Themes

One of the main themes of the short story “The Traveller” by Ryan O'Neil is deceit. As you have seen, the main character deceives even his own relatives by pretending to raise money for children in an orphanage in Africa. Two other important themes are those of disease and estrangement or alienation.  

Alienation

From the very beginning of the story, we are introduced to a character that is lost and feels like a stranger in his own hometown. Richard is a man who has travelled so much to such culturally different places that he can no longer relate to his own hometown in Australia or to his relatives: “Lockhart was lost. He crossed a border of shade to stand in the sunlight, looking around for a sign.” (ll. 1-2); “He supposed that he had never really unpacked his suitcase in forty years.” (ll. 170-171)

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Deceit

Having no notion of home and family is perhaps what made Richard capable of deceiving his relatives to donate him money for a fake orphanage in Africa:

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Disease

Narelle suffers from a receding breast cancer and we are informed that her husband had died of cancer as well. The three characters have different attitudes to the disease. While Narelle is more pragmatic and thinks about Paul’s future, both Richard and Paul seem to be in denial.

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