The Secret River Analysis

Phillip Gwyne’s novel, “Deadly Unna?” explores how the main character Gary Black, a white boy from the “Port” also known as “Blacky” grows up by not agreeing to racism. Blacky experiences prejudice and friendship from both the aboriginal and white communities. Blacky begins to develop a greater tolerance for aborigines and their culture, and then he further attempts to apply this knowledge to the intolerant and prejudiced town in which he lives. The boy who helps him shift in his opinion of aborigines is a local aborigine named “Dumby Red”, who lives in the aboriginal missionary “The Point”. Dumby is of Blacky’s Football team and helps Blacky in various ways to become more tolerant.

Craig Silvey engages us with Jasper Jones in order to convey a certain moral message in hope to make us stop and think. No one in this novel is truly accepted into the community, which tells me as the responder, that in order for this society to succeed differences need to be tossed aside. Jasper Jones is a credible recollection of the injustice, racism and social exclusion that exists in the Australian society. It also tackles growing up, first love, family unity, and a sense of belonging in a community.

It is crucial that we study Australian Narratives as it creates insights into events we may have not explored. This is evident in the novel "Crow Country" written by Kate Constable. It teaches us about Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality, Australia's History and respect, as we experience what it feels like to live in rural Australia, creating an understanding about Aboriginal people. Therefore, through a close read and study of "Crow Country", readers are able to learn new and important things about our past and present, showing that it is crucial to study Australian Narratives.

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

In contemporary society, interpretation is an institutional practice with readers consequently sharing assumptions; highlighting the concept of interpretive communities. Audiences often respond to ideas based on dominant contextual norms and ideologies. The biased recount of Australia's sullen and discriminatory past has led to a collective ignorance; with awareness and redemption of the true atrocities committed by British Settlers being a new concept. Kate Grenville's raw and accosting novel the Secret River confronts readers, positioning them to challenge the socio-historical doctrines of the 21st Century society. Analytical readers can respond actively to issues of racism by acknowledging the intertextuality of the text and contemporary actions, and by recognising and contrasting prevailing attitudes. This process evokes an emotive response to uncomfortable notions and influences a remorseful reaction towards the Aboriginal community and their hardship.

Have you ever needed easier access to the essential items to stay alive? This is specifically what the residents of the North-East thought around the year 1817. Carol Sheriff argues in her book, “The Artificial River” that the residents of the canal corridor actively sought after long-distance trade and therefore consumer goods that markets brought to their homes. The fact that people supported the Erie Canal at all "suggests that at least some aspired to engage in broader market exchange" (p. 11). The transformation of this region because of the Erie Canal is organized around six topics, each of which is covered by a chapter. They include the; Visions of Progress, the Triumph of Art over Nature, Reducing Distance and Time, the Politics of Land and Water, the Politics of Business, and the Perils of Progress.

Charlie articulates how he “never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel… (if) they’re in a barrel, you’ve already caught them… they can’t escape... why bring guns into it?” Silvey’s use of characterisation and first person point of view portrays Charlie’s realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards ‘the other’. The “fish” is symbolic of Charlie and how he is different to the people of Corrigan; who are like vultures – constantly seeking the chance to attack those that are considered the ‘minority’. Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu, is a gifted and committed cricket player who persistently tries to get himself in the local team, however, due to his Vietnamese background, “he’s ruthlessly bullied and belted about by the boys at school.” The emotive imagery and alliteration of “bullied” and “belted” further depict Charlie’s internal conflict in addition to his realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards the peripheral of society. The use of emotive imagery positions readers to realise the extent to which powerful words can have; causing readers to recognise how crude and harrowing humankind can be towards the marginalised. Thus, Silvey effectively conveys to the reader how the indigenous race were isolated from ‘white Australian’ society; how intelligent individuals were ostracised; and, how groups of people with racially different backgrounds were isolated from mainstream Australian society.

This examination will focus on topics such as the poetic techniques used, how Australian identity is portrayed, the effect the text has on the reader and my opinions.

Gilbert’s poem portrays many Aboriginals plight’s within Australia and conveys notions of despair, anguish and anger for his fellow Aboriginal comrades. Again, Gilbert uses strong visual imagery in “the anguished death you spread” which helps convey the persona’s feeling of horror and anger at the Europeans. This is further emphasised through the poet’s vehement and repetitive use of second person pronouns in “you” which conveys a sense of blame and accumulates into an accusatory tone and generates a strong sense of detachment between the author and the European settlers. Furthermore enjambment enhances the accusatory tone in “you pollute all the rivers and litter every road” because the lack of punctuation and pauses makes the lines sharp and quick, creating a sense of anger in the author. In addition the author’s use of metaphors in “humanity locked in chains” creates a sense of struggle and inability to escape the oppression the Aboriginals are in, whereby the word “chain” is symbolic for trapped and lack of freedom. Kevin Gilbert’s emotional poem brings light to the pain and suffering Aboriginals are going through, which is a stark contrast to the image of Australia, being a free and accepting

This narrative text is based off the film The Sapphires set in Australia in the 1960s. In The Sapphires we see a flashback of Kay’s childhood and how she is part of the Stolen Generation. I will use this storyline as the starting point for my diary entries. The film gave me background knowledge on Stolen Generation and their experiences they faced. However, I need to know extra information so I will do further research about the Stolen Generation, in order to give an accurate description of their experiences. This narrative is targeted towards everyone. It is designed to inform them about the Stolen Generation and how they changed when forcibly moved to an Aborigines White Institution. This piece of text will be written in a diary entry form. I will use informal and conversational language. I will also use descriptive language when describing objects and sceneries throughout the text.

‘Australia’ also showed how the government controlled how children of Aboriginal descent were brought up with language used such as “The mixed raced children must be dislocated from their primitive full blooded Aborigine, how else are we to breed the black out of them”. This presented again the reason as to why the Aboriginal children were taken away from their own cultures to be raised in something completely different.

The play presents complex notions about family bonds, based upon their shared cultural experiences and the way in which they reinforce their cultural Australian identity and help members of the family endure the physical hardship and social isolation. Jack Davis’ social realist drama, ‘No Sugar’ explores how the varying levels of family unity, rebellion and cultural identity depicted in different characters influences their survival. In this play, the term ‘survival’ operates on two continuums. It is conveyed as the physical sense of life and death through the play’s protagonist, Jimmy Munday, as well as the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit is predominantly reflected in the parallel yet contrasted lives of Mary and Billy Kimberley as well as Gran’s deteriorating health after losing family members. Although Davis articulates the endurance of the Indigenous Australians, he incorporates figures of white authority who seek to demolish the Indigenous race and culture. Set in the time frame of 1929 to 1934, ‘No Sugar’ presents a critique of the conventional colonial British views of that era; and their effect on the preservation of Indigenous spirit and culture.

Topic #3 Thesis Statement: In the book The Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese, Amelia One-Sky’s life was ultimately shaped through the entanglements of discrimination of the aboriginal people and poor childhood development which lead her to a life of homelessness. Introduction: With the economic and social deprivation of substandard housing (p.149) One For The Dead had lost her parents at a very young age, this then leads her and her brothers to residential schools where she loses her younger brother, Harley. The mingling of events eventually pulls Amelia One Sky and the rest of her brothers into socially inflicted traumas of residential schools, causing her to hear “Voices of the dead” (p.12) and her brothers rebelling with “rage and resentment”

The author, Inga Clendinnen, aimed to reconstruct the story of the European and Australian interaction from both perspectives compared to one point of view. Since authors often make one interpretation and discuss their view in their novel, her intention was to be mutual on both sides, so the reader can gain an understanding of how each group interpreted the actions of the other’s race and ethnicity. While many novels tell the story from the perspective of the European viewpoint only, Clendinnen wants readers to view the story from the role of Indigenous peoples rather than the Europeans. However According to Ani Fox (2006), who reviewed this book in her Journal of World History, she states that all her sources were British natives and

Mr A. O Neville was The legal guardian and protector of every Western Australian Aboriginal. He had to power to remove any mixed European and Aboriginal decent from their family from anywhere in Western Australia. His job was to protect, instead he called the aboriginals an “unwanted third race”. He sees nothing wrong with the white mans politics of taking the children away from their families and forcing them to give up on their own heritage. For 25 years Neville was in charge of enforcing the governments policy for removing aboriginal children in Western Australia. Mr Neville’s character is a stuck up, uncaring man, who believed as well as concluded that he was just doing his rightful job, when in fact he was removing generation after generation of children, who grew up without