The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Activities for Book 5 Chapters 1-9.

Maps and details of key sites in Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Known as the Black Prince, Darky Gardiner is a larrikin Sergeant in the Australian Army. His plight is representative of the worst excessives of brutality and deprivation in the POW camps on the Thailand-Burma Railway. His tragic death is the turning point in Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. A twist in the narrative in Book 4 makes his life, suffering and death even more poignant.

Amy is Dorrigo Evans’ love interest in the novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Memories of her sustain him in his long captivity in the prisoner of war camp. But memories fade and distort across time and Dorrigo is damaged by his wartime experiences and fails to fulfil his promise to her.

Characters and themes in the novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North are associated with symbols. This set of activities provides a scaffold for students to identify and expand on the importance of these symbols.

Analysis of brief newspaper article by By Jonathan Pearlman, History of British Settlement of Sydney. The article is a good introduction to the British settlement-invasion debate. The resource is designed for Stage 3 students of the NSW History K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum, The Australian Colonies.

Analysis of book covers using selected principles of visual literacy: content, people, medium and critical response.

Activities for Section 1: Pages 1-47 of Peter Temple’s novel, The Broken Shore.

During the Gold Rushes of the 1850s many migrants arrived in Australia, including Ben’s American family and Leck’s Chinese family. This episode of My Place looks at the work, play, living conditions and social structure of Australia in 1858 and the values of cooperation, industry and respect for people from other cultures. This worksheet accompanies My Place Series 2 Episode 3 - Benjamin 1853. This resource is part of a unit of work on The Australian Colonies, stage 3 NSW History K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum.

Keith Mulvaney is Dorrigo Evans’ uncle and the husband of the woman he falls in love with. The relationship triangle becomes increasingly complicated before Dorrigo is posted to serve with the 2/7th Division in Syria. This resource is part of a unit of work on Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Worksheet for the Behind the News feature, First Fleet. The video is available on YouTube. This resource is part of a unit of work, The Australian Colonies for students of Stage 3 NSW History K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheet for the black and white documentary, Gladiators of World War II - The Anzacs. This YouTube video gives an overview of Anzac involvement in the North African Campaign, Italian Campaign and New Guinea Campaign. This resource is designed for Stage 5 students of the NSW History K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum. Core Study 3: Australians at War - World War II.

Worksheet to accompany the Hindsight documentary, Greek Tragedy. The Australian Campaign in Greece and Crete Parts 1 & 2. The videos cover reasons for the 1940 Allied intervention in Greece and Crete, reasons for Allied loss of both territories, the impact of loss on the Anzac forces and ultimately, further questioning of Australia’s relationship with Britain following evidence that the British government knew that the Greek Campaign would be a failure but its willingness to use Anzac forces (and its own) to fight a campaign it knew it could not win. This resource is designed for Stage 5 students of the NSW History K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum. Core Study 3: Australians at War - World War II.

Activities for Book 1 Chapters 1-9

Word search using key words and concepts from Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Analysis of the article, Scars of the Burma railway trauma that never healed from the Telegraph (UK) and written by Tom Rowley. The article reports on the experiences of Fred Seiker, a Dutch POW who worked on the construction of the Thailand-Burma Railway. It is a good narrative of Fred Seiker’s deprivations and his mixed feelings and beliefs about his experiences during and after the war. This resource is part of a unit of work on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Sydney Morning Herald article written by Richard Flanagan about how his father’s experiences on the Thai-Burma Railway inspired his writing of * The Narrow Road to the Deep North*.

Brief video by the New Yorker, Flanagan’s Island. The video is an interview with Richard Flanagan, author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It covers the setting where he writes his books, his process of writing, his background and his beliefs. This resource is part of a unit of work on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Analysis of brief newspaper article by Mary McConville, ‘Weary’ Dunlop. The article gives a concise overview of the life of Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop.

Analysis of the online book review of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by ReadingBukowski. The reviewer discusses the character of Dorrigo Evans, the perspectives of the Australian POWs and the Japanese guards, the fragmented and non-linear structure of the novel, the themes of surviving trauma, memory, how we memorialise things and the futility of war. She mentions that the railway is a metaphor for life’s journey, that beauty and horror are not mutually exclusive in the way that good and evil may be. This resource is part of a unit of work on Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.