I had read 11 chapters of Pobby and Dingan, and I had found some interesting things in this book. First of all, I think this book tells us a story about the dream. The father has an opal dream and the Ashmol's sister has two imaginary friend called Pobby and Dingan. I am going to talk about two topics that I am interested in. One is what is the real dream? Another one is what is the relationship between the opal and the imaginary friends?
What is the real dream? As we all know this family is really poor. "kellyanne opened the car door and crawled into my bedroom." (Rice 6) From this sentence, we can know that they live in a car. They are too poor to buy a house. "I had reckoned on buying a new house and getting my mum an air ticket for a holiday in England, and all kinds of other stuff, with the money from that opal." (Rice 58)I can feel his desire to have a new house and kinds of stuff. I think the real dream for him is that he can live in a new house, and the dream for mum is that she wants to go back to England where she is from. "Ashmol, I sensed it today! Tomorrow we’ll be on opal, son, and we’ll be bloody millionaires! I can feel those bewdies sitting there in the drives, staring back at me. Checking me out. Waiting. They’re red-on-blacks, Ashmol, I’ll bet you anything! There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it. We’re close, boy. Close. There’s definitely something in that earth with the name Williamson on it!" In this speech, we can see how much the father wants to find the opal. At start, the father might just want to be rich, however he starts loving opal, so the only thing he believes is that he can find opal and become bloody rich one day. For the father real dream is becoming rich by finding opal. "What d’you bloody expect when you drag your family to a place like Lightning Ridge? What d’you bloody expect to happen when you bring up an intelligent girl like Kellyanne in a place full of holes and criminals and freaks?" We can see the anger in the mum's speech, and we know they are in a little ridge full of holes, criminals, and freaks. So the sister cannot make some good friend in here, so she has two imaginary friends. The only dream the sister has is that she wants some great friends who can listen to her, play with her, and take care of her.
What is the relationship between the opal and the imaginary friends? In my opinion they are the same. "Me and him never took Pobby and Dingan seriously one bit." (Rice 8) As we can see, father did not really care about Pobby and Dingan at start. However he changed. "One time he even took Kellyanne, Pobby and Dingan out to the Bore Baths in the ute. When I ran out to join them with my towel around my shoulders, my dad shouted:" Sorry, son. Can't take you today, Ashmol. Not enough room with Pobby and Dingan in here."" (Rice 11) The father started to see Pobby and Dingan as real, just like he wants the opal. I consider that father realized his daughter and him is the same. Both of them have a dream that no one else can see or feel. He started to support her with the imaginary friends, and he wanted the mother to support his opal dream, like she supported Kellyanne's imaginary friends. I do not think those dreams are stupid or impossible. I have some dreams like those. For example, I want to become the president. I know that is huge and ridiculous, howeve at least I have a dream, and I am doing hard for this. It is much better than someone who has no dream and is wasting their life.
Citation
Rice,Ben. “Pobby and Dingan.” Alfred A. Knopf, 2001-01-16. iBooks.