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.
Hey Monique! I agree that Dick, like Blackwood, is very sympathetic to and even admiring of the Aboriginal people. I think the main difference between him and Blackwood is that Dick has no concept of 'luxury' or 'gentry' or the comforts of 'civilized' life in London. The territory of the secret river is all he knows, and he believes that the Aboriginal people are better at living on it and with it than his own family. I wonder if Dick's perspective would be different if he had grown up in London like his older brother, or if he would have been his understanding and open self either way.
ReplyDeleteHey Monique, this is an interesting take on Dick Thornhill. Dick impressed me due to his ability to think critically about the world around him in a manner independent from the logic of his parents. I'm curious if Dick growing up in New South Wales had a profound effect on his perspective about the Aboriginal people.
ReplyDeleteHi Monique! It's definitely fascinating how Dick doesn't seem to take after his family and society when it comes to his opinion on the natives. I think since he is quite young and Sydney is all he's ever known, he finds it easier to look at the natives as people that are just like him. It's honestly hard to say whether Dick is highly mature for his age, or if he is acting his age in that he doesn't really have any reason to have prejudice yet, based off his real experiences of playing with the other native children. Dick is also one of the few characters who we get to look through that show the Natives in a positive light.
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