Summary Of Distant Lands By Tim Winton

Tim Winton’s Distant Lands is a short story about the quest of the individual to reach fulfillment in their life. The book “Distant Lands” which appears within the story is a metaphor for the freedom and escape that the main character seeks in her life and is a central point from which all other important events in the book originate from. In the story characters are used to symbolize the possible outcomes that the main character could reach depending on what path her life takes. When the main character overcomes the obstacles of the negative characters by protecting “Distant lands”, the key to her freedom she completes her growth as a character and makes it certain that she will be able to achieve the fulfillment that she seeks. These symbols

When the dark man is in the store the main character forms a bond with him “that strange feeling of comradeship she felt when the dark man was in the shop” (Pg. 2). She protects this symbol from any circumstances which may result in the bond being destroyed and in doing so eventually is rewarded with a token which symbolizes for her, that she can achieve the fulfillment that she seeks. The red woman is immediately recognized by the main character to be a figure that is undesirable and something that she fears becoming herself. Every aspect of the red woman’s character is seen to be wrong “whatever it was that seemed so patently missing” (Pg. 3). This causes the main character to fear becoming a similar person “That could be me, she thought” (Pg. 3). She realizes in this moment that she will avoid that future with all her might. These two characters presented to Maz how her life could be fantastic or one that was not worth living and allowed her to see what was right for her. These events and the realization they triggered were the main source of character development for

The presence of the book as a catalyst to the events that transpired in the story, allowed Maz to develop fully as a character and led her to encountering the symbol of her fulfillment. The book to her is something mysterious that is out of her reach, similarly to her search of fulfillment itself, but ultimately does lead to her victory. In representing how the main character wants to spend the rest of her life it embodies something she wishes to be never-ending “On the back cover, the blurb said: you will want this book never to finish” (Pg. 2). While the main character herself never does read the book, it is the books presence alone and the implications that it holds which are important to the story and Maz’s character development. The metaphor of the book acted as the catalyst for the dark man to show Maz the possible reality of fulfillment that she would ultimately