Wk 3: Aboriginal Camps and the Legacy of Settler Colonialism

    After watching part B microlecture on The Secret River by Kate Grenville, I learned about the aboriginal camps held in Australia. Before this lecture, I had some previous knowledge on residential boarding school and knew to some degree the atrocities that went on there but I never really thought about Australia doing a similar thing. In camps such as Moore River, aboriginal children, were sent to to learn ways in which to assimilate into western society. There, much like in residential boarding schools in the U.S., the children were often treated poorly. Many children died from diseases and infections that were could have been treatable for those times. In other words, if there was more care and well being present for the children, many death could have been avoided. 

    I didn't actually know that there are Native Americans who actually had positive or some good experiences in their boarding schools. I always thought of it as this horrible place where they were forced to forget their culture and their language in order to assimilate into western society, so it came as a small shock that there were some who didn't have such a hard time and found lifelong friends.

    I still wonder though what exactly happened to the children who went to the aboriginal camps. Did they go straight to the home they grew up in or where they sent somewhere else? And, would they only let you leave the camps if they thought you conformed to western ideology or at a certain age?

Wk 3: Character Analysis on Dick Thornhill

     Taking a closer look at Dick Thornhill, William Thornhill's son, I find Dick not only getting more and more independent as he grows older but more sympathetic towards the aboriginals as well. In earlier chapters Dick was presented as being a little weak and not as manly, but, as the story unfolds, he is changing and getting stronger both physically and through his will. If, out of everyone in the Thornhill family, I would say that Dick is the most sympathetic to the aboriginals of the bunch. He is often found hanging out and learning from the aboriginal group that lived on the Thornhill property. This sympathy towards the aboriginal allows the readers to get a much closer look at the day to day lives of some aboriginal people. For instance, in a certain section of the book, Dick and William learn how the aboriginal people make fires and try to do that themselves. It also provides the perspective of someone who within the Thornhill family  who is sympathetic, and just by him doing that, William Thornhill has to rethink his own position with the aboriginals. Dick's relationship with the aboriginals brings to light some of the practices and ways of the aboriginals to William, the narrator, to both give the reader a closer look to a less than biased way of looking at them, and force William to confront his own prejudice of them. When there was a gathering of aboriginal people going into the Thornhill property and singing at night everyone was frightened and the convict laborers as well as Willie wanted Thornhill to go out there and shoot first, as questions later. Dick was the only one who stood up for the aboriginals, in a way, by agreeing with William's reassurance that they were just gathering not going to kill them. Dick's presence is someone much closer to him than Blackwood who is able to teach and have him realize that the aboriginals aren't just thieving savages that the majority of people believe.

WK 2: Settler Colonialism in "The Secret River"

 After taking time to review the two different microlectures on settler colonialism, I have a much clearer idea of how settler colonialism appears in The Secret River by Kate Grenville. The settler colonialism in The Secret River isn't clearly apparent until parts two and three of the story. The only time that settler colonialism does appear in part one is all the different mentions of brazilin wood and other imports from colonial territories. As I have learned in the microlectures, settler colonialism is essentially a branch of colonialism in which the foreign settlers never actually leave the territories they have taken over/settled on. Some such places are in the Americas where settlers there formed the United States and took over the majority of Native American land (There There) and in Australia (The Secret River). 

    In parts two and three William Thornhill and his family are brought to New South Wales, which is a settlement in the land that is now known as Australia. The benefit of hindsight is that we now know that this settlement, along with others on the continent would be brought together to create the country of Australia due to settler colonialism.

    Something that both There There and The Secret River have in common when it comes to settler colonialism is that both settlers are/were slowly displacing the aboriginals and Native Americans from their lands. In There There, most of the displacing happens before the story is set, but even within the story some of the characters are affected by the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 where many Native Americans where forced to move to urban cities as a form of forced assimilation. Similarly, the aboriginals in The Secret River are being pushed off their land by settlers who go out and claim whatever land they want as long as they have some sort of placeholder marking that a particular piece of land is taken. These settlers don't put much thought into the notion that technically the land belongs to those who were there first, the aboriginals. 

Sal and Will's Relationship

   I would say that when it comes to the progression of Will and Sal's relationship between Part One and Parts two and three, they seemed to have progressed backwards in a sense. In part one Will mentions that he would tell Sal everything and that there were no secrets between the two. They seemed to know each other incredibly well. Even when Will resorted to thieving after Mr. and Mrs. Middleton died, Sal sort of already knew what Will was doing and never asked to confirm that belief in so that she will be able to truthfully claim ignorance. When they are in New South Wales though, Sal and Will begin to keep secrets from each other, or, at least, lose part of their ability to be able to read each other. Will even mentions at one point that he had not realized Sal's deep desire to return to London right away and when they were setting up their new home on the plot of land Sal never spoke to him about just how lonely she was. Sal was always playing the part of trying to be strong for Will. Will only realized how much she craved for connection with other people when they started to have their neighbors over.

    When it comes to who I most sympathize with I would say I most sympathize with Sal. Sal is trying to be strong for her husband when he is pursuing something that he wants (the plot of land) even though it is pretty much the opposite of what she wants. I would also sympathize with Sal because she has already lost so much: her parents, her childhood home, her position in London (however small it may be), and even the one place she considered her world-London. She was thrust away from everything and everyone she knew to stick with her husband and is  trying to make the most out of what she is given in New South Wales. Although, she is so lost in what she once had that she seems to glance over what they have made for themselves in Australia. She doesn't realize, as Will mentally points out, that they will never make anything of themselves or rise higher if they go back to London; they will always be looked down upon, but in Australia there is a much faster way of moving up the social ladder.

English 11H Final Projects Visitations!

    The first final project that I looked at was Eloise's with the title, Non-White Female Heroines In Literature Throughout Time and Space. First off, I was really intrigued by Eloise's topic and was fascinated to learn more about what she had discovered. When it comes to structure and formatting I liked how Eloise gives a general overview of the characters she had chosen and then described how they are seen as female heroines. Moving on to the content portion of her neatline exhibit I learned that Celie in The Color Purple by Alice Walker, transformed from being a character that was abused often by those around her into a character who learned to stand up for herself. I especially appreciated how in depth Eloise went into showing Celie's transformation by pointing out the differences in her writing style from Southern Black Vernacular to a much more articulate and descriptive writing style.

    The second project that I looked at was Catalina's with the topic, The Defiant Heroine in Literature Throughout Time and Space. Something that I liked about Catalina's project was how she integrated societal norms of the time into her portrayal of Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet, as a heroine who went out of conventional norms to create her own destiny. She wanted to be with Romeo and created a plan where the execution did not go as she planned when Romeo killed himself, but she still was in control of her own destiny when she decided to kill herself. Overall I liked Catalina's four different heroine's that she chose for her neatline project and the way in which she executed it all.

    The third final project that I looked at was Paulos' and he did his neatline on the topic of Love Tragedies in Literature. I found it really interesting how the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is very similar to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In both instances the families were feuding and Pyramus, much like Romeo, assumes the worst of their beloved being dead and kill themselves which in turn cause their beloved to kill themselves also. I wonder if Shakespeare read the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" and reimagined it into Romeo and Juliet. I also liked the third primary text that Paulos chose "Tristan and Isolde." I this one seems to be a bit more original in the story line then the previous texts, but much like the previous texts, the story ends in tragedy and death for the lovers. Something that I particularly liked about the structure Paulos chose was having a separate waypoint to showcase information that is more general facts about the texts and then has a separate one with an overview of the story with an explanation.

    The fourth project that I looked at was Griffin's who chose the topic of Intergenerational Trauma in Literature Throughout Time and Space. As far as structure goes, I really liked how Griffin had multiple different ways to distinguish between the different waypoints as well as his decision to color code them. It made it much easier to navigate understand the texts. After reading Griffin's section of Wuthering Heights I learned that the mistreatment that Heathcliff received was then turned to generational trauma when Heathcliff started treating Hareton, his wife, and his son terribly. I also found it interesting how Griffin connects the generational trauma not just to the mistreatment that he received in his former years but perhaps also due to the generational trauma of the slaves who came before him with him being a of mixed race. 

Overall, I liked and learned from all of the different neatline projects that my classmates did.

Hardships in 18th-century London

 Prompt: Part One of The Secret River really immerses you as a reader in late 18-century London among the working poor by telling you the story of Will Thornhill's early life. What did you learn that was either new for you or that led you to think in different ways about this historical period and its people? Point to specific passages and pages and words in your response.