Rabbit Heart Essay

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At the centre of Tracey McGuire’s novel, Rabbit Heart, is the relationship between a father and daughter. The novel opens with a prologue in two sections that captures something of the essence of that relationship. The first section set in 1970 introduces the ‘rabbit heart’ that gives the novel its title: Dianne ran to her father. She fell across the line and into those freckled, furry arms. He picked her up and gave her a whizzie. He hugged her to his chest. ‘Good girl, Number One Drop o’ Water. Second.’ She squeezed his neck and he snuggled his prickly chin under hers. ‘Your heart’s racing like a bloody rabbit.’ (8) As child and young woman, Dianne idealises her father, she is the one with his ‘rabbit heart’, but as an adult she has to come to terms with his faults and flaws and claim her identity apart from his. The second part of the prologue is set 35 years later, and begins with Dianne waiting outside the church before her father’s funeral, and watching as the various family members gather. Ted’s secrets are out in the open now, and the whole family knows he had a long-time lover and another son. The ‘rabbit heart’ …show more content…

It employed more than four hundred workers. Ted was the only apprentice. The place was a typical fifty-year-old factory – stinking hot in the summer, freezing in the winter. And dirty. Filthy dirty, whatever the season. After a day crawling around under the floor and amongst the greasy machines, Ted was black. There were no showers, just buckets of cold water. It was the apprentice's job to drop a piece of hot steel into each bucket to warm the water before knock-off time. No matter how much soap he used, or how hard he scrubbed, Ted couldn't get the grease from under his nails. His collars were always grimy. But he reckoned it was `clean dirt'. Not like the blood and guts and stench that the meatworkers at the boarding house had to wash off.

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