Spiritual Elements In Tim Winton's Cloudstreet

The conclusion of Tim Winton’s novel Cloudstreet is the amalgamation of the entire spiritual element of the narrative. Within the final two chapters the key spiritual themes of the story are resolved, which itself is the central theme of the story. I believe that the unexplained spiritual events in the everyday are the most memorable elements of the narrative, due to the consistent nature with which they appear through the text, giving it strong integrity as a unified whole. The consistency of the spiritual element is resolved with the final chapters with the reunification of Fish Lamb, and the subtle influence of elements of both Christian and Indigenous belief systems.

The reunification of Fish consolidates the spiritual role that he has throughout the entire
The motif of the river, and less specifically water, is used by Winton to make reference to Christian and Indigenous spirituality. The novel is bookended with the scene at the river, creating a tone of predetermination that is supported by an excerpt from the hymn Shall we Gather at the River? The water motif threads through many of the key events in the story, including Sam ironically losing his hand to the ‘Hairy hand’, Fish’s drowning, Quick’s mystical fishing trip, and the formation of Quick and Rose’s relationship. The author of Cloudstreet and the field of Australian Literature, Robert Dixon, believes the river’s main role in the novel is to be a ‘switching point between the physical and the spiritual’, which is supported by Fish and Quick’s fishing trip. During this trip, Quick believes that ‘the river is full of sky as well’, metaphorically bringing the heavens into the water. By using ‘the beautiful, the beautiful, the river’ as an element in concluding and opening the novel, Winton creates a sense that the novel is a complete text of strong