Man Alone Commentary

Man Alone

‘That's Auckland, mate–the Queen of the North.’

‘The what?’

The Queen of the North. That's what they call it–in Auckland. This is God's own, this country.’

‘It looks all right.’

‘It's not a bad little town–nor a bad little country neither. It looks small after London though, don't it, mate? It looks different now to me to what it did.’

The soldier had a face that was shrunken and pockmarked and unhealthy-looking; his left arm had not recovered from a shrapnel wound; he carried it stiffly in front of him. He said:

‘It's three years since I seen those wharves. We was billeted in the wharf-sheds two nights before we sailed. It was cold as death.’

‘I didn't think it was ever cold here,’ Johnson said.

‘It's cold enough sometimes in winter, mate, if you're not sleeping in your bed, and we weren't sleeping in our beds.’

He coughed, lighting a cigarette.

‘It's home again now for me, mate,’ he said, ‘and there'll be the wife and kids and all there waiting to meet us.’

With the understanding you have of context, write a short commentary on the passage. Give to me your understanding of the text and the evidence to support your claims. Then analyse this evidence as we did when we wrote in the poetry test recently.

The author, John Mulgan was influenced greatly by his heritage and culture when writing this piece, Man Alone, and this is shown through his writing. His childhood and teenage years growing up in Auckland as well as his life during the war and the influence of England all come through in this text.

The usage of the word “mate” is very interesting in this piece of writing, mate is predominately an informal English word for a “friend” only used among men, New Zealand has inherited it and is now very much part of the kiwi culture.  By using this term we see the influence of the New Zealand English language and how the area he was living in at the time had an impact on his language choice. He more than likely learnt this term growing up in Auckland during his childhood, but then it solidified during the war among comrades, creating a sense of community in dire situations. (not happy with this paragraph - slightly irrelevant and goes off on a bit of a tangent).

Mulgan found coming home from the war almost a homecoming after spending so much time in England, “It’s home again now for me, mate” through this quote we see Mulgan express his how gratitude and relief towards finally being able to come back to New Zealand after the war and finding that it still was home. Mulgan more than likely faced horrific experiences during the war, and so this piece of writing is reflective of the joy he would have felt being able to return to Auckland, his childhood home. This could also be an influence on the way he speaks of Auckland.  He calls it “The Queen of the North”, comparing such a small city to the Queen implies he’s very fond and proud of his country, as he would have been of the Queen whilst fighting in the war.

Mulgan fought in World War 1, building a sense of pride for his county, New Zealand, as well as the Commonwealth and the Queen. During the war Mulgan was made a major and second-in-command of his regiment. This sense of pride for not only New Zealand but representing the Queen, could have influenced his writing in this case. We see throughout the text that he makes references to England many times, “Queen of the North” and “It looks small after London…”, these references to the Queen and London, implying that Auckland is the most powerful city in the North, as well as showing the influence of the Commonwealth on New Zealand at the time. New Zealand was a colony of England when this was written and so it was greatly influenced, this showing through in the text.