ISBN: 9780732296940

Notes by: Jennie Grant

Contents

Introduction

About the author/illustrator

Author/illustrator inspiration

Study notes on themes and curriculum topics:

Senior Secondary School English, SOSE (History and Geography), and Drama, and university

literature studies.

General Capabilities as outlined on the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting

Authority (ACARA) website:

literacy

critical and creative thinking

personal and social capability

ethical behaviour, and

intercultural understanding

Questions for reading and discussion

Bibliography

About the author of the notes

Introduction

The Pea-Pickers chronicles the travels of two sisters who adopt male names to find work, rather than

embarking on the more socially accepted avenue of marriage and home making. During the war, women

stepped into many of the jobs that had been held by men, but were now encouraged to return to their

traditional roles because the men had returned. The sisters become Steve and Blue and venture to

Gippsland to take up jobs in orchards and on farms, dressed as men, despite their femininity being

obvious. Told in prose rich in description, we meet an array of characters that enrich or challenge the

girls’ existence. A story of leaving home and forging one’s own identity, however uncommon or

uncomfortable that identity may be.

The story is told through Steve’s eyes and heart: a heart laden with an unmovable melancholy. Even her

light-hearted moments are quickly brought back down by her intense desire to accept herself and be

freed from her unhappiness. ‘Released by his friendly sympathy, my evil nature fled, and a great

joyousness came to me, although I still felt heavy with that merciless and sinful unknown power.’ (p169)

She seeks love yet cannot afford it to herself. ‘I longed for his touch, his kiss, but to myself, I said, “His

love is too pure for that. I am coarse and vile.”’ (p167)

Steve sees her sister, Blue, as all that she isn’t: beautiful, graceful, and talented. They complement each

other and rely on each other, yet they quarrel intensely. Steve eventually sees Blue as holding her back,

so pushes her away.

On page 351 she says:

‘I fancied that in following her I should come to terrible things: to unbearable loneliness and wild

sin. Once away from Blue, I thought, life will become rich again and I shall flourish. So, I steadily

nourished the tempers between us, I encouraged jealousies, envy and pride, so that we might

part’.

Steve also did this to the men she loved, Kelly then Macca. Despite Macca’s proclamations of holding a

pure love for Steve, she couldn’t relax into it, telling him, ‘Your love? Bah! I tell you, the day is coming

when you will hate me, when you will hear of me with indifference’. (p185)

Her admiration for her country, particularly of the Gippsland area, breathes life into the land, as though

it’s a character in itself. She says, ‘my naked brown feet kissed the dear earth of my Australia and my

soul was pure with love of her’. (p149)

About the author/illustrator

Eve Langley was named Ethel Jane Langley when she was born on 1 September, 1904 in Forbes, New

South Wales. Her sister, Lillian May was born in the following year. The lives of the sisters in the late

1920s became the impetus for Eve, as she preferred to be called, to write the semi-autobiographical

narrative which was published in 1942. The novel was well-received at the time, sharing the S. H. Prior

Memorial Prize with Kylie Tennant’s book, The Battlers.

In 1937, Eve married Hilary Roy Clark, an art student, who at 22 years old, was much younger than her

33 years. Living in New Zealand at the time, they went on to have a daughter, Bisi Arilev, and two sons,

Langley Rhaviley and Karl Marx. Her admiration for strong males may have been her inspiration for her

youngest son’s name, and for changing her name by deed poll in 1954 to Oscar Wilde. (She revelled in

the unusual, and on page 32 of The Pea-Pickers, Steve says of nature that, ‘she was even suggesting

names for these unborn Gippslanders. “One could be called Gauntlet,” I thought. The other might have

been christened Hobnail’).

Her desire to have been born a man did not abate throughout her life, and she continued to dress like a

man.

She also continued to write, and her second book, White Topee, was published in 1954. Despite having

achieved recognition for her contributions to magazines in New Zealand, her subsequent attempts went

unpublished. J. L. Thwaite (2000) writes that, ‘Indecipherable novels were found on hoarded brown

paper and Weeties packets.’ And, ‘The material was repetitive, difficult, at times inaccessible.’ We may

speculate that her fragile, depressed nature complicated her writing as well as her life, because as well

as publishing her award-winning book in 1942, Eve’s husband had her admitted to Auckland Mental

Hospital, where she lived for seven years. She was released into her sister’s care, and divorced Clark in

1952.

Eve died in early June, 1974. Her body had lain undiscovered for nearly two weeks. She had been living

alone in Katoomba ‘with her numerous dolls and a clutch of cats for company’ (Thwaites, 2000).

Author/illustrator inspiration

This section is locked and a quote from the author and/or illustrator will be provided by HCP if available.

Study notes on themes and curriculum topics

Themes

The themes running through The Pea-Pickers are relevant to contemporary young people as they reach

the age of leaving home and forging their own way in the world. The most prominent themes are:

belonging

the passing of time

melancholy

self-acceptance

racism

gender and power

Plot

The consistent mentions of the themes are what shape the story, rather than the conventional plot or

character development. As Steve and Blue travel through rural Victoria for new jobs, Steve describes

what she sees, feels, and those they meet. Throughout their journeys she remains unchanged: tortured

yet adventurous, in love with the land, and hoping to find the elusive objects of her desires: love and a

peaceful soul.

The Pea-Pickers is divided into four parts: each part depicting Steve and Blue’s lives at each job. This

organisation lends itself well to studying the novel differently. Rather than read the whole book, (which

could be a challenge for adolescent readers due to its lengthy descriptions, poetry, and a protagonist

that is a little difficult to stay patient with), the class could be divided into groups, assigned roles (see

below in Discussions and Writing activities), then reassembled to discuss in groups and as a class.

Focussing on the recurrent themes would allow for in-depth spoken and written study that captures

students’ interest and keeps them engaged.

Class activities

Before reading

1. To set the scene and help students step into the protagonist’s shoes, place pictures of the

1920s around the classroom.

To focus the students, pose some questions for them to keep in mind, reminding them that the men

have returned from a war.

How are the people of the time feeling about life and living? The women had been

doing the men’s jobs while they were away. Now the men have returned, very likely

with a different outlook on life, to resume their jobs.

What’s expected of the women now? How would they be feeling?

Why would some women not want to get married, which traditionally meant

stopping work and raising a family?

Students can circulate (perhaps while listening to some music of the time) with their notebook in hand,

jotting down any:

adjectives and emotions the images invoke

comments on the roles of men and women in that era

Examples of folk songs can be found at http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-

folklore

2. Conduct a visual analysis of the front cover.

How do the colours, pictures, and font influence a prospective reader?

What kind of story do you expect to read?

Note the differences between the 1942 and 2000 covers. The early cover is green, has a picture of

pickers viewed from the side, and a prominent title. The later one features the author’s name more

prominently and is blue, giving a softer, more positive feel.

3. After researching life in Australia in the 1920s to 1940s, have students imagine and describe

a day in the life of a rural Australian of the time. Students may be interested in investigating

from the viewpoint of any of the migrant groups mentioned, such as, Indians, Italians, and

Chinese. (SOSE)

4. Conduct an author study of Eve Langley.

Considering that The Pea-Pickers is semi-autobiographical, how might the era she lived

in and her difficulty in maintaining her sanity shape her novel?

What tone do you expect to ‘hear’ in the novel? Elicit adjectives from the class.

**Secondary school students should read the Introduction on completion of the novel, for opinion

comparison with their own views after reading.

While reading

Discussions and writing activities

These ideas were generated from http://www.teachingliterature.org and can lead to writing exercises of

the teacher’s choosing.

1. Form groups of students that will meet each week to discuss the pages the group has set to

read. Each group member can have a specific role to assist in participating in a free-flowing,

uninhibited conversation about the story. Suggest the roles depending on the talents of the

students. Each week students can choose a different role to play (or you can assign them) to

keep them engaged in what they are reading. The roles and duties of each member may be as

follows:

Discussion director. Your role is to prepare some questions about the reading. The idea

is not to focus on comprehension type questions, but ones that will help the discussion.

For example, asking what surprised the other members of the group as they read, what

the important ideas were, or what they were thinking as they read.

Cool Quote finder. Your role is to find some quotations to read aloud to your group. You

might choose funny, puzzling, compelling, or interesting quotes, or ones that are crucial

to understanding the text’s meaning. Take a note of the page numbers.

Multiple Perspective taker. Your role is to view the section using some other literary

lenses, such as, the gender, multicultural, psychological, or socio-economic lenses.

Record your ideas to discuss with your group.

Summariser. Your role is to prepare a brief summary of the reading. Include the setting,

the characters and their development, and the key conflicts and major plot events.

Connector. Your role is to find connections between the book and the world today.

Investigator. Your role is to find any background information on any topic related to the

book. Find interesting information that can help your group to better understand the

reading. You might include cultural, historical, or geographical information about the

book’s setting; information about the author; pictures, objects, or materials that

illustrate elements of the book; the meanings of unfamiliar words in the text; or music

that reflects the era of The Pea-Pickers.

Illustrator. Your role is to provide a visual representation of what you have read. You

might do a sketch, cartoon, flow chart, diagram, stick figure scene, or a realistic or

abstract representation. It might be a scene from the book, or something that the book

reminded you of. What you draw can convey any feeling or idea you got from the book.

During your discussion, allow each group member to respond to the piece first, before

offering any explanation about its meaning.

Vocabulary enricher. Your role is to find some important words in the reading. They

may be important because they are key to meaning, unfamiliar, repeated, or used in an

unfamiliar way. Record the page numbers, so that the others in the group can see them

in context before discussing them.

Travel tracer. Some sections of The Pea-Pickers lend themselves well to the role of the

travel tracer. This role is to describe where the action takes place, and describes the

setting in detail, either in words or in a map or diagram. Record the page numbers.

2. One member of the group can read a scene to the others, who will draw what they picture on

the board, and be prepared to explain their drawings. This could be done on paper as well, but is

likely to be more entertaining on the board.

3. Have students keep a response journal which records the following:

their reaction to what’s happening

parts they don’t understand

questions that come to mind

any personal connections with the story that they can make

points to discuss or investigate further

their responses to the themes of The Pea-Pickers such as, belonging, the passing of

time, melancholy, self-acceptance, racism, and gender and power.

Understanding themes

Ask students to identify which theme each of the following quotes highlight.

1. Steve struggles with her self-image, as is evident on page 62 where she says, ‘our heavy flesh

encumbered us with the agony which is called self-consciousness’.

Activity: Students can find other quotes that reflect her self-image, taking note of whether Steve

becomes comfortable in her skin and why or why not this may have occurred.

2. Steve also makes numerous references to the passing of time. For example, on page 64, she

says,

‘O God, to stay the flow of time, How could I be happy? Even in that far youth, secure in

it, I was crying, “You are passing, passing. I shall soon be old and this will be no more.”’

And, ‘How could I enjoy youth knowing that it ended in age? White were the lights and

grasping was time flying with us in its arms’.

Activity: Have students note other examples of Steve’s acute awareness of her mortality and the

frustrations of youth.

3. Steve’s highs are few and fleeting, quickly followed by despair. For example, on page 55,

‘Passing through the plains I had felt manly, melancholy and potentially great; but the

washstand, the crockery jug and the basin changed me into a masquerading pea-picker

in a few moments. What despair! How could one talk about it, hedged in as we were by

our own clumsy flesh and the worse flesh our needs expressed by this stuff. And then, we

were so utterly outside settled humanity. Because, by way of travelling, we were just

rolling stock and immoral, until proved.’

Page 80:

‘Alas, our youth … where is it? O dawn, that came red from the burning furnace of time. I

feel that I shall go mad if I cannot recapture it; and I never shall.

Yet the earth that morning was filled with an indifference that was comforting.’

And the end of page 104,

‘But O God, the anguish, the melancholy of going poor, unknown and unloved through

this bush! I felt that I was condemned by those who did not know me; that I was to be

further condemned, while far ahead lay terrible years and an anguished life.’

Activity: Discuss what Steve means here, and any personal or modern life parallels.

Questions: Why does Steve seem determined undermine her happiness and sabotage her life? What is

it about the earth that Steve finds so comforting?

4. Have students find other examples of Steve’s racist opinions such as this on page 105:

‘I felt half excited, half irritated to see these Italians in our room. We seemed to have

descended another step in the ladder of our race. They really meant nothing to me,

however, for I counted them as primitives, children, animals or deaf-mutes. Their faces

pleased me, but the blankness of racial difference held me apart from them.

The beauty of Antonino Crea was not dangerous and sad like the beauty of Kelly or

Macca. These men, it seemed to me, passed by those who decided not to fraternize with

them. Accepting their inferiority, they extended to their superiors many little courtesies

that pleased.’

Activity: Discuss why Steve may feel this way.

Question: Does her attitude reflect the opinions of many in that era?

5. Steve is on a quest for life and love, yet is burdened by her thoughts and desires. Discuss what

she may be searching for when she says, ‘You ask, in this hermit’s cell … are we masquerading as

boys. No, we are masquerading as life. We are in search of a country … the Promised Land’ [and]

‘We are not young women. We are life, sorrow, loneliness, searching … God knows for what’.

(p60)

Activity: Have students speculate as to why she feels so powerless and empty.

6. Steve struggles with her complicated character, evident on page 4 where she describes her four

points of consciousness:

‘I knew that I was a woman, but I thought I should have been a man.

I knew that I was comical but I thought I was serious and beautiful, as well. It was tragic

to be only a comical woman when I longed above all things to be a serious and

handsome man.

The third point of my consciousness was a desire for freedom, that is, never to work.

The fourth was a desire, amounting to obsession, to be loved. I suffered from it, as others

suffer from a chronic delicacy of health. It haunted my sleep and impeded my waking

hours.’

Activity: Ask the studens how common and realistic her goals are, whether she might achieve them, and

whether or not she does.

7. Steve identifies with being a man and with being a woman. She makes many references to both

genders, such as:

p 21 – ‘There is a peculiar national merit in waking up like that in Gippsland; it amounts

to a proclamation of manhood.’

p 27 – ‘There is a budding surgeon in some men, and the sick look of sad women makes

them eager to heal.’

p 124 – ‘I came out into the world expecting to find all men like the poets I loved: that’s

the reason for my madness and confusion, you see. The world is here, but the poets

have fled it.’

p 268 – ‘This was odd to me, since towards all other men I, too, was man, my heart

turning womanly towards one only. Those were evil days when a weak moral fibre might

easily have been undermined by destructive scepticism. In those days it seemed to me

that there was in the world neither man nor woman … nothing save a purpose, and that

a relentless one, cruel to the very bone.’

p317 – ‘He was a sensual little fellow, and he looked repulsively womanly as he moved

about the kitchen’.

Questions: How does Steve feel about men and women? What could be the cause?

Writing activities

(adapted from http://www.teachingliterature.org)

1. Ask students to copy two examples from pages 28-40 where they were surprised, moved by, or

interested in her writing style. In a short paragraph for each example, explain why they chose it,

being careful to balance the quotes with their own words.

2. The Pea-Pickers provides many opportunities for students to rephrase Steve’s sentences into

contemporary English, and even to slang or texting language. Some early sections include pages

three and four where Steve describes their house, page 20 paragraph two, and page 66 where

Steve describes her sudden hatred for her sister, Blue.

3. To contextualise the girls’ experiences, students can plot their journey on a map, making notes

about the seasons and crops of each region as they follow the picking work around. (SOSE)

4. Langley divided her novel into four parts, rather than chapters. The First Part is titled ‘For the

best! For the best! On page 45 we learn that ‘Big brown and white birds were hopping furtively

from bough to bout, moaning like heart-broken women’. Their cries sounded like

encouragement to Steve who was facing the end of the apple-picking season, heralding the end

of their adventure.

Students can contemplate the meaning for the titles of the other parts, and suggest alternative

titles.

5. To develop some empathy for Steve, have students keep a character log about her as they read.

This will be useful in terms of maintaining interest levels, and providing ideas for a final written

assignment. Students should take note of:

physical characteristics

personality traits

relationships with other characters

mannerisms or other telling actions

surprising actions, thoughts, and emotions

puzzling actions, thoughts, and emotions

psychological traits and hang-ups

questions they may have

6. Students can explain or judge Steve’s actions in terms of the roles, rules, beliefs, traditions or

history operating in her social world, or in Australia’s culture at that time. Steve also provides

many opportunities to analyse the underlying psychological forces shaping her actions, feelings,

and desires. The reflected ideological assumptions about gender, class, and race should also be

considered.

7. Blue features often, but is a marginalised character. Students can create a monologue from her

perspective on how she views the events Steve describes. Other characters that also lend

themselves to this kind of activity are Mia, Jim, and Macca.

Drama activities

These ideas were adapted from suggestions on http://www.teachingliterature.org

While reading, students can visualise images from the novel, and empathise with characters’

perspectives of important events through activities such as these:

1. In groups, students can enact a personal experience that parallels a scene from the reading. Ask

them to mime their parallel situation for the class and then discuss how it connects to the text.

2. Alternatively, to lighten the mood of The Pea-Pickers, have students prepare an opposite

situation where all of the emotions are opposite to those depicted in the story.

3. In groups, have students prepare a series of ‘slides’ depicting the events of the reading section.

The students should add a caption to each, and be prepared to answer questions as to why they

chose to depict the events in that way. This can be done with or without using computers,

depending on the available resources.

4. Students can create a missing scene to act out for the class, being prepared to justify how this

scene may have logically occurred. Pre-empt students who may want to enact a sleeping scene,

as these would obviously have occurred.

5. Students can choose a scene and rewrite it as a play.

6. Students can take a theme, and write a contemporary play highlighting their chosen theme.

7. Students can write about their experience in these activities, outlining how the activities may

have offered new perspectives for them, or made the text more relevant to their personal lives.

After reading

See http://www.teachingliterature.org for more detail. The teacher can ask to students to:

1. Write a 1-2 page essay for future readers of The Pea-Pickers to introduce them to the novel. Include:

an attention-grabbing opening, such as a compelling quotation or thematic question

key information about the book and relevant biographical information

your recommendation

a summary

the setting

the characters and their conflicts (don’t give away too much as to spoil any surprises)

thematic issues

the best aspects of the book and the best audience

2. Write a letter to Steve from Blue, five years after they parted ways.

3. Write to Eve Langley to tell her your impressions of her book, and what you liked or would have

preferred to see in the story.

4. Analyse Steve and her emotions. What has influenced her to feel this way? How do you think she

could manage her feelings. What advice would you like to give her?

5. Write a movie review of The Pea-Pickers as they imagine the movie would be.

6. Write a well-developed argument as to why or why not this novel should be part of the curriculum.

Questions for reading and discussion

1. Steve makes numerous references that describe Gippslanders. Have students record these

descriptions onto a mind-map as they read.

Question: Does Steve feel an affiliation with these people?

Activity: As a follow-up activity, students can create a similar description of the people in their area.

2. On page 78 she says, ’And I loved that land with the intensity of death’.

Activity: Students can free-write on why she uses the unusual, yet highly effective description of ‘the

intensity of death’.

3. Steve makes frequent references to poets of her era, such as, Rupert Brooke on page 73, who

was an idealistic World War I poet. Students can investigate the poets she mentions (Matthew

Arnold, Oscar Wilde, Francois Rabelais, Shavian, Keats etc.) to discover more about her (or

Eve’s?) sense of the world.

Question: Could her constant references to time and losing youth, and her melancholy be a reflection of

a post war Australia, without her realising it? (SOSE)

4. Could her general distaste for people be due to her father, whom she only mentions once? See

page 188, where she says, ‘I think of my father, that twisted moody failure, who despised me,

and set in me the seeds of destruction’.

Question: How would this have shaped her view of herself, and others?

5. Steve appears to have a strict moral code regarding her sexual relationships, thwarting the

advances of even her beloved Macca. Despite earlier mentions such as, ‘we made our love,

timidly and shyly, fearing even to touch each other’ (p36), she remains a virgin, fiercely so.

‘Men respect the severe gods that have ordered me, on pain of death to remain virgin.

Therefore, they leave me alone; alone in utter despair. For I know no joy in remaining

vestal and serving the gods. Yet to sin will mean death . . . If I did not fear [the gods] I

would break their tyranny tonight. I say it now, and mean it. But yet, I shall never marry;

nor shall I ever forsake the gods.’ (p186)

Question: What kind of relationship does she seek with men, so pining for love, yet so determined to

stay ‘unsoiled’? (p186)

6. Her moral code mentioned above doesn’t go as far as to condemn stealing others’ food. She

feels slight shame when she is found out, but continues to encourage Blue to steal.

Activity: Students can construct their own value stance on this, speculating on this dichotomy.

7. Part of Steve’s sorrow comes from having great empathy for others, for example, page 23, ‘I

sorrowed for him’, page 24, I was sorry for Mr Homburg’, and page 62, ‘I sorrow for them’.

Activity: Have students list subsequent mentions and discuss the impact on Steve.

Bibliography

ACARA Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2012, retrieved from

http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/general_capabilities.htm

Beach, R., Appleman, D., Hynds, S., & Wilhelm, J, Teaching Literature to Adolescents 2nd ed, Routledge,

New York & London, 2010.

Queensland Studies Authority, Approaches to Reading Practices: a Resource for English Extension, 2011,

retrieved from

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/

Queensland Studies Authority, English Extension Senior Syllabus, 2011, retrieved from

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/

Queensland Studies Authority, English Senior Syllabus, 2010, retrieved from

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/

Teaching literature ideas sourced on November 1 2012, retrieved from

http://www.teachingliterature.org

Thwaite, Joy, Langley, Eve (1904–1974), 2000, retrieved from

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/langley-eve-10784

About the author of the notes

Jennie Grant has trained as a secondary school teacher, English language teacher, freelance journalist,

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examiner, and editor. Writing has remained an

interest throughout her English language teaching role, which began in 1989. In this role, she has taught

adults and adolescents from many countries and at every level of English proficiency. She enjoys the

challenge of engaging students in their learning, and her semi-rural life in Queensland.