What Is The Moral Of The Secret River By Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville, presents a confronting story about ‘life on the frontier’ in her historically based novel of early 19th century colonist Australia; The Secret River. Grenville successfully constructs the protagonist, William Thornhill, as a man who struggles with various decisions, in order to achieve and maintain security in the contexts of London, Sydney and The Hawkesbury River. However, this security is compromised by the bitter and violent frontier conflict between the Aboriginal people and English settlers. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the two cultural groups struggle for control and occupancy of Hawkesbury River region. Grenville effectively represents emancipist Thornhill, and his choices that confront the concern of conflict
The reader is provoked to consider the inevitably of conflict and the extent personal morality can be compromised by uncontrolled circumstances.
Primarily, Thornhill is constructed as an individual who has to make various choices, all stemming from his desire to secure security. The first significant choice of Thornhill’s is his decision to repeatedly steal, as 18th century working class London was inhospitable and he was convinced thievery was the only way to provide for his family. However, as a result of Thornhill’s theft of Brazilian Wood (from Mr Lucas) he is convicted and eventually sentenced to Sydney, Australia. Eventually, the protagonist chooses to abandon Sydney and move to ‘Thornhill’s point’ along the Hawkesbury River, where his most significant choice occurs. Thornhill is immensely devoted to his land, and the promise of security it provides for his family. However, the Aboriginals appear to become increasingly aggressive, thus compromising Thornhill and his family’s safety and happiness. Thornhill is torn between
Although initiated by Smasher, various characters decide to partake in the brutal event. The settlers are convinced that the genocide would be retribution for Sagitty’s death. Their detachment and lack of cultural understanding of the Darug people allow them to convince themselves that the blacks are not really ‘people’, and massacre is necessary in order for them to maintain occupancy of their land. The conflict, which has remained fairly tame and presented in emotional tension, reaches a climax in a horrific way. “All around the clearing men fired and reloaded and swords rose and fell and came up all over blood in a din of screaming and roaring and high panicked cries of children.” (p.305) Afterwards, there is a “great shocked silence hanging over everything” (p. 308) as the colonists realise the enormity and inhumanness of the event that just occurred. As this violent nature is realised, the audience considers the individual choices that culminated in this event, and the power struggle; fuelled by a desire for security combined with ignorance and fear of the unknown, which led to an event as tragic as