Drawing+a+Line


 * __ Summary __**

** 237-247 ** ** The Darug people gather near Thornhill's place for some sort of dance. Thornhill and the others are frozen with fear at how many armed aboriginal men are in the vicinity. During the night, Thornhill sneaks out to observe their ceremony and comes to realise how powerful and dangerous the Darug people can be. Afterwards, he uses his gun to demonstrate his power and authority, but it is clear to him that it is ineffectual. ** ** 247-260 **  ** Dick carelessly throws a makeshift 'spear', accidentally revealing the extent of his friendship with the Aborginal people. This marks the divsion between Dick and his family, which is caused by his ability to interact peacefully with the Aborigines whereas Thornhill is unable to. When he visits Smasher intending to buy dogs from him to increase the protection of his hut, Thronhill shifts away from Dick's peaceful interaction with the Aboriginal people and towards Smasher's more violent attitude. ** ** 260-271 **  ** Due to the attack on the webbs, the business was bad for william Thornhill. they were unable to take anything back to Sydney. Captain McCallum planned a pincer-movement that involved what he wished to call a human chain, to drive the nativers ahead of them. Captain McCallum believed that his map was correct, and that everything would work out. but Thornhill had been there and knew that the map was quite general.Blackwood punched Smasher in the face, due to his racism. **

__ Internal conflict __

237-247 Thornhill is conflicted with himself because he realises how very little power he has, but he also feels obligated to assert his authority so that he can protect his family and his land. He is just as frightened as the others are, but it is he who grapples with his fear and goes out to look at the aborigines. This conflict between his own fear and with his fiercely protective urges makes up the internal conflict in this particular section. 'There was a feeling of needing to be ready.
 * Key quotes**

Thornhill did not ask himself, ready for what?' (239)

'He felt everyone's eyes on him as he loaded the gun. He knew, as perhaps they did not, how pointless a thing it was.' (246)

'And the gun hanging on the hanging on the wall, nothing byt a machine for noise and hot air. Thornhill had known all this before, but now he could not forget it, even for a moment.' (247)

__ Interpersonal conflict __

237-247 Although Thornhill is just as frightened as the others are, the conflict arises from the degree of fear he chooses to show. The others are quite honest with their fear, while Thornhill tries to assure them in vain that their fears are ungrounded. This makes it harder for the others to trust his word when his lie 'sounded as hollow as a quart-pot.' (245) In particular, Sal is shown to be drawing her own conclusions but it is indicated through her silence that she has not yet come to the point where she will outright question Thornhill. There is no one who Thornhill is confiding his true fears to. This indicates a build-up towards an eventual conflict. 'Sal, knowing him so well, heard something in his tone by said nothing.' (238-239) '//If they'd a wanted to spear us they'd a done it ten times over by now,// Thornhill said. Then he thought that might not be the best argument to follow. //We got no call to worry//, he announced, but no one seemed convinced.' (241) 'Only Dick was not around the lamp with the rest of them. he lay on the mattress, staring up into the rafters.' (245)
 * Key quotes**

**__ Conflict with the environment __**

237-247 Thornhill is not as adept at blending into his surroundings as the aborigines are, and the narrative evokes images of the struggle between Thornhill and the land he attempts to tame. While the aborigines are out in the open and feel totally unthreatened, Thornhill and the others feel suffocated by the tense atmosphere the confines of his hut has created. 'The valley began to feel like a funnel in which the Thornhills were trapped with their black neighbours.' (238)
 * Key quotes**

'He wanted to be unseen, but he knew how his shirt, dingy though it was, must stand out bright against the trees.' (242)

**__ Racial conflict __**

237-247 Thornhill feels threatened by the arrival of the aborigines. Not only is he frightened of the possibility of a spear in his guts, he also feels conflicted between his curiosity to know and understand more about the aborigines and the desire to totally dismiss them as hostile. In this section, he shows attempts at understanding their rituals through observing, but the racial conflict arises not so much in what is said but what is not said. There is no one to explain to Thornhill what the aborigines are doing exactly and as he watches, he uses his own familiar analogies such as church to describe to himself what is going on, but he also understands that he can never be a part of it. At the same time, he cannot dispel his feelings of unsettlement as he comes to realise how much more powerful the Darug are than him. 'It was not a tune, nothing cheerful that you might listen to like Oranges and Lemons, more like a chant as you might hear in a church. It was a sound that worked its way under the skin.' (240) 'The huge air stirred, full of hostile life. He imagined it: the blacks creeping up to the hut, silent as lizards on their wife quiet feet. They might at this very moment be peering in at them,' (240) 'The words not said were like a creature pacing up and down between them.' (240) 'War paint, he thought. They're doing a bleeding war dance. he was surprised by the calmness he felt at the idea, and realsied he had been expecting this moment for a long time.' (243)
 * Key quotes**

'some sly excitment in his voice made Thornhill hesitate but Smasher edged him into the doorway...Now the evil was part of him'. pg 251-253 “Captain McCallum, though, the narrow cleft of the place suggested other possibilities…They had fired blindly into the bushes, but three redcoats lay dead, and four others wounded, before they were able to drive the blacks away.” [pg 262-265]
 * conflict between convicts**
 * conflict between natives and settlers**