Keller also tends to keeps to himself till the last half of the novel where he opens up to Paul and discusses about his past.
There are big musical references used to make the characters real to us. The text uses musical terms that I understand from my own musical background (for example, the text talks about the musical periods and musical terms [insert quote]).
Paul is very helpful with the rock band. He teaches all the members of the band new techniques for playing their instrument to improve the sound of their playing. Rock and Roll is mocked much to our own amusement as it falls in with our own views of Rock and Roll.
We see that Eduard Keller has more influence over Paul than his parents during the novel.
We get the feeling of Paul being the narrator because of how the story unfolds.
We see relationship conflicts with Paul’s parents which are something most children relate to in these modern times [quote of opposing interpretations of the similar object (dog: to the mother, a friendly creature to have around, to the father, cleaning up “shit” around the house].
Peter Goldsworthy uses the surroundings to lend poverty to the cultural aspects of the story, particularly Darwin which is portrayed as a poor cultural centre where Paul’s parents try to maintain a more upper class lifestyle with their soirees [quote].
As Paul grows, his relationship with Keller also develops. We see Paul is very dedicated to playing the piano throughout the novel. Keller teaches Paul some valuable life lessons as well as his regular piano lessons.
The novel characterises Keller and Paul by defining the difference between a great pianist and a good one [insert quote] – we observe that Paul will only ever be a good pianist. Goldsworthy belittles Paul becoming a “good” pianist. For us personally, this is a great achievement to make.
As a teacher, Keller is more insulting more than inspiring [insert quote] however as most musical teachers say (from my experiences) is that they give criticism to the more gifted students who are putting in the work whereas they all give small comments to the less inspired students.
Paul’s relationship with Megan characterises his adolescence. From this, Paul becomes quite sexual when the dreaming of Megan and also when he refers to his parents sticking together with the sticky white glue [insert quote]. The sex scene in the library makes him become more sexually aware as well as his newly found lust for Rosie at the concert [insert quote].
Paul is an only child, self centred, arrogant and insensitive [insert quote: ‘child enough, self centred enough’]. Paul is also detestable and an arrogant teenager through most of the novel but is then to turn into a dependable, mature man by the conclusion of the novel.
