The Other
Thornhill feels threatened in an encounter with a Darug man who enters his home in the middle of the night, without warning; the Darug man repeating his own warning "be off" back at him in "his own tone exactly". Thornhill derogatorily depicts the experience "as if a dog were to bark in English."
1. How are the Darug people othered?
2. What simile depicts the Darug people as...
a- unfairly treated.
b- inferior
3. How should the point flow into the contextualised quote?
As decreed by the Governor, Thornhill prospers from a colonial approach to land ownership where he reflects on, "Humble Green Hills became regal Windsor, and the scattering of huts upstream of it became Richmond".
How do the settlers convey a proprietary approach to the land?
What? So What? So How?
Thornhill’s recognition of the Other’s superiority compels him to respect them in a way that Sal does not.
Sal’s relationship with the Other is more respectful than Thornhill’s. To what extent do you agree with this interpretation?
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
What is a metaphor?
Thornhill depiction of an unwanted encounter with a Darug man narrows in on him wearing his "nakedness like a cloak", comparing this against himself, a "skinless maggot".
What quote portrays Thornhill's vulnerability to the Other?
How does Grenville condemn the settler's attitude towards the Other?
"He could see Blackwood's place, a neat slab hut with a bark roof, and his corn patch, luminous green in the early light and few fowls bobbing at the ground."
How has Thomas Blackwood's approach to the land more considerate/non-invasive?
What important information is happening around the quote?
Who is speaking, to whom (if needed), what is happening, why is it happening?
What do you need to include in the context?
Grenville condemns violent and controlling approaches to the land.
How is the reader invited to view the settlers’ concept of land ownership?
Using an indirect comparison allows us to analyse the similarities and differences between two things to make a judgement about the invited reading.
Why might similes be analysed?
1. As a child, where does William Thornhill feel most out of place?
2. Why does William Thornhill fear the lions?
Thornhill's understanding of the land is evidently flawed when he cannot understand why the Darug people "did not bother to build a fence to keep animals from getting out."
How is Thornhill depicted as envious of the Darug people's connection to the land?
The connotations/aesthetic features ask us to compare and/or remind us of and/or make us feel, and what are we invited to think about feel about the character and/or concept.
Which components belong in the so what portion of the paragraph?
While Thornhill’s attitude to the land is significantly influenced by his upbringing, other factors also affect his view of it.
Analyse the impact of Thornhill’s upbringing on his attitude to the land.
“She was inclined to take it personally about the trees…they did not know enough to be green, the way a tree should be…nor were they a proper shape, but … tortured, formless things…gave no protection…its tangle [made] the eye blind, searching for pattern and finding none.”
Where is the metaphor in this quotation?
1. Why does William Thornhill want to distinguish himself along the Hawkesbury River?
2. How is William Thornhill depicted as the Other?
"For newcomers, William Thornhill was something of a king. When he was not on the river, he sat on his verandah, watching with his telescope everything that went by on the river."
How is Thornhill's ostensible success challenged by his unsettlement?
The colour black is traditionally associated with not only mystery, but evil and sin inviting audiences to take up a cautious position and reject Macbeth’s dishonest actions.
Sal’s discomfort around the Darug people is less disrespectful.
What's wrong with this thesis statement for Q2?
Thornhill reflects on his misconception of the dying Darug child by commenting that: “He felt the shape of his skull, the same as his own”
What is the importance of the skull symbolism?
"He began to give the men names: humble sorts of names that made their difference less potent. It made something domestic - just another kind of neighbourhood - out of this unpromising material."
"...was christened forth with: Whisker Harry."
How does Thornhill project his superiority on the Other?
“It was quite still … every creature watch[ed] him … whirring pigeons flew up at his feet … head cocked … his skin flushed with fright … felt the trees [stand] around him in a quiet crowd … limbs stopped in the middle of a gesture, their pale bark splitting in long cracks to show the bright pink skin beneath.”
How is the land personified?
How does the land feel about the the settlers?
Thus, the audience is positioned to understand that darkness—here a metaphor for deception itself—can conceal a great deal of dark and terrible deeds, and must be treated with caution.
What is included in the 'so how?' portion of the analysis?
Grenville uses symbols to criticise the settlers’ perception of the Other as superior.
Why doesn't this thesis support the invited reading of the text?
“The women glanced up at him with as much interest as if a fly were come to watch them.”
What is the importance of the fly symbolism?