Development of a New Zealand Identity Essay

My report’s focus is to see how the New Zealand identity is portrayed in New Zealand art and literature. The texts I chose come from the early nineteenth century – The Piano – to the 1940s in Frank Sargeson’s short stories. Even though these texts may not be very modern, you can still see that there are a number of different factors that are in them which link to my theme. New Zealand Society In the short story ‘The Hole that Jack Dug’ and in the song ‘Whaling’, the male belongs to the working class. In â€Å"The Hole that Jack Dug†, Jack is a married man who a worker at a quarry. His wife doesn’t like that he does not get a better job, such as one in an office. Even though Jack has the ability to get a better job, he prefers labouring than anything else. In ‘Whaling’ this man is stuck as a whaler for a job, possibly because he lacks proper education. â€Å"But I’m whaling†¦ Not where I want to be. † This lack of education forced him into a job he didn’t want, which might have been what men had to do at the time. This brings up another issue of women being better educated than men. This can be seen in ‘The Hole that Jack Dug’ where Jack’s wife is educated in England. â€Å"†¦ she’d been a governess †¦ read more than ten books by an author called Hugh Walpole. † Because she is interested in literature and Jack isn’t, their marriage isn’t a very good one. Jack shows rebellion against her and her interests, because of her resentment towards him. This can be seen as New Zealand not valuing education during the time which led to people like Jack having working class jobs. These working class jobs can be seen as a New Zealand tradition. Jack and the Whaler were both labourers, a line of work which has continued its way into our modern times. This is evident by the fact the New Zealand has a successful farming industry which requires a large amount of labour. It can also be linked to today’s New Zealand men, who are do it yourself type people who like to fix things themselves. Men and women have not always got along well, as seen in Jane Campion’s film The Piano. The Piano follows a widow and her daughter. The widow has been married by her father to a New Zealand settler. Because Ada is mute and the act that she wasn’t very willing to be married creates problems with her new husband. Ada enjoys playing the piano, an issue that her husband doesn’t care too much about. Ada also has an affair with one of her husband’s workers which makes him so angry that he cuts off her finger. This conflict between men and women can be seen today in the form of sexism and increasing divorce rates. Th is is also shown in ‘ The Hole that Jack Dug’ where Jack’s wife convinces him that the hole was a bad idea and gets him to refill it. This is seen today as women overcome sexism. People like Helen Clark are elected in high positions in our society instead of men. Stereotypes In all of the short stories that I studied, one issue became clear: men don’t say much. This is shown in the ‘They Gave her a Rise’ and ‘The Making of a New Zealander’, both by Frank Sargeson. In ‘They Gave her a Rise’ the male in the story doesn’t say much. In ‘The Making of a New Zealander’, there is a young farmhand. Even though the story is centered around him, the narrator says very little â€Å"Maybe there’s nothing in it and maybe there is. This is often hard to understand, which is maybe why they didn’t say much. It is clear that there are many different sides to the New Zealand identity and they are shown in great depth and detail in NZ literature, and that there are indeed many different viewpoints of it. In the majority of my texts the issue of working class was dealt with more than the other issue s. The importance of working class is still seen in modern NZ society. I think it is a good thing that these issues have had the effect they have because if society keeps advancing, then so will our sense of identity.