The Secret River

Question 1

Poor communication:

Answer 1

• Inability and unwillingness to understand
• equally un-meaningful: “but the meaningless words poured over him.” “When he stopped the men watched him, waiting for more.”
• language barrier= harder
• yams: “finally he took a bite of one of them. Chewed, swallowed and nodded.”
• “pretty soon their won’t be no where left for you black buggers.”

Question 2

Poor communication: reader context

Answer 2

Go

Question 3

Lack of compromise: enforced

Answer 3

•Blackwood emphasise- “give a little, take a little.” = compromise
•Thornhill ignores and misunderstands this
“My own…my place. Thornhill’s place.”
•Thornhill doesn’t trade with indigenous- “they’ll be want, want wanting, till we got nothing left.”
•smasher refuses to compromise and inflicts violence = leads to massacre and own death
“Only good thing is, they buggered off now. Nothing to eat here… Only way to get rid of them.”

Question 4

Lack of compromise: challenged

Answer 4

• Blackwood willingness to work towards peace with aboriginals
• stays on beach where asked to= no conflict
• even has child with one, sympathetic

“I took my flaming hat off me head…they wasn’t fooled… Made it real clear-stay on the beach.”
“It took him a moment to realise Blackwood was speaking in her own tongue.”
“He saw there was a child behind her, invisible except for a hand like a pale starfish on her black thigh.”

Question 5

Lack of compromise: reader context

Answer 5

The

Question 6

Values and attitudes: lack of communication

Answer 6

Land and home

Have conflicting ideas which cannot understand

Question 7

Values and attitude: compromise

Answer 7

Again reinforces values of home and land

Question 8

Values and attitudes: cultural differences

Answer 8

Their own cultures