1. Mr Watts
• Known as ‘Pop-Eye’ at the start
of the novel
• Wears a red clown nose
• Only white man on the island
• Teaches the children after all the
teachers have left on ‘the last boat’
•He introduces Matilda to Great
Expectations
• He is married to Grace and their
child died sending her into a deep
depression
• His house is the only building
that is not destroyed when the
rambos come for the second time
• He plans to escape the island with
Matilda
•He is beaten, shot, chopped up and
fed to pigs – he is sacrificed
2. Matilda
• is the narrator of the story and we
see everything through her eyes
•She is 13 years old at the start of
the novel
•Her mother rejects the ‘white
world’ but her absent father (who
works in Australia for the ‘white
man’) embraces it
•She is a very strong character who
grows throughout the novel
•She is fascinated by Great
Expectations and the character of
Pip
•She escapes the island by accident
after witnessing the traumatic
deaths of Mr Watts and her mother
•She meets Mr Watts’ first wife and
finds he is not what she thought he
was
3. Dolores
• Matilda’s mother
• hates everything that ‘the white man’
stands for
• believes the ‘white man’ took her
husband away from her and she is
angry (or did her ‘strong’ personality
drive him away?)
• is highly religious but is a hypocrite
•She hates Mr Watts
•She causes the village to be destroyed
• she is very proud and will NOT give
in to anyone
•She sees everything in very simple
and very moral (in her opinion) terms
- she refuses to be questioned
•She is raped, chopped up and fed to
pigs
•But in this act she redeems herself
and shows great courage as she
protects Matilda
4. Grace
• Mr Watts’ wife
•She is the reason Mr Watts came to
Bougainville
• Mr Watts pulls her around on a
trolley
•Was an actress who played the
Queen of Sheba
•Lost a child
•Suffered with extreme grief
•We learn about her by the things
she wrote on the attic walls
•Dies without much mention
5. Bougainville
• Is part of the Solomon Islands
•Has a tropical climate
• it is rich in copper which was
mined and is a valuable resource
hence the wars
• a war torn country
• Suffered two major civil wars in
1975 and 1990
• Setting for Mister Pip
6. Redskins
• Papua New Guinea (PNG)
military force
• they were armed with military
weapons; wore uniforms
• believed that Bougainville
belonged to Papua New Guinea
and should not be independent
•Committed many atrocities on
their own people
7. Rebels
•Bougainville Revolutionary Army
(BRA or Rebels)
• they had no guns and used basic
weapon; no official uniform
• they believed that Bougainville
should be independent from Papua
New Guinea
•Committed many atrocities on
their own people
•It became difficult to tell the
difference between the Redskins
and the Rebels.
8. Conflict
Loss
Education
Escape
Horror of war
Brutality
Loss of innocence
Religion
9. Matilda’s internal conflict
The redskins and the rambos/rebels
Mr Watts – a ‘white’ man in a ‘black’ world
Dolores and Mr Watts
Religion and education
10. Dolores ‘looses’ her husband to the ‘white’ man
and does not want to loose her daughter too
The death of Dolores
The death of Mr Watts
The loss of possessions
The loss of their way of life
The loss of children from the village and the
death of Grace and Mr Watts’ child
Loss of teachers and formal education
11. The impact of Great Expectations on the village
and on Matilda
Education verses religion
The lack of formal education of the women that
come to ‘teach’ the children in the school
The lack of understanding/education of the
rebels and redskins
Grace – Matilda learns a different side to her
Matilda’s life after Bougainville
12. Great Expectations
The last boat
Mr Watts’ plan to escape from the island
The inability to escape – death of Dolores and
Mr Watts
Matilda’s accidental escape
The children and babies that died due to the
lack of treatment for malaria – they escaped the
suffering (you could argue)
13. Death of Dolores
Death of Mr Watts
Gilbert
Black the dog
Burning of possessions
Helicopters throwing people out of them
Daniel and his grandmother
14. Violence and punishment
Dolores’ treatment of Matilda
Black the dog
15. Death of Mr Watts and Dolores
Witnessing the horror of war
Daniel and his grandmother
16. God verses education
Religion used for hypocrisy
Religion used as abuse
Sacrifice
Fear
Resentment
17. Use PEEL
P - Point – make it brief and relate to the
question
E – Evidence – pick an appropriate quotation
aim for 5 words or less
E – Explanation – write about the effect of
language, structure or form
L – Link – link what you have said back to the
question
18. Analyse the words the Jones uses and relate it
to the question
For instance what words show feelings –
identify them in your quotation and talk about
the effect of individual words
19. Slow progressive build up – flies; dragon-flies;
dogs
Matilda loses track of time as the Redskins
burn her calendar
This is important as it reflects how cut off the
villagers are from the outside world
20. First person narrative – gives us only Matilda’s
viewpoint – Matilda is a witness to the truth –
she ‘observes’
Jones uses a ‘blunt’ tone – it is very matter of
fact and Matilda expresses no emotion nor does
she pass judgement
The novel follows a chronological order
A record of the events in Matilda’s life