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Tomorrow When The War Began Theme of Change

The document discusses how John Marsden's book "Tomorrow When the War Began" explores how characters change when faced with an invasion and war. It describes how the main character Ellie and her friends mature from naive teenagers into courageous fighters. Ellie realizes that true courage is harder than she thought, but the circumstances of the war bring out new qualities in her. She stops seeing herself as an innocent kid and becomes a capable force. The war causes permanent changes in the characters and their town, and shapes their views on life, death, and what it means to survive.

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778 views2 pages

Tomorrow When The War Began Theme of Change

The document discusses how John Marsden's book "Tomorrow When the War Began" explores how characters change when faced with an invasion and war. It describes how the main character Ellie and her friends mature from naive teenagers into courageous fighters. Ellie realizes that true courage is harder than she thought, but the circumstances of the war bring out new qualities in her. She stops seeing herself as an innocent kid and becomes a capable force. The war causes permanent changes in the characters and their town, and shapes their views on life, death, and what it means to survive.

Uploaded by

Ben
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Change is a part of everyone’s life, and as we grow and learn we all

experience change. In John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began, 8


teenagers are faced with an invasion and are forced to make changes
from the immature and naïve teenagers they once were. All the
characters in TWTWB display obvious changes throughout the book, by
becoming more mature and courageous, by questioning their purpose and
how they can make a change, and overall becoming warriors.

John Marsden focuses a lot on the idea of growth and maturity in the
book. Ellie and the others all become much more mature throughout the
book, letting go petty childhood ideas and becoming fighters. A large part
of this is through discovery of true courage. Marsden explores the ideas
of true courage, and how during war people can find parts of themselves
they didn’t know they had before. Ellie talks about this when she says
“That was the first moment at which I started to realise what true
courage was. Up until then, everything had been unreal, like a night-
stalking game at a school camp. To come out of the darkness now would
be to show courage of a type that I’d never had to show before, never
even known about. I had to search my own mind and body to find if there
was a new part of me somewhere.” She realises that truly being
courageous is harder than it seems, however the circumstances of the
war bring out these qualities in her, and foster change in her. Ellie
realises that her love and determination to help her family and friends
can bring out new qualities in her. When Ellie steps out from behind the
trees, she makes a decision to be a new person – a better person – and
she talks about this. “At that moment I stopped being an innocent rural
teenager and started becoming someone else, a more complicated capable
person, a force to be reckoned with even, not just a polite obedient kid.”
Ellie not only has to become more courageous to survive, but chooses to
do so out of love for her friends. This links back to the way that all the
characters mature over the course of the book – like how Ellie, who used
to be a tomboy who spent most of her time talking to Corrie about trivial
things now becomes a quick-thinking and mature person. This also
relates to Homer, and how he becomes a leader when he was once “not
even trusted to hand out the books at school”. The war causes all of the
characters to mature and change to become more courageous and strong.

The author - through Ellie’s thoughts – talks about how change is such a
big part of life, and how the change of the war would affect them forever.
Ellie talks about the permanency of the war would affect them all. Ellie
says “Lives can be changed that quickly. In some ways we should have
been used to change.” John, through this quote explores the fact that
change is already such a large part of life, and that Ellie and the others
should have been used to change. In their teenage years they went from
Barbie dolls and cars to love and sex. Ellie talks about life before the war,
and how everything changed so quickly. She talks about how
unappreciative she was back then, of such little things, but now how she
would do anything just to have it all back. Wirrawee was a town where
everyone trusted each other – even enough to leave their doors unlocked
at all times and Ellie talks about even if the invasion ever ended, that the
town and country would always be affected. “Everyone trusted people.
That was one thing that was going to change forever.” Most of all,
though, Ellie talks about the fact that the war was something that would
affect their lives forever. “This was the new reality of our lives. I got the
shakes a bit, but there was no time for that.” Ellie appreciates the fact
that life will never be the same again, and the luxuries of life before the
war are gone. Marsden also mirrors this in the physical aspects and
landscape of Wirrawee when the doctor talks about the fact that the quiet
little town was now in danger of being “blown up by rocket launchers at
the first sign of danger”. The war has changed some things that will
never be the same again.

Over the course of the book, Marsden explores change to Ellie and the
other character’s morals and beliefs on the issue of death and killing.
They are all unsure of whether in their situation they have justification
to kill. When Ellie originally kills the soldiers with the lawnmower, she is
horrified. She feels that “her life will be permanently damaged” and that
“the rest of her life would just be a shell”. Although – unlike Robyn – Ellie
is not very religious, she (and the others) are all at first slightly hesitant
to kill. Homer however, realises that it is an imperative and tries to
comfort Ellie, as he gently reminds her “Don’t feel so bad. This is war
now, and normal rules don’t apply … They’re the ones who tore up the
rule book, not us.” Over time, Ellie and the others all gradually become
more tolerant to the idea, and change to realise that it is their right to
fight for their country. At different times, they all slowly accept it, with
Lee up the front, and Robyn slowly pulling in at the rear.

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