Family

Family is one of the three major themes of Melina Marchetta's novel "Jellicoe Road." Family is a major driving force in the novel, and serves to be a catalyst for the actions of Taylor and the course of the plot. Family, in the novel, is absent in the traditional sense for Taylor, but is present in an unorthodox but secure fashion.

Taylor's real family is nonexistent. Taylor's father was killed when he was seventeen, and Taylor's mother -a drug-addled prostitute- abandoned Taylor when she was eleven. The disappearance of Taylor's mother leads Taylor to a failed attempt to find her when she is only fourteen. Taylor's sense of abandonment causes tremendous and severe emotional distress and instability. Indeed, Taylor looks at the families that do exist around her -such as Santangelo's- and wishes that she had something similar. Taylor longs to belong.

In an unorthodox and nontraditional sense...