the fire truck and squirt the fleeing possum and then Dan, leaving him feeling hopeless again. He has a horse ride with Chantelle.

10. Wallaby
Dan buys the Mitsubishi Scorpion. A fire is started in the neighbourhood. As Tina and Dan are driving, they hit and kill a wallaby.

11. Pig
Steven Fairbrother is arrested. Dan spends time with Eddy's friend Luke and his pig, Black Peter. Because pig poo becomes fertiliser, pig medicine = "turn everything into a resource". Kat is happy. Dan unlocks everything.

12. Echidna
Eddy tells Dan more stories about the mysterious experiences of her past, including traumas: after being raped by an American soldier in WW2, she tried to kill herself. Like an echidna, Steven Fairbrother always buries his head in the sand. Finding everything unlocked, he beats up Dan.

13. Lizard
At Graham and Tina’s, the Fairbrothers escape the bushfire which, they discover, was lit by Fish’s father. Dan finds a goat drowned in a dam and the traumatic memory of his drowned friend Chris surges to life.

14. Owl
Early in the morning, an owl visits Dan’s windowsill. He believes it’s a sign that Eddy has died.

15. Frog
Dan frantically drives to Eddy’s place where she tells him that “sometimes an owl is just an owl”. Dan realises that his friendship for Eddy is not just “like” but love. The frog on the window just shows that it’s raining.

16. Fish
Dan returns Fish’s pocket knife to him and they strike up a friendship. They visit their fathers in jail. Dan’s father tells him that he was arrested for stealing a truck. The police have also discovered that long ago, he murdered someone -- the babysitter who sexually abused him. Dan burns his porn mags and forgives his father.

17. Fairy
Dan tells Chantelle he loves her and asks her out.

18. Magpie
Later, in August, Eddy dies. Dan feels both happy and sad. At the funeral, Luke is choked by grief but Dan is moved to make a speech about Eddy’s inner beauty, the fullness of her life and how much she has taught him. Dan sleeps over at Chantelle’s place but “when you really love someone, sometimes just being with them is enough. You don’t have to do anything” (p209).

19. Eagle
Chatelle, Luke and Dan scatter Eddy’s ashes and reflect on the “web of life”.