George Fuller's Letter to the Cullen brothers
from the novel, Past the Shallows.
Dear Curren brothers,
I hope this letter finds you well, or finds you at all. It was a hassle finding what port you’d be at this month. I have sent countless ones already and I’m sure not a single one made it to your hands.
This might be the last attempt I make, my hands shake so much I fear I won’t be able to write much longer! The doctors have told me I’ll need to stay at the hospital to “ensure a good recovery”, but I know my time’s almost up, I can feel it in my bones.
I’ve been very curious how your journey has been! My brother and I had dreamt of doing the very same thing as you two when we were little. I often wish I had been brave enough to go alone. So please, tell me all about it.
I want to make sure that you two don’t go down a harsh spiral like your father, or countless people before you. I know what it’s like to have your life change so suddenly, cast as wood is into the fire.
I want you to think of the water that we all grew up with. The ocean is uncaring yes, but it doesn’t want to harm us. It wants to flow, and as long as you are not in front of it, it will go by in a beautiful manner. Do not try to stem the flow of the water, or swim against it, and do not try to stand in front of it. If water can break rock and upturn ships, I do not honestly believe that man can control it forever.
That water is our emotions, and it’s a heavy bag to carry. I believe that it is best to simply watch it flow away. I have wasted too many years attempting anything else. The bottle, the smoke, anything, it’s all lies that they could ever help. You’ll weigh yourself down, and it’ll be so much harder to swim.
Do not try to ignore anything you feel, or try to forget any memories of the last few years. Ignoring the problem isn’t healing at all. When your finger slips as you gut a fish, you wouldn’t try to forget it’s bleeding would you? You’d grab a bandage and stitch it up later. Slow, methodical healing. The wounds upon your heart are no different! If you allow your emotions free reign, your wounds will fester. Look your memories in the eye.
Let me tell you a story, because I don’t think I can get the point across very well.
When I was young, I was good friends with your grandfather. Growing up back then felt exciting. The world was changing and there was good peace in the world, for a while. It fell apart soon enough of course. Crisis in Europe, then Asia, far too close for anyone's liking. Same crisis took Billy. Years after “peace”, peace still felt empty. Came home one day to see everything ablaze, and I rushed to save anything I could, but it all turned to ashes in front of me, I felt my skin melting off. I couldn’t cope with all that the world had put on me. I understood why my father became what he was. There was no one to listen, no one left to care.
My father was much like yours. Too filled with anger and unwilling to deal with it properly. I believe it was the Great War that broke him. Billy said he was a good man before he tried to be a hero overseas. When he came back he was always so angry. Anything that happened would be our fault. We should’ve done this, we should’ve been there and it always went back to him claiming we’ll never understand what he saw. He fell into the trap of alcohol. Drink after drink, the bottle disappeared as fast as the father I used to admire.
He talked to me properly after Billy had left for New Guinea. He told me that after seeing so much of the worst of humanity it was hard to see it normally. He went home being told he was a victor, that he was strong and his heroic acts had saved the world. Another big drink from the bottle and he continued. He told me it was all a lie, he had been told his enemy were horrible people, barely human. But it came to what war was, and he saw them, they were just like him. Same shining blue eyes, that will now never see again.
His eyes watered and he told me with a cracking voice that he had no choice. He had to go along with it, act as if he was in high spirits. He exclaimed that the dead were the real winners because they didn’t have to pretend that they were fine. Any complaint or breakdown was a sign of weakness. You could make it all disappear for a bit, through a smoke, or a drink. But it’d come back. And each time, the drink would do a little less help, until it did none. But you’d keep chasing the feeling it first gave you.
He didn’t stay like that for long of course, soon enough it was back to the always furious father I’d gotten used to. But what he said stuck. People are like nature, just like the ocean. Little waves build up and turn into powerful ones, and the ocean grows so violent. And it’s easy to forget that just a bit ago, if the ocean had let it all flow away, it would’ve been peaceful and accepted where it is. Your father used to be a good man. And it is a mighty tragedy that he became what he was, but I don’t want you to just feel blind hate. Try to understand that under all that brutality, he was a shaken man, and no one should ever experience what he did. Because without a way to cope with it, others suffer.
I tell you all this because I am sure that no one else will. I’m sure they’ll give pity, little kindnesses or scorn. But no one will help you reflect on it all. That should’ve been the role of your parents, and I hope you’ll accept me trying to help.
Finally, I think, you should always remember to live out in the wild as often as you can. There’s no better way to understand the world. You’ll understand yourself better too, the human world is suffocating sometimes. People ridiculed the natives for their ideas of spirits in the land, but I think if you stay out here long enough you’ll see them. Nature has taught me more than any man will.
But, I am an old man facing the twilight of my life, and you are both young men burning with energy. Do not take everything I say as some sort of boffin’s advice. At the end of the day I lived alone in a shack! Perhaps the greatest advice I can give you is to live properly. It passes by so fast you’ll see the wrinkles form on your hand. I don’t fear what’s beyond. Life is like the day, and after merely the night. I’ll see you again, when the sun rises.
I hope the waves are gentle.
Sincerely, George Fuller
Rationale
This piece is meant to give a different perspective on the themes of Past the Shallows, through George Fuller’s eyes. I seek to explore these themes through an interpretation of how George would view those issues. He expresses that nature is not just violent but can also be providing and caring. He tells this to give the Curren brothers a satisfying hope that the world can be kind, and to relate it to human nature to flesh out why their father was so cruel. Additionally, he communicates the importance of healthy coping mechanisms, giving examples from his own experiences to show why not finding these can be destructive, to yourself and others. He does this to make the Curren brothers aware of the threat, especially in the wake of Harry’s death. He feels familial care for the brothers and gives them advice that family would normally give.
George doesn’t talk much, so it’s fairly difficult to see how he would write. I decided to interpret his mannerisms and personality to make him write in a kind, old-fashioned, advisory way. I felt that George would definitely be inexperienced with communicating feelings and advice, especially in a long letter, so I wanted to weave that into the style. This would make him a bit long-winded and take rather long to get the point across.
While he never talked much, he was shown to have thought a lot about what he did and expressed much through his actions. This can be seen in this section of the novel, “George stood up and climbed… This is OK” (pages 108-109) where he understands Harry’s fear of the water and compromises by fishing on the jetty, teaching Harry how to use a fishing rod. This shows he was smart and critical, with a lot of thoughts on his mind, but he wasn’t able to verbalise them. This is shown in the writing style as he rushes to get all of his ideas out.
He frequently uses metaphors he encounters often in life. I believe that a very long, isolated life like that of George would make him rather introspective and philosophical concerning things he sees everyday. His lifestyle would promote connection with the natural world and give a new view that the other characters can't see.
George uses metaphors concerning fire and water, because despite these topics being painful for himself and the Curren brothers, he believes the best way to face pain is by acknowledging it. This can be seen when George takes Harry to see his childhood home that was burnt down and then talk about Harry’s mother (Pages 117 - 121).
In the section "Same crisis took my... no one left to care.", George writes quickly because he still finds it a sensitive topic and wants to quickly move to talk about his father, an issue he has already come to terms with. I wrote this because George has accepted why his father was abusive through his philosophies on nature and how to cope with trauma. However his home burning down wasn’t related to people or any duality of nature and he still struggles to accept it.
Harry definitely saw George as a paternal figure and George saw him in a similar grandfatherly way. This would bleed into how George interacts with the surviving Curren brothers, they are the closest to a family he has. This ties in with the theme of found family that Parrett explored with Harry and Georges friendship.
I wrote that George’s father became abusive after World War 1 because it drew a connection between George’s father and Dad. It mirrors how Mile’s and Joe’s father used to be a normal father, before a crisis that he had no way of properly coping with destroyed him. George’s father’s thoughts of feeling trapped because of what pressures society put on him reflects how Dad acted after finding Mum and Uncle Nick because he may have feared would have looked horrible on him if word had gotten out. It explores the theme of coping mechanisms, and finding unhealthy ones if others are societally repressed.
When he talks about it in detail, he’s trying to relate to the Curren brothers by drawing a connection between their fathers. He’s not just describing his own father, but talking about Dad under the guise of telling a story.
I identified a major theme of Past the Shallows as “When nature is violent, resisting it is impossible.” I wanted to give a new perspective on this theme by exploring the idea of nature’s duality through George Fuller’s eyes. Out of all Past the Shallows characters, George is the most connected with nature, living an isolated life out in the woods. This reflected in the way he communicated with other characters and how he wanted to show Harry that nature could be just as calm as it’s destructive. George’s belief is that nature is disinterested with humanity and is not necessarily against us, though it can be beneficial to coexist with. He thinks we must find a way around it, rather than through it.
Another major theme I found was “When healthy coping mechanisms are societally repressed, people will find harmful ones.” This theme was touched on with how Dad turned to alcoholism after the death of his wife as he feared any other way of coping would be frowned upon. George is trying to express the idea of finding healthy coping mechanisms because of how Dad fell into a destructive cycle from not confronting his problems. George wants the Curren brothers to find healthier ways to survive. His view is that you must find a healthy way to internally deal with your problems, as otherwise they will cause harm to others.