Show:
Location, Construction, Terrain
Terminology
Mrs. Hutchence
Quotes
Reactions to Otherness
100
Where does Remembering Babylon begin?
An early English settler colony in Queensland, Australia.
100
What is Imperialism?
An Ideological concept that upholds the legitimacy of economic and military control of one nation over another; often with an attempt to govern.
100
How do the men of the village react to Mrs. Hutchence?
They hide from her to avoid helping her do chores.
100
Who has the following reaction to Gemmy? “Didn’t she find it hard sometimes to sit at the same table with him? Considering that he might be happier running about naked… Wasn’t she worried sometimes about the influence the fellow might be having? And did she really let him chop wood with an axe?”
Ellen McIvor
100
What do the McIvor girls do for Gemmy when they first take him in?
They dress and groom him.
200
Name two characteristics of the geography surrounding the colony.
(Any two) Isolated, Densely Forested, Swampy
200
What is Colonialism?
Falls under the umbrella of Imperialism but with the intent to settle the controlled nation.
200
How does Mrs. Hutchence treat Gemmy differently than the other villagers?
She trusts him.
200
Who are the couple mentioned in this quote? “They have been married for thirty-three years. She has followed him in his progress - or decline - halfway across the world, and further each year from her real life, which is, he knows, in their children. She is cleverer than he is but does not make him feel it. Cleverness, she knows, has nothing to do with what he is after; which is revelation."
Jim and Millie Sweetman
200
What does Lachlan Beattie do to endear himself to Ellen McIvor?
He talks with her about Scotland.
300
How far away from the settlement does Mrs. Hutchence live?
“She lived three miles out on the Bowen road, not in a hut but in a real house.” (Malouf 83)
300
What is Post-Colonial?
After independence is declared from the colonizer; (as a genre) writings focusing on times of colonization from a post colonial stand point.
300
What does Lachlan see when he finally goes to visit Mrs. Hutchence and Gemmy?
He comes in on a tea party.
300
To whom does this quote refer? “One day, hunched in the shade of a scrubby lemon tree, picking idly at a scab on her knee, she was amazed, when the hard crust lifted, to discover a colour she had never seen before, and another skin, lustrous as pearl. A delicate pink, it might have belonged to some other creature altogether, and the thought came to her that if all the rough skin of her present self crusted and came off, what would be revealed, shining in sunlight, was this finer being that had somehow been covered up in her.”
Janet McIvor
300
What is Ellen McIvor more homesick for than Scotland?
The graves of her two deceased children.
400
What three things was Ellen McIvor (and to a lesser extent Jock McIvor) looking forward to before moving to Australia?
Land, Sunlight, and Spaces (Malouf 74)
400
What is Allegory?
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to have a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
400
What does Mrs. Hutchence bring with her from the Old World?
A household’s worth of furniture.
400
Whose thoughts are reflected in the following quote? “What could she tell him? The conditions of their life up here were harder than any she could have imagined at home because they were so different. Even the openness she longed for was a frightening thing. There had been a comfort in crowdedness and old age grime and clutter that she only appreciated when it was gone.”
Ellen McIvor
400
When the McIvors arrive in Brisbane, what is it like?
It is humid and swampy.
500
Upon what was Gemmy when he first spoke to the children?
A Fence
500
What is Hybridity?
New trans-cultural forms that arise from cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity can be social, political, linguistic, religious, etc.
500
Who becomes Mrs. Hutchence’s apprentice?
Janet McIvor becomes her apprentice.
500
Who says the following about Gemmy? “‘I know you believe there’s no harm in the man,’ she tells him, “and I’m sure you are right. There’s is none. But people are afraid. There is harm in that. It would be best… if he were put where they can do him no harm. Where he wasn’t quite so - visible.”
Mrs. Frazer, the minister’s wife
500
By the end of the book, what has Janet McIvor become?
She has become a nun, now being known as Sister Monica.