Trash, written by Andy Mulligan is a novel set in an unnamed third world country. Three dumpsite boys discover a wallet containing a note, key, 11,00 pesos and an ID card in Behala Dump while trash picking. They soon find themselves running from the police, cracking codes, investigating clues, experiencing an interrogation and even shopping in the hope of righting a terrible wrong. Through an analysis of characterization, the point of view, reader positioning and setting we can see the main themes/ideas presented in “Trash” are; friendship, corruption, a disparity in wealth and poverty.

poverty

Poverty In the novel the author uses setting and characterisation to examine the idea/theme of poverty. On page Pg3 there is a brilliant quote from …show more content…
Olivia Weston is the temporary house mother at Belhala’s Mission School and she has been characterized as a compassionate young lady who wants to make a difference to the children’s lives. We know this due to the way she thinks and behaves. In her visit to Colva Prison, she explains how she “fell in love” with the Belhala children and the “eyes looking at me, and the smiles” (p.78). Using these two quotes we can infer Olivia has deep feelings of friendship for the boys, which is a fantastic example of the theme of friendship in the text. She also says another fantastic quote to support the theme: “the mountains of trash, and the children… is a thing to change your life” (p.78). Through this quote, we can see that the author has used reader positioning to show Olivia’s friendship. For example, Olivia’s thoughts position the reader to understand the depth of her affection for the Belhala children and her desire to care, love and connect with them. Her Friendly nature is also shown through her behavior when she helps the boys visit the prison. Instead of simply escorting the boys, she buys them new clothes even though the prices shocked her. Clearly, Olivia does whatever she can to help the boys, even though she has no idea what’s going on. Only a true friend would act in this manner. Therefore again the idea of friendship is used in the text. Using the …show more content…
Using characterization the author can portray this idea crisp and clear. On Pg12 there is a fantastic quote from Gardo referring to the people working for the police to find the bag of money. “Do you really think they’ll give it?’’ (Page 34). From this quote, we can infer that Gardo doesn’t trust the police and believes they will make the people work without paying. This is an example of the police being untruthful and corrupt. Another quote to justify the idea of corruption can be found on page 34 from Raphael. “When the police get mean you don’t want to be around.”Using this quote we can infer that the police will physically harm anyone they think is involved in the situation. This an excellent example of corruption in the text. A different example is when Raphael’s Auntie States: “Everyone knows what things they do!”(Page 34). This means that everyone in Belhala is afraid of the violence the police could inflict on them. This is most definitely an unlawful act and validates the policemen being corrupt. Due to the analysis of the text, we now recognize how the author has used the idea/theme of corruption in the