Clash of Cultures

        There are multiple places throughout The Secret River where Western culture and that of the Aboriginals' violently collide, but the one that stood out the most to me was the first encounter Will had with the Aboriginals after him and Sal had moved onto the land Will liked to call Thornhill's point. I feel that this stood out to me the most because it shows how Will treats the Aboriginals based on his preconceptions of them alone, not heavily based on what either Blackwood or Smasher think. When the Aboriginals first try speaking with him, Will feels like an 'imbecile', and to counter that feeling, he begins to talk to the Aboriginals using the language the gentry used with him in London – words like 'old boy' and 'bugger me' (144). Will immediately feels that because he can't understand what the Aboriginals are saying, he is inferior – so he tries to push the same feeling of inferiority and lack of knowledge onto the Aboriginals, by speaking with them in a language he knows they don't understand. I found this very interesting, because it showed me how Will cannot stand being in a position below someone else once he has a glimpse of how it feels to be superior. To top all that off, when Will slaps the old man's shoulder (who he later calls Whisker Harry), Grenville describes it as 'slow ironic applause' (146). I found it surprising that he would slap the shoulder of someone who is obviously much older than him, in a sort of demeaning way, how one would scold a child. I think that again connects to how he tries to make the Aboriginals feel more inferior than he does.