Cloudstreet Essay

613 Words2 Pages

The protagonists within Tim Winton’s modern Australian classic, Cloudstreet, are susceptible to prolonging pain, however, they do not find satisfaction in this torment. The novel’s circular narrative focusses on the struggle of two broken families to accept their distress and return to love and reconciliation, despite the misery compounded by their flaws. No pleasure is found in this suffering the protagonists endure, they augment their period of sorrow because they indulge in negative emotions such as guilt and resentment that in turn condemn them to a state of misery. Other characters prefer to escape addressing their torment rather than accepting its presence in their lives, while others . Winton’s novel, Cloudstreet, is constructed of characters who lengthen their period of distress, despite the lack of enjoyment they gain in this state.

Rose throws herself further into her woes of anorexia to spite her mother, stating “hating [Dolly] is the best part of being alive” Rose does not appreciate her state of suffering, she detests it, later describing it as the “rob[bing]” of her “c...

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