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<title> Gemmy, a man of power and grandeur. </title>
In this essay I have chosen to describe Gemmy, one of the main characters in David Malouf's novel "Remembering Babylon". I find Gemmy to be the key- person in the story because it is through him, his thoughts and actions, that the other characters change and develop throughout the story. Gemmy's presence forces the white settlers to question their own beliefs, face new aspects of life and also to uncover a deeply hidden fear for the unknown.
When Gemmy arrives to the settlement he is received with a mixture of fear and curiosity. The settlers don't really know how to look upon him. It is obvious that he originally was a white man, a European, just like them, but his behaviour differs totally from theirs. He is not black either, but rather something between black and white, an "in-between creature". The obvious difference between him and them, but also the knowledge that they do have the same roots, make the settlers uncertain about their own identity. They find themselves looking at Gemmy and wonder if the idea of civilisation, language, race and even whiteness are things more fragile than ever thought of before. They ask themselves: 
"Could you loose it? Not just language but it?" (p. 40) Values that they are grown up with, the imperialistic ideas of white authority and Christian superiority, are suddenly being questioned. Gemmy has after spending many years in the desert lost all Christian traditions and ideas that lived very strong in the 1840's British society. The settlers are shocked to see a white man look upon for example nakedness so differently from how they do. The thought that a man from their own race and society can behave in such barbarian way frightens them. After all Christianity might not be as deep and profound in people as previously believed. Gemmy brings new aspects of life to the settlement but not only that, he also makes the settlers think and sometimes even doubt their own values, something that devides the settlers into different groups.
	Because of his odd appearance, Gemmy always found himself to be a stranger. Grown up in one world and then abruptly placed in an other he had seen two worlds very different and far away from each other. He had belonged to both but after years in the desert he did no longer belong fully to neither of them. In the black world he was left to himself, he never became one of them. He was accepted but here as well as in the white settlement he was looked upon as an in-between creature. What Gemmy wanted was to be recognised for whom he was, the person behind the odd appearance. When he decided to leave the Aboriginal tribe and try to seek his roots in the white settlement he had no plans to leave the black world, but rather try to unite the two and make them one. He wanted to cover the space between the two, the space of ignorance and suspicion. By running from the black to the white world he wanted to prove that all that separated him from them was ground that could be covered, covered with the knowledge that approaching each other was possible.
	Gemmy's intentions to unite the two worlds were observed by Reverend Frazer; "Our poor friend Gemmy is a forerunner. He is no longer a white man, or a European, whatever his birth, but a true child of the place as it will one day be, a crude one certainly, unaware of what he has achieved- and that too perhaps is part of His intention, that the examplum should be of the simplest and most obvious sort, deeply moving to those who are willing to look, and to see, without prejudice, that in allowing himself to be at home here, he has crossed the boundaries of his given nature." (Frazer p. 132) Reverend Frazer sees Gemmy as a gift to humanity. A gift that will show that a broader and more acceptable view on both different nature and people will be rewarding. Through Gemmy he sees that variety is enriching and maybe the only way to survive in this new part of the world.
	Something that is very well conveyed through Gemmy is the culture clash between the two worlds. To explain this I would like to point at the description of nature in the novel. The way the settlers describe Australian nature differs completely from how it is experienced by Gemmy. The white people see "a no mans-land of the swamp, that was the above of everything savage and fearsome, and since it lay so far beyond experience, not just their own but their parents' too, of nightmare rumours, superstitions and all that belonged to Absolute Dark." (p.3) The unknown, whether it is human beings or nature are to the white settlers dangerous and unwanted. They prefer to stay unaware of the truth before facing the unknown. To Gemmy on the other hand, variety and new experiences are the key to survival." The land up there was his mother, the only he had ever had known. It belonged to him just as he did to it; not by birth but by second birth, by gift..." (p. 118) When he many years earlier was given the chance to survive and to live of the desert, he took it and adjusted to the situation. He met the new and unexperienced world with an open mind. His willingness to see and learn from the unknown broaded his view and gave him a chance to survive.
	Briefly I would like to comment on one of the main themes that are conveyed through Gemmy which is the level of tolerance people have and how much goodness they carry. Gemmy's presence in the settlement evokes feelings deeply hidden in people. It is interesting to see how an innocent, child- like man whose first words to the settlers are: "... I am a B-b-british object!" (p.3) can provoke people. A person who sees himself as an object rather than a subject, a man used to look rather than act. The unknown, it doesn't matter the size or shape, frightens. 
	Finally I would like to emphasise that even if Gemmy is a small, child- like person he is a man with great power and grandeur. Unaware of his own influence he makes the settlers question their own ideas and beliefs, things they have always considered to be obvious. Even though Gemmy does notice the settlers' unwillingness to meet the inexperienced, he stays optimistic for a long time. His goal to unite the two worlds forces him to struggle on until the day when he realises that it is an impossible task. However, Gemmy really is a forerunner in more than one aspect. He is a forerunner to show understanding and adjustment, but also to approach new and different worlds.
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