Week 2: Settler Colonialism in The Secret River and There There

     I believe that the biggest influence settler colonialism has on Kate Grenville’s The Secret River isn’t even necessarily the active settler colonialism taking place in New South Wales, but in the way stories are told. Within the most recent lecture, we learned further about how indigenous people are often misrepresented in their history. Not only are they attributed less than American authors writing about them, but the indigenous story seems to be inseparable from colonialism and their colonizers in general. The lecture also notes that even when the colonizing stops, its impact seeps through all of that people’s culture, language, education, etc. The lecture on Tommy Orange’s There There even mentions how historically understood stories are completely skewed or made to look better in favor of colonizers, with stories like Pocahontas and the big one, Christopher Columbus. 

    Within The Secret River, the language and cultural barrier plays into the impact of settler colonialism. We essentially stay with Thornhill’s perspective the entire way through, our only knowledge about the indigenous people being exposition from the frightened settlers. It is clear that none of the settlers like the indigenous people, treating them like animals, like the “other” that are always attacking them, never the other way around. It even gets to the point where some of the settlers’ Thornhill meets presumably make up stories about awful, inhumane things the natives had done. There is little consideration of the fact that the natives were there first. A reason for this is the massive cultural barrier in which owning land is a set process that the natives didn’t follow, so there’s no way it could be their land in the settlers’ eyes. Obviously this isn’t fair considering the natives don’t speak their language or understand the culture, so there is nothing they can do that will seem right from the settlers’ point of view. The biggest difference between the topic of settler colonialism in There There and The Secret River is that we exclusively see the various perspectives of indigenous people, albeit long after the effects of settler colonialism. With this we can better understand its impact on the people themselves and their independent thoughts regarding social matters. In The Secret River, they are treated more as an obstacle, though that is an issue that is hard to get around considering the massive difference in background and language and the large lack of understanding that comes from that. The reader must come to their own conclusions regarding how to feel about the aboriginal Australians.

Comments

  1. Eloise DanielloJanuary 23, 2023 at 12:05 PM

    Hi Andrew! It is interesting how we get completely opposite views in The Secret River and There There considering the first novel is told through the perspective of a settler while the latter is through the eyes of a native. I also thought it was an interesting point you brought up that I hadn't previously considered about how many natives story's are always told in regards to settlers. Rarely do you find stories of natives before they became colonized. This seems oxymoronic and unfair to me.

    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