Remembering Babylon: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

16 years before, Gemmy wakes on a beach, unsure of where he is or even entirely who he is. His body is frail, mottled with open sores and tiny creatures feeding on them. A group of Aboriginal Australians finds Gemmy, unsure of what sort of creature he may be until they see his stomach and belly button and realize that he is human like them. Gemmy is confused; he had expected to see Willet there, standing above him. The native people give him water and carry his frail frame with them back to their camp. In the evening, he manages to sit upright and crawl toward them. They are stunned into silence, so he grins and makes silly faces as he had once done on the streets back home to earn sympathy. The Aboriginal Australians eventually burst into laughter and toss bits of food to him, which he takes and eats.

In the morning, when the Aboriginal Australians rise to leave, Gemmy follows after them at a distance, inching closer until he folds himself among the stragglers of the traveling group. When they stop, Gemmy stops with them and establishes himself amongst them, on the outskirts of the group. The people “though wary, made no dispute.” As Gemmy learns the language and ways of this new world—which he discovers is not altogether different from his old world—he loses the language, customs, and even his memories of home, though he had not known very much to begin with. Though occasionally memories of objects or words float through his psyche and cause a sense of loss, he imagines that they must belong to some other person, some other life.

Gemmy becomes one of the native Australians. After a time, when they tell the story of his arrival, it seems to him as if they are talking of someone who lived eons ago. Although he is an accepted member of their tribe, many things are restricted from him (including women), which keeps the thin strands of his old life present in him and prevents him from falling entirely into his new identity. At night, he still hears the echo of former words and objects; the word “boots” enters his mind along with a picture of leather and laces that he cannot comprehend. Although the tribespeople tell him that it is because his spirit does not rest, Gemmy imagines that there must be something more tangible to his visions than the spirit world.

Eventually, news arrives from the south that there are “spirits, white-faced, covered from head to foot in bark and riding four-footed beasts that were taller than a man.” Gemmy is determined to find out what such things could be. Gemmy begins seeing signs of white people: horse dung, which brings to mind a memory of clattering hooves that he cannot quite understand; a child and mother, which gives him a rush of affection; a bearded man with a flannel shirt and an “axe,” the name of which rushes into his head; a woman feeding chickens; and a clothesline hung with shirts that seem to Gemmy like colorful ghosts.

One day Gemmy spies the McIvors’ hut and sneaks up to it in the evening, listening to the voices and trying to remember the words, believing that if he can do so, some part of him will return, and perhaps he can be recognized. The next day, when Gemmy runs towards the fence on which Lachlan, Janet, and Meg had spied him, he is not intending to abandon his tribe. He only wants to close the distance between himself and the children, to prove to himself that he is connected to such people somehow, that all that separates them is the length of the ground. Gemmy climbs atop the fence, gripping with his toes and balancing with his arms, waiting to be struck down by the bullet from Lachlan’s rifle. When Meg gives a shriek, Gemmy loses his balance and falls “on all fours on the other side.”