Once Were Warriors
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| Once Were Warriors | |
| Author | Alan Duff |
|---|---|
| Country | New Zealand |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Tandem Press |
| Publication date | 1990 |
| Followed by | What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? |
Once Were Warriors is New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling first novel, first published in 1990. It tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and portrays the reality of domestic violence. It was the basis of a 1994 film of the same name, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison. The novel was followed by two sequels, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? in 1997 and Jake's Long Shadow in 2002.
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[edit] Plot summary
Beth Heke left her small town and, despite her parents' disapproval, married Jake "the Muss" Heke. After 18 years, they live in a slum and have five children. Their interpretations of life and being Māori are tested. Since Beth is from a more traditional background she related to the old ways, while Jake is an interpretation of what some Māori have become. Beth sometimes tries to reform herself and her family; for example by giving up drinking and saving the money which she would have spent on alcohol. However she finds it easy to lapse back into a pattern of drinking and irresponsibility. The family is also shown disconnected from Western culture and ways of learning. Beth reflects that neither she nor anyone else she knows has any books in their home, and her daughter, Grace, is the only character with a real interest in school and learning. This disconnection from books and education is a major concern of Duff's, and in real life he has founded the Books in Homes charity, which gives free books to children from poor backgrounds, and generally encourages reading.
Jake is unemployed and spends most of the day getting drunk at the local bar with his friends. Here, he is in his element, buying drinks, singing songs and savagely beating any other patron who he considers to have stepped out of line (hence his nickname of 'The Muss'). He often invites huge crowds of friends back from the bar to his home for wild parties. While Jake portrays himself as an easy going man out for a good time, he has a vicious temper when drinking. This is highlighted when his wife dares to 'get lippy' at one of his parties and he savagely attacks her in front of their friends.
Nig, the Hekes' eldest son, moves out to join a street gang. He cares about his siblings, but despises his father for his thoughtless brutality, a feeling returned by the elder Heke. Nig attempts to find a substitute family in the form of the gang, but this is unsuccessful as the gang members are either too brutal or too beaten down (in the case of Nig's gang girlfriend) to provide him with the love and support he craves.
The second son, Mark 'Boogie' Heke, has a history of minor criminal offences, and is taken from his family and placed in a borstal. Despite his initial anger, Mark finds a new niche for himself, as the borstal manager instructs him in his Maori heritage.
Grace, the Heke's 13-year-old daughter, loves writing stories, as an escape from the brutality of her real life. She also spends time spying on a wealthy Pakeha family who live nearby. She is amazed at the contrast between their lives and hers - not simply the material wealth but also the lack of conflict in their lives. Grace's best friend is a drug-addicted boy named Toot who has been cast out by his parents and lives in a wrecked car. He is the one who really cares for her.
One of Jake's friends rapes Grace in her bed one night, and she subsequently hangs herself. In her diary, later found by her family, Grace says she thinks it was her father who raped her; Jake, who had been too drunk to remember what happened that night, has no answer. He leaves his family and starts living in a park, where he reflects on his life and befriends a young homeless man. Meanwhile Beth starts a Maori culture group and generally attempts to revive the community.
The book had a sequel released in 1996, What Becomes of The Broken Hearted?, which was also released as a film in 1999. It was poorly received compared to the original. A third book in the trilogy, Jake's Long Shadow, was released in 2002.
[edit] Differences between novel and film
The book and the movie follow a roughly similar plot. The three major differences are the role of Beth; most of Nig's gang subplot is absent from the film; and the ending is significantly different.
In the book, Beth and Jake are roughly equal characters, in that Beth is a flawed but dynamic character who is almost as irresponsible as Jake. In the film, Beth is more central, especially as Jake's period of homelessness is completely absent from the film, but her character is less complex. The difference between Beth's character in the book and the film is illustrated by an episode in which the family rent a car in order to visit Boogie in borstal. In the book, Beth hires the car using money she has saved by not drinking, but quickly joins Jake in the pub and only gets upset that they have not visited Boogie when it is too late. In the film, Beth rents the car with money given to her by Jake (he won a bet on horse racing), Beth waits in the carpark for several hours while Jake goes for, what was supposed to be, one drink. Later she and the children take a taxi home. Essentially, Beth spends the first three quarters of the movie as a passive character before Grace's suicide spurs her into leaving Jake, whereas throughout the book she makes several attempts to improve her life before improving both her family's life and her community.
The subplot concerning Nig's gang is significantly reduced in the film. We see him being initiated into the gang by being beaten up, but the world inside the gang is not shown.
The most obvious differences between the plot of the novel and film is the ending. In the film, it is clearly a family friend, Uncle Bully, who rapes Grace, and Jake's demand that she kiss Bully goodnight shortly afterwards is a major factor in her suicide. She incriminates Bully in her diary, which the family finds after her death. Beth shows this to Jake, who severely beats Bully. Beth and the children - who now seem to include Toot - subsequently leave Jake. Neither Beth's reinvigoration of the community or Jake's period of homelessness is included.
[edit] Autobiographical elements
Once Were Warriors, and Duff's fiction in general, is strongly influenced by his childhood experiences. In his autobiography Out of the Mist and Steam he describes his Māori mother, and most of her relatives, as alcoholic, irresponsible, and physically and emotionally abusive. His Pakeha father and his relatives, by contrast, were highly educated and sophisticated (one uncle was the well known anthropologist Roger Duff and his paternal grandfather was liberal magazine editor and literary patron Oliver Duff).
As a teenager, Duff spent some time in borstal, and he draws on this when writing about Boogie. The book's setting of 'Two Lakes' is based on his hometown of Rotorua, which means 'two lakes' in the Māori language.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Thompson, K. M. (2003). "Once Were Warriors: New Zealand's first indigenous blockbuster." In J. Stringer (Ed.), Movie Blockbusters (pp. 230 - 241). London: Routledge.
