Jack Maggs | Topics for Discussion & Projects

Jack Maggs Key Questions

1. Given his previous highly original works of fiction, consider why Peter Carey has chosen to re-write Great Expectations. Why does he adapt the novel so loosely?

2. Jack Maggs is a text concerned with silences and giving voices to those "others" who have traditionally been denied a voice in "great" literary texts.

On one level it might be possible to view the text as a work of post-colonial Australia. Thinking about the idea of suppressed voices, why might this view be subject to challenge?

3. How is the outsider from the colonies used to comment on British society in the nineteenth century?

4. Do you consider Phipps's rejection of his benefactor to be tragic? Why or why not?

5. What roles do the women of Jack Maggs play? Consider how they might be regarded in allegorical terms.