In the grace period of Australia's colonial development, many cultural assumptions and ideas were created in response to the increase in British immigration. Australia was a home, a land of opportunity and adventure that allowed the English population to “liberate” themselves from the almost oppressive presence of the British Empire. David Malouf's Remembering Babylon, the story of an anonymous white settlement in North Queensland, presents a perspective often seen in literary texts of this nature, namely the birth of national identity and the true foundations of culture Australian as we know it. The assumptions many have about what Australia was like in the 19th century and what has since been retained and evident in modern culture have been clearly referenced and explored in Remembering Babylon. The reader can have their suspicions, ideas, and assumptions challenged and naturalized in equal measure. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay As most might assume, any text exploring the nature of the 19th century should have a strong presence of religion hanging over the characters and narrative arc. It's no secret that the British Empire, and much of the Eurocentric world, was founded on beliefs derived from biblical texts and the Roman Catholic Church. For the most part, the narrative takes place in a colony of predominantly white citizens, and a key idea about Australia would be that religion is an important part of daily life. However, Malouf barely touches on religious issues as he explores the true nature of the people who colonized the earth. Even a figure who should be strongly associated with the Church, namely Minister Frazer, does not seem overtly concerned with religious issues or expectations. Mr. Frazer is presented as a man of science first and as a man of God second. He feels most at home in the nearby summer woods. He feels discouraged in the world of men, only feeling his true purpose arise as a "nocturnal wanderer", one who explores "the lives of creatures who were abroad, like himself, while the human world slept". His identity as the only religious person in the town takes second place to the part of himself that is detached from his faith, except that which he places in his botanism, “his only safe refuge”. One might expect a man of God to seek refuge in the arms of the Lord, as religious texts guide the faithful to do. However, Mr. Frazer, no matter how devoted to God he may appear to the public eye, the true calling he seeks lies in the nocturnal creatures and night-flowering plants that "touch his hidden nature." Mr Frazer disputes the idea that religion is predominant in Australia. His botanical research and the way he critically evaluates the world suggests that while his presence in the Church is expected, it is not a key part of Australian culture, now or ever. Before Australia developed ideas of independence and distance from the British. Homeland”, many British immigrants considered Australia their second home. A land, although different in terms of ecosystem and environment, which must be shaped to become a second England, not different from the first. Malouf entirely disputes this belief and, while explaining that the country's appearance can be changed on a superficial level, he acknowledges that thepower in the landscape itself is absolute and can never truly be displaced or diverted into something it is not. The influence of the land on the white settlers and their way of life is evident as the third-person point of view focuses on a particular character and their relationship to their new home. It is Janet who first takes a moment of solemnity with the earth. She sits under a tree and gnaws a scab. When the hard crust lifts, she is surprised to discover “a color she had never seen before, and another skin, shiny like a pearl. A delicate pink, it could have belonged to another creature. It's a small sign of what's to come for Janet and a symbolic premonition of her future life. The crust's hard, crusty shell is a reflection of its preconceived English notions of sentience and propriety. The peeling off of the scab, which in itself defies the idea of ​​a respectable, well-bred English lady, reveals a new skin, a new life that Janet only gets a glimpse of and she knows is something precious and unique. With this new “secret skin,” she explores the world around her and begins to notice the world awakening before her new eyes. “All the velvety heads of grass burst into flames, haloed with gold,” and she felt a sensation of exaltation. As the passage progresses, Malouf begins to use delicate personification, giving her surroundings a living, breathing life force that swells and pulses around her. The “tattered” bark of the trees is replaced by “smooth skin of the palest green, streaked with orange and resembling the powdery redness of blood.” At this moment, Janet – and the reader – realize that the land she takes for granted is an entity unto itself, something in touch with her own secret self. The Australian landscape, although passive in the traditional sense, is a powerful presence throughout the novel and something that shapes and changes the characters in Remembering Babylon. It is through this personification that the reader realizes that Australia is not a "home away from home", but its own country, separate and different and which has nothing to do with Mother England for the settlers who breathe and work the land. and will always be the catalyst for global social discord. The British Empire disrupted a land and culture 50,000 years in the making, setting off a series of events that led to the destruction of a civilization, the loss of identity, and the genocide of an entire continent. This is the basis of the hypothesis on which Malouf relies when he explores the themes of racism and the marginalization of an entire people. The reader enters the novel with an idea of ​​Australia's discordant past and expects racist and discriminatory characters to be depicted. The notion of the “Other” is a common theme when referring to postcolonial texts. Although Gemmy was not born Aboriginal, her sixteen years of life among the North Queensland tribe have transformed Gemmy into a fence sitter, both metaphorically and literally, as he is presented as something perched on a fence bordering the colony. Gemmy is a bridge between two conflicting groups of people, a “white and black man” twice seen as an outsider. Unfortunately, to the colony's more narrow-minded individuals, he acts, thinks, and looks enough like "one of them" to incite a call for violence against him. When Gemmy is captured by "a mob of bodyless whisperers" and savagely beaten by a group of men who had decided to take action against him, he cannot hope to identify them and must therefore assume that these others, "all hands and shoulders joined" and heads and.