Potiki

The role of the novelist is to ask questions and explore issues about our society. Discuss this statement with detailed reference to a novel you’ve studied.
Eve Hermansson


In the New Zealand novel ‘Potiki’, author Patricia Grace has chosen to pose questions and explore issues in the role of a gentle subversive. She criticises New Zealand society specifically and projects her own opinions without creating conflict. One is almost unaware that she is raising these controvertial topics, such as land ownership and cultural acceptance, because she does so without openly describing any malice or contempt on the part of the Maori against their agressors. She achieves this effect by using a sympathetic storyline from the point of view of a Maori family and displaying their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Their inability or lack of enthusiam to change matters gives us a glimpse into the effe...