Racial Discrimination in Brian Castro's 'Drift and Birds of Passage'.
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.
Saya menyimpulkan bahwa akar dari rasialisme adalah orang-orang picik
yang berpikir etnosentrik. Hal ini mengakibatkan masyarakat kulit putih tidak bisa
menerima perbedaan kebudayaan yang dimiliki bangsa-bangsa lain.
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Background of the Study
• 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
• Synopsis of Brian Castro’s Birds of Passage
• Biography of Brian Castro
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
As he travels to Tasmania, he visits Flinders Island. This Island is used by
the Europeans to take care of the remaining Aborigines after the war. On the other
hand, as said by Emma McGann, the Aborigines believe Flinders Island is their
temporary home and that they are free people who will be housed, fed and
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
Seamus O’Young is an Australian orphan who suffers identity crisis
because he is treated unfairly by the Australian society. He receives much racial
discrimination only because he has a strange physical appearance which is not
suitable for being Australian. Seamus is Australian but Chinese in appearance.
Wherever he goes, he is always mocked with a certain name which is typical of
Chinese names, some call him ‘Ching Chong Chinaman’ or even ‘Bloody Chink’.
Even though his citizenship tells him that he is an Australian still the
Australian people tend to regard him as an outsider. He never realizes that his
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
Brian Castro was born in Hong Kong in 1950 of Portuguese, English,
Chinese and Australian descent and came to Australia in 1961. He began
publishing short stories from 1970 and is the author of the novels Birds of
Passage (1983), joint winner of the Australian/Vogel literary award, Pomeroy
(1990), Double-Wolf (1991), winner of the Age Fiction Prize and two Victorian
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Premier’s Awards, and After China, which won the Vance Premier Prize for
Fiction at the 1993 Victorian Premier’s Awards. He had been the recipient of a
number of grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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 :
One of the first things we notice about people when we met them
(along with their) sex is their race. We utilize race to provide clues
about who a person is. This fact is made painfully obvious when we
encounter someone whom we cannot conveniently racially
categorize someone who is, for example, racially “mixed” or of an
ethnic or racial group with which we are not familiar. Such an
encounter becomes a source of discomfort and momentarily a crisis
of racial meaning.
1
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
(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). Whiteskinned 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.
Racism itself may vary widely both in form and degree. Two types of
2
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
4. To show how the author presents the racial discrimination i the two
novels.
3
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
Chapter Two contains the analysis of Brian Castro’s Drift followed by Chapter
Three which contains the analysis of Birds of Passage. The last chapter, Chapter
Four, is the conclusion, which contains the comparison of the analysis of the two
novels.
4
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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
major characters and supported by some historical data. In Drift, the idea of
27
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
McGann’s story has become verification to find the hidden truth. On the other
28
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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 “antiChinese” movement is spread all over Australia during that time. The racial
discrimination experienced by the Chinese immigrants is grounded in the white
29
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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
inferior groups based on their differences.
30
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
(http://jmm.aa.net.au/articles/60.htm).
Universitas Kristen MAranatha
Primary Texts:
Castro, Brian
1983
Birds of Passage,
Sydney: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Castro, Brian
1994
Drift,
Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Ltd
Universitas Kristen MAranatha
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.
Saya menyimpulkan bahwa akar dari rasialisme adalah orang-orang picik
yang berpikir etnosentrik. Hal ini mengakibatkan masyarakat kulit putih tidak bisa
menerima perbedaan kebudayaan yang dimiliki bangsa-bangsa lain.
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Background of the Study
• 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
• Synopsis of Brian Castro’s Birds of Passage
• Biography of Brian Castro
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
As he travels to Tasmania, he visits Flinders Island. This Island is used by
the Europeans to take care of the remaining Aborigines after the war. On the other
hand, as said by Emma McGann, the Aborigines believe Flinders Island is their
temporary home and that they are free people who will be housed, fed and
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
Seamus O’Young is an Australian orphan who suffers identity crisis
because he is treated unfairly by the Australian society. He receives much racial
discrimination only because he has a strange physical appearance which is not
suitable for being Australian. Seamus is Australian but Chinese in appearance.
Wherever he goes, he is always mocked with a certain name which is typical of
Chinese names, some call him ‘Ching Chong Chinaman’ or even ‘Bloody Chink’.
Even though his citizenship tells him that he is an Australian still the
Australian people tend to regard him as an outsider. He never realizes that his
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
Brian Castro was born in Hong Kong in 1950 of Portuguese, English,
Chinese and Australian descent and came to Australia in 1961. He began
publishing short stories from 1970 and is the author of the novels Birds of
Passage (1983), joint winner of the Australian/Vogel literary award, Pomeroy
(1990), Double-Wolf (1991), winner of the Age Fiction Prize and two Victorian
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Premier’s Awards, and After China, which won the Vance Premier Prize for
Fiction at the 1993 Victorian Premier’s Awards. He had been the recipient of a
number of grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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 :
One of the first things we notice about people when we met them
(along with their) sex is their race. We utilize race to provide clues
about who a person is. This fact is made painfully obvious when we
encounter someone whom we cannot conveniently racially
categorize someone who is, for example, racially “mixed” or of an
ethnic or racial group with which we are not familiar. Such an
encounter becomes a source of discomfort and momentarily a crisis
of racial meaning.
1
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
(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). Whiteskinned 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.
Racism itself may vary widely both in form and degree. Two types of
2
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
4. To show how the author presents the racial discrimination i the two
novels.
3
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
Chapter Two contains the analysis of Brian Castro’s Drift followed by Chapter
Three which contains the analysis of Birds of Passage. The last chapter, Chapter
Four, is the conclusion, which contains the comparison of the analysis of the two
novels.
4
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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
major characters and supported by some historical data. In Drift, the idea of
27
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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.
McGann’s story has become verification to find the hidden truth. On the other
28
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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 “antiChinese” movement is spread all over Australia during that time. The racial
discrimination experienced by the Chinese immigrants is grounded in the white
29
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
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
inferior groups based on their differences.
30
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
(http://jmm.aa.net.au/articles/60.htm).
Universitas Kristen MAranatha
Primary Texts:
Castro, Brian
1983
Birds of Passage,
Sydney: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Castro, Brian
1994
Drift,
Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Ltd
Universitas Kristen MAranatha