Homework Questions (The Surfer)

How does the author represent the Australian sea? Explain the words or phrases that 

led you to this conclusion.

    Bondi Rescue represents the Australian Sea as Something that can be fun however it can also be 

extremely dangerous. The clips that made me form this opinion are the ones of the families 

having a fun time swimming and building sandcastles, then the ones of people who have 

drowned and are being resuscitated or have fallen and grazed their knees.  

What type of person do you think this poem was written about?

I think this poem is written about a person who is probably a strong swimmer. The phrases ‘…

Muscle of arm thrust down long muscle of water…’, and ‘…How his brown strength…’ are what 

lead me to this conclusion.

How is the representation in The Surfer either similar or different to those texts that we 

have already discussed in class? Use at least one other test to compare/contrast. 

The representation created in the surfer is very violent. The image created is almost as if the sea 

is alive and it concentrates very much on the sea itself rather than the swimmer. This contrasts 

to Clancy the overflow as the outback is made out to be a very peaceful happy place and the 

representation concentrates more on Clancy himself rather than the outback as it is Clancy’s 

actions that give us the representation of the outback and not just the description of the outback.