Colonialism in There There and The Secret River

 Understanding the meaning of colonialism at first, I was surprised when during the lecture it was made known the stark difference between colonialism and settler colonialism. I never quite understood how the difference of settlers remaining on the land versus leaving after a short time could make such a large impact. However now I see how this difference greatly affects the natives of the land. In There There, readers view the side of the native people and their response to settlers. While reading this book, we began to better understand how much settlers can harm the people and their land. The settlers caused their entire culture to basically fall and crumble and they were left as minorities with no one to help them adjust to this new change. It was easy to see the adversity all of the characters in There There faced, simply because their homeland had been taken because of settler colonialism.

In The Secret River, readers only get the perspective of the settlers. It follows the story of the Thornhills who start their lives as underprivileged and victims of a corrupt socioeconomic hierarchy. Will becomes a convicted felon and then a settler on Australia. In my opinion, at the beginning of the book, the Thornhills are seen as the bottom of society and treated inhumanly. In Australia, the Aboriginales are seen in the exact same way, but instead of Will feeling empathy towards them, he treats them equally as bad as people in London treated him. Although I started off reading the book in favor of Will, my perspective on him has greatly shifted as he continues to yearn for power and tries to act like someone he's not.