"Blackwood And Dick In "The Secret River" Ri". Anti Essays. 7 Mar. 2012
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Blackwood And Dick In "The Secret River" Ri. Anti Essays. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/100987.html
Thomas Blackwood and Dick Thornhill are two minor characters in Kate Grenville’s novel, The Secret River, albeit very important characters in terms of significance. They represent a notion of integration with the native people, and demonstrate Kate Grenville’s modern view on the issue. We have a lot to learn from both of the two characters, who eventually form a lasting relationship.
Thomas Blackwood is an emancipist and an …show more content…
Blackwood is tolerant of Thornhill but not of Sagitty or Smasher. At the peak of his suppressed anger towards Smasher’s treatment of the Aborigines, he eventually attacks Smasher. Blackwood says to Smasher, “By Christ Jesus, one of them Blacks is worth ten of a little brainless maggot like you.” The phrase shows how people such as Smasher, who think the natives of a lower class than they, are in fact in Blackwood’s eyes worth …show more content…
This rapport also carries other connotations: that if the settlers were more willing to make peace, and if there were to be less violence, the colonists could actually have learnt and benefited from the Aborigines’ knowledge. The communication difficulties could potentially have been overcome and the bloodshed avoided. “Dick did not move. He’s showing us how you make fire, Da, he called back. No flint of nothing. Thornhill had heard about this business of making fire by rubbing two sticks together…he went over, prepared to enjoy this bit of tomfoolery.” From this, we can learn how Thornhill is not willing to learn from the Aborigines’ connection with the land, while Dick is more