Idea
A theme that I found important in the text Tomorrow, When the War Began, by John Marsden was change. Change is when people have things happen to their circumstances and are forced to think or believe differently. Change was important because it was a dominant theme in the novel as the characters, young teenagers, were forced to cope with the devastation of their lives and their environment caused by war. The theme of change is also important because it is something that affects us all at some time in our lives. There is a big change when we start kindergarten then another huge change with the commencement of high school and so it goes on. We never know what the outcome will be for us, and just hope that our personal skills will make us resilient enough to cope with whatever life brings us.
An example of change in the text can be seen in the changes to Wirrawee. At the beginning of the novel we see Wirrawee as a small, quiet town where nothing bad had ever happened. Now things were “being blown up by rocket launchers at the first sign of danger” according to Mr Clement. We see more evidence of change to Wirrawee when Robyn is telling Ellie about the condition of Lee’s restaurant. “The place is a mess, windows broken, tables and chairs smashed.” From these examples we can clearly see that Marsden has compared the town of Wirrawee and demonstrated how it has undergone a massive amount of change going from a pleasant, peaceful town to a place of devastation.
