Tim Wintons collection of short stories, Minimum of Two, endorses the importance of not only enduring but coming out on top. Through the often inspiring tales of Rachel, Queenie and the unnamed girl in The Water was Dark and it went Forever D

Authors Avatar

“You need to just go, that was it; survive, win.”

Does Minimum of Two endorse this attitude in life?

Tim Winton’s collection of short stories, “Minimum of Two”, endorses the importance of not only enduring but coming out on top.  Through the often inspiring tales of Rachel, Queenie and the unnamed girl in “The Water was Dark and it went Forever Down”, the reader becomes aware of the necessity of persisting to succeed.  Nevertheless, Winton presents the characters who don’t survive, who don’t win and in many ways fail with sympathy and understanding.  The “weaker” male characters such as Jerra and Neil Madigan are examples of people who fall short of their expectations and do not endure life with the attitude of “You need to just go, that was it; survive, win.”

In the story “The Water was Dark and it went Forever Down”, the main character, who is identified as a fourteen year old girl, has lost her father and has a difficult relationship with her alcoholic, reclusive mother.  The “winning is all” mentality is shown through the young girl’s belief in the web of life – “The sick and the weak died and the young and the strong lived and thrived”.  The girl is a courageous figure who forms her own principles and lives by them.  She is independent and not reliant on anyone else.  Her strength is distinguished through her decision that she must leave her mother in order to survive.  The story ends with the girl swimming through the channel.  The ambiguity of the ending undermines the simplicity of the girl’s sense that being “young and strong and perfect” is all that matters in life.

Join now!

Rachel Nilsam’s character in “The Strong One” also endorses the idea of surviving and winning.  From “Forest Winter” we are told that “having a baby had muted her”.  In this story she decides to take charge and to study social work at university.  Rachel later loses weight and starts to take charge of her life again – “She had survived something to become Rachel again.  No; she knew she was more”.  Rachel is simply not satisfied with living in a “sagging, rented van” but instead she wants more.  She’s “had enough of this kind of living” and accuses Jerra ...

This is a preview of the whole essay