—Anonymous
If I’m being honest Remembering Babylon was a difficult book to read just because it was hard to concentrate and follow through with the reading. I found myself constantly rereading a sentence or paragraph and still not focusing because my mind was elsewhere. I couldn’t read the book, but I did read online summaries of the book which helped understand what was going on. My main concern was Gemmy I felt like he didn’t deserve to have the ending he got which was getting killed by a settler. It’s ironic, the settlers were so afraid of what the aboriginals would do meanwhile they had all the gun power. They were the ones to be afraid of. Gemmy is considered to be a white – one of them and he was killed by white men. I thought there was going to be some big revelation or act by Gemmy in the settlement so him just leaving didn’t make sense to me like was this really it? He goes back to where he truly feels comfortable with the aboriginals. We don’t know much about the aboriginals and maybe that’s the point they didn’t “invade” the settler’s property why? They could have. All we do know is the settler’s inability to adopt with aboriginals. My only is question what was Gemmy’s role in this? He had a rough life and for it to end like that just isn’t right. I later learned that his role did have a major impact on the lives of Janet and Lachlan years later as they both reflect on their lives and the events that led up to it and Gemmy was at the center of those events, he has helped them change their perspectives to their indifference and has taught them to love all that surrounds them.
