Portrayal of how the Past still haunts us in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and Neighbors by Tim Winton

Portrayal of how the Past still haunts us in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and Neighbors by Tim Winton
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Portrayal of how the Past still haunts us in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and “Neighbors” by Tim Winton
The novella Maestro by Australian writer Peter Goldsworthy is a bildungsroman narrative that portrays the themes of life and culture. It depicts the “coming-of-age of” of its characters through education, experience, and socialization. The characters attain moral and psychological growth by reflecting upon their life experiences and ruing their mistakes. In Maestro, the story portrays the past not only as a forgotten existence, but an experience that shapes the characters’ personality and worldview. The two main characters, Paul Crabbe and Eduard Keller are all transformed by events in their lives. Keller becomes more cautious about life, is disillusioned, and critical of humanity as a result of his experiences during World War Two. He is also guilty for not being able to safe his family from the hands of the Nazis. On his part, Paul’s upbringing in a well-to-do family and the love of his parents makes him to feel self-important. He is arrogant, craves for approval from those around him, and likes to exaggerate his achievements. However, he soon learns that he is not the best, especially after learning about the past life of Eduard Keller, his music teacher. The short story “Neighbors” by Tim Winton portrays a young newly wed couple who moves into a new neighborhood, and is unable to fit into the close-knit society where neighbors are their brothers’ keepers. This is because they come from an upper class background, where neighbors mind their own business and everyone likes their privacy. In reference to the novella Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and the short story “Neighbors” by Tim Winton, this essay discusses the way the past haunts individuals by shaping their personality and worldviews.
Eduard Keller is haunted by his past due to the guilt he experiences for failing to save his wife and son from the Nazis, who gassed them to death at Auschwitz. He feels betrayed by the Nazis because he used to play for Hitler, and was performing for him when his family was arrested. As a result, he cuts off his ties with his Austrian roots, “sews the yellow star to his clothing and registers as a Jew” (Goldsworthy, 2010, p. 136). On the surface, his actions are a sign of rebellion against his own country of Austria, which collaborated with the Nazis in killing the Jews and his family. At the same time, however, Keller’s actions are driven by guilt because he believes he could have saved his family. Paul experiences a similar kind of guilt, of having betrayed and let down someone who was close to him, his music teacher. He is also guilt for having disrespected his teacher while he was alive. When he first meets Keller, describes him in a negative image, saying that “"I would often pass my former War Criminal, seated at a small table on his balcony, his white panama somehow remaining stuck to his bent head as he sipped coffee and schnapps and smudged the elbows of his white coat on the morning headlines” (Goldsworthy, 2010, p. 22). At the time, however, his reasoning was informed by his youthful innocence and lack of life experience, and he changes this attitude later in the novel. In the short story “Neighbors” the newly weds avoid their neighbors because they “feel like sojourners in a foreign land” (Winton, 1985, p. 81). They feel alienated because they come from a different culture, and they take time getting used to their new surroundings. Similarly, the young couple is wary of their neighbors. Their neighbors’ interest in the new residents makes the couple feel vulnerable and their privacy intruded. This is because the young man and woman “had lived all their lives in the expansive outer suburbs where good neighbors were seldom seen and never heard” (Winton, 1985, p. 81). As a result, they are afraid to interact with their neighbors, and prefer to live in isolation. The couple’s fear of their neighbors portrays the story’s central theme, alienation. The young couple is alienated from their new community because they have little in common with their neighbors. They are educated, come from a high-class society, and lead a unique lifestyle that discourages social interactions with people from a different social class.
Paul Crabbe’s upbringing in a well-to-do family where he gets everything he wants makes him arrogant, selfish, and self-centered. He describes himself as...