In contrast to this, Matilda seems fed up with her mother, and seems to have a lack of respect for her, which is summed up in the sentence ‘my mum knew only what the last minister had told her’. Although, she finds her mother ignorant of the outside World, in the first instance she actually imitates Dolores’ speech such as when she says ‘scrawny arses’ and ‘serve them bloody right too’. This is due to her having only the islanders as role models, so whilst wanted more, she cannot help being drawn into their daily routine.
Originally, Matilda compared her mum to Pip’s sister, but during the course of the novel she realises that her mother is actually more like Miss Havisham. Matilda warms to Mr Watts because he has knowledge of the outside world, which she is craves to know about. He gave her Great Expectations which becomes her escape from the overwhelming conflict. Matilda compares herself to Pip because she understands that he has ‘that small, fragile place he squeezed into between his awful sister and loveable Joe Gargery because the same space came to exist between Mr Watts and my mum.’
Jones uses imagery to portray to his readers a World which they are not familiar with. He shows this mainly through the lessons of the islanders, by using language that would not generally be used in our society, such as the way they describe colour. Also, the different lifestyles for example at the top of page one hundred and sixty nine, where Matilda speaks of nature determining time.
Matilda loses hope at certain points in the book, for example when she claims that ‘By now it was also clear that the white world had forgotten us.’ This makes the readers more sympathising towards her, feeling almost guilty. In chapter 5b, we can see how Matilda starts to change her views and that she is realising how the world is unfair. She talks of river pollution and unfair job systems. The clear change is that her life was carefree but the simple things do not much interest her anymore, ‘the lazy sea’.
Towards the end of the book, the redskins kill Mr Watts so Matilda discovers how brave and moral her mother is, and she is again thrown into confusion. When she reaches the outside world she sets about discovering Mr Watts past, and realises that everything she knew on the Island was warped, neither her mum nor Mr Watts were the people she presumed them to be; June watts shows her that. However, she still admires her teacher. When she enters the white world she changes her language, it becomes more sophisticated as she studies further Dickens.
In the last few chapters Matilda is very philosophical; everything she has learnt suddenly falls into place. Jones gave his readers an experience of the Bougainville civil war from the perspective of a thirteen year old girl. Her experiences matured her, and in the end she says ‘I would try to return home.’ This is left up to the readers own imagination of what home now is. The language techniques used help the reader to imagine the island. In my opinion, Matilda’s mother represents her life on the Island, it is a part of her past which she did love but is now dead and gone. She believed that Mr Watts represented the white World, but she discovers that she has to have her own experiences.
