In the grace period of Australian colonial development, many cultural assumptions and ideas were created in response to increased British immigration. Australia was a home away from home, a land of opportunity and adventure that allowed the English population "freedom" from the almost oppressive presence of the British Empire. David Malouf's Remembering Babylon, the story of an unnamed white settlement in northern Queensland, presents a perspective often seen in literary texts of this type, namely the birth of the nation and the true foundations of Australian culture as we know it. The assumptions that many have about what nineteenth century Australia was like, and what has since been maintained and is evident in modern culture, have been clearly referenced and explored in Remembering Babylon. The reader can see 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As many assume, any text that explores the nature of the nineteenth century is expected to have the strong presence of religion looming over the characters and narrative arc. It is no secret that the British Empire, and much of the Eurocentric world, was founded on beliefs originating 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 heavily present in everyday life. However, Malouf hardly touches on religious issues as he explores the true nature of the people who colonized the land. Even a character who is supposed to be strongly associated with the church, namely Minister Frazer, does not appear to be overtly concerned with religious issues or expectations. Mr. Frazer is presented first as a man of science and second as a man of God. It is shown that he feels most at home in the summer woods of the surrounding area. He feels dejected in the world of men, only feeling his true purpose arise as a “night wanderer,” one who explores “the lives of creatures who were abroad, as he was, while the human world slept.” His identity as the only religious figure in the country takes second place compared to the part of himself that detaches himself from faith, except that which he puts in his botany, "his only safe refuge". One would expect a man of God to seek refuge in the embrace of the Lord, as religious texts guide the faithful to do. However, Mr. Frazer, no matter how devoted to God you may seem in the eyes of the public, the true calling you seek is in the nocturnal creatures and night-flowering plants that "touch your hidden nature." Frazer disputes the idea that religion is predominant in Australia. His botanical research, and the way he critically evaluates the world, suggests that while it is expected to be present in the Church, it is not a fundamental part of Australian culture, now or ever. Before Australia developed ideas of independence and moving away from the British. Homeland", many British immigrants thought of Australia as a home away from home. A land, albeit different in ecosystem and environment, to be shaped into a second England, no different from the first. Malouf completely challenges this belief and, as he explains that the appearance of the country can be changed on a superficial level, recognizes that the power in the landscape itself is absolute and can never truly be shifted or diverted into something that is not The influence the land has on white settlers and their way to live is evident when thethird-person point of view shifts to focus on a particular character and their relationship to the new house. It is Janet who first takes a moment of solemnity with the earth. He sits under a tree, picking a scab. When the hard crust lifts, she is amazed to find “a color she had never seen before, and another skin, shining like a pearl. Of a delicate pink, it may have belonged to some other creature." This is a small sign of what is to come to Janet and a symbolic premonition of her future life. The hard, crusted shell of the scab are her English preconceptions of sentience and property . The removal of the scab, which in itself challenges the idea of ​​the polite and respectable English lady, reveals a new skin, a new life that Janet has only glimpsed and knows is something precious and unique ", she explores the world around her and begins to notice the world waking up before her new eyes. "All the velvety grass heads are burning, haloed with gold," and she feels a feeling of euphoria. As she the passage continues, Malouf begins to use delicate personification, giving her surroundings a living, breathing life force that swells and pulsates around her. The bark of the “tattered ribbon” of trees is replaced by “smooth skin of greenery paler, streaked with orange and what looked like the dusty redness of blood.” In this moment, Janet – and the reader – realizes 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 is a country of its own, separate and different and not at all like Mother England for the settlers who breathe and work the Earth. White settlement in Australia is, and always will be, the catalyst for general social discord. The British Empire upended a land and culture 50,000 years in the making, setting in motion 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 assumption that Malouf relies on as he explores the themes of racism and marginalization of an entire people. The reader enters the novel with an idea of ​​Australia's discordant past and with the expectation that the portrayal of racist and discriminatory characters will occur. The notion of “Other” is a common theme when referring to postcolonial texts. Although Gemmy was not born Aboriginal, his sixteen years living among the North Queensland tribe have physically - and ideologically - turned Gemmy into a fence, both metaphorically and literally, as he is presented as something perched on a fence that borders the settlement. Gemmy is a bridge between two conflicting groups of people, a “black white man” doubly considered an outsider. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the settlement's more closed-off individuals, he acts, thinks, and looks enough like "one of Them" to incite a call for violence committed against him. When Gemmy is seized by “a crowd of disembodied whispers” and savagely beaten by a group of men who had decided to act against him, he cannot possibly hope to identify them and must therefore assume that these others, “all with hands and shoulders and heads and agitated breaths,” could be anyone and therefore everyone in the settlement. This translates as a depiction of the incessant violence rampant in nineteenth-century Australia. No laws or rules were established on matters.