Off the Map- David Malouf

“I knew that the world around you is only uninteresting if you can't see what is really going on. The place you come from is always the most exotic place you'll ever encounter because it is the only place where you recognise how many secrets and mysteries there are in people's lives” – David Malouf

Born in 1934, David Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer, who has been awarded a number of prestigious awards including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Australia-Asia Literacy Award. Brought up in Brisbane, Malouf developed a love of reading from a young age and often found that books were able to teach him many of life’s lessons. Malouf has lectured at a numerous universities and for the past three decades he has been spending most of time in Sydney, however he enjoyed living in Tuscany “where he could think and write in anonymity”. Characterised by his interest in physical environments and how they transform the responder, Malouf likens his success to the discovery and exploration of a new area or landscape.

The dynamics between the physical and inner landscape are incredibly significant in that the impact of literal landscapes can shape one’s personal outlook. The tension and contrast between the city and civilisation reflects change and how inhabitants have had to alter and manipulate the land in order to suit the ever evolving needs of a society. Malouf’s poem ‘Off the Map’ explores this idea through the journey of the inhabitants in this case the truck drivers. The bleak and uninspiring physical landscape which is faced daily on the route of a truck driver often finds the individual removing themselves by exploring their own inner and imaginative landscape in an attempt to escape this harsh and undesirable environment.

Resilience is imperative if one is to survive within an unforgiving environment where individuals are forced to cope with an unrelentingly monotonous and isolated setting. The visual imagery of a harsh physical terrain does however become relevant when dealing with the protagonists want to find a connection with their landscape. A coping mechanism to deal with loss of connection can be understood by the personas use of pills to correct sleep deprivation caused by the long working hours of this journey, or more metaphorically the lifeless landscape which bores the persona.  

The title ‘Off the Map’ refers to an unknown destination where the distance to be travelled is unclear. However this title explores a want and desire to see what is beyond the boundaries in exploring other landscapes.  The title can also mirror an individual’s imaginative landscape as they ponder what is beyond reality.

The harshness and heaviness of the physical terrain and the truck highlights the struggle between the physical appearance of a landscape and how this physical landscape can impact on ones inner landscape to then have the ability to alter or form a part of their imaginative landscape. Throughout the poem there is a strong connection and reference to wartime, whereby imagery as been used to reflect the juxtaposition between the country landscape and that of the developed city. The use of enjambment in the second stanza continues this idea through ‘at ease between wars,’ which can reflect pass wartime experiences as well as stating the struggle which one faces within this terrain.

Although destruction of a landscape will have detrimental effects on an environment, hope for the future will always be prevalent. The final line ‘they climb towards dawn’ in stanza 8, reflects how through he imaginative landscape there is hope as one confides with the positive energy of the light. This symbolism of the light not only reflects the hope, however represents the journey which was undertaken to get to this stage.

Human endeavour is recognised as not safeguard against failure; however with the assistance of other inhabitants the issue can be alleviated. The last stanza represents the end of the day and the atmosphere created when all inhabitants come together. The last two lines ‘Nameless, not to be found by day on any map’ can be understood as a loss in close connection which had been formed with the environment in the previous stanza. This line also represents how the landscape which they dream of his a figure of their imagination and only understood by the individual holding the thoughts.

Malouf’s poem ‘Off the Map’ can be related to Robert Gray’s poem ‘Late Ferry’ in that both poems express the innate desire of the persona to escape the environment and venture into their own imaginative state of mind.  The juxtaposition of the materialistic city is made in both poems, hence making a clear relation. The want to venture into the bright lights in ‘Late Ferry’ is similar to desire of the inhabitants of ‘Off the Map’ , to explore other areas and become apart of the city environment.

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