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Chapter 31: The Little Jewish Boy
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reckoning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Legacy
Morality, Survival, and Perspective
Sexuality and Shame
Body Image and Publicity
Indifference vs. Feeling
Summary
Analysis
The day the Twin Towers are bombed, Magda goes to work as usual, filming the new show Kath and Kim. While Jane Turner and Gina wrote the show, Magda was busy filming The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, whose main characters teach Magda about love as well as adventure. When Magda returns, Kath and Kim—which reminds viewers of the failed Big Girl’s Blouse—is not doing well, and ABC threatens to pull the show. However, the head of ABC’s drama department believes in the show and decides to produce it. Being a depiction of suburbia, Kath and Kim attracts a suburban viewership; by the end of season one, the show is a hit. The network renews it, and it becomes the most successful comedy in Australian television history.
Magda draws from many of her experiences to perform in Kath and Kim: her suburban upbringing, her tomboy nature, and her lifelong experience—and legacy—of humor. That the show becomes the most successful comedy in Australian TV history suggests that it reflects something fundamentally and universally true about life. In this way, although Magda’s unique upbringing influences the show, it appeals to a huge majority of people. What Magda had thought isolated her turns out to connect her.
Themes
When asked how she created the character of Sharon, Magda reflects that Sharon is the most vulnerable part of herself; if only her young, lonely self had known how Sharon would speak to thousands! During this time, Magda starts therapy, unpacking long-buried feelings and her guilt over Peter’s dark legacy; although she has nightmares of children half-buried in dirt and an old man saying something that she can’t hear, therapy helps Magda (and Sharon) explore emotions she’s never been able to confront. Sharon simultaneously “vibrate[s] with pain and loss” and overflows with optimism and joy. Also, being in her longest relationship ever with Kristen, Magda feels loved. In 2002, Kath and Kim wins three Australian film awards; Magda wins Best Supporting Actress.
Unlike the character Pixie-Anne Wheatley, the character of Sharon Strzelecki speaks for Magda as well as for her fictional self: Magda expresses herself through Sharon. This suggests that Magda does not feel so divided between her public and private selves as she used to. Over time, as Magda has combatted her shame with acceptance, the dissonant parts of herself have become more consonant.
Themes
