I walked into the kitchen and I said to Jess, ‗If you want to talk about me, talk to me.‘
She jumped. ‗I wasn‘t talking about you,‘ she said. ‗I‘ve got ears girl,‘ I told her. p. 139.
Alice wanted Jess to talk directly to Alice if there is anything that makes Jess unhappy so that everything could be straightened out.
Looking at how Alice‘s reaction towards Jess and what she said to Jess, it is implied that Alice is a very
straightforward person. Alice does not holding back her words inside her mind, she would rather say it straightforwardly than to just keep it for herself.
Another incident that shows Alice‘s straightforwardness is when Alice was not satisfied about the boarding house and how she was treated at the
boarding house, Alice also straightforwardly said to Mrs. Ingram that she was unhappy living there.
The next day I went and met up with Mrs Ingram and she asked me if I was happy staying at the boarding house.
‗No,‘ I said, ‗they don‘t talk to me, unless they want me to do something for them.‘ I told her now my board was being paid but I had to do work for
them p. 154. Seeing how Alice‘s straightforward respond to Mrs. Ingram‘s question,
definitely proves that Alice is a straightforward person who will always speak her mind bluntly.
B. The Racial Discrimination Experienced by Alice Nannup
In the previous part of the analysis, the characteristics of Alice Nannup have been discussed. These characteristics of Alice Nannup are important in this
part as well as the next part of analysis because it helps in understanding more about Alice Nannup‘s reactions throughout the analysis.
In this section, the racial discrimination experienced by Alice Nannup would be described. In When the Pelican Laughed, Alice Nannup through her
writings described how she had been discriminated in many ways by white people. Since what Alice had written in her autobiography is her own experiences,
it shows the condition of the society she lived in during a certain time that she described in her autobiography. As Wellek and Warren stated that the literature
itself could show its relation with the society in reality Wellek aand Warren, 1956: 94, the autobiography When the Pelican Laughed also represents the social
reality during the period in which Alice Nannup lived in. The white people through their actions had shown their superiority
towards the Aborigines just as they did towards Alice Nannup. Here, as it is stated in the The New Encyclopedia Britannica that the racial discrimination happened
when a certain race considered to be superior to the others 1983: 360, the white people in Australia during the time Alice Nannup was living in, considered that
they were superior more than the Aborigines. The thought of being superior more than any other races besides being part of white race, has made the white people
think that it was alright to treat the Aborigines as they like. It is also shown clearly in the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies that how the white people in
Australia at that time made certain obligations which put the Aborigine people at disadvantage such as the idea of the concentration camp under the name of
―protection‖. The concentration camp or the protection board as they call it, is where the Aborigines as well as half-Aborigine descendants were sent and turned
into laborers Cashmore 2004: 1-2.
