Essay herbie

Herbie is the only aboriginal in his year and he is targeted by the rest of the students in his year. Johnny is separated by mainstream society as seen where he is hitching a ride and no one will pick him up. Both Herbie and Johnny are portrayed as naive and innocent this portrays them as victims.

Both Johnny and Herbie die due to racism. Johnny dies in a car crash as a result of lashing out at white society because his situation has made him feel hopeless and Herbie when he is forced to climb a tree to humiliate him by the students at his school. This shows the destructive nature of racism.

When Herbie shifts between first and third perspective it allows readers insight into what is really happening. In stolen car the police hold the power, in Herbie his class holds the power. This reflects the different setting of each story. Johnny is older so the police represent power in his world.

“Herbie was the only boong to go to our school. Perhaps this is why we taunted and teased him,” this quote backs the key idea of racial superiority. The ‘whitefellas’ in the town regard Herbie and his family as outcast and they see themselves as racially superior.