Racial Discrimination in Brian Castro's 'Drift and Birds of Passage'.

(1)

Universitas Kristen Maranatha

ABSTRACT

Skripsi ini ditulis untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat kelulusan program sarjana di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Maranatha. Saya menganalisis diskriminasi rasial dalam novel Drift dan Birds of Passage. Kedua novel ini ditulis oleh Brian Castro novelis Australia, yang menceritakan tentang penderitaan yang dialami orang Aborigin dan Cina di Australia.

Secara umum diskriminasi rasial dapat dibagi menjadi dua kelompok, yaitu diskriminasi perorangan dan diskriminasi institusi. Keduanya dapat ditemui dalam kedua novel ini. Perlakuan diskriminasi selalu dialami oleh kelompok minoritas, dalam novel Drift, perlakuan diskriminasi dialami oleh orang Aborigin, karena mereka dianggap sebagai orang-orang yang tidak beradab. Hal ini menjadi pemicu masyarakat kulit putih untuk membenarkan tindakan mereka yang semena-mena dalam memperlakukan orang Aborigin. Novel kedua, Birds of Passage, bertutur tentang perlakuan diskriminatif yang dialami kelompok etnis Cina dalam dua kurun waktu yang berbeda. Pada abad ke-19 diskriminasi rasial lebih berupa deraan fisik sementara pada abad ke-20 diskriminasi rasial tersebut lwbih samar-samar.

(2)

Universitas Kristen Maranatha • Statement of the Problem • Purpose of the Study • Method of Research

• Organization of the Thesis

CHAPTER TWO

ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN BRIAN CATRO’S DRIFT

CHAPTER THREE

ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN BRIAN CATRO’S BIRDS OF PASSAGE CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX :

• Synopsis of Brian Castro’s Drift

(3)

APPENDIX

Synopsis of Brian Castro’s Drift

Brian Castro presents a character who is also the narrator of the novel, Bryan Stanley Johnson. The actual name is taken from the name of an English novelist, Byron Shelley. He comes to Tasmania to meet Emma McGann as he is very concerned about what she has written in her letters. She tells many stories related to the fate of the Aboriginal people during the horrible massacre of thousands of Aborigines in the so-called Black War. In her letters, she writes that many Aborigines suffered when the Europeans came to Tasmania in the nineteenth century. Their coming apparently caused a great destruction to the Aborigines. Many of them were tortured and the women were raped. Therefore, Johnson is curious and wants to find the truth behind that information.

(4)

Universitas Kristen Maranatha protected until they return to their homeland. But instead, the island becomes a prison and many become sick and died since there are famine, disease and torture. No one can escape from the prison; they are watched by the white. Some of them are caged and isolated.

When Bryan Stanley Johnson comes to Tasmania, he does not find Emma McGann, but he meets her brother, Thomas McGann. To his surprise, Thomas McGann is actually deputized to collect the remaining skeleton of the last Aborigine woman in Flinders Land from the British Museum. The skeleton is going to be buried in a sacred place back in Tasmania. The Aborigine woman is his great-great grandmother. Thomas tells Johnson in detail what actually happened to his great-great grandmother and his people. After having retrospection about the Aborigines, Johnson comes to have faith in what Emma has written in her letters.

Synopsis of Brian Castro’s Birds of Passage

(5)

Universitas Kristen Maranatha Australian-born Chinese citizenship makes him rejected by the white society for he always considers himself as part of the Australian society. All the problems about his identity confuse him and make him feel alienated in his own country.

Suffering from identity crisis, Seamus starts to search for his identity in culture. Accidentally, he finds a journal written by Lo Yu San, who came to Australia from Kwangtung in 1856 in search of gold. In fact, the two of them share the same experiences of being treated unjustly and alienated by the white society. Therefore, Seamus is so obsessed by the journal and he begins his quest by following the journal.

From the journal, Seamus finds out that the racial discrimination still happens in Australia altough the journal itself is written 120 years ago. Since the Chinese people are different in physical appearance, the inexistence is considered a threat. Besides, the fact that they are very hardworking and willing to be paid lower than other Australian workers leads to a bigger hatred toward the Chinese people. As a result, much racial violence occurs during the gold rush period. The rejection of the Australian people toward Chinese people can also be seen through the massacre of Chinese people in the riot called Lambing Flat in 1861.

Biography of Brian Castro

(6)

(7)

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

I intend to analyze the racial discrimination experienced by the Aborigines in the novel Drift and the Chinese people in the novel Birds of Passage since racial discrimination is the most prominent idea in the two novels. It is interesting to notice that the forms of racial discrimination in each novel are different.

Since Australia is a multiethnic country, the people who live there come from various countries with various cultures. These differences lead to the subordination of members of various groups based on their ethnicity. Paula S. Rothenberg states in her book Race, Class, and Gender in the United States that :

(8)

2

(Rothenberg, 2001: 14).

That is why people are often discriminated based on racial differences. This fact naturally leads to racism.

Racism is defined by Martin N. Marger in his book, Race and Ethnic Relations, as “the belief that humans are subdivided into distinct heredity groups that

are innately different in their social behavior and mental capacities and that can therefore be ranked as superior and inferior…” (Marger, 1991: 27).

It is clear that some groups tend to think of themselves as the superior one and often racism is used “to legitimate the unequal distribution of the society’s resources, specifically, various forms of wealth, prestige and power”. (Marger, 1991: 27). White-skinned people of European origin view themselves as innately superior in “intelligence, temperament and other primary attitudes, beliefs and behavioral traits”. (Marger, 1991: 28). This is made worse by the fact that their number is bigger than that of the native. The fact that the white think that they are superior legitimates them to use their power to oppress the minority.

All the problems about the presumed superiority of some groups and the inferiority of others lead to ethnocentrism that is the tendency to judge other groups by the standards and values of one’s own. This produces a view of one’s own group as superior to others. The ways of one’s own group (in group) become “correct” and “natural”, and the ways of other groups (out-groups) are seen as “odd”, “immoral”, or “unnatural”…(Marger, 1991: 15). In addition, once a group is defined as inferior, the superiors tend to label it as defective or substandard in various ways. Thus the inferior are often considered uncivilized and the white think they need to civilize them.

(9)

3

discrimination according to Marger are individual and institutional. The former is carried out by single persons or small groups, usually in deliberate fashion and appear to be the implementation of prejudicial attitudes, whereas the latter is rendered as a result of the norms and structures of organizations and institutions. In addition, the institutional discrimination is often in an unwitting and unintentional manner. It can range from derogation to physical attack and even extermination.

Drift deals with individual and institutional discrimination, whereas Birds of

Passage deals more with individual discrimination. The novelist of the two novels,

Brian Castro, presents the issue subtly through the use of two narrators in both his novels.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Based on the reason above, the statement of the problems is as follows: 1. What is the form of racial discrimination in Drift and Birds of Passage? 2. How does the author present the racial discrimination in the two novels?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the study is done to :

3. To analyze the forms of racial discrimination in Drift and Birds of Passage.

(10)

4

METHOD OF RESEARCH

The method used is library research. I begin by reading Drift and Birds of Passage, which are written by Brian Castro, and several books that are relevant to the

topics discussed. After that, I analyze the primary text and some references and materials from the internet which can support the analysis and finally I draw some conclusions of what has been discussed.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

I divide the thesis into four chapters, which are preceded by the Preface, the Table of Contents, and the Abstract. In Chapter One, I present the Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, and the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis.

(11)

Universitas Kristen Maranatha 27

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I am going to draw a comparison between the two novels

which have been analyzed in the two previous chapters. These two novels deal

with the oppression of Aborigine people and Chinese immigrants which becomes

the main topic of the novels.

Racial discrimination faced by the Aborigines and Chinese immigrants

basically happens because the white people tend to apply Ethnocentrism. They

have the tendency to judge other groups by the standards and values of one’s own;

this produces a view of one’s own group as superior to others. I presume that

Ethnocentrism can lead to extreme behavior and the claim of superiority. In the

two novels, the act of superiority results in the form of racial discrimination

towards the minority. The racial discrimination in both novels is mostly

manifested in the form of individual and institutional discrimination.

The individual and the institutional discrimination experienced by the

Aborigines and the Chinese immigrants are presented by the portrayal of the

(12)

individual discrimination is mostly experienced by Aborigine women who are

raped and also Aborigine men who are treated severely in the reservation place

while the institutional discrimination can be seen through the idea of the white

who put them in the reservation place and treat them like animals. Finally, the

reservation place becomes the prison for the Aborigines.

However, the discrimination in Birds of Passage is presented in two

different forms, namely individual and institutional racism. These two issues are

presented through the major characters who act as the narrators in the novel. The

first narrator, Seamus O’Young, suffers from identity crisis because his national

identity is always questioned. As an Australian who looks Chinese, Seamus is

often treated as an outsider, and is mocked and called Ching Cong Chinamen. He

often faces individual discrimination. The second narrator, Lo Yun San; however,

suffers individual discrimination more as he, together with the other Chinese gold

diggers, is physically abused. Meanwhile, the institutional discrimination can be

seen through the exploitation of religion by the white society to discriminate the

Chinese gold diggers.

It is interesting to notice that in most of Castro’s works, he applies his

ideas through two protagonists who turn out to be the narrators in each of the

novel. In Drift, there are Byron Shelley Johnson and Thomas McGann while in

Birds of Passage there are Seamus O’Young and Lo Yun San. All of the narrators

are portrayed differently by the authors. In Drift, Johnson is portrayed as an

observer who discovers and finds some evidences of the racial discrimination

experienced by the Aborigines, while McGann is represented as a second voice

who helps Johnson to find the truth by retelling the history that he knew.

(13)

hand, Seamus O’Young in Birds of Passage is described as a victim of the racist

condition in the society who leads him into having an identity crisis, whereas

through Lo Yun San’s journal, Seamus c omes to a better understanding of himself

because he realizes that the discrimination that happens to him also happens to the

Chinese people 120 years before Seamus.

I notice that through the use of the two voices in each novel, Castro tends

not to be subjective in revealing the racial discrimination. The revelation of the

racial discrimination is now balanced as it is based on the comparison of what is

experienced by both of the narrators in each novel.

It is interesting to notice that in both of the novels, Castro inserts some

historical data. In Drift readers can know the massacre that happened to the

Aborigines in Finders Island in 1820, while in Birds of Passage, the readers know

the tragic event that happened to Chinese people in Lambing Flat in 1861.

Apparently, Castro would like to remind the readers about the tragedies faced by

the Aborigines and the Chinese in both his novels.

In Drift, the most significant historical data are the so-called Black War in

1820’s where many Aborigines die in the war. But, the oppression of the

Aborigines does not end there, the discrimination continues due to the

extermination of the Aborigine people. The remaining Aborigines are placed at

Flinders Island by the British government. Many of them are sick and die in

custody.

Meanwhile, in Birds of Passage, the tragedy of Lambing Flat in 1861

happens as result of the whites’ superiority that is very ethnocentric. The

“anti-Chinese” movement is spread all over Australia during that time. The racial

(14)

Australian’s hatred as the impact of their rej ection to the existence of Chinese

immigrants.

Through both of the novels, Castro would like to criticize the white people

who tend to think in ethnocentrism. As long as people tend to think in that view,

racism is endless. Furthermore, the pluralism is often seen as a threat by the white

society; therefore, they cannot accept any differences from other immigrants who

come from certain ethnic minority group to Australia. Finally, I conclude that

racism should be erased. People have to admit that human beings are physically

and culturally diverse but no one has the right to classify mankind in superior and

(15)

Universitas Kristen MAranatha

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Clark Manning 1986 A Short History of Australia.

Australia: Penguin Books.

Edgar, Andrew and Peter Sedgwick 1999 Key Concepts in Cultural

Theory. London: Routledge.

Marger N. Martin 1991 Race and Ethnic Relations.

London: Wadsworth

Publishing Company

Stafford, Christine, and Brian Furze 1997 Society and Change.

Australia: Macmillan

Education Australia PTY

LTD.

Timms, Howard (ed) 1996 The World Book Encyclopedia (Vol.19),

Chicago: World Book, Inc

Woodward, Kath 2000 Questioning Identity: Gender, Class,

Nation. New York: The Open

University

World Wide Web (WWW) Site

Aboriginal Reconciliation

(16)

Universitas Kristen MAranatha

Primary Texts:

Castro, Brian 1983 Birds of Passage,

Sydney: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

Castro, Brian 1994 Drift,