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The Secret River - Coggle Diagram
The Secret River
Plot
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Climax
William sailing up to the secret river for the first time, this is also the point where William seems to decide he will stay in Australia and make something of himself there. He first spots the piece of land he calls 'Thornhill's point', and sets his mind on becoming a proper farmer.
William gets persuaded to go on a killing raid with other angry/scared settlers, led by Smasher. He doesn't want to or at least hesitates and feels disgusted by his own actions, but sees no other choice since Sal has set her mind on leaving Thornhill's point and returning to England, something Will desperately wants to prevent.
Resolution
Eventually, the European settlers murder all aboriginal people in the neighbourhood in order to save 'their' new land from the aboriginal hands. This doesn't result in the aboriginal vanishing, but it does ensure the settler's dominance in the area. This shows in the fast forwarding to the time period where William has made himself into a respectable land owner, with a huge villa and everybody respecting him for all his achievements.
Figurative Language
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Metaphor
He belched, slapped his hand on the table for attention and went on, unstoppable as a tide
A lot of dialogues take place in throughout the story, but maybe the absence of dialogue is even more intriguing. The way the Thornhill's refuse to discuss several events or topics can be seen as a cause for their choices.
Themes
Racism
Sometimes just caused by ignorance. The europeans believed what the newspapers and their neighbours said, and were not eager to find out what the aboriginals were really about.
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Selfishness
It is very clear that the earopean settles found themselves superior over the aboriginal people who had been living there for thousands of years. This caused them to seize land and recources without hesitating or considering what effect this might have on the Aboriginal people.
Setting
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Place
New South Wales (Australia)
London, UK
Symbols & Motifs
Motif
'Hope' is the name William Thornhill gave his new boat, bought from Blackwood. The vessel represents Will's hope to succeed in this new land, which is a recurring topic throughout the whole story.
Symbol
The house William built for his family is built on an aboriginal drawing, marking the Settler's victory over the aboriginal people. Though it shows that the Settlers had won the battle, the fact that the painting was still there underneath like a stain symbolizes the fact that something terrible or desgracious can be groomed or hidden, but will never vanish.
Characterization
Round
William Thornhill
The reader really gets to know William, and can almost sense how he feels about things before actually reading it.
Sal Thornhill
Steers Williams life. She influences him but changes her mind on going back to England later on in the story.
Dick Thornhill
develops thoughout the story, makes different choices as is father and decides to part ways and join blackwood
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Reader's response
The thing I could relate to the most in this story was the search for freedom of William Thornhill. The way he achieved his new found succes is of course not the thing I admire, but the idea of making the best of the chances you get in life is something that I try to do in my own life as well.
The pure racism and ignorance for other cultures is the thing that stung me the most in this book. The fact that you think you can erase a whole culture from their own land just because of your skincolor is appaling to me. The only thing is that we today can not really judge the things people like William Thornhille have done back in that time. We have not experienced the world like they have, and vice versa. This means that it is impossible for us to say that we 'would have done everything differently'. I would have done things very much differently, but with the knowledge of today, that is.
Style & Structure
The way Kate Grenville writes the story of William Thornhill, it feels like a snapshot of what actually happened in the s of Australian history. You sense that the settlers are influenced by the news and each other a lot, and aren't aware of what they're actually doing to people who've been living there for centuries. The story causes you to have mixed feelings about what made Australia the country we know today; yes a lot of bad things were done to make it happen, but it's undeniable that the European settlers have created a thriving country out of nothing but empty soil.
Point of view
Third person ominiscent
Multiple thoughts and emotions are available to us as readers, like we look down on the story from above