"The Road From Coorain"

From “The Road From Coorain” by Jill Ker Conway

I chose to write about 3 quotes from the excerpt which describes what life was like for Jill in a small town in Australia. 

“I was puzzled about the whole question of religion myself, since my parents both seemed highly moral people to me. As both faiths seemed to produce excellent results, I did not know what to make of the difference.” (Conway, 156)

“Without discussing the subject with anyone, I concluded that the God who was supposed to heed the fall of the sparrow had a lesser mortality than humans. Each clap of fry thunder and each vista of starving animals made the notion of loving God a mockery.” (Conway, 161)

“Some of my first lessons in feminism came from her outraged conversations with the hapless valuation agent sent to inventory and value the assets of the estate for probate. She was uncensored to discover that her original investment in furniture, linen, silver, and household equipment was now merged in my fathers estate. No value was attributed either to the contributions she had made to the enterprise…” (Conway, 168)

The first two quotes describe Jill’s relationship with religion. Her family had opposing views when it came to which religion they followed. Her father “adhered to his catholicism” while her mother critiqued “Catholic ideas on sexuality and the subordination of women.” In the first quote Jill explains that she thinks both faiths “produce excellent results” because both of her parents are good and moral people. In the second quote she explains how she sees God as less moral than humans because God should be able to stop bad things from happening. She says that loving God is a “mockery.”

The third quote explains some of Jill’s ideas and relationships with feminism. After her father died, people came to her house to create the probate of items. She watches as all of her mothers belongings and hard work are “merged” with her fathers, even though he was dead and did not do all of the work or own all of the items. Although her mother had things to herself, they were seen as her fathers property. 

Word Count: 365