Week 1: The Secret River’s Chilling Context

    One of the most well known ideas about 18th century London is the filth and sickness that ravaged the citizens, especially the poorest areas. Something that I hadn’t really paid much attention to was the weather, and how that contributed to the poor health. Page 26 of Grenville’s The Secret River describes “the hardest freeze of the year, a day in January when the pearly clouds themselves seemed made of ice and the air was painful to breathe.” Not to mention how “the river froze over, stone solid for two weeks” (Grenville 25). When I think about this unbearable cold in an era that had little remedies like we do now (efficient insulation, heaters, better shelters, etc.), it furthers the idea of this large mass of people getting sick, and with less ways to treat it due to less efficient medicine. People also had to work outside doing hard labor, and I’m sure many people died overworking themselves in the cold. There’s also the common theme of youth dying, especially newborn babies who aren’t built for such a harsh environment. It’s shocking to see how many different factors contributed to their notoriously poor health, that health and sickness being one of the aspects that reinforces the desperation that these characters (and the people at the time) felt in just surviving day to day life.

Comments

  1. Noah English 11H BlogJanuary 16, 2023 at 7:55 PM

    I never noticed how many times weather came up, but seemingly it was mostly cold, dreary, and negative. For example, the lake freezing over meant William could no longer work. These cold days meant people (especially children) dying, getting sick, and working in harsh conditions. The cold weather represented the cold reality of impoverished life. I predict that as William moves outside of England, the weather will change in tandem with his situation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paulos HabtewoldJanuary 16, 2023 at 8:55 PM

    Hi Andrew, I noticed that so many people died to something similar to just a cold such as William's mother and father and your explanation really put things into perspective to me. The poor people could not afford medicine as they were barely able to afford food (as long as they stole) and it was freezing, to the point of the people feeling pain, almost all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2023 at 11:40 PM

    I completely agree that the weather, and the forces of nature in general, were used very frequently as a tool to create the authors intended setting, and get the reader to feel a level of sympathy for the characters in the novel. I have not yet thought about nature in the historical context of late 18th century London, and am very curious if there any works of non fiction from the time that also show a great focus on the weather.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Critical Thinkers and WritersJanuary 17, 2023 at 4:09 PM

    Weather seems very much connected to health or illness: if you have no protection from the weather, your body is more vulnerable to it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8: Gender Inequality in Pachinko

     Gender is one of, if not the biggest recurring theme throughout the novel. The entire plot stems from the societal norms that would condemn the 16 year old Sunja for being impregnated while unmarried to a much older, manipulative man who had a whole separate family. If word were to get out, most people would have undoubtedly sided with Hansu. It’s a shame that Sunja has to marry, especially at her age, in order to remain what would be considered a valuable member of society. The novel even mentions women killing themselves if they are impregnated before marriage, even if it was forced upon them. It is so awful to think that regardless of age, a woman or girl could be heavily condemned or commit suicide for having a child they didn’t want, a horror that the novel keeps the reader aware of to continually contextualize the decisions made by the characters.       At the same time, many of these different societal standards between men and women are no...
Read more

Week 3: Dick Thornhill and Childlike Wonder

     In Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, Dick Thornhill represents the idea of child innocence, fear of our own ignorance, and nature vs. nurture. As the first section of the novel painstakingly establishes, Thornhill, Sal, and even Willie’s entire world exists in London for most of their life. They are suddenly sent to an unknown world with the context of their occupation being a punishment. This is something even Willie was old enough to understand, so they naturally approached everything in this new world with fear and caution.       Dick on the other hand finds that childlike wonder of exploration that all children have in their environment, the difference being that all he has ever known has been in Sydney. While he still is surrounded by a society that inherently considers the native people to be lesser and to be savages, Dick still manages to treat them as people like anybody else. His perception of the world isn’t as harshly ingrained in soc...
Read more

Week 1: Smoked Salmon

       There is a lot of food that could take first place for me, but my absolute favorite at the moment would have to be raw smoked salmon. The perfect rendition of this dish is also salty, with the standout feature being that powerful smoky taste that feels like it coats your tongue. The smooth, tender, and tasty salmon compliments the smoke without overpowering or clashing with it, allowing for a perfect balance that is almost unbeatable for me. There is the danger of overdoing it with the salt, but that usually isn’t a problem. The meal is relatively simple in terms of ingredients, but its taste is proof that complexity isn’t necessary to make an excellent dish. 
Read more