Voice of Minorities in The Getting of Wisdom and Remembering Babylon - Essay Example

Question 3 Minorities can speak for a whole nation. This is evident in David Malouf's novel, Remembering Babylon. The views expressed by the characters forever changed Australia's social, political, and economic identity, how the nation views itself and how the world views the nation. They also reflect the positive and negative aspects of colonialism, nationalism, and the struggles of becoming a country, connected yet separate from Great Britain. When the townspeople first met the white/black man, Gemmy, they didn't know what to make of or do with him. (7) This mirrors the British government's view of Australia. As they slowly try to discover who or what he is and where he's been, they are much the same as the early colonials when they first arrived and themselves as they created their township out of this unknown land. (11) As Mr. Frazer and George Abbot put words in his mouth, not caring about the truth of them, but needing to give him an identity, so did the politicians in Britain treat Australia. (16) This identity was unreal and romantic because the truth of Gemmy's existence was frightening to them and by creating this fiction they were able to keep the darkness at bay. Further evidence of this attitude is reflected in the letters written by Sir George; to be delivered to the Lords back in England this correspondence provided romantic idealized versions of the harsher reality. (169) His representation of Australia bore little similarity to the actuality of the land and life to be encountered and led there. The settlers had an equally idealized version of "home." They would long for "home" in quiet moments, unable to allow themselves to admit that maybe, immigrating had been, not quite, but almost, a mistake. For many, Britain was becoming a hazy memory, like the ghost of Willett, Gemmy's former owner, whose memory Frazer and Abbot rekindle while prying Gemmy's past from his tongue-tied mind. (21) They had cut their ties with "home", much as Gemmy did when he burned down Willett's house, and neither he nor they could go back. (152) They had all "stepped off the world." (152) For all of them the experience of becoming Australian forever separated them from the world they left behind. They had lost their Englishness, much the same as, in their eyes, Gemmy had lost his whiteness. Just as Gemmy could not blend in, neither could they return to their former lives. They, too, were irrevocably changed. Neither could Australia be Britain, it could be British, but would never be "home". The price of freedom and the cost of separation were heavy weights in their minds. Their concerns, and the nation's, were very different from those back in Britain. Becoming a settled, self-sustaining colony, building a country, meant becoming increasingly more independent. More than a long journey divided them now. Gemmy brought the "black" directly home to them and forced them to face an issue that they and their governors were torn about. Should they ignore, exterminate, confine or befriend the aborigines Gemmy drove their lack of a unified front regarding this to the forefront of their minds and lives. They and their government were not ready to confront their cultural biases. It was easier to leave the natives to themselves, maintaining an invisible boundary, and to treat each interaction as a singular event. Aboriginals were separate, not equal, just as was Gemmy. He was treated like a child or an idiot, instead of a grown man. All of the settlers' prejudice and unease was reflected in their treatment and opinion of Gemmy. He was almost too different, too changed, too tolerate and his differences made him threatening and untrustworthy in their collective minds, just as the aborigines were. His actions, and he himself, were unpredictable and unnatural. (38) He was alien and alienated. He had no place in their world, because he was a puzzle, just like the indigenous peoples, and they were too preoccupied with day-to-day survival to sort out a place for the pieces to fit. The townsmen attempted drowning of Gemmy reflects the colonial need to eradicate the different. Their ability to dominate their world, and all that reside within its boundaries, shows their superiority, but it also makes obvious their inferiority, hypocrisy, and self-doubt. If they are truly superior, why do they have to abuse the natives This truly bothers Jock McIvor, he sees the true weaknesses and fears that control their actions, and by knowing so drives an invisible and unspoken wedge between himself and his fellow settlers. (104) It is interesting to note that Gemmy was just as apart from the aborigines as he was from the settlers, not even worthy of a bush woman's comfort. (28) This act on the part of the settlers leads to Gemmy being segregated from the locals. This is also how the settlers eventually dealt with the aborigines, they too were segregated. He goes to stay with Mrs. Hutchence for a time; she too is apart from the crowd. She lives on the edge of town in a real house, something none of the others have, and chooses not too mingle with the locals unless she wants something. This attitude was similar to Britain's relationship with her colony. This drive to dominate, the land as well as the natives, was an unending task, as it was for their governors. They could not slow down or their tenuous hold on the country and its citizenry might collapse, much the same as Mrs. Hutchence's once-cleared yard. Too stop this exertion, would allow weeds, the seeds of chaos, to overtake their good works. They had to clear and build, and clear some more, as if they were in a race with destiny or death. Britain's attitude toward Australia was reflected in George Abbot's initial meeting with Mrs. Hutchence. She had a reputation for asking favors of others and the local boys were so tired of giving favors that they sought to avoid her by turning a deaf ear when she approached. (84) When she hands her load over to Abbot it is with the expectation that he will shoulder it willingly. His biggest concern is the fact that he has now dirtied his hands in the performing of this favor. (88) Taming the wilderness also meant taming the people, settlers and aboriginals alike. Self-control and self-sacrifice were major issues. (Chapter 4) They couldn't give in to their own natures or all would be lost, as would their identities. They fought hard to find and maintain order amidst chaos. This is reflected in Mr. Frazer's botanizing and the entries he makes in his journal, and later his report to the governor. (129) They would create order where there was none. Laws, unwritten codes and unstated values, supposedly held, believed and followed by all, controlled their lives and their futures. This struggle for control was personal and national. In the end, Gemmy seeks to gain control of his life and his soul by taking back the words, and the life, that were captured on paper by Frazer and Abbot. (178) Those pages, filled with truths and lies, had become a talisman to him. He felt that his essence resided in the ink that covered the paper, much like some believe that being photographed captures the soul. Though Abbot doesn't give Gemmy the originals, Gemmy is satisfied that he now has his life back and eventually disappears back into the bush. Those pages represent the white man's version of Australia and their conquering of it. Once written the truths and lies, romance and realism, become reality. Much as the collective Australia would like to erase the ugly parts of its history, such as the way the aborigines were, and in some ways still are, treated. Unlike Gemmy they can't take them back. Lachlan McIvor's attempt to find Gemmy years later is an expression of that national regret. (196) A minority again speaks for the both the country, and its female inhabitants, in Henry Handel Richardson's novel, The Getting of Wisdom. This coming-of-age story is told through the eyes of a young girl, Laura Tweedle Rambotham. Laura is a country girl attending boarding school in Melbourne. She represents the woman's movement at the turn of the century and her experiences reflect not only Australia's, but the white world's view regarding how proper women should behave. Women in Australia achieved suffrage in 1902 and this book was originally published less than a decade later. The authoress, Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson), wrote under a pseudonym so that her books would be treated like any other novel, rather than a woman's novel. She too had attended boarding school in Melbourne and drew from those experiences when writing her novel. Laura's move from the country to the "city" could be regarded as a reflection of the migration that many young women were making at the time, leaving the countryside to find work in factories, and other types of employment, in towns, throughout the western world. This was especially true during and after World War I, when many women had to find work to support themselves and their families, while the men went to war, some never to return. When she arrives at the school, accompanied by her Godmother and Cousin Grace, Grace exclaims, "It looks just like a prison!" (24) Many families, if they could afford, sent their daughters to boarding schools and later to finishing schools. These "institutions" turned girls into ladies by having them study such necessary subjects as Latin and Elocution. (83) When they were "finished" they were expected to help their mothers at home or marry (well), or both. Girls like Laura were akin to some "antiquated garment to be cut up and reshaped." (72) This was accomplished through stern discipline and peer pressure, a lesson that Laura was quick to learn, and which led her to try and be more like her schoolmates. (70) Her classmates' interpretation of her behavior was similar to the way their society viewed the behavior of the suffragettes. Laura's behavior was seen as "foolish" and "vulgar", and she "still had to be reminded daily that shyness was expected of her." (69, 43, 66) She was loud, brash and impertinent, used to the conventions of her mother's home, not society's. There she was allowed to voice opinions and question the world around her. Females, especially girls, were not supposed to have ideas, opinions, or ask questions of their betters - men. The women of the feminist movement were often referred to in the same terms as Laura. Her behavior at the Lachey's was exemplary of what not to do in public. She commits the grievous error of playing and enjoying non-classical music. Refined ladies only listen to classical music. Then she adds to her mistakes by trying to make intelligent conversation with Mr. Lachey, asking questions and voicing her opinions on art and literature. He is so offended by her inappropriate behavior that he moves away from her before her questions can be answered. All of this is reported to the headmistress who scolds her. Laura can't understand why women are only allowed to have a superficial and stilted view of art and literature, unaware that proper women do not think deep thoughts and ponder unanswerable questions. (68) She was made a fool for being accomplished in her playing of the piano. (69) Her classmates were offended by her abilities and her willingness to show them publicly. That just wasn't done. Proper young ladies hid their talents from the world, only allowing family to see their strengths. This type of behavior could keep her from getting in with the "right" crowd. Suffragettes were often threatened with ostracism, public and private, if they continued behaving inappropriately and espousing to outlandish ideas. They were expected to be meek and mild and bow to the conventions of society. These conventions deemed that work was unseemly. A woman's working to support her family was unacceptable and by doing so brought disgrace upon her whole family, husband included if he was still in the picture. (79) Her mother, a widow, was the family's sole wage earner, making a living by doing handwork. This fact, when related to her roommate, Lillith, (77) becomes a way of blackmailing Laura into behaving as the other girl wanted. (78) Even the maid back home, Sarah, became a source of pain. Why, if Sarah was there, did her mother have to perform menial tasks like the darning of socks (75) She was becoming ashamed of who she was and where she had come from, so ashamed that she lied to maintain her standing. (74) Her classmates were pressuring her into becoming like them, socially acceptable. Many women tried to use similar tactics with the feminist faction in an attempt to stifle their voices and ambition. The men, who were free to do and say what they wanted, started out by mocking their beliefs and turned nasty, as Lillith did with Laura, when they didn't back down and behave as society expected of them. Eventually, when she's finished with the boarding school, she will come to terms with her differentness, much the same as society eventually accepted women's suffrage. (191) And she emerged from her struggles to find acceptance changed, as did the feminists. They and Laura were still a little unsure of their place in the greater scheme of things and had been forced to accept hard truths about themselves and their peers. But they found their niche and contributed to their society, proving their worthiness time and time again and enabling other women to advance in a more accepting society. Laura's behavior was that of a stereotypical Australian, as seen through Western eyes - loud, brash and ill-mannered. Her coming-of-age struggles reflected the struggles that Australia was still going through at the time in its development of a cultural identity. Both, Remembering Babylon and The Getting of Wisdom, focus on the outsider in a society in a state of change. Neither, Gemmy or Laura really belonged in the world they were thrown into, but for a time they were able to participate in it, without losing their identities, but still managing to adapt to the pressures placed on them by their societies. When allowed the chance to stay awhile longer in their new circumstances they both ran, changed by their experiences with others but essentially still the same as when they first came to their new homes. The aborigines and feminists found their place in their changing social situation. Both made hard-won gains, but neither has achieved the equality allotted to white males. If these books point out anything it is that the ruling class must always have a scapegoat, a lesser that they can best to prove their superiority, whether it's indigenous peoples or the opposite sex. They also learned that the conquering of territory, physical (Australia) or social (women's suffrage), is not achieved without both sides exposing their true selves, strengths and weaknesses, to the world. Read More