Relationship Between White Settlers And Aborigines

Kate Grenville, the prominent Australian female writer, is famous for her fiction The Secret River, which was written in2005. It is a historical fiction about Australia in early19th century. She has transformed an Australia myth into a dazing fiction of universal appeal. It has received numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been published in more than twenty countries. She recalled her family’s history who was the pioneers of New South Wales.Kate Grenville describes her fiction which is the story of adventure and the fiction embodies the pioneering spirit of young Australia. This thesis elaborates the white pioneers were exiled to wild Australia to struggle for their life and they reclaimed the wasteland and violated the Aborigines’territorial integrity. Consequently the conflict and battle over the land happened. Colonialists not only bring the slaughter of the Aborigines but also bring the injury to themselves. Both of them were traumatized. This thesis explores the profound meaning in racial relationship and conflict in respect of characters and plot of the story.The Secret River embodies two aspects:harmonious relationship and conflict. The thesis is intended to analyze some characters and their different attitudes to the Aborigines. Some people are the typical representative of harmonious relationship and they get along well with the Aborigines. But the others are the representative of conflict. These people hate and regard the Aborigines as enemies. They slaughter to the Aborigines.Based on the previous analysis, the thesis concludes that the reason for the conflict is white people’s desire for private land and Aborigine’s desire for public land. And it is some whites’ arrogance and snobbism that intensified the conflict. However, through the mysterious story and the vivid characters in The Secret River, Kate reveals and shares her recalling of history and hopeful longings for a harmonious future.