Tristan is a filmmaker as well as an author, and he thinks very visually. For instance, look at the detail in this description: ‘The floor around him was littered with clothes, shoes, a game console, two controllers, a bike wheel with no tyre, a skateboard deck, school books, soccer boots, a jumbo-size packet of chips and plates from long-forgotten afternoon snacks. Ben’s favourite place. It was dark with the curtains closed, the only light coming from two lamps trained on the stop-motion set on his desk.’ (p. 2)
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Green: Green can often signify envy and greed, as well as money – but on the other hand it can signify nature and wilderness. Does the author make use of the symbolism of green in Two Wolves? Consider that: Dad’s car is the Green Machine; there’s a rusted green trunk in the cabin; the cash is all in green $100 notes; Dad carves the rabbit on a green metal plate; there are green vines and green rocks.
Yellow and brightness: Bright colours such as yellow are associated with Nan in the story. Nan’s house is bright and her yellow biscuit barrel is mentioned a couple of times. Nan doesn’t like anyone turning the lights off in her home – perhaps implying that she has her own fears or recalls the dinginess of her husband’s cabin, but also symbolising warmth, comfort, security and openness to Ben and Olive. She keeps Caramello Koalas stashed in the desk. She wears lots of bright, patterned clothes and has orange carpet in the house. What does yellow symbolise to you?
Red: Red comes up in innocuous ways in Two Wolves, but it also plays a role in creating the forceful, graphic imagery that sets the tone of this tense and powerful story. For instance: the red-raw ‘cooked’ rabbit on p. 116; Dad ploughing through the Big Red soup on p. 145; Ben sees blood-red water on p. 183 and p. 191; Dad draws blood when he bites Ben’s arm on p. 268.
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