A review of the book “Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing From the Land Down Under” by Phyllis Edelson.
This paper discusses the book “Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing From the Land Down Under” by Phyllis Edelson. Specifically, it contains an analysis of “The Convict” section, and describes the reality of convict life in Australia two centuries ago. Excerpts of the book are presented to illustrate the harsh existence endured by the convicts.
“If the Aboriginal experience in Australia was terrible, then the convict experience in Australia was pure Hell. Some of them were not guilty of any crime, they were just sent to a prison colony because they were in the way of something, like a romance. The early convicts lived little better than animals. “I have taken grass and pounded it, and made soup from a native dog. Any man would have committed murder for a week’s provisions (Edelson 109). Once a convict, a man was no longer a man, he was simply a number. A Thing a Chattel a Number anything, rather than a man (Edelson 116). This certainly makes it easier for the guards to treat them like animals, if they are not recognized as men.”