Commentary on Big Brother, Little Sister by Witi Ihimaera

by loui-3 (student)

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Louie Harden-Bull

In the text ‘Big Brother, Little Sister’ by Witi Ihimaera we are shown a vivd scene of family violence. Ihimaera uses elements such as characterization, structure, imagery and tone to show the traumatic effects family violence can have on partners and especially children. He conveys this to us so that we can see the hurt and pain that will come of family violence especially for the people who do not have it in their life's.

One of the very first language features that Ihimaera uses is characterization focusing on the characters Hema and Janey. Our first description of Janey is when she “she began to peck at [Hema’s] dreams”. The verb ‘peck’ associates ideas of birds inability to defend its self with with Janey. It is from this that we start that she is much younger and more vulnerable that Hema which ties in with the ‘Big Brother, Little Sister’ idea in the title. This frighted image of Janey is reinforced throughout the scene as she “began to whimper” and “gripped Hema in fright”. Just as janey is characterised as being the ‘little sister’ Hema is shown to be the ;big brother’, in the way that he protects janey “don’t be scared” even though it is the worst fight he has eve heard. This also shows that hema takes matters into his own hands when he jumps on top of his mum to stop her from being kicked by the abusive father. However in his efforts to protect her he gets caught in the amungst the fight and get kicked himself. Ihimaera wanted to show us how younger innocent children are very vulnerable in these situations and that older childern can take matters into their own hands and caught in the cross fire. From this we learn that familt violence neededs to stop ot otherwise this will continue to happen and that out actions do not just affect us but those around us.

Ihimaera also conveys this idea through this ideas through his use of structure. He odes thdi with short sentences to convey mauch of the tension and intensity that the fight has. This is apparent when “there was the sound of a crash, Hema sat up” This instantly changes the pace of the text to replicate the increased heart rate of all who are involved. It also shows how quickly familt violence can start and the short temper that hemas dad must have. This again makes us aware of how family violence is

Something else that is very apparent ...

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Something else that is very apparent in the text is Ihimaera’s use of imagery and how they show the families socio-economic background. We see this when “two childern slept in the same bed, in one of the two bedrooms in the flat”. This show how they can only afford a very basic home and are not able to provide separate beds from Hema and his sister to sleep in. This alluies to the satisitcs that show that low income house holds are that most seceptable to family violence which especially amoung the Maori cummunties. This ties in with Ihimaera background as a Maori, many of his pieces comment on the state of mari and the disadvatages and sutuggels that they face.

Lastly another technique used by Ihimaera is the tone tthat he create, especially through the low register dialough that the fighting couple use such as “ I’ll smash your face in”, ‘Black bitch” and “rotternt bastard”. This creates a dark abusive tone which reinforces the violent, hostile tone the goes to explain the fear that the children are feeling. The tone expresses the trumatic and violent nature of house holds that we are shown. The text shows us this so that we can gain an understanding of what it is like to be in such a situation and what some people go though. I makes it clear to us that something needs to be done it we want to stop the cycle.

To conclude “Big Brother, Little sister’ is a heart wrenching story of a family violence. Witi Ihimaera his use of characterisation, structure, imagery and tone fully convinces of the reality of the scene. Witi Ihimaera being of Maori decent wants to make us aware of how people are affected by family violence in New Zealand.