Deadly Unna is a story about a teenage boy, Gary Black, who learned important lessons through his stages of growing up. Most importantly, through his friendship with Dumby Red, one of the local Aborigines, he also developed an awareness of racial prejudice in the town. .
As the novel opened, Blacky was just like a typical young boy from the port. He played footy and he worried about what to say to girls. Although he did had problems at home, but still he was just like an innocent adolescent who only knows little about the real world. We can tell that through his conversation with Darcy in the beginning of the story. Blacky wanted Darcy to recite the poem "Kaiser Bill", which was about the German who gave people hard time during war. However, the reason that Blacky wanted to listen to the poem was not that he is concern about the war at the time. .
"It always gave me a thrill to hear Darcy recite Kaiser BillI think it was because even though Darcy swore a fair bit, he didnt use the really bad swear words, but Kaiser Bill was chock full of them" (pg.49). This means in actual fact, he was more like interested in the swear words in the poem.
As the story continued, Blacky met Dumby Red through the playing footy. The friendship between Blacky and Dumby was soon developed. Together they won the Grand final. It then came to the trophy night and Dumby didnt receive the B.O.G trophy. This was when Blacky finally realized that there was racism in the town. He was really angry about it, but he didnt know what he can do, or maybe he just didnt do what he can do, just like the BOONGS PISS OFF graffiti. "I hadnt written it, but I hadnt scratched it out either" (Pg122). .
The coming summer brought the tragic death of Dumby Red. Everybody was gossiping about it; however, at the same time, nobody did anything about it. Blacky felt really irritated and he knew that he must do something. "Do what your heart tells you to do" (pg215) and so he attended Dumby Red's funeral.