Creating Other Worlds in Fly Away Peter In the novel Fly Away Peter, David Malouf explores the individual's ability to transcend the immediate and create "other worlds" of his own: "In meanwhile the mind, from lesser pleasure, retreats into happiness: ...creates,...other worlds..." Malouf uses the continuity of life to highlight the importance of the individual's mind as opposed to the meaning of human existence . Malouf's three main characters, Jim Saddler, Ashley Crowther and Imogen Harcourt, usually present Malouf's themes in a unique and sensitive way. Malouf also implies that fate is predetermined and beyond the control of the individual. The only escape offered is through man's imagination. “It is the human mind, the imagination that makes us special…” Malouf suggests that life has a continuity, that there is an incessance surrounding time and, as a result, individual life is to be savored. Malouf uses symbolism to represent the perpetuity of life. A prime example of this is the migratory patterns of birds in the novel. Birds continue regardless of time: "The duration of time for them was more or less infinite.". When Jim marvels at the sandpiper's ability to find its way across the world and back: "...for the [memory] was...there...in the long memory of its kind." The constant reference to bird migration becomes a clear symbol of the idea of ​​continuity. The concept of continuity of life is also expressed by the association between man and earth. The idea, "...that the earth was man's sphere...", recurs throughout the novel and represents regrowth and the idea that life continues regardless of circumstances. Jim felt himself 'dissolving' into the earth when... middle of paper... suggested that fate is predetermined. Another example of this is the young officer who was shot while leading his men onto the battlefield. He died with the look: "I wasn't ready. Unfair!" Malouf demonstrates that fate is predetermined. The only way the individual can escape it is to create his own "imagined" world. Fly Away Peter is unique in its presentation of universal and important themes. The meaning of the individual as opposed to the meaning of life, man's ability to transcend the immediate, the continuity of life and predetermined destiny are examined sensitively and perceptively. Malouf creates his three main characters to portray and develop the essence of his main themes. The most important of these themes is summed up by Malouf when he states: “We can and must transcend the conditions in which we find ourselves, however terrible they may be..."