77 pages • 2 hours read
Jack DavisNo Sugar
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Act I, Scenes 1-5 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 1 Summary
Scene 1 openson the Government Well Aboriginal Reserve in 1929. Jimmy Munday, an Aboriginal man, lives in a home with his family: Gran (his mother), Milly Milimurra and her husband Sam, and the Millimurra children Joe, Cissie, and David.
David and Cissie play cricket nearby while Sam makes coffee and Joe reads the Centenary issue of The Western Mail. Jimmy is there as well, sharpening an ax.
The focus of Scene 1 is that conditions are difficult for people on the reservations. Through subtle conversations about washing clothes, hygiene, and the requirement for the children to hunt rabbits for supper, there are hints that the family is subject to discrimination and are living in poverty.
Act I, Scene 2 Summary
In the town of Northam, Frank Brown and Sergeant Carrol are having a discussion. Sergeant Carrol interrogates Frank and accuses him of associating with a native. When Brown protests that it isn’t against the law, Carrol says that Jimmie Munday was seen with alcohol and insinuates that Frank sold it to him. Giving alcohol to a native is a crime. He tells Frank that if he isn’t careful he could wind up in jail.
Inside, Milly and Gran come to collect rations. They are told that soap is no longer included as a ration item. When Milly protest,s Carrol tells her that she is living with three lazy men who are living off of her hard work. She says there is no work for them. She says that Jimmy, her brother who is also an attorney, will protest the change.
As the scene ends, Neville dictates a condescending letter addressing his efforts to “civilize” the aborigines.
Act I, Scene 3 Summary
Back at the camp, Gran and Milly return with their rations. Jimmy is furious when he learns that they will no longer receive soap. He makes various threats about how he will fix the problems by using the law, but no one seems to think his threats are realistic.
The white man, Frank, comes to the Millimurra-Munday family’s camp to have dinner. They all treat each other well, but it is obvious that the family is not entirely comfortable with him. Their current state is a result of their treatment by white society, of which Frank is a part. Frank gives alcohol to Jimmy and Sam, who have a brief scuffle as the scene ends.
Act I, Scene 4 Summary
Jimmy and Sam have been arrested for being for being drunk. The constable and sergeant take their possessions away from them and put them in their cells. Jimmy soon becomes belligerent, yelling and cursing the officials. He kicks a toilet bucket and is told that if he doesn’t settle down he’s going to be in jail for at least six months. An unrepentant Jimmy begins singing loud hymns, despite warnings to stop. He quickly exhausts their patience but there is little they can do to him now that he is incarcerated. Scene 4 ends with Jimmy singing a hymn: “I don’t give a damn for any man/That don’t give a damn for me.”
Act I, Scene 5 Summary
At the courthouse, the judge hands down sentences for Jimmy and Sam. Because Jimmy is a repeat offender with alcohol, he is sentenced to three months in prison with hard labor. Frank, the white man who supplied them with alcohol, receives six weeks with hard labor. Sam is ordered to pay a fine because his criminal record is shorter.
Act I, Scenes 1-5 Analysis
The first five scenes demonstrate the ever-worsening plight of the Aboriginal people, as well as hinting at the complicated backstory that has led to the relationship between the natives of Australia and its occupiers, who pretend at benevolence while treating the natives as lesser beings. It is apparent that, even if they were to follow every rule white society has erected, it will still likely result in a diminishing of their situation. They are treated as an inconvenience at best, and as subhuman at worst.
They lack even the agency to remain in their homes. Rather, they can be shuffled off to new camps by the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen. By the time Sam and Jimmy land in jail it is apparent that their entire lives have already been spent in confinement.
