For Auld Lang Syne explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Mateship and Loyalty

  The entire chapter is a testament to mateship, as the push gathers to see off their mates with gifts, drinks, and songs, and the narrator emphasizes the deep bonds of shared hardship and drink.

• Hardship and Poverty

  The push suffers from a 'dearth of regular graft' and low wages; they pool their meager shillings for farewells, and one mate leaves to escape debt and a drunken wife.

• Drink and Escapism

  Drink is central to the push's camaraderie—they share 'rye-buck,' have 'parting wets,' and the narrator notes 'the sympathy of drink' as a bond between them.

Characters to notice

• The Narrator

  The narrator is a member of the 'mountain push' and reflects on the departures of his mates, feeling the end of old times and considering his own emigration.

• Mitchell

  Jack, the narrator's 'especial chum,' is among the push; he pauses during 'Auld Lang Syne' to note the police sergeant joining in, and later is the last mate to leave, described as 'perhaps the most irreclaimable of us all.'

• Joe Swallow

  The narrator addresses Jack as 'Joe' during the farewell, indicating Joe Swallow is present as a mate in the push.

• The Old Man

  Referenced indirectly as part of the push's shared history; the old man is a figure from their past jobs and sprees.

Key passages

• “He was a carpenter and joiner, a good tradesman and a rough diamond. He had got married and had made a hard fight for it during the last two years or so, but the result only petrified his conviction that 'a lovely man could get no blessed show in this condemned country,' as he expressed it; so he gave it best at last⁠—'chucked it up,' as he said⁠—left his wife with her people and four pounds ten, until such time as he could send for her⁠—and left himself with his box of tools, a pair of hands that could use them, a steerage ticket, and thirty shillings.”

  The first mate, a skilled carpenter, had struggled to support his family in Australia and concluded that a good man had no chance in the country. He abandoned his efforts, leaving his wife with her family and a small sum, and sailed for New Zealand with only his tools, a steerage ticket, and very little money.

  Illustrates the economic desperation driving emigration.

• “But it is their little thoughtful attentions when you are going away, that go right down to the bottom of your heart, and lift it up and make you feel inclined⁠—as you stand alone by the rail when the sun goes down on the sea⁠—to write or recite poetry and otherwise make a fool of yourself.”

  The small, considerate gestures from mates at a farewell are deeply moving, stirring such emotion that one might feel like writing poetry or acting foolishly when alone afterward.

  Highlights the emotional depth of mateship.

• “Jack went today; he was perhaps the most irreclaimable of us all⁠—a hard case where all cases were hard; and I loved him best⁠—anyway I know that, wherever Jack goes, there will be someone who will barrack for me to the best of his ability (which is by no means to be despised as far as barracking is concerned), and resent, with enthusiasm and force if he deems it necessary, the barest insinuation which might be made to the effect that I could write a bad line if I tried, or be guilty of an action which would not be straight according to the rules of mateship.”

  The narrator's closest mate, Jack, was the most hardened of the group, yet the narrator loved him most. He trusts that wherever Jack goes, he will defend the narrator's honor and writing against any criticism, upholding the code of mateship.

  Shows the narrator's personal bond and the protective nature of mateship.