Once Were Warriors

“Once Were Warriors”, a novel of sorrow and realism, by Alan Duff, tells the story of a struggling Maori family in New Zealand. The Heke family lived in the slums of Pine Block like the rest of their Maori neighbors. Beth Heke, the mother of the household, was, in a sense envious of her white counterparts. “Good luck to you, white man, for being born into your sweet world and bad luck to you” (1). Jake, “the Muss”, her husband, was not a very good father figure. Among their children, Grace seemed to break out of the “Maori mold”. Grace was smart, polite, and had potential to do something better with her life. “The going-nowhere nobodies who populate this state-owned, half of us state-fed, slum. The Maori’s” (1). Jake was responsible for Grace’s rape, which essentially drove her to commit suicide.

Jake was nicknamed “the Muss” because of his muscles and because he was quick to fight with anyone who only said the wrong thing. “Jake the Muss, that’s what his mates – his crawling mates call him. Muss for muscles. They love him for it. Never mind that last – or it was early this morning – he beat up my mother. That doesn’t bother them, he’s still their hero” (17). One can infer that Jake was not the typical father. It is clear from the text that Jake was not a good role model. Apparently, Jake was abusive. “…Beth Heke (who used to be a Ransfield but not that life was so much better then), for being