The Secret River Section Three Topic and Question

 One theme that is coming up throughout the third section of The Secret River is the oppressed becoming the oppressor, specifically with Thornhill. He lived a terrible life in London where he was treated subhuman. Because of the classist systems in London he needed to steal. Because he stole he is forever marked as less than the other Londoners and other upper class members of society. Because of this shame and lack of acceptance, he turns to replacing the mannerisms, actions, and mindset of those who oppressed him in order to try and lift himself up. This is incredibly interesting because it related very closely to the theme of intergenerational trauma that I studied for my final project of the fall quarter. Oppression causes people to become oppressors. This is a particularly interesting case as it looks at a man who is oppressed by his own people and culture which tended to not be the case in my research. I also think this was interesting as one of my main takeaways from my project was that systems of intergenerational trauma are why past atrocities and events are never really in the past as their effects remain on the land and through the people to their children in the next generation. This then ties nicely into the idea of how colonialism is a structure and not an event. What then, should Thornhill do in order to break this cycle? Can he break this cycle, and if so does he have the mental capacity to look beyond himself to do it?