Billie and Jennifers portrayal in The Riders by Tim Winton is mostly through other characters in the novel.
The Riders Throughout the novel Scully has many relationships but the two substantial ones are those of his wife and daughter. Scully is able to care for both these characters with the same amount of love. He is whiling to sacrifice whatever it takes to please them. Though he is blinded by love and not able to see that his wife is not right for him, he reader is shown her true colours through other characters who paint a different picture of her than Scully does. Scully’s two main relationships, which are Jennifer his wife and their daughter Billie, were the people he loved most in his life even though he was closer to his daughter than his wife. Throughout the story Tim Winton is consistently informing the reader on how Scully is always trying to please his wife and daughter. ‘You followed, you would follow her anywhere’, (Winton, 1995: p 41). This is what was always in Scully’s mind about his wife Jennifer. These thoughts show how he would go out of his way to please his wife. He has done a series of menial, back breaking jobs to support his wife’s lifestyle of painting and writing. Scully also does a similar thing for his daughter Billie. Following the birth of Billie, Scully took time off from work and looked after his daughter (Winton, 1995: p 39). Which expresses how committed he was for his daughter Billie. During the time he he took of work, Scully