Novel Study – Deadly Unna? TASK: Choose a main character from the film and predict what you think happened to them after the film. During the book and the movie, Pickles Mickles has been a snarky child with behavioral problems. He has obviously had a rough time at home and has strong racist views, constantly referring to the Aboriginals as ‘boongs’, ‘abos’, ‘nungas’.
He is an underage drinker and smoker, even taking up drugs, and is portrayed as though he would not get very far in life. I personally believe that this is certainly the case.In my head, I picture Pickles dropping out of high school and robbing local stores. He would be a sleaze, getting around with any girl that would take him yet be afraid of commitment. During his teens, I see him spiraling further down into a pit of despair; trying to forget about his home life, barely talking to his mother, sneaking out, getting into fights.
He never seemed to be the kind of person to genuinely care about anybody or anything except himself and his own beliefs. I think he is a very selfish, nasty person.He would have many fake friends – all trying to stay close to him so that he wouldn’t fight them. Once Pickles hit his early twenties, I picture him hitchhiking through Australia to get to Sydney, trying to make it big as an electric guitarist. He wouldn’t get anywhere of course, and end up on the streets trying to sell drugs to earn money.
He is uneducated so it’s impossible for him to get a job somewhere decent and earn any money to live. Pickles would get sick, probably by some kind of sexually transmitted infection, or maybe he’d end up getting it by sharing needles.I think he is the type of person to have a high addiction to lethal drugs like heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, ecstasy. And of course marijuana, as the movie already shows us. By the time Pickles hits thirty he will still be living on the streets of Sydney, rummaging through restaurant trash cans and industrial bins for food scraps to live off.
At this point, he would be going half mad demanding for money off pedestrians on the streets, struggling to keep his addictions under control, not being able to pay for his ‘booze’. Maybe it’s a little exaggerated, but it could happen.The rest of his life could play out two ways. Either one, he decides to pick up his act and get a job, go to university, get a degree… Or he continues to be a homeless wreck spinning uncontrollably into madness, either getting into trouble with police and getting put in jail or dying alone; perhaps alcohol poisoning, overdose, or a shooting or stabbing, or being hit by a car and getting critical injuries. It sounds horrible, sure, but that’s how I’ve envisioned Pickles’ life playing out since watching the film of Deadly Unna. He is a crude person who, with his attitude, will not get far at all.
