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Dingo Boy
A fourteen-year-old orphan is fostered by a farmer who uses him as unpaid labour until Carl realizes he has to make a stand. Haunting story of an orphaned farm boy whose mistreatment leads him to identify with other outcasts, including the dingoes on the farm's edge.
1 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 1981
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August 19, 2022
This was very good, very well-written and conceived. Short, but compact and well written.
Carl is a 13 year old orphan, who grew up at a Catholic home. Now he has been chosen by a couple to go and live on their farm with them, so they are his foster parents. He has imagined all his life what it would be like to be part of a family, especially with brothers and sisters, but the home isn't so bad, they treat them well, give them presents, and he has friends there, etc. Others have been away and returned with good or bad stories of foster homes (some treat them as slave labour and whip them, etc).
He is taken in by Ray and Ena Curdle, who have a farm in the Wongambie Ranges. They are in their 60s and decided Ray needed some more help and think they will train the boy in farming and maybe one day he can buy them out (note they don't think of him as a son they might pass it onto for free!). The minute Carl gets there they get him working without asking, just telling. They treat him as a boarder who is a paid worker, giving him constant jobs to do, and he goes along with it and works quite hard but doesn't enjoy the work. They give him his own room (which is a nice bonus for him from the home) but it is outside, attached to the house, because they keep the inside spare bedroom in case their relatives visit! Ena only cares for her pet sheep and Ray for working. "Carl felt he was nothing more than an extra sheepdog, but on two legs instead of four." They forget that he is just a kid and never ask him about his wants, needs, or feelings.
The worst thing is how they go out for the evening and don't invite him along or even think that he might like to go or offer to let him go anywhere else. They even go to a Christmas party without inviting him and make other Christmas plans without including him. As Carl says, they don't think of him as a person, just a machine to do what they want. They certainly don't think of him as a son and poor Carl is isolated out there. It is the summer holidays and even when school starts he knows he'll have to do lots of work but thinks it will be more bearable if can make some friends. The one time Ray takes him into town he sees some kids his own age but Ray doesn't introduce them or let him meet them. Then they announce that they've spoken with his principal and he can leave school now. Although it's compulsory to go till 15, he turns 14 in 1 month and with permission can stop and focus on working.
No one ever asked him if he wanted to be a farmer! And he doesn't, he hates it. There is no consideration for the fact he's never done any hard work before, or for his blisters and scratches. As this all goes on, he is interested in the wild dingoes and relates to them. They have been pushed out of their rightful lands by the farmers. The farmers, esp Ray, hate the dingoes and personify them, speaking of them as evil and malicious. Once the dingoes massacred a whole field of Ray's sheep. Carl hates it the time he has to go with Ray to shoot at them, and then when one gets caught in a trap he can't believe Ray is so cruel as to let it suffer all night and he has to shoot it himself, which sickens him.
We also know he's dreamed of having a dog at the beginning when told getting a present and turns out just to be a pair of work overalls and boots. Ray has no feelings even for the sheepdogs which are kept apart, as work dogs rather than pets. In the end he lets the dingoes into the sheep as a kind of warranty so that they won't want him back after he runs away, but he doesn't think about the sheep dying, and Ena's pet gets killed and Ray goes mental. He tells Ena maybe they'll think about why he did it but given the way they treated him I doubt they have the empathy to understand. Carl manages to escape with his few precious possessions and heads 'home' (to the Catholic home) on the train. It was a funny ending, I thought, as I wanted to know what would happen to him at the home, etc, but we just see him on the train, saying to an old lady that his holiday is over, he is going home. Not much of a holiday! That's the irony I suppose.
Shocking and appalling but really engaging reading.
Carl is a 13 year old orphan, who grew up at a Catholic home. Now he has been chosen by a couple to go and live on their farm with them, so they are his foster parents. He has imagined all his life what it would be like to be part of a family, especially with brothers and sisters, but the home isn't so bad, they treat them well, give them presents, and he has friends there, etc. Others have been away and returned with good or bad stories of foster homes (some treat them as slave labour and whip them, etc).
He is taken in by Ray and Ena Curdle, who have a farm in the Wongambie Ranges. They are in their 60s and decided Ray needed some more help and think they will train the boy in farming and maybe one day he can buy them out (note they don't think of him as a son they might pass it onto for free!). The minute Carl gets there they get him working without asking, just telling. They treat him as a boarder who is a paid worker, giving him constant jobs to do, and he goes along with it and works quite hard but doesn't enjoy the work. They give him his own room (which is a nice bonus for him from the home) but it is outside, attached to the house, because they keep the inside spare bedroom in case their relatives visit! Ena only cares for her pet sheep and Ray for working. "Carl felt he was nothing more than an extra sheepdog, but on two legs instead of four." They forget that he is just a kid and never ask him about his wants, needs, or feelings.
The worst thing is how they go out for the evening and don't invite him along or even think that he might like to go or offer to let him go anywhere else. They even go to a Christmas party without inviting him and make other Christmas plans without including him. As Carl says, they don't think of him as a person, just a machine to do what they want. They certainly don't think of him as a son and poor Carl is isolated out there. It is the summer holidays and even when school starts he knows he'll have to do lots of work but thinks it will be more bearable if can make some friends. The one time Ray takes him into town he sees some kids his own age but Ray doesn't introduce them or let him meet them. Then they announce that they've spoken with his principal and he can leave school now. Although it's compulsory to go till 15, he turns 14 in 1 month and with permission can stop and focus on working.
No one ever asked him if he wanted to be a farmer! And he doesn't, he hates it. There is no consideration for the fact he's never done any hard work before, or for his blisters and scratches. As this all goes on, he is interested in the wild dingoes and relates to them. They have been pushed out of their rightful lands by the farmers. The farmers, esp Ray, hate the dingoes and personify them, speaking of them as evil and malicious. Once the dingoes massacred a whole field of Ray's sheep. Carl hates it the time he has to go with Ray to shoot at them, and then when one gets caught in a trap he can't believe Ray is so cruel as to let it suffer all night and he has to shoot it himself, which sickens him.
We also know he's dreamed of having a dog at the beginning when told getting a present and turns out just to be a pair of work overalls and boots. Ray has no feelings even for the sheepdogs which are kept apart, as work dogs rather than pets. In the end he lets the dingoes into the sheep as a kind of warranty so that they won't want him back after he runs away, but he doesn't think about the sheep dying, and Ena's pet gets killed and Ray goes mental. He tells Ena maybe they'll think about why he did it but given the way they treated him I doubt they have the empathy to understand. Carl manages to escape with his few precious possessions and heads 'home' (to the Catholic home) on the train. It was a funny ending, I thought, as I wanted to know what would happen to him at the home, etc, but we just see him on the train, saying to an old lady that his holiday is over, he is going home. Not much of a holiday! That's the irony I suppose.
Shocking and appalling but really engaging reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review