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The Secret River Essay

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The Secret River Essay
SAC Essay the Good and Bad

The Secret River By Shane Collins

In the novel the Secret River by Kate Grenville it is shown that even people who are essentially good can do bad things. This show by William Thornhill whose actions were bad and harmful to others and still did them in order to protect and provide for his wife Sal and children. There are two actions of William in the novel that displays the topic good people can still do bad things, effectively which I will talk about in the paragraphs that follow. I will also be discussing why people do bad things.

To be a good person has many definitions, some are to be
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Williams’s actions were wrong in a way by stealing from society, but all so right in another by using his thief money to keep the ones he cared about the most alive. The topic was show when Thornhill and his family were trying to build a life at Thornhill point, but it was already occupied by a native aboriginal group ‘’There were no signs that the blacks felt the place belonged to them. They had no fences that said this is mine. No house that said, this is our home. There were no fields or flocks that said, we have put labour of our hands into this place’’ (p.93), so Thornhill tries to get them to leave the area because of fear of them hurting his family ‘’the man spoke loud and hard, and gestured with his hand that had slapped Thornhill. In any language, anywhere, that movement of the hand said, Go away. Even a dog understood Go away when he saw it’’ (p.147), being a hassle and of course they won’t because that area is part of their way of life and is needed for their

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