Independent Reading Post #5: Hanging America on a British Framework (Prompt 3, Ch 9-10)

As soon as he arrives in Melbourne, Bryson decides that he very much likes the fusion of America and Britain that occurs in this Australian city. His reaction to Melbourne in general reveals a lot about himself and how his view of Australia, although consistently positive, has changed since the beginning of the book.

"Something about [Melbourne] just agreed with me. I suppose it helped that I had spent half my life in America and half in Britain, because Australia was such a beguiling fusion of the two. It had casualness and vivacity - a lack of reserve, a comfortableness with strangers - that felt distinctly American, but hung on a British framework. In their optimism and informality, Australians could pass at a glance for Americans, but they drove on the left, drank tea, played cricket, adorned their public places with statues of Queen Victoria, dressed their children in the sort of school uniforms that only a Britannic people could wear without conspicuous regret" (Bryson, 146).

Not only does the above quotation speak loudly about Bryson's background and character, but it also speaks about the culture of the Australian people. Until this point in the book, the Australian people have been described as very happy, friendly, welcoming, unafraid of the multitude of dangerous species that live there, full of interesting (and often outrageous) stories, and slightly bashful of their continent's past existence as a prison. This is the first preview that we as the reader have had of the Australian way of life. This quotation changed the way that I pictured the Australian people in the book. Before this point, I did not connect the Australian way of life much with that of the British. This is also the reader's first insight into Bryson's past and how the fusion of cultures may be his "ideal" way of life.

Bryson continues in the following paragraph, "Almost at once I became acutely, and in an odd way delightedly, aware of how little I knew about the place" (146). This quotation makes it evident that Bryson's fascination of the continent is growing. Although he has already shared a great deal of knowledge with the reader about Australian history and culture, he is always desiring to learn more by reading books, local newspapers, and by fully immersing himself in the native way of life. Shortly after this passage, Bryson talks about sitting in a coffee shop, sampling the local drinks, eavesdropping on a nearby conversation, and asking questions to complete strangers about the local jargon he encounters in the newspaper.

This section of the book also talks a lot about how many alien species have been introduced to Australia and are now thriving without any natural predators. For this reason, thousands of rabbits now call the Australian countryside home. In December, 2006, NPR reported a story of how the Australians are coping with the presence of wild camels, an introduced species that now populates the outback with numbers in the thousands. LISTEN HERE -> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599903