Gender – the representations of gender in these texts are overtly patriarchal, men are ruling society, women have little to no say. In The Secret River, Sal is transported with her convict husband despite not actually having committed the crime herself. Women have stereotypical, traditional gender roles such as cooking, cleaning, sewing and making clothes and raising the children. Will’s wife Sal is the voice of moral reason among the ruthless men.
In Heart Of Darkness, women are the objects upon which men can display their own success and status (e.g. Mr. Kurtz’s African mistress) and Marlow frequently claims that women are the keepers of naïve illusions, to blame for the evils of the world.
In The Pearl the male is the leader of the household. He is dominant, he is the decision-maker, and …show more content…
In The Secret River, both cultures believe that they are entitled to the land for ownership purposes however, the Aboriginal Australians don’t feel the need to build fences or otherwise. Aboriginals maintain they have ownership of the land as they were there first. Whereas the white European colonisers believe they have ownership of Australia because they’re British and Britain technically ‘owns’ Australia as a penal colony.
The River Thames, London, England - In Heart Of Darkness, representations of the River Thames present with positive connotations of calmness and tranquillity, associated with feelings of home, identity and culturally belonging. The narrator (from whom the story is told) displays the upmost respect towards this setting and life at sea: “and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished