Quiz / blog 43

2. What connection does Ashmol make between the land covered with seawater and Pobby and Dingan? Why is that important to the story?

 

While Ashmol was seeking Pobby and Dingan in the abandoned mine, he remembered that dad had once told Ashmol that, "where Lightning Ridge is now was once covered by seawater and how all kinds of sea creatures had been found fossilized in the rock"(Chapter 9). Ashmol found this fact very amazing and meanwhile incredible, because Lightning Ridge, where the sea was, is now nothing but a dried continent. Ashmol would never know this happening in the past unless his dad told him, because he could not see or feel what Lightning Ridge was like from now. It then made Ashmol thought of Pobby and Dingan, the imaginary friends of his sister Kellyanne. If where he was standing was the sea, then these two creatures could be true too, even if they are invisible and untouchable. He realized that he couldn't say something is wrong or does not exist just based on his thoughts or whether he could see them or not. This turning point of Ashmol's mind is important in the story, because after Ashmol recalled this fact, he changed from a materialist to an idealist, and  became the first person in town to believe that the imaginary friends of Kellyanne are truly existing.  

5. In the very end of the novel, Ashmol talks about what it’s like to “believe in something which is hard to see. Or to keep looking for something that’s totally hard to find.” Discuss the importance of imagination and dreams in this novel. Why are they so important even if they cannot be seen. Consider what dreams Rex, the father, and Annie, the mother, have in the story. Consider, also, the dream that Ashmol has. How do those "unseen" dreams connect to Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan?(Rex)

  

Everyone miner in Lightning Ridge had a dream of finding precious opals and earn big money. They might want the money for buying houses, living luxurious lives, marry pretty women, or many other purposes. The father of the Protagonist, Rex Williamson has the same dream. He brought his whole family to this village to accompany his mining career, and wished to give her wife Annie and their children a good life in a better place. His dream of earning money and giving his family a good life was like the faith to supporting him in the boring and endless mining work. In the dark mines, in the crowded town, on the arid land, an unreachable dream is the reason why he was here working day and night.

 

Even if finding a precious opal has a very small probability, Rex still wanted to do so, because he has a beautiful wife and two lovely kids to feed, and he has the responsibility of being a husband. His wife's job in a grocery was the only income in the family, and as a man, Rex really loves his wife and wanted her to have some rest. He wanted to take care of her and not have her being too exhausted or busy about earning money, and he wanted to contribute something to maintain the finance of the family. Ashmol, his son was supporting him on mining a lot, which made him more energized about his life and work.

 

But, when Rex spent too much time on working, he had not noticed that his children needs him at home too. Because of her parents are too busy working and Ashmol was helping, Kellyanne was all alone. She had no friends in school but only imaginary friends in her mind because no one was playing with her, even including her family. When Rex started to notice this problem, it was all too late. Kellyanne started to be very sick, and nothing could heal her physically. The symptoms gain the parents' attention to her, which made her felt somehow better because she was taken care of and paid attention to. Even if she didn't realize, she got better when she started to feel not lonely.