FREE ESSAY ON PATRICK WHITE - DOWN AT THE DUMP

PATRICK WHITE - DOWN AT THE DUMP

Patrick White 'Down at the Dump'
Patrick White, most noted for his longer works of fiction, exemplifies his craft of
storytelling in his short story 'Down at the Dump'. White has dramatized an event in
life, such as a funeral, and given us a very believable insight into our own culture.
Some readers will take offence to such a raw and truthful portrait, while others will
find humor and hope in the same story. White is a writer who crafts a story with such
intensity, that at times it slaps you in the face with the truthful, dirty, honest
depiction of his characters. All of whom we can see something, if not the smallest little
detail of our selves in them.
'Down at the Dump' counterpoints two families, and their journeys on an afternoon. One of
the families is off to the funeral of Mrs. Hogben's sister Daise. The other family the
Whalley's, off to the Sarsaparilla dump, for busness and pleasure 'I thought the beer was
an excuse for comin'.' (Isba pg.8) 'Down at the Dump' is also a modern day Australian
Romeo & Juliet, the forbidden love between Lummy Whalley and Meg Hogben. Both it seems
are destined for more then what is expected of them. The story is also a comment on the
staid middle-class lifestyle, the petty bourgeois existence of the suburbs. The story is
also a comment on the sexually non-conformist such as daise's character represents, more
about this later. The story is also a comment on standards, principals, morality, values
and judgmental and discriminatory behavior.
White pays attention to the dirty, honest characteristics of human beings, Her eyes were
that blazing blue, her skin that of a brown peach. But whenever she smiled, something
would happen, her mouth opening on watery sockets and the jags of brown, rotting stumps.
(pg.1) This serves to give the readers a deeper understanding of the characters right
down to the bone. This typical descriptive passage is common in white's writing. It cuts
to the core of the character, shedding light on a side rarely taken by an author. A
gritty and honest sense of reality is achieved.
Down at the Dump is a story revolving around binary oppositions, a set of contrasts. The
two main families, 'The Hogben's and Whalley's' are the two main constructs of White's
direct opposition. This opposition is nowhere more visible then in white's use of
language when giving his characters a voice. Whites characters speak from the heart.
Their own use of language reflects directly their class and education. For example - the
Whalley's speak from the heart, with a distinctly working-class accent.
Ere!...waddaya make me out ter be? A lump of wood. (Isba pg.1)
We get a sense very early in the story, by the way the Whalley's speak, a direct
reflection of their socio-economic background. White's use of language when describing
the Whalley's is derogatory and intentionly off putting. This is contrasted in direct
opposition to the Hogben's. Who are described through their slightly more capable use of
the English language. This helps enforce them as being worth more in a snobby
middle-class way.
This direct opposition is again contrasted to another level. For although White uses
harsh, dirty, honest language when describing the Whalley's, we cannot help but feel
empathy with them for their honesty. The Whalley's seem truthfully real and direct
people, yet crass and crude on the outside. This is the opposite for the Hogben's. The
Hogben's use of speech is much more educated. Although they are described with nice,
fluffy, sensitive language, I am filled with contempt for them. Meg being the exception
she is one of white's poetic seers; someone who is destined for more. The domestic abodes
of the two families are also a symbolic representative of their different socio-economic
position and different way of life.
Our story takes its journey to the funeral and the dump respectively where towards the
end of the funeral serves daise rises from the grave to relinquish her thoughts and
feelings. It is about here in the story that the passage I will be discussing indepth
occurs.
It is through Daise Morrow that Patrick white chooses to make social commentry through
his authorial voice. The ideological concerns of the story are quite clear in this
passage. The passage I will be referring to starts midway down page 16 'Even if their
rage grief, contempt, boredom, apathy, and sense of injustice had not occupied the
mourners...to...as she got in side the car, and waited for whatever next.' (Pg.16-17)
The passage I will now be examining starts with a comment by white's authorial voice. The
omniposent narrator 'Even if their rage grief, contempt, boredom, apathy, and sense of
injustice had not occupied the mourners...' this is a direct comment that the religious
proceedings, was not in the forefront of the guests. It seems that this sermon from the
dead is falling on def ears all to caught up in their own hypocrisies and
superficialities. White is commenting here that the townspeople, disconcerted by the
death of the  loose woman in flora cotton. are more concerned with their own position in
society, and how people view themselves and others view them. 
White arranges the framework of the story around a shifting Point Of View. The story
moves from the Whalley's perspective, to the Hogben's. From there it moves on to a family
of no real importance, Horrie and Georgina Last, shifting back and forth until the
resurrection of Daise Morrow. White cleverly uses this technique of each family
commenting on the other, to give the reader valuable insights and help the reader
empathize. However we must not for get that in doing so White is in some way controlling
how the reader interprets each character, everyone brings their own experiences to every
story they read.
One of the more significant ideological concerns White chooses to comment on is that of
sexuality, intimacy and love, as being a social construct. We observe this through
glimpses of this certain behavior in each family. The Hogben's are shallow, anal people.
This is no more evident then when Les reminisces about pushing up against Daise in his
hallway, denying there was any sexual intention what so ever. We as reader can make up
our own minds about that.
Daise' rise from the grave is significant to white's concerns about intimacy, about
people following their hearts. Daise, White's heroin or mystic seer, has a will to create
her own freedom, above the social constraints of her sisters middle-class conformities.
This is nowhere more evident then in her haunting comment from the grave towards the end
of the section I've been discussing.
Truly, we needn't experience tortures, unless we build chambers in our minds to house
instruments of hatred in. Don't you know, my darling creatures, that death isn't death,
unless it's the death of a love? Love should be the greatest explosion it is reasonable
to expect. Which sends us whirling, spinning, creating millions of other worlds. Never
destroying. (Pg.17)
The story finishes with a glimmer of hope. Maybe a budding relationship between Lummy and
Meg, each I feel is destined for something more out of their lives. A life where honesty,
like that of a first kiss, takes precedence over learned social behaviors.
the end.