Remembering Babylon In the book Remembering Babylon by David Malouf we see a story of many mixed emotions that includes: sadness, happiness, and even the emotion of anger. The protagonist of the story is the thirteen year old British cabin boy, Gemmy Fairley, who we see grow up throughout the story. Gemmy got cast ashore on the far north part of Australia and he was taken in by the Aborigines. Gemmy was not one of them but they took him in since he was still a kid who needed a safe place to stay. So Gemmy stayed with the Aborigines for 16 years and in those 16 years he really adopted the culture of the Aboriginal people. This book really shows that not everyone will like you, you will always have people that will dislike you for what you
…show more content…
The other whites of the settlements did not like the black people which led to them being not very fond of Gemmy even though he himself was not black, he was raised by blacks. This book took place around the time of the first world war so racism was still a big thing and that meant very few blacks and whites got along. Also there is a quote early in the book before the story even happened that quotes “ Whether this is Jerusalem or Babylon we know not” . Which was referring to is this a good place or bad place we know not. Because Babylon was a good place to be back then while Jerusalem was not, thats where all of Gemmy’s type of people were taken to a place that was basically similar to jail so they don 't know if this is like that place or is it actually a good place to be and to be safe and live …show more content…
Gemmy later in the book actually returns to the Aboriginal people after so many years of being not together he finally returned to the people who basically raised him as a kid, the people who made Gemmy one of them. Unfortunately Gemmy gives himself up to the Aboriginal people and gives his life away, so they think, it was never confirmed that he died but lachlan saw a body and just supposed it was Gemmys dead body so that 's what all the people just believed. The thought of Gemmy dieing struck the emotion of sadness in many of people 's lives for example Janet and Lachlan who were close with Gemmy while he was growing
The other whites of the settlements did not like the black people which led to them being not very fond of Gemmy even though he himself was not black, he was raised by blacks. This book took place around the time of the first world war so racism was still a big thing and that meant very few blacks and whites got along. Also there is a quote early in the book before the story even happened that quotes “ Whether this is Jerusalem or Babylon we know not” . Which was referring to is this a good place or bad place we know not. Because Babylon was a good place to be back then while Jerusalem was not, thats where all of Gemmy’s type of people were taken to a place that was basically similar to jail so they don 't know if this is like that place or is it actually a good place to be and to be safe and live …show more content…
Gemmy later in the book actually returns to the Aboriginal people after so many years of being not together he finally returned to the people who basically raised him as a kid, the people who made Gemmy one of them. Unfortunately Gemmy gives himself up to the Aboriginal people and gives his life away, so they think, it was never confirmed that he died but lachlan saw a body and just supposed it was Gemmys dead body so that 's what all the people just believed. The thought of Gemmy dieing struck the emotion of sadness in many of people 's lives for example Janet and Lachlan who were close with Gemmy while he was growing