- Character/plot connections- multiple stories and there have links
Wouter, Steven Messenger and the diary entries all have links because they both speak about Ela and Jan Pelgrom, Charlie Sunrise, Dr Hope Michaels and the gold ring, which Jan Pelgrom originally owned and gave to Ela before they died.
Steven Messenger – is a lonely teenager who discovers the artifacts and, after keeping the ring, becomes more and more crazy and experiences visions.
Nigel Kratzman – Steven’s neighbour and friend.
Wouter Loos – a historical figure, Wouter (and Jan Pelgrom) were castaways, while there isn’t any evidence…show more content… The novel examines the place of Aboriginal people, in both historical and modern contexts. The Aboriginal people live on a remote island, which is old and ruined. We see them when they are rulers of the land, and more adapted to survival there than the Dutch sailors. We are also shown glimpses of the 19th century, where the Aboriginal people are seen as uncivilized or savage. We see throughout the novel the difficulty of the Aboriginal past including its history told in rock art and passed down in stories.
The novel is assembled as a collection of file of letters, news articles, transcripts and diary entries that slowly show Steven’s conflicts and differences, accounts of violent attacks with both Steven Messenger and Jan Pelogrom, and Steven’s disappearance.
The history theme is shown by early Australian exploration by the Dutch explorers. Another point is Aboriginal and Australian history. The book is set in the old days when people lived differently to now. The last point is the repetition of history in book and in the actual events that happened with Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos, and in the book with Steven Messenger, Nigel Kratzman and Charlie…show more content… I got confused in the novel because I found that there were too many different worlds and they all clashed. With Steven and his diary entries about his everyday life from when he found the artefacts, then about what happens to him when he wears the ring and how he goes to a world where he sees Ela, and lastly with Wouter Loos diary entries from the days from when they are shipwrecked and their daily struggle to find food and fresh water, the days leading up to when Jan Pelgrom gets sicker and sicker.
The plot, characterisation, setting and conflict help to show the theme of 'history repeating itself'. This is shown in the novel through what happened to Jan Pelgrom in the past, repeating itself with Steven Messenger in the present.
The stories of Jan Pelgrom and Steven Messenger that develop in Strange Objects are linked. In the story from the past Jan Pelgrom found a ring that glows, he gets sick, left Wouter Loos and killed a female Aboriginal. In the story from the present, Steven Messenger also found the same ring that glows, became sick, distanced himself from his mother, society and his friends and also killed Charlie Sunrise (an Aboriginal male). A cannibal pot, hand and ring were crucial objects in both stories. The two storylines show very similar events caused by the same
