Week 3: Smasher Sullivan
In "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville, the character of Smasher Sullivan stands out as a powerful representation of the violence and brutality inflicted upon the Indigenous people by white settlers during the colonial period. He definitely shocked me as I read the novel.
From his introduction, where he brags about hanging an Indigenous person, to the end of the novel, Smasher's character is fairly static, showing little to no mercy for the people he encounters. However, one of the most disturbing aspects of Smasher's character is his dehumanization of the Indigenous people. He views them as obstacles and issues to be dealt with, rather than as human beings. This dehumanization serves to justify the violence and exploitation that white settlers inflicted upon the Indigenous people. By removing the personhood from the Indigenous people, it makes the killing, stealing, and other atrocities less morally reprehensible.
It seemed to me that Smasher served as a reminder that not all white settlers were benevolent or kind-hearted individuals. There were individuals like Smasher who used extreme violence and dehumanization to justify their actions, as portrayed in this novel. This serves as a reminder of the harsh reality of the treatment of Indigenous people by white settlers during the colonial period and the ongoing impact of those actions on Indigenous communities today.
Our discussion in class about the subtlety of the criticism of settler colonialism are best seen through Smasher Sullivan. One concern I had was that the story would be too subtle about the treatment of the indigenous people- that the actual criticism wouldn't be apparent to anyone that didn't want to see it. Smasher Sullivan, especially later on, become a pretty apparent symbol of the cruelty of the settlers, which reassured me that the novel wasn't going to be too neutral in its criticism.
Hi Jalen! I was hoping someone would use this prompt to analyze Smasher-- so I was very glad to see your post. I definitely agree that characters like Smasher help bring out Grenville's point about colonization a bit more. I think it was interesting that she included settlers across the spectrum of how they are treating the Aboriginal people (from Smasher to Blackwood and Thornhill in the middle). I wonder if her message would have come across more having even more characters such as Smasher, or if it was important to just have a few to make them stand out more?
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen, you make a great point about how static Smasher's character is. Along with being static, he has less depth as a character overall. He is quite predictable like you said, and in dehumanizing others he dehumanizes himself. I also like the point you made that without Smasher's character present in the novel, it would be a lot harder to appreciate the criticism the novel was meant to give in the first place. His character shows the reader that not all settlers were like Will and Blackwood. He also had the ability to bring out the worst in people. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Smasher.
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen, I also wrote about Smasher and I agree that he is a good representation of the violence and ignorance of colonists, but he is also just one of the many perspectives in the novel. Thornhill does not exhibit many of Smasher's traits and is a much more neutral character. Also, many of the characters are repulsed by Smashers acts of violence which gives the sense to the reader that the average colonist was more just that they were historically. Overall, Grenville's point doesn't really seem to clear, what is she trying to say exactly?
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen, I totally agree that Smasher represents the worst part of settler colonialism. Instead of learning from them and respecting their way of life (even just as a survival strategy), he openly shares how he's abused natives in the past. I think that with his character, Greenville shows how normalized it was to dehumanize the aboriginal people.
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen, I liked your thoughts on Smasher and agree that he was for sure representing the worst parts of colonialism. One thing that I don't 100% agree on is that he came as a reminder that not all white settlers were kind because almost all the settlers that we know of besides the Thornhill family (which aren't very kind themselves besides Dick), Blackwood, and Mrs. Herring. Spider, Saggity, Dan, and Ned are all examples of characters who absolutely despise the Aboriginals. I also think the novel was a bit neutral when it came to the criticism of the treatment of Native Americans in the beginning of the story because it seemed like all the colonists would do is say they hate them, but not really do anything, until they end where we find out Smasher and Saggity would sexually assault the woman and the colonists essentially slaughtered a tribe of Aboriginals.
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