John Marsdens novel Tomorrow when the War Began e Essays - Fiction

John Marsden's novel Tomorrow when the War Began explores the important ideas of change, leadership and morality of war as a group of australian teens return back from their camping trip only to find that their country has been invaded by a foreign army. The idea of leadership is spread throughout the novel, especially in relation with Ellie, a major character and narrator of the novel. Ellie's leadership qualities include being outspoken, courageous and confident. She shows these qualities when she originally plans the group trip to Hell. She also has the ability to work well under pressure as shown in the lawnmower incident where she saved herself and her friends by killing 3 enemy soldiers with a lawnmower. Ellie claims that "It was the first moment [she] realised what true courage was." Leadership is an important idea in the novel because without effective leadership, the group would have known little about the invasion and they would've struggled to survive. Another important idea in the novel is change when the group are quickly faced with the fact their country has been invaded. This forced the group to quickly mature. The character that underwent the most change is Homer Yannos as he went from an immature and irresponsible troublemaker to a responsible and mature leader the group can count on. Homer shows this change when he plans the bridge explosion when his quick thinking and leadership destroyed the enemy's main supply route. Ellie talks about Homer when she says "It was hard to remember this fast thinking guy, who spent fifteen minutes getting us laughing and talking again, wasn't even trusted to hand out books at school." Homer's change is very important to the group's survival as an immature and irresponsible troublemaker would've put the group in danger and made them more vulnerable. The morality of war is another important idea in the novel as it changes the group's perspective on life and makes them value their own life more that the enemy's life. A character that shows this idea is Ellie. After killing 3 enemy soldiers with a lawnmower she is constantly getting haunted with guilt. She is unsure whether to be happy that she saved her friends, or feel guilty as she killed three enemy soldiers. Ellie explains that "[she] doesn't feel like a criminal, but [she] doesn't feel like a hero either." In conclusion the ideas of leadership, change and the morality of war are important to the novel as they show emotional and physical change among the group. These ideas allow the group to think differently and understand the situation they are in. These ideas make the group inflict as much damage on the enemies as they can, in hopes of taking their country and their families back.