Great post, sun surfer, and I love the picture of the house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fantasyfan
Sal actually has an epiphany when she realises that the Native Australians share her common humanity. Thorhnill comes very close to this realisation himself, but when he decides to join Smasher’s “posse”, ironically because he feels it is the only way to hold on to Sal, he loses that possibility of moral growth.
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I've been meaning to respond to this bit, since I found Sal to be both unreal and distasteful. The noble Sal of the beginning deteriorated markedly once she got to Australia, which is fair enough I suppose as everyone has a breaking point, but it she hadn't been such a Mary Sue at first it wouldn't have seemed such an about-face.
Thornhill also had his epiphany when he saw the Aborigines as gentry. I think that's the biggest problem with epiphanies; too often they're evanescent. In the end, Sal also was complicit. Whether or not Thornhill had no alternative, or felt he didn't, is arguable and of course he's responsible for his own actions, but Sal was willing to accept and benefit from their materially changed circumstances post-massacre, and she knew. Didn't ask, to preserve her and Thornhill's deniability, but she knew.