GradeSaver, 28 March 2012 Web. Whisker Harry, the elder of the Aborigine clan, spears Smasher Sullivan. This quotation demonstrates the abyss separating the Western understanding of ownership from the Aboriginal conception that they and the land are one. He wills Saggity to die so that he does not have to take him into Windsor and set his foot on a path of no return. "The Secret River The Secret River Summary and Analysis". Thanks to Sal's efforts, his sentence is commuted to deportation to the convict settlement in New South Wales. As the oldest sibling, William is placed in a position to be liked because of his loyalty to his siblings, his sense of responsibility, and his selflessness. He would have to set up house in Windsor or Sydney and one day return to London, abandoning his dream forever. Dick cannot accept his father's participation in the slaughter, and he never speaks to William again. The settlers sail up to the Aborigine camp near Thomas Blackwood's place. William brings the boy a drink of water, but the boys throws the water back up immediately. LinkedIn . The shot he fires at Long Jack sends an addictive thrill of power through William. A clan of Aborigines lives in the area, and they do not recognize William's ownership of the land. Before Sal can enforce her decision, William sees smoke at Saggity's place and leaves on the Hope with Ned and Dan to go help. The Secret River explores human instinct on a level that is visceral, honest... and depressing. IGCSE or GCSE revision video looking at the context of Kate Grenville's 'The Secret River' He cannot conceive of abandoning his dream. In most courses studied at Harvard Business schools, students are provided with a case study. Ducey, Corinne. In this scene, Ned symbolizes William's unconscious decision to step over the line. The Secret River essays are academic essays for citation. In Kate Grenville’s 2005 novel The Secret River, William Thornhill is a nineteenth-century Englishman who, facing a death sentence for theft, is sent to Australia instead. Shocked, William realizes that Saggity has gone ahead with his plan to poison the Aborigines with 'the green powder.' Without the goods that William skims off the top, his family would starve. Blackwood intensely dislikes Smasher and disagrees with his racial hatred of the Aborigines. Willie is Thornhill and Sal's first baby. Blackwood's humane path is violently cut down by Smasher's whip. Williams spends seven years rowing up and down the river, transporting the gentry from one side to the other. On the Hawkesbury, Sal develops good relationships with the native women and trades with them for bowls and digging sticks. When the hardship descends on the family, William involves Rob in his plan to steel the Brazil wood. When his employer, Mr. King, hires a new clerk who pays close attention to the goods, William decides to quit before he gets caught stealing. William awakes the next morning to find that the Aborigines have torched the corn patch. William agrees. After Dinner . The guns erupt. The character I have chosen to analyse is William Thornhill. The men are drinking, their rage growing by the minute. The movie, Secret River, is about issues on land, and how land was divided in the past before civilization, including the part of the ownership of property in land (McNamara 2013). The camp is deserted, except for dead bodies, whose mouths are encrusted with vomit. When Sal views the Aborigines' camp, she correctly understands that the land is their home. Harvard Business Case Studies Solutions – Assignment Help. Weinbloom, Elizabeth ed. Blackwood has learned to respect the Aborigines and advocates living in peaceful co-existence, based on his philosophy of give a little/take a little. Grenville ends the novel with the image of William scanning the horizon for a glimpse of a shape of man, symbolizing the haunting specter of the Aborigines that hangs over white Australia. it pierces Smasher's chest. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. Who or what is positioned to be liked in The Secret River? Then the Aborigine men enter the fray, throwing their deadly spears. As master of his own boat, a wedding present from Mr. Middleton, William feels that he has left the dire poverty of his childhood behind. William sits quietly in the midst of the ranting men because his motivation is not anger but desperation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Secret River by Kate Grenville. The Thornhill's and the Aborigines live in an uneasy peace until the Aborigines strip William's original patch of corn. Facebook. All of the tension of the previous months comes to a head. Also on this first voyage, William encounters Smasher Sullivan, a mean-mouthed settler who deals violently with any Aborigines who step foot on his land. 1703 Words 7 Pages. He goes to work for Thomas Blackwood, an acquaintance from London, who owns a boat and plies the trade between Sydney and the settlements along the Hawkesbury river. Twitter. William must go to work as a waterman for another master. William first notices the silence. The men lift Smasher up and move him into the shed. The Secret River tells the story of William Thornhill, a poor waterman from London who is deported, along with this family, to New South Wales in 1806. He sits drinking rum, feeling his back pushed farther and farther against the wall. William lifts his gun and shoots Whisker Harry in the stomach. Long Jack and Black Dick advance on William, but he turns the gun on them, yelling at them to leave their food alone. However, the white settlers are trapped by their status as convicts and cannot leave, and the Aborigines feel a spiritual connection to the land and will not voluntarily abandon it. (1988). Eventually, she agrees to give William five years, and the family moves to Thornhill's Point. The Aborigines begin throwing large stones from the safety of the forest. William is not blinded to the Aborigines' humanity. Blackwood decides to retire to his piece of land up the Hawkesbury, and William borrows money from Mr. King to buy his boat. Despite their initial shock at the run-down settlement, the Thornhill's adapt to life in the colony. Born into poverty in Southwark, William works as an apprentice to Mr. Middleton, a waterman on the Thames. With Saggity's death, Smasher Sullivan's new Australia becomes a reality. His whisper in William's ear is the whisper of William's unconscious mind. Critical Analysis Of The Secret River; Critical Analysis Of The Secret River. Thornhill is born in 1777 into a large, impoverished family. In The Secret River, Grenville sets the conflicting visions of the future development of Australian society on a collision course: Smasher Sullivan's domination and dispersal and Thomas Blackwood's peaceful co-existence. Willie urges him to shoot them, but William hesitates. Blackwood has a full pardon and solid boat, which he uses to transport goods between Sydney and the settlements along the Hawkesbury river. Thomas Blackwood runs into the camp, shouting at them to stop. A week after the attack on the Webbs, William sails by Darkey Creek, an area with an Aboriginal camp. The Aborigines retreat, dragging the wounded woman behind them. But William takes pity on the boy and tells Ned to release him. The Aborigines retaliate by torching the corn patch. The film provides a view on privilege and power through the depiction of Settlers and Indigenous custodians of Australia. This study guide contains the following sections: Plot Summary; Chapters; Characters; Symbols and Symbolism. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. Although William is not yet ready to consciously recognize it, he now knows that if the Aborigines will not leave of their own accord, he will have to make them leave. Saggity is lying on his back, a spear through his stomach. As a poor waterman in London, William could do nothing but accept behavior meant to degrade and humiliate him. William is desperate. A month-long cold snap freezes the Thames. He wakes up and steps outside his hut, where an Aborigine man confronts him. The Secret River Analysis. When the others return, they can kill them all. past and the interactions that may have been taking place between the first settlers and the aborigines. She doesn't like how The men need William's boat to take them up to Blackwood's place. The battle is over, the land littered with the bodies of Aborigines and settlers. Neither people want anything to do with other. He works himself into the ground in an effort to gain the security that Mr. Middleton and his house on Swan Lane represent. He discovers a boy around Dick's age still alive among the corpses. The Secret River essays are academic essays for citation. The Secret River (2013) a play adapted by Andrew Bovell from the book of the same title by Kate Granville, is set in colonial Australia along the Hawkesbury River. The first thing he did when he arrived at Thornhill's Point was plant that corn patch. Essay on how various perspectives in The Secret River reflect historical and social contexts. He slumps over the spear and dies. Kate Grenville's The Secret River (2005) is a moving account of the disturbing colonial development of Australia. ate Grenville’s best selling 2005 book The Secret River, directed by Neil Armfield and adapted by Andrew Bovell, is a shocking, scandalous – not to mention thrilling - insight into the historic events of the settling of Australia. The entire township hears his dying scream. He grabs one of the women by the hair and yells at them to go away. He feels as if everything he has worked for has been taken away from him. William takes the loss of the corn patch like a physical blow. Analysis. The Secret River tells the story of William Thornhill, a poor waterman from London who is deported, along with this family, to New South Wales in 1806. Instead, he angrily repeats William's words, “be off!” In this scene, Grenville sets the stage for the conflict at the center of the novel: the battle for control of the land between the white settlers and the Aborigines. The Aborigines do not stop picking the corn as William approaches. She looks around her in silence, at the tidy shelters and the ringed fireplace. The Aborigines disappear into the trees and no longer bother the settlers along the Hawkesbury. He agrees to take part in the attack. Sal's insistence on leaving Thornhill's Point after the Aborigines burn their corn patch pushes William to a point of no return. She understands that the Aborigines have always lived on the land and that they will always return. He sees the dying boy as a once-beloved son, like his own children. The Secret River Analytical Essay July 2, 2019 by Essay Writer Early European settlers did not understand that, as the original inhabitants of Australia, the Aboriginal people were entitled to the land, yet they did not claim ownership of it for their possession. She does not want to live in the wilderness, but only to earn enough money that they can someday return home in style. The next morning, life at Thornhill's Point changes forever. The bailiffs confiscate the house on Swan Lane and the boats. William, who has yet to fire his gun, turn and shoots Whisker Harry. At first, Sal resists. William works as a waterman in the Sydney harbor and uses his old tricks to skim off rum from the barrels and barrels that pass through the harbor. William is not a violent man, and he does have an understanding of the Aborigines' humanity. The Question and Answer section for The Secret River is a great The idea of participating in a slaughter is so horrific to William's conscious mind that it can only be conveyed in a whisper. The two symbols of Australia's future, Smasher Sullivan and Thomas Blackwood, square off among the dead and dying. He drops the gun. This detailed literature summary also contains Quotes and a Free Quiz on The Secret River by Kate Grenville. It wasn't a make-shift stopping point, but a real home. He shoots Whisker Harry, cutting off the head of the Aboriginal hydra. He says they should sail up that night and settle the problem once and for all by morning. As a child, he hangs around James and William, helping them steal. His character is important, in the novel, because he was one of the first Europeans, sent to Australia, to work out their sentence for their crimes. The stage drama, The Secret River, adapted by Andrew Bovell and set between September 1813 and April 1814, is moderately effective in representing the Dharug people’s perspective of land ownership, inter-race relationships and their own cultural values. The Secret River by Kate Grenville Canongate £12.99, pp352 . In his childhood, Thornhill spends time with a girl named Sal and her family. William stands with his gun at the ready but does not shoot. William decides to leave Mr. King before he gets caught stealing. Discuss about the Report for a Article of Analysis of The Secret River. As William sits outside the mud hut, an Aboriginal man materializes out of the darkness. The Secret River was one of these popular novels, which is exploring the past, although it is only historical fiction. Following The Idea of Perfection was always going to be a tough call. William and Sal are left destitute. Long Jack is the only Aborigine left on the land. William physically fights with the Aborigines at the corn patch, hurting several of the women and firing a shot at Long Jack. Sal opens a little bar in one side of their hut, called The Pickled Herring. Sal realizes that the camp was their home, just like their home in London. When William becomes a lighterman, he employs Rob to help haul the goods to and from the boat. Literary Analysis of Kate Grenville's The Secret River Essay 845 Words | 4 Pages. He could imagine how he would grow into himself in the warmth of such a home. The novel then jumps back in time to Thornhill's birth in 1777 to a very poor family. The Secret River Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. Dan walks over to a baby whose crying is disturbing the growing silence and clubs it to death. This quotation demonstrates the abyss separating the Western understanding of ownership from the Aboriginal conception that they and the land are one. William watches the massacre as if in slow motion. The idea of a conflicting familial relationship is shown in both Kate Grenville’s novel ‘The Secret River’ and in Robert Lowell’s poem, ‘The Dolphin.’ These texts, conveys in detail the hostility between familial relationships. Not affiliated with Harvard College. IGCSE and GCSE revision video focussed on London, chapter 2 of Kate Grenville's 'The Secret River' Kate Grenville's The Secret River is a sweeping tale of the founding of Australia and the moral choices that created a nation. The below quotation demonstrates the abyss separating the Western understanding of ownership from the Aboriginal conception that they and the land are one. He keenly feels the unjustness of his inferior social position and strains against the limitations of his class. William falls in love with Mr. Middleton's daughter, Sal. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Secret River by Kate Grenville. The Secret River is a historical novel telling the story of William Thornhill, a poor Englishman from the early 19th century who was deported and transported to … (p.298) William knows that if the Aborigines remain, Sal will leave. Sal insists on leaving Thornhill's Point. Kate Grenville canvasses the concepts of belonging and alienation in her novel “The Secret River” through her manipulation of aesthetic features; symbolism, characterisation, and setting. 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