In her book Nanberry, Jackie French portrays colonial life as a very confusing and perplexing time for both the Indigenous Australians and the White British Settlers, albeit in different ways. With the Indigenous Australians confused by the sudden invasion of the white settler (ghosts), and the British Settlers becoming confused by the new sights, smells and culture of ‘Sydney Cove’. Through the characters of Nanberry, Surgeon White and Bennelong, the viewer is shown just how confusing their life was at the time of the first settlement in Australia. Nanberry is one of the main characters in French’s book, and is a prime way through which she portrays colonial life as perplexing and confusing. Nanberry was born into, and partially raised by an Indigenous Australian family, however he was adopted by Surgeon White at the tender age of eight or nine. Surgeon White intends to raise him like a son, with the ways and customs of the English’s ways. This is confusing to Nanberry as he still feels a strong closeness to his Aboriginal family and their customs and traditions, which are starkly contrasted to the English Settlers ways, but he is also intrigued and drawn to the Settlers colonial life. “ He was tired. So many new things: the smells, the white ghosts, the angry woman.”, the listing used by French here shows the viewer that Nanberry is confused by many things, the truncated sentence at the beginning hints at the fact that he is frustrated and confused by the mixed emotions he is feeling in regards to his …show more content…
Colonial life during the time of the first settlement in Australia was depicted as confusing and somewhat bewildering through Jackie French’s novel Nanberry, through three main characters of Bennelong, Surgeon White and Nanberry this theme is made clear for the viewer to understand, even though at some points it may have appeared that there was just misunderstanding or miscommunication, confusion was the way that colonial life was ultimately