AUT Master of Creative Writing Thesis Exegesis - Scholarly ...

AUT Master of Creative Writing 2008
Shorty © Michael Botur 2009
describes Pieman discovering a virility which will enable him to break out
of this set of values.
Go Ya Own Way
‘Cute wee family overall really, a bit, well for Marrys they was
anyway. I don’t have a soft spot for they people much, considerin all
the shit they done to me.’ - Narrator
In New Zealand, skinhead subcultural identity is generally regarded
as illegitimate because of its association with white supremacy and
refutation by some Pakeha about the status of tangata whenua
(McCreanor pp.52-68 from NZ Identities: Departures and Destinations
2005.) The skinhead’s other pose, the pretension to be working class, is
related to the original confliction of the racist skinhead subculture utilising
the black West Indian music of ska (Stratton p.188.) These
contradictions set up the conflict which forms the narrator’s character in
Go Ya Own Way.
Contemporary skinheads are typically a breed of white male who
endorse brutality. The narrator of Go Ya Own Way is a Christchurch
skinhead who unleashes his personal frustrations in the urban
environment.
The skinhead postures himself as working class. This stems from
consumer markets catering to create different youth ‘styles’ following the
end of WWII, when incomes rose for young workers’ (Stratton ibid); it
22