Kate Grenville’s The Secret River

                      This writing is based on the winner of the Orange Prize, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River which was short listed for THE Man BOOKER PRIZE 2006.  I will discuss on how men’s ignorance and desires lead to fear and disaster which eventually lead to an inevitable conflict between the ex-convict settlers and the aborigines.  In this writing, I will focus on the main character, William Thornhill.  What are men’s desires?  Women?  Possessions and wealth?  Power and authority?  A sense of belonging?  I am not being judgmental but I believe men desire everything that has been mentioned above and at times can be beyond needs as well and it is natural for them to feel that way.

                       

                        Hence, men will do anything they can to achieve what they dream of and what they aim in life.  And it is through this process that many weaker souls and frail hearts are deeply wounded and torn apart, even blood can be shed, human life can be in jeopardy and threatened, and all these occurred due to the men’s negligence.  In “The Secret River”, Grenville has brilliantly portrayed the conflict between the white settlers who wanted to start afresh in this empty vast land, to their eyes at least, and the natives who have been living in the land down under, Hawkesbury River in particular, for many years even before the whites first landed here in 1788.

The ignorant desires and conflict

                         William Thornhill experiences further hardship in the new and strange, unfamiliar land of New South Wales has turned him into a determined man.  His hardship is illustrated in line, “There were things worse than dying: life had taught him that.  Being here in New South Wales might be one of them.” [Grenville 2005; 5]  Living in an extreme poverty is already difficult enough for Thornhill and his family back then in London which ultimately drives him to commit a crime. Nevertheless, this further hardship in the new land has given Thornhill and his family a second chance and a sense of hope to start and create a new life.  Hence, he strives hard for his family and willing to face any challenges and fears that they might stumble upon.

                        William Thornhill dreams of a life of dignity and entitlement.  He desires for his own piece of land.  This can be depicted in line, “A chaos opened up inside him, a confusion of wanting.  No one had ever spoken to him of how a man might fall in love with a piece of ground.”/ “It was a piercing hunger in his guts: to own it. To say mine, in a way he had never been able to say mine of anything at all.  He had not known until this minute that it was something that he wanted so much.” [Grenville 2005; 110] His hunger for total possession of a piece of land is comprehensible for a man who has never owned anything in his life before.  In achieving his aim, he has ignored the natives’ presence and treats them as if they are insignificant and therefore, the word guilty for taking their land without their consent does not exist in his vocabulary.

                        Thornhill is being tempted by the idea of owning land and becomes convinced that he can offer a secure and prosperous life for his family.  As a man in the family he is aware that it is his duty to make sure his family is well taken care of.   His sense of responsibilities towards his family can be depicted in line, “A man’s life seemed a cruel race: to get himself and his family above the high water mark, safe from the tides and contrary winds, before his body gave out.” [Grenville 2005; 123]. 

                        Thornhill’s ignorance has made him into a “reformed thief” in the new land, New South Wales.  When he was caught thieving in London, he was being punished by transporting him to the new land. However, in New South Wales he is “stealing” the land of the natives and this time the act of stealing happens without his knowledge.  His unawareness and his ignorance are illustrated in line, “It seemed the emptiest place in the world, too wild for any man to have made it his home.” [Grenville 2005; 104] This clearly proves Thornhill is unaware that the land has its owner who has been living in the country long before the white settlers do.  Ironically this act has made him into a “reformed thief” – a thief back there in London and now a thief with “dignity”, in search of a new land in the “new world” with the intention of starting his life afresh and staying permanently.

                        Thornhill is persistent in wanting a piece of land to call his own and supports the murderous violence in defending his “possession”.  Even though he is not as cruel and brutal as other settlers, Smasher Sullivan for instance, he is still determining of not letting go of “his” land.  This can clearly be depicted in line, “She would not stay, he would not go.” [Grenville 2005; 314] According to Richard Mulgan in his article “Citizenship and Legitimacy in Post-colonial Australia”, the dispossession of the Aboriginal people began with the process of original settlement, during which Aboriginal people were ruthlessly dispersed and murdered as the settlers expanded their holdings, and continued through the period of paternalistic control when Aboriginal people were excluded from many of the legal and political rights of citizenship. And it is due to Thornhill’s determination that he joins the other settlers in a brutal battle with the aborigines.  For a man like Thornhill, the land is more important than anything although it means human lives can be at stake and blood can be shed.

                        Thornhill’s invariable craving for the land has created a barrier between him and Sal, his wife. When Sal approaches and ask him if he is still watching, being a smart lady, she can feel the tense and anxiety inside her husband.  Sal continues to make an attempt to break the barrier between them by saying, “You’ll wear out the glass, Will, the way you go on.” [Grenville 2005; 346] Sal hopes to hear the fear of the natives from her husband himself and to share it with her.  Unfortunately, no word of such comes out from Thornhill.  He believes that it is unnecessary for his wife to know what is bothering him.  Perhaps he is afraid if he might voice his fear and anxiety to his wife then she will urge him to leave the land and sail back to England.

                        Despite his “triumph” in possessing the land, Thornhill lives in fear; Fear of having the aborigines to return to claim what was once belong to them.  This is clearly shown in line, “He put the telescope down with a hollow feeling.  Too late, too late. Every day he sat here, watching, waiting, while dusk gathered in the valley, scanning the trees and the silent rocks.  Until it was fully dark he could not make himself put the glass down and turn away.” [Grenville 2005; 349]  The atmosphere is filled with fear and dread for Thornhill as he strives in a land that is unfamiliar to him.  He may win the battle in acquiring and is able to claim the land to be his own, but deep down in his heart he has the sense of insecurity.  His land is insecure, even his family too.  He is never in peace and perhaps that is the price he has to pay for his constant desires for the land.

                        The hardship and the experiences in William Thornhill’s life have a lot to offer in terms of valuable message for the readers.  It serves as an authentic material which allows readers to apply certain values into their real life situation.  Besides providing them with authentic materials, Grenville’s work too is able to create awareness and provides the insight on what it means to be a pioneer, a settler’s dream. 

                        This is a work that reveals some important truths about Australia’s past.  It breaks our hearts deeply to learn the fact that the aborigines are being oppressed and being mistreated, innocent lives are brutally murdered and this is simply due to the men’s desire for possession.  It is also because of the desires that gradually raise the conflict between the white settlers and the aborigines.

                        Nevertheless, from her fiction for some reason, readers are left not to be judgmental towards both parties; neither the settlers nor the aborigines are to be blamed for the tensions arise between them.  This is merely an inevitable conflict, the act of survival between the ex-convict settlers defending their “possessions” and the Aborigines who lose everything, including their lives.

Work Cited :            

1.   Grenville, Kate 2005. The Secret River. Australia: Text Publishing Company

2.   Nicholas Peterson and Will Sanders. Citizenship and Indigenous Australians:

           Changing Conceptions and Possibilities.  Cambridge University Press

3.   Barnet, Sylvan and Cain, William E. 2003. A Short Guide In Writing About  

            Literature. United States: Longman.