Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Remembering Babylon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Xenophobia
Gender and Power
Community and Insularity
Coming of Age
Colonialism and Property
Summary
Analysis
In the hut, Ellen hears Gemmy cry out and wakes Jock, who immediately grabs the shotgun and goes to the window where he can see an odd shuffling group of figures carrying someone through the moonlit yard. As Jock dresses, Janet also wakes, and follows her father and her mother quietly out into the yard. Jock pursues the group; Ellen stands to watch some distance from the house. In the moonlight, Janet watches her mother and is overcome by affection for Ellen’s courage and presence, and finds that she is thrilled by her own presence as well. Janet is completely unafraid, even though the dark bush poses many dangers, and she feels pride to be the one standing there, witnessing this event, rather than Lachlan.
Yet again, although Lachlan tries to project an image of power, bravery, and responsibility, Janet quietly surpasses him, demonstrating the power of women once again. It is noteworthy that in the same way that adversity drew Jock and Ellen together, seeing her mother be present and aware in the midst of danger kindles Janet’s affection for Ellen as well. Although her mother, as an adult, represents Janet’s own narrowly defined future as a woman in a patriarchal society, Janet also gets the chance to see the depth of Ellen’s bravery and fortitude.
Themes
Ellen walks towards the hut, joining Janet, and touches her gently. Together, they see Jock half-carrying Gemmy up the slope, returning from the creek in the ravine. Jock meets Ellen and Janet’s eyes, and “the look he gave them she would never forget.” Jock accompanies Gemmy back to the lean-to he sleeps in, while Ellen and Janet return to their beds.
Janet and Ellen’s shared experience of this particular hardship, which draws them together, parallels the renewed closeness Jock and Ellen have together due to the other settlers’ harassment, demonstrating the manner in which people who suffer together for a common cause often draw closer to each other.
Themes
When Jock arrives at the creek, Gemmy’s attackers are already fleeing and he cannot see any of their faces, which both angers him, since they are cowards, and also relieves him, since he fears meeting them “face to face.” When Jock sees Ellen and Janet waiting for him, a deep anger fills his heart that his wife and daughter should be out in the darkness, exposed, while his neighbors who attacked Gemmy are rejoining their own wives in their beds. Although Jock could never have done so before this moment, he crawls into the lean-to with Gemmy and hugs him tightly against himself, wrapping the blanket around them both.
Jock climbing into Gemmy’s lean-to with him and spending the night holding the terrified man close signifies yet another major change in Jock’s character. Where he previously had been wary of having Gemmy touch him at all, since he felt such physical affection between men to be weak and shameful, Jock now spends hours holding him close to comfort him, suggesting that Jock’s care for Gemmy now overrides any ideals he once held about masculinity or image.
Themes
Janet lies awake for several hours before she hears Jock return to the hut. The following morning, neither of her parents speaks of what happened, though Ellen comes to her and kisses her. Janet feels as if “a kind of knowledge had been passed to her” and in the future, she regards this is as the moment she truly grows up.
Although Janet did not do anything other than be present and witness what took place, she still feels as if she has grown up merely by knowing and seeing the hardships her parents and Gemmy face. This suggests that one’s loss of innocence is a critical step in growing up and coming of age.
Themes
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