“The Shark Net”, by Robert Drewe, is a vibrant memoir focusing upon the simple pleasures of growing up in Perth, Western Australia, in the ’50s. Drewe examines his life in sleepy friendly Perth, using techniques such as language, structure and selection of detail. These techniques contribute to the understanding of the events in Drewe’s life while growing up in the small city of Perth and the astounding change of the city when it was victimised with countless murders.
Language: Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world’s most isolated city. The utterly relaxed attitude and trusting environment of sun-kissed Perth and the orderly, cold and sophisticated Melbourne, is described effectively through the language used by Drewe. “The place that I knew, the ordered Melbourne world of frosty lawns and trimmed hedges, of grandparents and shoes and socks and winter-overcoats…” This descriptive language emphasises Drewe’s six-year-old memories of Melbourne. Using imagery, he then compares this with memories of Perth as he first arrives. “…we were all living in bright sunlight and on flat, dry sand…Even though everyone in Perth lived in the dunes I thought of them as the Sand People.” Describing the Perth people as ‘sand people’ shows how Drewe felt about the people and the reader can get a clear view of the situation in Perth at the time. Drewe also points out that Perth seemed to have more of a relaxed, sunny atmosphere than Melbourne and he emphasises on the fact that the people also look different too. “Sun and wind had rearranged the appearance of the Sand People…With their darker skins, red eyes, raw noses and permanent deep cracks in their bottom lips, they looked nothing like Melbourne People.” As Drewe gets older, Perth grows bigger and effective language and imagery is used to describe this. Perth is a naive and peaceful city and doors were rarely locked. “Any man carrying a sack, bin, bucket, spirit-level or tool-box; any man confidently wearing a hat, overalls or a leather apron, could open the back gate, march up the back steps with an air of authority and in passing, laconically correct the way you were managing your life.” The language used here is informative, yet descriptive, as it informs the reader of how trustworthy and idyllic Perth was. It also describes the appearance of the men allowed to enter a person’s yard without consent. The story continues on, and Perth becomes victimised by continuous murders. Drewe describes the happenings through effective language techniques and the reader can understand his emotions he feels for his friend whom was murdered. Through the language used, it seems the murders, for Drewe, represented the loss of innocence, both for a city and a young man. Drewe then describes his life after the murders and the arrest of Eric Edgar Cooke. He becomes a journalist and interviews Sally, Eric’s wife. While interviewing Sally, Drewe uses a wide variety of language to present the reader with an insight into Eric’s life before the murders. “‘Actually I… Life wasn’t easy with Eric Cooke. He killed every bit of trust. Every bit of respect, admiration, love was gone at the end.’” The language used is mostly the dialogue of Sally and this encourages the reader to feel closer to Sally as she is describing her life with Eric. The end of the book nears, and Drewe is offered a job back in Melbourne. He emphasises his last days in Perth and, using language techniques, examines how much more laid back and friendly Perth is compared to the prim and proper city of Melbourne. “the usual open-faced, slow strolling pedestrians and considerate motorists…” “although he was better dressed than Perth’s crumpled and tweedy newspaper executives” “I couldn’t remember the river looking more placid and scenic…Not a wisp of cloud, not a bird or plane or puff of smoke marred the sharp blue sky…The whole familiar scene was bathed in a generous golden light.” “taking my family across the country to a bigger, busier, colder city had me feeling some where between elated and already homesick for Perth.” “I couldn’t help imbuing everything I saw- the suburban houses with their dogged gardens, the jaggedly pruned council street trees, even the dry veldt grass and dandelion weeds on the sandy road verge.” “The way the early morning summer light struck the surface of North Street, the outlines of houses, the first scruffy dunes, and then streaked across the beach and the glassy ocean.” Quite a lot of imagery is used throughout these quotes to create a nostalgic atmosphere and the reader can understand how much more idyllic and peaceful Perth is compared to Melbourne, even if it is small and isolated. Language has had a big effect on my reading of “The Shark Net”. It has emphasised my understandings of how naive and trustworthy Perth was before it was victimised with violent murders. The isolation of Perth contributed to its idyllic atmosphere and this led to it being so terribly shocked when Eric murdered eight people in a row. Drewe emphasises this fact throughout “The Shark Net”, using astounding language techniques.
SOD: Selection of detail is very apparent in “The Shark Net”. As it is a memoir, it contains the basic events of Drewe’s life in Perth. However, many more events would have taken place in his life and therefore, Drewe would have had to decide which events to include and which events to leave out. Thus, he has included events detailing his early life, growing up in peaceful, trustworthy Perth and his early adult years revolving around the enormous murder events, and the astounding arrest of Eric Cooke. The first half of the book focuses on Drewe arriving to Perth, as a six-year-old boy. He emphasises on how far away and isolated the city of Perth was, “The plane took twelve hours from Melbourne to Perth and my mother cried most of the way.” “She’d said it was the size of India and Pakistan combined. She also read that Perth was the world’s most isolated city.” Drewe includes his days and amazing events of growing up in the sun-kissed town of Perth. As Drewe grows, Perth becomes bigger and starts to resemble a city. He describes how, even though Perth has grown, it is still the innocent, naive town that it was once before. Doors are rarely locked. Men can walk into yards with a tank full of poison to kill pesky ‘Argentine Ants’ or a shotgun to shoot down sparrows during the ‘Great Sparrow Panic’ and there are not even any raised eyebrows, let alone fear. Drewe then goes onto explain his interesting encounters with these men entering his yard. One of these men just happens to be Eric Cooke, the man capable of murdering many people. Thus, Drewe explains that as it turns out, Perth’s carefree, open-door attitude had a terrible fall-out as the idyllic city would soon be victimized by a ruthless killer who randomly murders eight people, some of whom Drewe knows. They are shot, strangled, stabbed, bludgeoned or run down with cars. Images of glorious white beaches contrast with the news of the brutal murder of his young friend, shot by the killer during a spree in which four people were randomly attacked. By examining these terrible events within the context of his own life, Drewe is able to contemplate the loss of innocence not only of himself and his family, but also by extension the city he grew up in. He manages to draw the reader into the engagingly real, and occasionally haunting, world of Perth during his childhood. Thus, by selecting major events of his life and contributing it to his autobiography, the reader can understand the background of Drewe’s life and more importantly, the growing of Perth from a naive town to a secure city.
Structure: “The Shark Net” is quite complex in structure, with several flashes forward in time and chapters which interlude into the mind of the killer. However, Drewe uses a clear prose style that keeps the story moving along effortlessly. The memoir is split into four parts, each containing a large amount of chapters. The first part, however, only contains one chapter, which begins with Drewe in his early adult years. He is sitting in a courtroom watching a trial, which is dealing with the ruthless killings of many Perth people. The man accused of these killings is a man Drewe knew and one of the victims was a man he also knew. Part Two consists of many chapters dealing with Drewe’s early childhood. The first chapter of part two flashes back to when Drewe was only six, living in Melbourne. His dad has scored a job in Perth and is moving the whole family there to live. Throughout the rest of part two, Drewe discusses his encounters with the people in Perth and he describes the beautiful scenery and laid back nature of the city. Peaceful Perth seemed to not care about security as there doors were never locked and anyone could wonder into their backyards. This is when the problem of prowlers occurs in Drewe’s life. Drewe uses part Two to explain the growing up of Perth from a tranquil town to a secure city. When a woman is found dead in her bed, the people of Perth become less idyllic and more alert. As the story continues, Drewe examines continuous murders happening in Perth within the context of his own life. One whole chapter is focused upon the murderer and Drewe writes into the mind of the killer. This gives the reader more insight into the killer’s life as well as Drewe’s. Part Two emphasises the fact that Perth is a great place to be to grow up, even if a murderer is on the loose. However, part three deals with Drewe as an older, mature teen. Throughout part three, the chapters describe, in detail, Drewe becoming a hard worker, husband and father. Two more chapters also flash back into the mind of the murderer and the reader can, again, gain insight into Eric Cooke’s life. Drewe’s mother also dies and his father moves to Melbourne. Part Four contributes quite a lot to Eric Cooke’s background. Drewe becomes a reporter to support his family and he tries very hard to find stories. Once Eric is arrested, Drewe sits the trials and interviews Eric’s family after his execution. Drewe is then offered a job in Melbourne and he jumps at the offer. Throughout the last few chapters, Drewe describes how much more wonderful and peaceful Perth is compared to cold and sophisticated Melbourne. He presents the reader with an air of nostalgia and the memoir ends with Drewe leaving for Melbourne and missing sun-kissed Perth already. I can then understand the background of Eric and what he did to the isolated, tranquil town of Perth.
