The book "Singing in the Thorn": reviews, plot, author, summary and main characters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The book The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough presented itself to the reading world in 1977. The novel quickly gained popularity - to date, tens of millions of copies have officially been sold. It is the most popular and best selling book in Australian history.

Despite the not so long-standing entourage, for the modern reader, the events described in the book may seem wild, dense barbarism. Only a hundred years have passed since the events described in the book, and the world has changed beyond recognition. The way of life in the country and its reputation have changed greatly in a relatively short period of time. Who knows how the book will be received in the future. Today, it is difficult to find a reader who has not heard about this work.

What happens in the book

The book "The Thorn Birds" reviews are mostly positive. Many among readers are surprised by the cruelty of the plot; a lot ofwords are spoken about the lack of amorous adventures. But the classics have become classics insofar as they reveal the most diverse facets of human life, and the love line is just one of the features that shaped this story.

How did this book captivate people? It can be noted that the life of working people, their habits and mores are written out with amazing care and love. Despite the fact that people from famous and we althy families also participate in the development of the plot, the biographies of the poor are always at the center of the story. The author diligently describes, first of all, the intricacies of work processes and everyday life: how reeds are cut, how sheep are cared for, and how to farm on inhospitable and hot land. Many classics describe first of all what is familiar to them - gossip and torment of high society, where no one has ever held anything heavier than a fork in their hands. Colin McCullough goes into the details of cesspools, not disdaining them at all. Reviews of the book "The Thorn Birds" practically do not mention this, but you will have to face the description of the most strange and painful details of life.

The book examines the ups and downs of relationships between representatives of different nationalities and religions, who have long since left their homes. But no one in the book is in a hurry to forget their cultural heritage, and the old conflicts of Europeans rumble on the new earth. In terms of historical and social realism, the book is definitely a success.

But is that what people think of when it comes to The Thorn Birds? No, people focus on the othercomponent. Namely, on the dramatic history of the family of Irish settlers Cleary and the love line. In reviews of the book The Thorn Birds, people often want to discuss the written love story. However, there is very little love as such in the novel - more life disappointments, betrayals and a strange, abnormal affection.

Family

The theme of the family is fertile ground for describing a long and rich drama. Everyone has a family, and if the author is at least a little attentive to himself and others, he will definitely find his sympathetic audience. From this point of view, The Thorn Birds is also distinguished by its accuracy and ability to lure the reader. The story begins with a description of everyday injustices, family troubles and the misfortune of diligent hardworking people. They are not ideal, but written so well that even the most bizarre behavior of an individual can be justified. In the end, each of the heroes faced great personal grief, but continued to show tireless resilience. It is this resilience in the face of adversity that is written as the main virtue of the Cleary family. For this they are respected by other characters and loved by readers. However, it was perhaps the stubborn resistance to adversity that caused the most trouble for these people. Instead of adjusting to the circumstances, stepping back from the path of the misfortune rushing at them and making their lives easier, they endure any blow of fate and willingly substitute for a new one. That is why the novel is called The Thorn Birds.

Suicide Bird

The author created a unique legend about a bird performing the most beautiful song in the world. And a bird can sing this song only once in its life, on the verge of death. According to legend, the bird throws itself into a thorn bush and strings itself onto the sharpest thorn. And he sings until his death, and God listens and enjoys with a smile. This is a strange story about the thorns singing, the content of the book is original, and its language is delicious and interesting.

So, at the beginning of the book is a creepy legend about the auto-aggressive, suicidal behavior of an animal. And the heroes of the novel behave exactly like this bird - they fly on the pointed teeth of the blackthorn, as if nothing could be more beautiful. And the world is watching this, not making any attempts to positively influence the situation, but imbued with respect. After all, everyone has enough troubles.

Both the family drama story and the love story, everything in the book has this desperate motif at its core. At the beginning of the book, due to the youth of some of the characters, it may still be unclear where things are going. However, the farther, the more terrible the life of the heroes becomes, and the young destinies open to the world break with terrible cruelty. Therefore, sometimes readers of The Thorn Birds write reviews about the book to express their mixed feelings. It would seem that a well-written and attentive to detail book seems to consider it its duty to show what other dirty and bad things can happen in a person's life.

Frank

Perhaps the most obvious, but also the shortest example can bethe story of Frank, the older brother of the Cleary family. From the very beginning, the brightness of his personality, ambition and unquenchable thirst for a better life were spelled out. One can compare such a nature with the ancestor of his family, Armstrong, who sailed to Australia as a prisoner. On the way, Armstrong lost all his teeth and was constantly punished for his wild uncompromising character, but with the help of an animal desire to live, he managed to overcome circumstances and start a family of respected and prosperous New Zealand aristocracy.

Like his ancestor, Frank quickly went to jail; however, criminals were not expelled from Australia, as years before from Europe. In Australia, there was already enough work for convicts. And so ended the story of the conqueror of the world; this is how it ended for many.

Looking closer, you can see that anger and internal disorder were taken from a sensitivity to any everyday injustice, atypical for other men of the Cleary family. So, the father of the family, Paddy, and his other sons did not see anything terrible in doing hard work for little money; they considered it absolutely fair to divide duties according to the principle "men work outside the home, and women do all the work at home." No one, except Frank, has ever tried to prevent such a course of affairs. The Cleary family at the beginning of the book has five sons and one daughter; the everyday needs of all these people are served by a single woman, who every year more and more withdraws into herself and loses interest in the world. It never occurs to her to rebel against such an order - not that upbringing. In spite ofgreat declared love for her, no one, except Frank, has ever tried to provide the smallest help. And Paddy's father chose the hardest, most exhausting ways of earning money outside the home, without even thinking about how to lighten his own burden. The hard work for the Cleary is something completely natural, like the air they breathe. And when there was an improvement in the conditions of their existence in the novel, they owed this not to themselves, but to the circumstances and the old lonely woman who remembered them, who did not even like any of them.

Maggie

The Cleary treat themselves ruthlessly and expect the same from every member of their family. Therefore, Frank, unable to watch other people's torment and be content with the modest future of an ordinary hard worker, runs away from home. Which doesn't do him any good. However, the rest of the family gets plenty of misfortune, despite all their humility and diligence.

And in full accordance with this trend "unfortunately" the love line is moving, no less creepy and heavy. The only daughter of the family, Maggie, the main character who opens the story for us, becomes a victim of strange egocentric personalities. As long as she lives with Frank and Paddy, she is still a child and receives her share of love and care from them. Most of all, she appreciates love and care. But when the hand of the author removes from her life, first a caring brother, and then a loving father, there is no one to look after an innocent and open soul. Like all Clearies, she works up a sweat without objection and endures unfair pain; that's just at the end of such dedicationthere is no reward. The author of The Thorn Birds is somewhat cruel-or perhaps realistic. But the world of this work is not presented to the eyes of the reader by the sweet love story written out in the 1983 miniseries.

Ralph

The biggest misfortune that happened to the Cleary family was, perhaps, the meeting with the priest Ralph. At first, he appears as an intelligent young man with a subtle mind and a sense of humor. However, even being quite an adult at the time of his appearance in the plot, he seems to be cut off from the outside world. He is not really interested in people, playing his role as a preacher, and considers this normal. Moreover, it is his detachment and habitual ability to hide it behind polite words that allow him to look good in the eyes of others. The only thing that worries Ralph is his failed career in the Vatican. And only the little girl Maggie, whom he first met when she was not even ten years old, arouses his interest. Despite the fact that Aunt Maggie from the very beginning pointed out to him the essence of his inclinations with a keen jealous eye, Ralph continued to ingratiate himself with the child. And, having completely conquered the hearts of Maggie and her father, Ralph committed a betrayal at the first opportunity.

Ralph's Crocodile Tears

The complete book of The Thorn Birds contains many injustices and creepy scenes. And many of them are related to the personality of Ralph's father.

There is an expression: "To do something on a blue eye." It is implied that a person does mean things withwith a naive air, as if he himself was not aware of his deception. Ralph robs the Cleary family of a huge fortune in order to further his career. Sometimes he expresses some torment about this, but it's hard to believe in crocodile tears. It seems surprising that in principle he reserves the right to suffer and speak out loud about his experiences. However, he does it with even more shamelessness than Raskolnikov.

And the main character of the Thorn Birds is in love with this strange person. As if he hasn't done enough yet, he conceives a child with Maggie, whom he raised and dressed as a child. And Maggie knew so little human warmth in life that she was completely sincerely and directly attached to Ralph. He, in fact, does not need her - for the sake of his ambitions, he quite calmly, shedding only grains of crocodile tears, leaves her and her relatives. It is this story line that causes some to leave comments about the book Thornbirds containing bewilderment.

Why Ralph is known as a romantic hero and not a traitor

There are different paths in life, and not one of them leads to grandiose results. The very fact that a priest considers it absolutely normal to steal money from under the nose of an honest and hard-working family is not surprising - history knows many such examples. What is surprising is the lack of noticeable condemnation of the character both from his own side and from the words of other characters. That the correct behavior of a clergyman would be to destroy the papers certifying the rights of the priest to the household,Only the notary Grof spoke well. But, perhaps, without special emphasis on this situation for many pages, all its horror is not as clearly visible to the eyes of readers as it should be.

The book "The Thornbirds" is reviewed by a variety of people, and not all of them allow themselves to be deceived by the hypocritical self-pity of Ralph the priest.

Why people love this book

McCullough's book The Thorn Birds was a significant event in the world of literature, and it's understandable. Of great interest is the attentively and understandingly written life of ordinary people in the amazing Australian region.

The Thornbirds, when fully completed, is an eerie and realistic story that makes the stories so familiar. Here everyone can find something for themselves. The Thorn Birds do not have a continuation of the book. Perhaps this is for the best. Who knows what else the characters would have gone through.

The Thorn Birds is a book whose summation may seem odd. In fact, this is a book about how noble and proud people, not inclined to complain and bow to circumstances, are betrayed by a hypocritical self-centered priest, who in the future will also make a child for the girl Maggie. The fate of people here is difficult, but no one seems to notice it - all the troubles exist only to move on. Towards new troubles and new thorn bushes.

Looking for beautifulphrases

Such a peculiar work as "The Thorn Birds", quotes from the book can be presented for every taste. Unless - nothing funny to extract from it, perhaps, will not work. However, lovers of beautiful expressions may like the inner life of the characters and their statements. However, it should be remembered that words taken out of context do not at all reflect the real situation. After all, the characters here are limited by their own experiences, most of them with little or no education. And some of the characters are delightfully self-centered and, in principle, do not notice anything, except for their own problems. Therefore, take quotations from the book "The Thorn Birds" carefully.