Australia's Unspoken Guilt

Australia's Unspoken Guilt

The real causes behind the conflict and hatred between the early white European settlers and the Indigenous Australians is not a well known story among young people of Australia, or at least it wasn’t until Kate Grenville explored the topic in her book The Secret River. She takes readers on a journey following her protagonist William Thornhill and his experiences in Australia. She lets us in on the history of our ancestors and the truth about the colonisation of Australia. The Secret River is an amazing and often chilling story of the story of Australia, one which some critics have described as a potential classic. But is it?

A classic novel embodies values, attitudes and beliefs of the time and place in which it was written, stands the test of time and stays relevant years on from publication or release. Each of these elements are key components that make up classic literature and Kate Grenville includes most of the aspects in her book The Secret River. However, there is one element that she has no control over, which is its timelessness, as it is yet to be seen if it stands the test of time. Despite the fact the fact that it is only eleven years old, this book will, in its time, become a classic Australian novel.

From The Secret River readers learn the histories and Australian ancestral stories from two hundred years ago. It is a sweeping tale of the founding of Australia and the moral choices that created the nation. William Thornhill is a poor waterman from London who is deported, along with this family, to New South Wales in 1806. He eventually raises a family with his wife, Sal, as they claim an area already occupied by the Aboriginal people. As they continue to live on the Hawkesbury River in Australia, discontent grows between the two groups. As Thornhill’s neighbors seem to have hateful feelings towards the Aboriginal people, it all leads to a major event in the book where a massacre takes place, killing all but one of the Aboriginal people and...

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