The Turning

The Turning

One of the most defining characteristics of Tim Winton’s work is the setting. As a writer who grew up in the western coast of Australia, he has an intimate connection with the land about him and most of his short stories’ settings are coastal. The Turning by Winton is an anthology featuring 17 short chapters that interweave the lives of some inhabitants of a small fishing town in the coastline of Western Australia. This is significant as this coastline is known to be isolated and harsh. The short story Sand takes place on a beach while The Turning takes place in a caravan park. The tight geographical focus creates a claustrophobic sense of enclosure and establishes atmosphere of isolation and brutality in life. The detailed and specific setting also foregrounds Winton’s character constructions of Max – a central character in Sand and The Turning. Throughout the two stories, Winton positions the reader to view Max as an intimidating and cruel individual. The foreboding coastline acts as a metaphor for Max who traps those around him. Max and the other characters seem to be on the fringe of society and their lives reflect the brutality, harshness and isolation of the story settings.

The story Sand introduces the reader to Max in his childhood. It is set on a beach and it focuses on the relationship of Max and his brother - Frank. The title “Sand” infers that the beach is an important setting in the story. It is the setting that implies the brutality and isolation that the character experience. The story orientation foregrounds the setting. Through the metaphor of “the sun boiled in the sea…”, it connotes with an imagery of hell and impends a doom for the characters in the story. It is at the start of the story that the reader understands that the brothers are isolated in a hell-like environment. Therefore, this isolation is allowing the violence in their lives to occur. Told in third person, the foreboding setting is furthered through a simile that compares the sky to being punched in the line “… swirled yellow and green and blue like a bruise”. The reference to violence reinforces the brutal atmosphere of the story setting. As the story progresses, Max is seen to be vicious and the atmosphere created earlier reinforces this behavior. The tension of the story comes from the setting that isolates Max and Frank as it becomes night. The brothers leave the father and Max leads Frank to the sand dune. The distance from the father again implies their isolation. The reader sees the family as dissociated and the isolation of the characters begins at a very young age. The narrator then says that they “ran until a wall of sand loomed”. The personification of the looming of sand positions the reader to see something threatening in the atmosphere. This threat is furthered as the sand dune is described as “the knife edge”. The imagery with its connotations of cutting and blood repeats the violent description of the sky having a bruise. Later in the story the reader then understands that all the ferocious diction implies the cruelty of young Max. As the brothers dig a hole in the sand, Max describes it as “an escape tunnel” (p,167). This is ironic because the reader knows that Max in the future has not escaped anything, neither has Frank. The tunnel is a dead end. As the tunnel becomes larger, Max encourages Frank to enter it. The climax is reached as Frank is buried in the hole by Max and the reader sees his fear. The setting is isolated and confines the characters. Frank is trapped and isolated in the sand tunnel and in the next story I’m looking at, the character Raelene is also isolated and trapped by the setting.