Remembering Babylon And The Inheritors Analysis

David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon and William Golding’s The Inheritors both explore and criticise human being’s focus on separation and discrimination, and highlight the following consequences of violence through various techniques. Remembering Babylon takes place in 19th Century Queensland following a young British man, Gemmy Fairley, who was thrown overboard a ship and has grown up with Aboriginals for sixteen years, and his relationship with the new settlers. The Inheritors follows a journey of a peaceful Neanderthal tribe who are slowly facing extinction due to the violent nature of the coexisting humans, kidnapping and murdering. Both novels have criticised the impacts of human nature, how humans have developed and detached themselves …show more content…
Malouf often personifies the land claiming the “land itself saw” (68) and had “been on the other side of things” (9), describing it as a living part of culture. This symbolises the connection between nature and humans, and the European settlers detachment from this land is what is causes their “unnerving” (36) approach to Gemmy’s arrival and their discrimination towards his presence. Furthermore, concluding Gemmy’s journey to identify himself, he allows papers that were composed by Mr Fraser compiling his life story to be rained upon “wash[ing] from them the names” and “events” (181) of Gemmy’s life. This is symbolic of Gemmy’s parting with European culture and his reverting to Aboriginal culture, which in itself suggests the lack of morality in European culture surrounding violence and discrimination, as Gemmy has the opportunity to re-join either culture but veers away from the Europeans due to this discrimination and violence. Similarly to Malouf, Golding personifies nature to express the Neanderthal’s deep connection to the land. A large chunk of ice nearby the mountains is referred to as the “ice-woman” (37), and is treated as a demonstration of their goddess Oa. This symbolises the spiritual connection between the Neanderthals and the land that the human tribe lack, in much the same way as the European settlers fail to live in harmony in Remembering Babylon. Similarly, Golding refers to “the little Oa” (21) which is a tree root in the shape of a pregnant woman. This is symbolic of the mothering nature that the land provides to the Neanderthals, feeding and providing shelter for them. This relationship is unobserved by the human tribe, and instead the land is abused and bushfires are caused, symbolising the chaos of violent human