 Hello and welcome to summary of all you need to know about On Her Knees by Tim Winton. I'll explain the meaning of the story as it appears in the stories of ourselves at the University of Cambridge International Examination, anthology of short stories in English. I'll begin with some context about the author of the story before explaining the plot in a nutshell, and I'll explain the characters that you should be aware of in the story, and I'll highlight important themes that you should consider when studying this text. Do bear in mind that we have a stories of ourselves course that goes into depth on all of these stories, so make sure you also sign up for this course. So let's get started. Now contextually, let's begin by looking at Tim Winton and his background. So he's Australian and he was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1960, and he had decided by each time to be a writer. He started a creative writing at Western Australian Institute of Technology, but he's down to earth hobbies, sports and recreational surfing, fishing, camping and hanging out in the old waiting port of Albany, gave him an inexhaustible supply of anecdotes that appealed initially to teenage readers. Now Winton became the author of several novels for adults, including Shallows, which is a novel set in a wailing town, and Cloud Street, which is a tale of two working class families rebuilding their lives, and these both won prestigious awards in Australia. He also has a theatrical adaptation of Cloud Street, which toured Australia, Europe and the USA, and his novel The Eye, the Sky, was adapted for theatre later on. Now let's have a look at the story on her knees. And to summarise, we meet the narrator, Victor, who was 16 when his father left. A year later, he and his mother had to move back to the city, where she became a cleaner and she cleans houses to pay the debt, the bills and to put him through university. Now she wouldn't even let him get a job, he had to focus on his studies, and her previous job, which was 18 years prior, was being a receptionist for a doctor, so of course her present job as a cleaner is a step down in her status. However, we learn that Victor's mother, Carol Lang, says that there's honour in cleaning for others. Although Victor doesn't like her doing that kind of work, he likes helping her out even less, and sometimes he wouldn't even go with her to help her clean, which did make him feel guilty. However, we learn that his mother believes in order, hygiene, rigor, discretion and honesty, and she earns a reputation as the best house cleaner in the riverside suburbs. Now, Victor's mother takes a lot of pride in the situation, and he resents how she's treated by her clients. Some of her clients try to get her cheaply and their slobs, his mother left jobs if they didn't pay appropriately. In 20 years of cleaning, Carol was only fired once over a missing pair of earrings. She was given a week's notice and she cried, and Victor told her not to go back. Her personal pride however compelled her to finish this job. It was the first time that we learn Victor and his mother had argued since his father left. They were still arguing the mourning in this story of her last visit to this house where she was fired. Victor told her she shouldn't go, but she doesn't listen to him. She does the supplies into the car, and Victor joins her at the last minute before she leaves so that he can go and help her clean up. Now, when he's in the car, it's described as reeking of the supplies of the cleaning supplies, and Victor's mother drives very cautiously. She's really glad also that he's come with her to help her. And even if they argue about the situation, he still comes to help her. Victor, however, thinks it's really demeaning to work for a woman who's trying to replace her for stealing. And Carol thinks that actually this is the client's loss. She won't find anyone as good as her. However, Victor seems to think that the woman hasn't even gone to the police. She just wants an angle to reduce his mother's pay. Yet Carol, Victor's mother thinks the woman knows she didn't steal the earrings. She's probably found them. And if not, there are plenty of other jobs. She plans to train the woman by cleaning her place beautifully, that she is a woman of integrity. Now, the get onto the street of Art Deco Flats, which is a really fancy area of this part of town. And Carol parks back from the house that takes supplies out of the car, and normally should use the client's parking. However, not today. And she of course, you'd also use the client's objects for cleaning but also not today. And as I walk up the garden steps, Victor thinks his mother looks really old. When they enter the apartment smells of cats, he has an envelope being torn open and Carol opens this envelope and puts a note in her pocket. She won't tell him however what it is. There's money in the envelope and Victor looks in the fridge and at the wine rack as he's helping his mother clean around. He's curious to the person who treats his mother so badly. He cleans out the cat litter. It smells so bad that he does it half heartedly. As his cleaning, he hears his mother singing from the bathroom. Victor damp dust the elaborate assortment of ornaments. The apartment seems lonely and stale and he continues dusting other things. Victor seems to think that you'd have to be a very selfish shored person to have strangers in your home cleaning all your things. He looks around and he seems to bookshelves are full of novels, pop psychology and celebrity books. There are also some feminist and erotic works on these shelves and Victor dusts academic materials and biographies in the study. And there's a student paper in the typewriter that he notices which he does the photos over the desk as well. He then identifies the homeowner who looks like a decent person. However, he seems really impatient to finish the job. Victor then works through the bedroom quite quickly and vacuums the whole place. He's distracted by the fact that the theft wasn't reported and he speculates on this woman's motives, this client's motives. Perhaps she knows him from school. The cuts then leap out from behind the bedroom curtains and Victor chases them into the kitchen where his mother is working. He asks about the note and whether he was a suspect and she says that that's a very silly question. Now while Victor vacuums the bedroom curtains, his mom comes in for the Windex and he says that she should have just done a light cleaning or none at all and he wants her to force the issue with her client. However, she says this talk would just be too damaging, especially for her reputation. It's just better to bear this and walk away silently. Victor then resumes vacuuming a pile of chocolate wrappers at the head of the bed. He knows his mother is still there. There's a noise in the line and his mother turns off the vacuum. When they open it up, they do find an earring and the other one is just up against a skirting board. Victor says that the woman is clear and it seems like his mother actually was innocent the whole time and he asks his mother to tell this woman where they were. His mother, however, knows that it's a hopeless situation. The woman has only to say Carol bought them back to save her job. She can't fight back and Victor feels quite helpless as he can't help her. They finish up, Victor takes the earrings off the bed and throws them into the cat litter and Carol's ready to go. Victor then asks about the envelope with the money. His mother refuses to take it. Victor then goes to get the vacuum. He stops in the cat box and picks out the earrings. He dusts them off and he lays them by the money in the kitchen. They then leave the apartment. Now, when it comes to the characters in the story, the first is Carol. So she's Victor's mother who is a scrupulously honest person. She's an independent, divorced, honest and hardworking lady who tirelessly works as a house cleaner in a wealthy high socioeconomic homes to support her son through law school. She uses the quality of her work to speak about her character and to show her character. And on the way to the client's place, who accused her of stealing, she says that they'll show her by cleaning that that flat within an inch of its life. It's as if doing a great job in this difficult situation will prove her honesty beyond doubt. Now, Carol seems to place value on keeping herself presentable. On her last clean and visit, she won't use the flat owner's parking spaces or her supplies and it's the principle of it, which really she wants to uphold. When Carol leaves the flat, she doesn't take any of the money. This isn't about the money as presumably she's being paid the amount they agreed on. Her personal dignity seems to be worth more than the money and she won't take anything from this woman who has falsely accused her. The other character, of course, is Victor, who's a 20-year-old law student. He's quite cynical, suspicious, clever and loyal to his mother. Throughout the story, he's really loyal and he's quite proud and he can't accept injustice done against his mother. He's strongly against the wealthy upper class clients of his mother as he feels they underestimate the poorer classes like his mom and overexploit them. And he refers to them as the worst payers in the biggest clubs in the story. Now, Victor is quite independent as he wanted to get to part-time job in university to pay for his tuition and he's somewhat selfish as he hated going to work with his mother to help her out given he thought it was demeaning work. He's fairly stubborn as he keeps on arguing with his mother about returning to the job with this particular client for a week and he's keenly aware of his surroundings as he notices every minute detail in the flat they're cleaning and it's him who finds his earrings and finally he feels really helpless that the injustice done to his mother and he's really angered by it. The other client even if we actually never directly meet them is this mistress the lady who accused Victor's mother of theft. So she seems to be a really unforgiving person many because she sacked Carol without any evidence over her missing earrings even though she knows that Carol is a highly recommended and honest cleaner and something like this has never happened before in a record. This woman also has not bothered to even look for earrings before she accused Carol. She doesn't concern about how Carol might feel if she was unjustly accused which she was and she seems unable to entertain the thought that she herself might have lost them. This client seems to read a lot as her library is full of books on human rights and equality and she also seems to be a teacher at her college as there are many marked assignments on her desk. However knowing as much as she does she doesn't extend the courtesy to Carol after defending her rights as a cleaner and she's obviously not doing as she teaches or the disparity between preaching and doing is thus very vast as she's quite hypocritical. Now in terms of themes in the story the first is to do with class so the narrator Victor and his mother are from the working class. The situation more difficult because his father left the family. In contrast Carol Victor's mother cleans the homes of rich people who do white collar work or who possibly don't even work at all. Carol's cleaning job is a step down from her previous employment as a doctor's receptionist and Victor emphasises the difference in the neighbourhoods as they are driving to this client's home. When they pull onto the client's street which is by river Victor says that constant brothy presence stank of old money of posh schools and new art clubs. Now class differences always mean a power imbalance. When they find the missing earrings both Victor and Carol Carol says all she has to say is that she made me guilty enough to give them back that I just wanted to keep the job you can't fight back. Carol realises her clientele will not take her word as a cleaner over one of their own as clients. Since she can't afford to lose her clients she's therefore in a no-win situation. There also seems to be a disconnect between how the upper class claims to view the working class but this is how they actually treat them. So this particular client study has many books by feminist writers and social activists. Her paper on the top writer is about consciousness raising and change. This one probably feels she's an ally of the working class but actually in practice in reality she's a hypocrite. She takes advantage of this class in balance she even tries to get a discount. She assumes Carol a working class woman with an excellent reputation as a thief. This is even without doing a proper search of her flat. The other theme is that of injustice so this theme is closely tied to class. Neither Victor nor his mother have anybody to cushion the blows that life throws at them unlike those who own the houses that Victor's mother cleans. Now Tim Winton gives the reader a strong female character in the story and he manages to highlight the plight of the working class the obstacles they face when engaging with the middle or upper classes. Despite working so hard it seems Carol admits that even if she goes to the police about being unfairly discriminated against she won't attain justice as the only thing she has is her good name which will be tarnished by the talk that arises from the drama. Carol can't prove her innocence to employer. This injustice shows class struggle and the unfairness created around the fact that she was not in the same class as the lady. Individuals are usually not treated equally due to their social economic status which they're one fair is a sad reality. The helplessness here heightens our sense of pathos as readers in the closing paragraphs of the story. There's also a strong sense of injustice as Carol was not only incorrect accused of over the earrings which were definitely not worth over five hundred dollars. Despite having a flash of hope for Carol's innocence victor's hope is quickly erased by the sad reality of the class discrimination that they will face against other people who doubt their story is more than householders. Now this scene is made far sadder by Victor because despite his education and even being a law student so knowing the law he's still powerless to help his mother. Now another theme is that of pride so pride is shown in many ways. Victor's mother for instance is proud and a dignified woman despite the fact that she's forced to clean other people's houses in order to make a living. She never allows us to get the better of her. Now she takes a lot of pride in her work especially a standard of conduct. She also took pride in the quality of her work and despite cleaning other people's floors she maintained a dignity and a high standard for herself. Now this is done by Winton to heighten our respect for Victor's mother and in turn heighten the feeling of injustice and anger when she's helpless to prove her honor due to the class gap that exists and she's simply doing the best she can. Carol seems prideful however that she can support her son independently without him having to work whilst he's in university allowing him to focus on his studies. So that's all. If you find the summary video useful do make sure you sign up for our stories of ourselves course and also check out our website which is www.firstreacheaters.com there you can find plenty of other English revision worksheets model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including edxcel, aqa and igcsc. Thanks so much for listening.