The Ballad of Benny Perhaps by H. F. Brinsmead
"The Ballad of Benny Perhaps" by H. F. Brinsmead is a coming-of-age story that explores themes of ambition, love, and the tension between rural and urban life. The narrative follows Benny Perhaps, a young man dedicated to finding fortune as an opal miner in the Australian outback, who faces a critical turning point in his life after a violent altercation leads to his arrest. His affection for Blue Petersen, a young girl longing for a more glamorous city life, is central to the plot as she grapples with her own dreams and the allure of the outside world. Despite her deep connection to Benny and her community, Blue eventually chooses to pursue her dreams in the city, motivated by the arrival of sophisticated campers who captivate her.
As Blue navigates the challenges of her journey, including betrayal and the harsh realities of city life, she ultimately returns to her roots with a newfound appreciation for her community and the beauty of her surroundings. The story captures the complexities of youthful aspirations against the backdrop of cultural and social dynamics within Australian society, particularly concerning issues of race and identity. Brinsmead's work is noted for its vivid portrayal of the Australian landscape and its respectful acknowledgment of Aboriginal culture, offering a rich exploration of personal growth and community ties.
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The Ballad of Benny Perhaps by H. F. Brinsmead
First published: 1977
Type of work: Domestic realism
Themes: Coming-of-age, friendship, love and romance, nature, and race and ethnicity
Time of work: The late twentieth century
Recommended Ages: 13-15
Locale: Sunday Creek, Aramunga, and Sydney, Queensland, Australia
Principal Characters:
Benny Perhaps , a twenty-two-year-old opal miner, who loves Blue PetersenBlue Petersen , a naive, gentle sixteen-year-old girl, who dreams of going to the cityHenk Petersen , her father, who is a Swedish opal miner, a devoted husband, and a loving fatherVera Petersen , her mother, an Australian aborigine, who once lived in the cityRozzer Bizley , a rough, violent opal minerDick Jones , a thief from Sydney
The Story
The Ballad of Benny Perhaps is, like many ballads, the story of a lover’s devotion. The lover is Benny Perhaps, a twenty-two-year-old man who left college to become an opal miner in the Australian outback. As the story begins, Benny is leaving jail in Sydney, where he was held for trial because he had injured Rozzer Bizley, another miner, in a fight. Acquitted, Benny hastens back to Sunday Creek, his beloved goat Daisy, his best friend, the young girl Blue Petersen, and the dream he shares with the other miners: that he will find a big, fine opal and make his fortune.
Even though Blue Petersen is very much attached to Benny, neither he nor his world of dark mines and vast, dusty landscapes is included in her future plans. Blue yearns for the city, where she believes beautiful people live happily in beautiful houses. Her mother Vera warns her that an uneducated girl of mixed blood will encounter only poverty, desperation, and danger in the city, but Blue is determined to leave her home at the first opportunity.
When three sophisticated campers from Sydney arrive in Sunday Creek and unpack their fancy tents and furnishings, Blue is enchanted. She abandons her mining partnership with Benny in order to spend hours with the newcomers, looking at their possessions and listening to their descriptions of city life. Even when she discovers that her new friends are stealing opals, and Dick Jones makes advances to her, Blue continues to believe that she will find happiness among people like them.
Vera and Henk Petersen realize that Blue must have a chance to live her own life, even if it involves going to the city and facing the problems that Vera faced before Henk rescued her. They agree that the next opals they find will be sold to send Blue to Sydney. When Henk does find a big opal, however, his friends expect him to buy them the traditional drink in celebration. Fearing that her travel money will disappear into the pockets of the pubkeeper, Blue wants to protest, but she decides otherwise: She cannot humiliate her father in front of his friends.
The miners’ celebration lasts five days and costs Henk all his money. Eventually, there is a misunderstanding, then a fight, and when he tries to defend Henk and Blue, Benny shoots Rozzer. As a result, Benny is arrested and taken to jail. Before he leaves, however, Benny gives Blue his one fine opal, the prize that he had sought for so long. He wishes for her to sell it so that she can fulfill her dream. Catching a ride to Sydney, Blue at last gets to the city. At the opal dealer’s, she encounters Dick, whom she now realizes was no innocent tourist, but a professional opal thief. He tempts her with luxury in hopes of her staying, but she refuses and returns to Sunday Creek. With a new appreciation of its people and of the natural beauty that surrounds them, Blue settles down to wait for Benny Perhaps.
Context
Like H. F. Brinsmead’s earlier novels, The Ballad of Benny Perhaps is written specifically for teenagers. Like Blue, they are newly exposed to the adult world and its temptations. Brinsmead’s passion for the environment, particularly for the Australian countryside, is evident in Pastures of the Blue Crane (1964) and in Longtime Passing (1971), both of which are set in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. In The Ballad of Benny Perhaps, the landscape is different, but again, in its spacious desolation there is great loveliness.
Related to Brinsmead’s appreciation of nature is her appreciation of the aborigines. Sometimes she develops the racial theme in terms of intolerance: In Pastures of the Blue Crane, for example, a girl’s mixed background is discovered, and she must face discrimination. At other times, Brinsmead describes the ideal attitude toward racial differences: In books such as The Ballad of Benny Perhaps, there is a community in which the aborigines are respected for their connection to a mystical past, and their differences.
Like Colin Thiele, Ivan Southall, and Joan Phipson, Hesba Brinsmead writes in the tradition of the familiar British and American stories of adolescent discovery and self-discovery, like Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (1850), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883), and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Brinsmead combines the realist’s power of capturing the life and the language of her people with an almost mystical passion for her Australian settings.