Mr. Frazer Character Analysis

Mr. Frazer is the settlement’s minister, though in the story he operates primarily in his role as a botanist. When Gemmy first arrives, Mr. Frazer interviews him as well as he can, producing the seven pages of writing that contain an account of Gemmy’s life. Although Mr. Frazer is not taken altogether seriously by the other settlers and is often oblivious to what is happening in the settlement, he proves a true friend to Gemmy, patiently but eagerly learning from Gemmy’s knowledge of Australian plants. While other settlers try to pry information out of Gemmy, Mr. Frazer proves his good intentions by respecting whatever information Gemmy chooses to withhold. After Gemmy gives Mr. Frazer a thorough understanding of Australian plants and foraging, Mr. Frazer develops an alternative concept for colonialism in which the Commonwealth settlers would grow crops that are naturally found in Australia’s wilderness, rather than trying to dominate and force the land to grow crops cultivated in England. He sees Gemmy, a European man who understands the ways of the Aboriginal Australians, as a forerunner of this new theory of colonialism, a new and better model of humanity. However, when Mr. Frazer pitches his idea, first to a fellow settler and then to the government of Queensland, he discovers that everyone else is too intent on trying to force Australia to look like England to listen to his ideas.