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Whisker Harry
Long Bob is one of the younger Aboriginal men living around Thornhill Point. When Thornhill comes upon him teaching children, including Dick, how to make fire, the men introduce themselves to each other. Thornhill can't understand more than the first sound of the man's name and begins calling him Long Jack, having originally called him Long Bob. At the end of the novel, Long Jack is the only Aborigine known to be living on the Hawkesbury River. He suffered major injuries during the massacre at Blackwood's, and limps to this day as a result. He refuses Mr. Thornhill's offers of clothing, food, and shelter. When Mr. Thornhill becomes frustrated at this, Long Jack tells Thornhill in English that the land belongs to him, not Thornhill.
Long Bob (or Long Jack) Quotes in The Secret River
The The Secret River quotes below are all either spoken by Long Bob (or Long Jack) or refer to Long Bob (or Long Jack). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 4: A Hundred Acres
Quotes
How did it apply to a moment like the one down by the blacks' fire, when a white man and a black one had tried to make sense of each other with nothing but words that were no use to them?
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He could hear the great machinery of London, the wheel of justice chewing up felons and spitting them out here, boatload after boatload, spreading out from the Government Wharf in Sydney, acre by acre, slowed but not stopped by rivers, mountains, swamps.
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In the world of these naked savages, it seemed everyone was gentry.
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Part 6: Mr. Thornhill's Villa
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But there was an emptiness as he watched Jack's hand caressing the dirt. This was something he did not have: a place that was part of his flesh and spirit. There was no part of the world he would keep coming back to, the way Jack did, just to feel it under him.
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Long Bob (or Long Jack) Quotes in The Secret River
The The Secret River quotes below are all either spoken by Long Bob (or Long Jack) or refer to Long Bob (or Long Jack). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 4: A Hundred Acres
Quotes
How did it apply to a moment like the one down by the blacks' fire, when a white man and a black one had tried to make sense of each other with nothing but words that were no use to them?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He could hear the great machinery of London, the wheel of justice chewing up felons and spitting them out here, boatload after boatload, spreading out from the Government Wharf in Sydney, acre by acre, slowed but not stopped by rivers, mountains, swamps.
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In the world of these naked savages, it seemed everyone was gentry.
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Part 6: Mr. Thornhill's Villa
Quotes
But there was an emptiness as he watched Jack's hand caressing the dirt. This was something he did not have: a place that was part of his flesh and spirit. There was no part of the world he would keep coming back to, the way Jack did, just to feel it under him.
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