Tim Winton – Neighbours Essay Example

the matter.

People tend to associate anyone who looks as well as behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity. These views however are always due to ignorance, leading to prejudice and discrimination. The neighbours can be seen as social enrichment towards the newly weds, whilst having difficulty erecting the hen house the Polish man helps ‘uninvited and rebuilt it for them’, allowing the couple to feel acceptance through kind fellowship of a handy-man neighbour. During the pregnancy, ‘people smiled tirelessly at them’, making every attempt to make the young woman comfortable which included ‘the woman next oor had knitted the baby a suit, complete with booties and beanie’, however the sudden and often extreme cases of kindness cause the young woman to feel ‘flattered, claustrophobic, grateful, peeved. ’ Showing little understanding of the cultural importance that of pregnancy and being hormonal.

The birth returns the academic young man to the real focus of life, being family, rather than the abstract obsession with his thesis. ‘The twentieth century novel had not prepared him for this. The universal nature of this moment, the bond between a father and a son for the first time, ‘took his wind away’. Through breaking down existing cultural barriers the neighbours accept each other, belonging in a different yet tolerant sense of living among the community. The neighbours help the young couple bring themselves into the true meaning of life that they were out of touch with through the appreciation of other cultures around them cause the young couple to belong in the diverse and vibrant community