Her isolation also leads her to disregard social approval, which seems to have made it possible for her to beak through the socially imposed stigma of being Aboriginal.
Sally: "Aw, I don't care what you say. It's none of their business.".
Jill: "That's the trouble with you, you don't care what other people think.".
During high school, Sally battles self-doubt and depression, and experiences an emptiness that she cannot explain.
"How could I tell her it was me, and her and Nan. The sum total of all the things I didn't understand about them or myself. The feeling that a very vital part of me was missing and that I"d never belong anywhere. Never realise anything.".
This short sentence emphasises Sally's awareness that she had been left in the dark in regards to many important issues relating to her life.
A significant event in Sally's quest for self-knowledge was when she was told by one of the deacons to stop associating with his daughter. The hypocrisy and prejudice led Sally to contemplate her values.
"I began to analyse my me own attitudes and feelings more closely. I looked at them and Nan and I realised that part of my inability to deal constructively with people in authority had come from them.".
However the most prominent catalyst for Sally's change, was her realistion that she was Aboriginal, after being led to believe that she was of Indian descent. Sally is shocked at first but soon this feeling is replaced by curiosity, an insatiable urge to find out more about her identity. .
Instead of being repelled by the provocativeness of her self-discovery, each piece of information she finds fuels her hunger to learn more and this quest she undertakes ultimately involves not only herself but also her whole family.
"What had begun as a tentative search for knowledge had grown into a spiritual and emotional pilgrimage. We had an Aboriginal conscious now, and we were proud of it.".
The effect of this metaphor is to show the reader how beneficial Sally's change has been for her.
