Remebering Babylon

A detailed Summary of Remebering Babylon

"`Do not shoot´, it shouted `I am a B-b-british object!´." These are the first words spoken by the main character Gemmy in the novel "Remembering Babylon". Gemmy Fairley enters the environment of a distant Australian settlement having spent 16 years of his life living with the aborigines. He has lost contact to his past British background, to his language and cultural identity. In the Scottish settlement his past identity begins to reconstruct itself piece by piece, word by word. He struggles with familiar English words until whites avert their eyes, seeing in his search for simple sounds a sign of impairment or worse, of treason. In any case, it is a mark of otherness that subverts the settler's own identity. Gemmy compels them to ask themselves "Could you lose it? Not just language but it. It." (40)

16 years ago Gemmy was a "British obje

ct", he was still a boy until British seamen heaved him overboard near the coast of Australia sometime in the middle of the 19th century. Then he became an aboriginal object. Gemmy's presence in the village makes the hardest men among them harder still. His indistinctness, his being neither one thing nor the other, in age, culture or appearance, his different consonants and different vowels seems more than imbecilic to the settlers, it seems monstrous. If his existence can be resolved at all in their minds it is that he must be a "blackfeller" disguised in white skin, a dangerous emissary of the outback. In unmasking themselves from the illusion of cultural objective truth, they would make progress and elevate the human nature.

When Gemmy realizes that he is not, nor will be, accepted in the village of the settlers and when he understands th

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gemmy British, Gemmy Fairley, George Gemmy, , Abbot Frazer, lost language, gemmy believes, 16 life living, life living aborigines, wash writing, life living, 16 life, living aborigines, words spoken,

Approximate Word count = 570
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

join now Save Paper

Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

Newest Essays

Testimonials

"Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
Jack M.
"With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
Brian P.
"I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
Sara J.
"I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
Rachel W.
"I love this site!!!"
Marie N.