Main Themes

Xenophobia

The white settlers fear the Aboriginal Australians—whom they refer to and regard as “black” in comparison with their own whiteness—and view them as fundamentally different beings from themselves. However, those conceptions are challenged by the arrival of Gemmy, a white man who was raised by an Aboriginal community, speaks their language, and follows their customs. Although the settlers believe that white people are inherently separate from and superior to the Aboriginal peoples, Gemmy’s presence and the conduct of the white settlers suggests not only that the notion of racial superiority is foolish, but also that the hard distinction between “black” people and white people is similarly meaningless.

Community and Insularity

Because of the isolation of the settlers’ community in the Australian wilderness, each family is heavily dependent on its neighbors for protection and provision. However, when Jock finds that he morally disagrees with his neighbors and does things that they disapprove of—like protecting Gemmy from the white settlers’ wrath—it affects both his social relationships and his family’s safety. Jock’s plight suggests that although a small, isolated community might be closely knit and interdependent, it can also be difficult to dissent from the consensus of the group, even when the group is acting irrationally or immorally.

Power of Gender

The mid-19th-century settlement in the Australian wilderness is a patriarchal society, governed and operated by men, with women relegated primarily to keeping the home or supporting their husbands. Despite this social system, women in the novel play a critical role, exhibiting strength in the face of men’s weakness. The book contrasts men’s power, which is all about being perceived as strong and dominating, with women’s power, which is based upon their own quiet, internal strength and surety of conviction. Ultimately, the novel suggests that although men have more social authority, women are just as powerful and are often the true sources of strength in their communities.

Colonialism

As a work of post-colonial literature—literature that counteracts earlier literary depictions of colonialism as noble and just—Remembering Babylon suggests that the Commonwealth settlers’ claims to land lived in by Aboriginal Australians for countless of years are baseless and absurd. Although the settlers in the novel insist that the land belongs to them by right of law, the superficial nature of legal borders suggests that such colonial claims are groundless and artificially constructed; the settlers’ right to the land exists only in their own minds.