Our Country's Good Literary Elements

Historical, Realistic play

English

The setting of the play is a colony in Australia i.e. Botany Bay in the late 1980's.

The play has been narrated from different character's point of views e.g. Harry, Ralph, Philip etc.

Empathetic, Reforming, Hopeful.

The convicts are described as the protagonists while the soldiers are presented as the antagonists in the play.

The major conflict in the play is that whether the inmates should be reformed through theater or they must be hang.

The climax comes when the convicts and the soldiers arrive at the Botany Bay.

There is a foreshadowing about the death of Aborigine.

The understatement in the play is that there is a lack of reintegration facilities for the inmates and they face unjust circumstances and are treated brutally by the officers. Another understatement is that the humans are devastating the land because of their unjust activities.

Allusions to Margaret Thatcher’s government, Britain, 'Her Majesty Prison Service' and colonization have been employed by the writer.

There are images of slavery, imprisonment, colonization, shooting, theatrical play and death in the play.

The paradox in the play is that the soldiers go along with the prisoners as jailers but they are also thrown out of their country by showing them the prospects of prospering. They face the same worst conditions as the inmates.

There is a parallelism between the condition of Aborigine and the activities of the colonizers.

Theater, art, language, justice and humanness have been personified in the play.

The character of Aborigine represents the traditional chorus in the play, who looks at the actions of the play and talks about the condition of the land which is an example of soliloquy.