Looking into Smasher

 I think that Smashers' character is an interesting one. He is meant to represent the violence and ignorance of colonizers. I think that he is an important character as he is very obviously painted as a bad person. There is no doubt that Smasher is a bad person, his unnecessary killings of natives, the clear distaste that many of the other colonizers have for him, and even his name, Smasher, all indicate that he is meant to represent colonialism at its worst. Smasher is a low life before coming to New South Wales, but his ignorance and desire to be superior makes him refuse to learn anything about the native people except for how to kill them. I think it's good that Grenville added Smasher in as a character. It is a clear effort to paint colonialism as something more than just peacefully grabbing uninhabited land. However, there is a broad spectrum of colonizers each with different perspectives and reactions towards natives. This sends some really mixed messages about exactly what we, the readers, are supposed to be getting from this novel. We do not get any Native perspectives, and our main character in the story has a constant conflict inside of him about what to think and how to interact with them. The one thing I do know for sure is that Thornhill is repulsed by Smasher, especially in the last chapter we read which does reassure me about Grenville’s intentions.