The Potrait of Australian People in the Late Eighteenth Century to Early Nineteenth Century As Illustrated in the Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh by James Tucker

Home , Convicts in Australia, Third Fleet (Australia)

THE POTRAIT OF AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE ADVENTURES OF RALPH RASHLEIGH BY JAMES TUCKER

POTRET MASYARAKAT AUSTRALIA PADA AKHIR ABAD KEDELAPANBELAS KE AWAL ABAD SEMBILANBELAS YANG DIILUSTRASIKAN DI THE ADVENTURES OF RALPH RASHLEIGH KARYA JAMES TUCKER

RINA MARLIANA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES GRADUATE SCHOOL HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2017 THE POTRAIT OF AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE ADVENTURES OF RALPH RASHLEIGH BY JAMES TUCKER

POTRET MASYARAKAT AUSTRALIA PADA AKHIR ABAD KEDELAPANBELAS KE AWAL ABAD SEMBILANBELAS YANG DIILUSTRASIKAN DI THE ADVENTURES OF RALPH RASHLEIGH KARYA JAMES TUCKER

RINA MARLIANA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES GRADUATE SCHOOL HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2017 THE POTRAIT OF AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY TO EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AS ILLUSTRATED IN

THE ADVENTURES OF RALPH RASHLEIGH BY JAMES TUCKER

Thesis

As a partial fulfillment to achieve Magister Degree

Program

English Language Studies

Written and submitted by

RINA MARLIANA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES GRADUATE SCHOOL HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2017

A STATEMENT OF THESIS AUTHENTICITY

The Undersigned;

Name : Rina Marliana Register Number : P0600215004 Study Program : English Language Studies

State truthfully that this thesis was the result of my own work. If it is proven later that some parts or entire part of this thesis is the work of others, I am willing to accept any sanction for my dishonesty.

Makassar, August 2017

Rina Marliana

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

First of all, the researcher would like to express her great praise to the almighty Allah SWT, Who has given chances, spirits, health, and patience in finishing her thesis and everything she does. Peace and

Blessings of Allah upon to noblest Messegers and Prophets, Prophet

Muhammad SAW, who has brought human being from darknesss to lightness.

Unlimited and unbounded thanks are dedicated to the researcher’s parents: Mappiare, S.Pd the researcher’s father who has given so many helpfulness, spirit, and suggestions for the researcher. Also the researcher’s mother, Rosdiana, S.Pd who always gives her love, support and spirit for her to fnish this thesis.

The researcher also expresses his deep appreciation and grateful to her first consultant Prof. Drs. H. Burhanuddin Arafah, M.Hum., Ph.D. and second consultant Dra. Herawaty, M.Hum, M.A., Ph.D. who have given helpful suggestions and ideas for the researcher, and spent their time to help the researcher corrected and finished her thesis.

High appreciation are extended to Dr. H. Fathu Rahman, M.Hum as the head of English Language Studies of Post Graduate Program

Hasanuddin University, and all the lectures in English Language Studies for advice, motivation, and useful knowledge. her deepest thanks also go to her examiners Dr. H. Fathu Rahman, M.Hum, Dr. Mustafa Makka, M.S, and Dr. H. Sudarmin Harun, M.Hum. for their valuable corrections and suggestions, also for all staffs at Faculty of Cultural Sciences who have helped the researcher in managing all formal deeds during her thesis arrangement.

Special grateful also due to her brothers and sisters Agus Iriyanto,

Rani Angraeni, Muh. Arif Januarta, and Rezky Annisa Azzahrah who always give support and spirit for the researcher. My most sincere thanks go to all bestfriends at English Language Studies 2015, especially

Literature class, Kak Yudi, Kak Accar, Kak Arif, Oji, Kak Waode, Kak

Rusni, Susi and Ajeng for their support, participation, and thank you for always accompany the researcher to through a campus life which full of struggle, but also a happiness with all of them.

The researcher realizes that this thesis needs to be improved, therefore she appreciates for critics and suggestions. She expects that this thesis could give benefits for all readers. Thank you very much and may

Allah always bless us. Aamiin.

Makassar,

The Researcher

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...... v

ABSTRAK ...... vii

ABSTRACT ...... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... ix

LIST OF FIGURES ...... xi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...... 1

A. Background ...... 1 B. Research Questions ...... 5 C. Objective of the Research ...... 5 D. Significance of the Research ...... 5 E. Scope of the Research ...... 6 F. Sequence of the Chapters...... 6

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 8

A. Previous Related Studies ...... 8 B. Theoretical Background ...... 9 1. Novel as Social Document ...... 10 2. History of Australian Early Settlement ...... 11 a. Convicts ...... 14 b. Aborigines ...... 19 c. Bush Ranger ...... 22 3. Sociology of Literature ……………………………………… 24 C. The Conceptual Framework ...... 30 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 32

A. Type of Research ...... 32 B. Source of Data ...... 32 C. Method of Collecting Data ...... 33 D. Method of Analyzing Data ...... 34 E. Steps in Data Analysis ...... 35

CHAPTER IVFINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...... 37

A. Findings ...... 37 1. Portrait of Convicts, Bushranger and common people ...... 37 2. The Portrait of Aborigines in Australia ...... 61 B. Discussion ...... 72

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...... 79

A. Conclusion ...... 79 B. Suggestion ...... 80

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 82

APPENDICES

LIST OF FIGURES

Number

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework ...... 30

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter reveals the background of this research completed by the research questions, the objectives of the research, the significance of the research, scope of the research and the sequence of this research.

A. Background

A literary work is generally a result of an author’s expression of what he or she is seen in the social life and then expressed by using language as one of their communication tools (Halim, 2003:1). It can be a life experience, an imagination, a feeling, or an idea of the author; which is poured through language then is offered to the public as a description of the social life. In reality, the literature enriches the science competencies that are needed in everyday life. The literature can be a tool to study the relationship created by the authors through their works. There are a lot of moral messages which can be learned and taken from reading literary works and certainly, they are intended as an entertainer for the readers.

Social condition, social phenomena, and even the social movement are usually recorded in literary works. There are a lot of writers who have already taken the society, history as the major theme of their literary works. Literature itself is also called as the mirror or reflection of the society. Goodwin in Huggan (2007:3) states that Australia has a large, diverse, and exciting body of creative writing that is at least the equal, possibly envy of envy other national literature. Its compelling themes – the quest for belonging and identity, the pull between land and language.

Over several centuries, convicts sentenced to transportation by

British court went to the American colonies and then the Australian colonies but their number was relatively small. In 1788 the first fleet arrived in Australia. This colony comes from England. This colony consists of convicts, exile and common people from England. This migration happened because the crime rate was high and the prison was overloaded, so Britain parliament decided to find a solution to this problem.

The solution is transporting convicts to a distant place for seven or more years were seen as the ideal solution to overcrowded British jails.

The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh is a novel written by a convict named James Tucker in 1845 and published in 1929. The Adventures of

Ralph Rashleigh, in general, tells about the convict named Ralph from

England who worked as a thief, one of the greatest thieves in England before he was finally found guilty and sent to Australia. Soon after he landed in Australia, he still could not help himself to stop doing his activity to steal or break a house or even a bank. After eight years in the colony to endure his punishment, he again reconvicted because of his bad habit and transferred to Port Macquarie. As the adventure in the land of Australia

Ralph experienced many events in his life which reflected the reality of living in Australia. Ralph witnessed the rivalry of the convict gang against another convicts gang, the free settlers against the convicts, the bushrangers against the other bushrangers, and he also experienced the life in the middle of the Aborigines. In particular, The Adventures of Ralph

Rashleigh is the first book to focus on Australia’s unique combination of prison life, Aborigines, and bushrangers and of considerable importance both for intrinsic merits and for its value as a social document.

Wellek and Warren (1956:94) state that literature represents “life”, and “life” is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner of the subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literature “imitation”.

The researcher chooses The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh, an early novel in Australia by a convict, James Tucker as the objects of the research because this novel depicted the real condition and situation in the early settlement. Many Australian writers wrote about the early history of Australian in early settlement. Ian Turner in Scheckter (1998:19) states that, naturally, the first Australian writers were British transplants, visitors, and temporarily settlers who brought established a literary convention to the depiction of Australian landscape and experience. Some of those writers are John White, a botanist that wrote a Journal of Botany Bay, published in 1790, he wrote a journal of the voyage from Britain to

Australia, and his impression of Australian landscape, next Henry Savery who wrote Quintus Servinton: A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurrences, that is written and published in 1831 in Tasmania, this novel has been called Australia’s first novel. Not only prose, but also the earliest poem in Australia is about the landscape. Charles Harpur is one of the poets who took this theme. He concerned with celebrating the beauty of the Australian Landscape. The poets who also concerned of Australian landscape are Henry Kendall with his Bell Birds and Adam Lindsay

Gordon’s Bush Ballads.

The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh novel by James Tucker is a masterpiece novel, which is not only concerned about the beauty of the

Australian landscape but also the story of Convicts, Bushranger and even the Aborigine in the early settlement in Australia. Jonathan cape publisher also stated that The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh is a rare and valuable record of exciting the aspects of colonization. Very few researchers took this novel as their research object, and it’s very interesting to know more about the history of Australia through this novel.

Furthermore, the researcher attempts to analyze the portrait of the

Australian people in the late18th century to early 19th century by using the sociology of literature approach to knowing more the history of early settlement in Australia as well as the social phenomena of convicts, bushranger, and Aborigines. Hence, the researcher decides the title of this thesis is The Portrait of Australian People in the Late 18th Century to Early

19th Century as Illustrated in The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh by

James Tucker.

B. Research Question

Based on the explanation above, here the researcher decides the research questions as follows:

1. What is the general portrait of convicts, bushrangers and early

settlers in James Tucker’s The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh?

2. How does the Aborigine interact with those early settlers and their

lifestyle as it comes out from the story?

C. Objective of the Research

Based on the research questions above, the objectives of this research are as follows:

1. To describe the general portrait of convicts, bushrangers and early

settlers in James Tucker’s The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh.

2. To reveal the Aborigine interaction with those early settlers and

Aboriginal lifestyle as reflected in the novel.

D. Significance of The Research

The significances of this research are divided into two categories, theoretically and practically. The analysis of this research is fully expected to be able to provide significance for the readers in the case of the information about the portrait of the Australian people in the late 18th century to early 19th century as reflected in The Adventures of Ralph

Rashleigh. Furthermore, for the big scale of this matter, this research also hopefully will enlarge the horizon of the readers about the situation and the condition of the Australian people in the early 18th century to late 19th century. In a practical way, this research goal is to offer some important insight to the readers about the convicts, bush-ranger, and Aborigines.

E. Scope of the Research

The researcher focuses on the description of the portrait of the

Australian people in early 18th century as depicted in Tucker’s The

Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh. It is interesting nowadays to know more about the history of Australia in the late 18th century until the early 19th century through the novel.

In Tucker’s The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh, the reader will find out the interesting phenomena in Australia, such as convicts, bush-ranger, and Aborigines.

F. Sequence of the Chapters

The content of the writing can be found in the sequence of chapters. Therefore, the structure of the writing, including the skeleton ideas will be explained in the writing. The sequence of the chapters in this writing is divided into five a practical way.

Chapter I is an introduction which consists of background, research questions, the objective of the research, the significance of the research, the scope of the research and the sequence of the chapters.

Chapter II is literature review, which contains the subchapters, namely previous related studies, theoretical background, some definitions related to the novel The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh and the conceptual framework.

Chapter III is research design and methodology. It consists of a method of collecting data, a method of analysing data, steps in data analysis.

Chapter IV presents the findings and discussion related to the subject matter of the research.

Chapter V presents a conclusion and suggestion, which contains the summing up of the significant ideas of the previous chapters and bushranger for the further researches. The last is the bibliography and appendices.

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter reveals the previous study related to the subject matter of this research, the theory used in this research and the conceptual framework.

A. Previous Related Studies

The following part deals with the previous studies of literature which have undertaken The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh novel to be analyzed and another study which used the sociology of literature approach

(intrinsic, extrinsic) and another theory as the approach of the analysis.

The first researcher is Leane (2010) from ANU College of Arts and

Social Science with her The Whiteman’s Aborigine. In her research, she put Ralph Rashleigh also as one of the models in her analysis of 1820’s –

1840’s early contact with the Australia including the landscape and the indigenous Aborigines. She stated in her analysis that the Ralph

Rashleigh represented the Aborigine as an Australian Adam.

The second researcher is Emberg (2011) from The University of

Tasmania with his thesis Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Martin

Cash/James Lester Burke Narrative/Manuscript of 1870. In his research, he put James Tucker’s Ralph Rashleigh as one of the examples in his analysis about the rediscovery of the narrative/manuscript as the novel of

Ralph Rashleigh was written from 1844-45 but just discovered in 1929 and it was edited then published again in 1950. Ralph Rasleigh stands as the novel that experienced the deconstruction and the reconstruction in 1950.

The third researcher is Mutmainnah (2014) from Hasanuddin

University with her Sense of Loneliness in James Tucker’s Ralph

Rashleigh. In her research, she focused on the sense of loneliness of

Ralph Rashleigh as convicts from England. How Ralph Rashleigh suffered from his depression when he arrived in Australia becomes her focus of analysis.

Current research is different with the previous research, Leane

(2010) focused on the first contact of early settlement with Aborigine,

Emberg (2011) focused on the manuscript of the novel and Mutmainnah

(2014) only focused on the sense of loneliness in the novel, whereas current research the researcher focuses on the portrait of Australian people in the late eighteenth century to late nineteenth century in

Australia. The early settlement in Australia includes convicts, bushranger, common people and Aborigines. The researcher also focuses on this novel as literary history that reflects the real situation in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century in Australia as illustrated in The Adventures of

Ralph Rashleigh novel by James Tucker.

B. Theoretical Background

In analyzing a literary work, the theoretical background is needed to give a more in depth explanation of the terms that will be analyzed. Every existing research should have a theory or even more to support the analysis and furthermore to convince people most by changing people’s common sense views that the research is worth studied.

1. Novel as Social Document

There have been various attempts to define literature; it can be defined as imaginative writing, in the sense of fiction, a kind of writing which is not literally true. Generally, literary works are divided into three major parts. They are poem, play and prose. Novel is part of prose. People sometimes reads novel because they want to get pleasure and also enrich their knowledge. By reading the novel, the reader can know what happened in the past. There are a great deal of writers got inspired by some historical events in the past and they wrote them in a masterpiece. It is not only historical event, but also they write their literary works based on the real situation.

The distinction between fact and fiction, then seems unlikely to get us very far, not least because the distinction itself is often questionable one. It has been argued. In the English late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the word ‘novel’ seems to have been used about both true and fictional event, and even news reports were hardly considered factual (Eagleton, 1996:1). Especially in early Australian literature, besides poem and prose, their first work was categorized as literary works are letters, journal, and diary. Most of Australian literature themes are about the first settlement in Australia, Aborigines and landscape. Babha in Huggan (2007:35) states that literary histories are needed hardly be said is not intrinsically nationalistic, but they are national narrative of kind, textual construction of the nation: they are part that is of the negotiable of meanings, signs, and symbols that is associated with national culture, national identity and national life. The Adventures of

Ralph Rashleigh novel by James Tucker is one example of literary work which took the national culture, national identity as the major theme of this novel.

A primary vehicle for the structuring of national literary history is the canon which can be define simply as “relative short list of book or authors, ranging across several generation, which are taken to be the best and most characteristic of [a] nation’s literature (Buckridge, 1995:29).

The Australian novel faces the problem of definition with strong focus upon national expression. The national expressions in early

Australian novel are the odd history, the challenging environment, the

Aboriginals, and the relationship with England. In conclusion, novel as social documents means by reading the novel, the reader will know about the history of the places where that novel published.

2. History of Australian Early Settlement

On January the 26th 1788 eleven British ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of the new colony, anchored on the east coast of Australia at Sydney Cove and raised the British Flag. Today its known as the Australian day. Known as the First Fleet the ships sailed from England on the 13th of May 1787. First Fleet carried 1,487 people comprised of convicts, convicts’ children, marines with wives and children, officials, royal navy sailors, and merchant navy sailors (Muir, 2012:8)

The reasons that led the British to invade Australia were simple.

The prisons in Britain had become unbearably overcrowded, a situation worsened by the refusal of America to take any more convicts after the

American War of Independence in 1783. The Crime rates were rising across the nation while large numbers of people were moving away from rural areas to the increasingly industrialized cities where unemployment ran high as machines replaced man power.

Sweeney in Scheckter(1998: 10)states that between 160 to 200 types of crime were considered capital offences. At that time, estimated one million people in Britain were below the bread line in 1788.Because of this situation, Britain had looked at other geographical areas with regard to establishing penal colonies such as the west coast of Africa. This option was deemed unviable as the waters were extremely dangerous along the coast. Britain had no proper foothold in the area and it was concluded that the risk of escape was high.

In addition Frost in Lawrence and Davies states that New South

Wales was selected in preference to the south-west coast of Africa, which was the other candidate for a replacement penal colony, partly because the former appeared to offer a supply of badly needed naval stores such as timber for masts and flax for sails and because it was always the British government’s intention that transportation would be, in the words of the

Home Office, “reciprocally beneficial” to both convicts and the State

(Lawrence and Davies, 2011:20).

On the other hand, the Indigenous people of Australia had barely been seen, and descriptions of those that had were deemed to be of a more friendly nature. There has long been a debate, known to some as

“The Botany Bay Debate”, that Australia was also chosen by the British with regard to the possibility of acquiring flax and timber, because of the need to protect the trade routes to China. In the late eighteenth century,

Britain had its eye upon increasing China trade, and needed a safe staging area between Cape Town and Asian port, why not take advantage of antipodean land claimed by Cook in 1770, and plant the settlement at the place by the lush name called Botany Bay (Scheckter, 1998:10).

This scenario is not good for the convicts, they do not have a reliable information about the land. The convicts never trained in farming, carpentry, and other skills needed for survival. The landscape and environment in Australia is totally different from Britain. This situation makes a lot of convicts died because of disease and starving.

Muir states that there were three times big fleet from Britain to

Australia, first fleet arrived on 26 January 1788, the second fleet arrived on

3 June 1790, and the third fleet arrived on 16 October 1791 (Muir,

2012:22). The first settlement in Australia is not only convicts or prisoner, but also guards, marines, the representative of Britain Empire, also the common people who wants to find a new life in the new land.

a. Convicts

Convicts have an iconic status in Australian history. The

convict past that lives in popular understanding, however, is often at

odds with scholarly research on the subject. There are many

stereotypes of convict life that appear and reappear in popular culture.

Typically, convicts were almost exclusively male and always adults.

Female convicts are imagined as prostitutes, or at least sexually

promiscuous. Most convicts, both male and female, were transported

as a result of manifestly unjust punishment for trivial acts such as theft

of food or clothing that a harsh and inequitable society forced them to

commit in order to survive.

Fabian and Loh in Lawrence and Davies (2011:17) state that

what happened to convicts in Australia depended first on their age and

sex. Almost 25,000 women were transported to the colonies,

comprising almost 16 percent of the total of 157,261 convicts sent out

in the 80 years the system operated. Young boys were also

transported as convicts, some as young as 9 or 10 years of age.

Convict experience also depended on the period when

individuals were transported. The convict system, and Australian

society, had changed greatly by the time transportation ended in 1868 from what it had been in 1788. Convict experience was also determined by which colony individuals were sent to, as New South

Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, Western Australia and Queensland all accepted convicts.

The worst and most stereotypical experiences, the chain gangs, solitary cells and floggings, were punishments reserved only for those who committed further crimes or offences in the colonies.

For the first 30 years of Australian colonization the transportation system was based on traditional understandings of crime and punishment. Punishment for crime was directed at the body of the criminal, and sentences of death, transportation or flogging were carried out quickly with little need for long-term incarceration (Ignatieff,

1978:24).

Once in Australia, convicts were made to work, and the system was directed towards that end. It was their value as workers that made convicts desirable in the colonies and which led to both contemporary and subsequent identification of transportation as a system of slavery.

Nevertheless, although convicts endured forced labor, they were not slaves.

Initially all convicts worked for the government, clearing and cultivating land and building roads and public buildings, and they lived in the community in private accommodation. After military officers were granted land and free settlers arrived, convicts were also assigned to private masters. Whether in government or private service convict workers quickly managed to make task-work rather than set hours the norm, enabling them to complete their day’s work early and leaving afternoons and entire days at the end of the week free for their own purposes.

Oxley in Lawrence and Davies states that almost 16 per cent of convicts transported to Australia were women, with most between the ages of 15 and 30 years (2011:37). For the most part they were assigned to private employers, mainly as domestic servants. At various times while convict transportation applied they could not sue or be sued because in the eyes of the law they had forfeited many of their civil rights.

Newman (2005:3) states that convict system relied upon six classes of male convicts. Female convicts, as explained shortly, were not subjected to this six-class system, which included, for example, harsh treatment for those from the fifth class. They might be chained to wooden posts in what were called ‘stone-breaking stalls’. In theory the six classes were:

1) First Class Public Works: slept out of barracks, worked for

wages whole of Saturday.

2) Second Class Public Works: slept in barracks, work for self on

whole of Saturday. 3) Third Class Public Works: able to work for wages from noon

on Saturday

4) Fourth Class Misbehaviour class working in irons [short

term]

5) Fifth Class ‘Incorrigible’ characters, worked in irons separate

from other classes

6) Sixth Class Political prisoners’ or those sentenced in colony

to secondary punishment stations; possibly Maria Island,

Sarah Island, Port Arthur or Norfolk Island. (Newman,

2005:3 )

According to their sentences, thus there were men who had been transported for “seven" years, for "fourteen" years, or for "life."

They were also classified as "young," "middle-aged," and " old," and usually the crime for which they had been transported was specified, but such a description gave no indication of the character of the man.

Finally they were divided into "town thieves," "rural laborers," and

"gentlemen".

This was a step in the right direction, but it was too vague to be of much use. The educated convicts were all classified as "gentlemen" whether they came from the towns or the rural districts. It is worthy of note that the proportion of skilled laborers, or tradesmen as they are called, was very small. Very few men who had been apprenticed to a trade were among the convicts sent to Australia at any time (Boxall,

1899:14).

As far as the convicts were concerned, once they had served their sentence, they were free to join society, become small landholders, retailers, laborers, carpenters, domestics and a few even founded wealthy family dynasties. Ticket of leave is a requirement of convicts after their finished the sentences. The ticket of leave system was introduced by the governor King on 10 February 1801 (Muir,

2012: 30). This ticket of leave was kind of parole that allowed convicts still serving their sentences to take the first step towards becoming free member of the society.

Convicts were normally sentenced to seven or 14 year terms but others had sentences ranging from 10 years to life. About half the convicts were transported for seven years, and quarters were sentenced for 14 years. If they were well behaved, convicts were not usually required to serve out their full term and could apply for a ticket of leave, certificate of freedom, conditional pardon or an absolute pardon. With good conduct, a convict serving a seven year term usually qualified for a ticket of leave after four or five years, whilst those serving 14 years could expect to serve between six to eight years.

A convict was required to carry their ticket of leave at all times.

A tickets holder was required to live and work within a district specified by a magistrate (Muir, 2012:31). They must follow all the strict stoles in

the society, they have to attend church on Sunday, and could not

indulge in drunkenness or other immoral behavior. In addition Muir

also stated that this ticket of leave only valid for twelve months. If the

convicts failed to attend the muster meant a ticket was automatically

revoked (Muir, 2012:31). b. Aborigines

Before 1788 Australia was populated only by the Indigenous people of Australia - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. In 1788

Aboriginal people inhabited the whole of Australia and Torres Strait

Islanders lived on the islands between Australian and Papua New

Guinea, in what is now called the Torres Strait. There were many different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities made up of people who spoke different languages with various cultural beliefs, practices and traditions .

When Europeans first settled in Australia in 1788, Indigenous people had been living there for at least 40 000 years. The Indigenous people did not use the land as most Australians do today, but this did not mean that they did not regard it as theirs. However, this did not stop the European settlers from taking possession of it. The origins of

Australia’s Indigenous people are strongly debated, and many theories have been proposed. Some say they have been here as long as the Australian landmass has existed. Others believe that they came here from somewhere else, most probably from lands to Australia’s north.

Despite these varying opinions, there is, however, unanimous agreement that Australia’s Indigenous people were its first human inhabitants.

It is interesting to see that recent carbon dating studies of early

Aboriginal sites being excavated by modern archaeologists are also beginning to suggest that the Aborigines’ Australian origins were much earlier than was previously thought. Discoveries in some of the caves of northern Australia show that human occupation took place during the Pleistocene period between 2.5 million and 11,000 years ago

(McKay, 2001:4).

The Indigenous culture was different and unfamiliar, as was the way they lived. Neither did they use the land as most Europeans did at the time; however, this did not mean the Indigenous people did not regard the land, and its resources, as theirs. Thus, the seeds were sown for misunderstanding and conflict from the start.

Australia’s Indigenous people generally lived a stable lifestyle, guided by elders who knew the local Dreaming stories and customs.

The people worked together, sharing their food and knowledge, and living in harmony with their environment. Aboriginal people thought the first Europeans they saw might have been ghosts, or evil spirits. Their

Dreaming provided them with no clues as to who these pale-skinned, strangely dressed people might be (Bedson, 2010:6). Some wondered if they might be women, as they had no beards. Some tried to find a place for them in their kinship system by treating them as spirits of their dead, and offering them food and women. It soon became clear that the ‘visitors’ planned to stay. They were clearing land near sacred sites, fencing off properties, which cut access to waterholes and hunting grounds, and fishing without permission of the elders. Besides, more and more of them were arriving. Indigenous people became increasingly worried. These ‘spirits of their former dead’ did not speak their language. Nor did they obey their rules and respect their rituals and sacred places. The view that they were invaders, not visitors, began to take hold. Some Indigenous people may have been puzzled or fascinated by the first Europeans they saw; others were undoubtedly frightened.

In 1788, Europeans held a range of views about Australia’s

Indigenous people. In line with thinking at the time, many of the more educated would have regarded them as ‘noble savages’, primitive people who lived a contented life in the natural world without the pressures of civilization (Bedson, 2010: 6). It is estimated that when

European settlement began in Australia in 1788, there were approximately 250,000 to 300,000 Aboriginal people living in separate communities around the country. Within a few years following colonization whole groups had disappeared due to the devastation caused by introduced diseases such as measles, smallpox, and sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, as well as outright killings and massacres (McKay, 2001:13). c. Bushranger

Bushranger, any of the bandits of the Australian bush, or outback, who harassed the settlers, miners, and Aborigines of the frontier in the late 18th and 19th centuries and whose exploits figure prominently in Australian history and folklore. Muir (2013:3) states that the name bushranger was used to describe people whose criminals activity were based in bush areas. They are acting individually or in small bands. The types of criminals they committed varied greatly. One of the common criminal was to stop horse-drawn coaches in remotes area. They are also stole horses and cattle. A small numbers of bushranger was involved in more serious criminals like murder and arson.

The first bushrangers were simply men who took to the bush to escape work and enjoy freedom of action. The term ‘bushranger’ is unique to Australia, but its meaning is comparable to the ideas of highwaymen, outlaws, bandits, brigands and desperados (Tranter and

Donoghue, 2008:374). Bushrangers have existed in Australia since first settlement and were prevalent throughout most of the country. Not everyone who committed criminal in colonial Australia was bushranger.

From the first use of the term to present day our definition of what a bushranger is, what attributes they have, and what acts they perform has changed. Bushrangers can be separated into three eras: the

‘convict bolters’, the ‘wild colonial boys’, and the ‘boy bushrangers’.

The first use of the term bushranger in an Australian newspaper was in 1805 in the Sydney Gazette. The article states that “On

Tuesday last a cart was stopped between this settlement and

Hawkesbury, by three men whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bush-rangers” (The Sydney Gazette 17

February 1805:2). The article mentions that the men did not offer any violence to those who saw them, nor did they steal anything. Instead the term bush-ranger was used to describe the appearance of the men, rather than their activities. Early use of the term bushranger described a person who had taken to the bush as a way of life (Boxall, 1975:8).

In addition Boxall (1975:8) notes that the construction of bushrangers as a special type of criminal has been attributed directly to the use of the convict system to populate the first settlements of

Australia.

The first bushrangers were primarily escaped convicts who went bush to escape the harshness of the convict system (Prior, et al.

1966:2). Wannan (1963:19) described the bushrangers of the time as

“in short, a runaway convict, desperate, hopeless, fearless, rendered so, perhaps, by the tyranny of the gaoler, of an overseer, or of a master to whom he has been assigned. In colonial phrase, he ‘takes to the

bush’”

Boxall (1975:8) described the earliest bushrangers as “idle and

dissolute, rather than criminal characters”; while White (1970:1)

suggested that they were prevented from committing crimes by

“stringent military rule during the first years of convict settlement, the

unknown character of the country, and the absence of prey in the

shape of men with money or other possessions”. Convict bolters

differed greatly from the bushrangers to come and have been said to

be fundamentally decent men (Prior, et al. 1966:10).

It is commonly stated by historians that bushrangers

disappeared from the Australian landscape by the end of the 19th

century. The final days of bushranging centered on Kelly Gang and

others in the 1870s and 1880s (Muir, 2013:3).

3. Sociology of Literature

There are many kinds of approach in literature, which will help the researcher to do a research in literature field. In this research, the researcher uses sociology of literature approach in analyzing a novel and through a sociological viewpoint. The term of sociology consist of two words. Socio is from Greek which means society, and logos which means science of study. Therefore, sociology means a science of study which is learn about society. Both of society and literature have the same object, which is human in the society. Sociology is an objective study, while literature is subjective and imaginative (Ratna, 2003: 2).

Klarer (1999:1) states that literature comes from the word literra which means the smallest element of alphabetical writing. Literary work is a social institution that represents life and social reality by using language as its medium. This statement is also supported by Levin (1973:56) who states that literature is regarded as the expression of society. It usually presents events that exist in the life of human being which is experienced by the member of particular society or community in a certain period of time. This definition clearly shows that literary works usually present the events that exist in the life of human being which experienced by the member of particular society or community in a certain period of time.

As the representation of life, literature cannot be separated from society. It does not only provide picture of human experience but also issue of particular society. Warton in Wellek and Warren statedthat

“literature has the peculiar merit of faithfully recording the features of the times, and of preserving the most picturesque and expressive representation of manners and literature was primarily a treasury of costume and customs, a source book for the history of civilization especially of chivalry and its decline” (Wellek and Warren, 1956:103).

Literature may be called as the source of social events and history or the documents of social phenomenon. It has a social function in giving information and understanding of social issues such as norm, tradition, convention, myth, and morality of particular society.

However, as the work of art, literature is different from other social documents for it is the combination of reality and imagination which is useful for both adding artistic aspect and giving meaning to reality. Wellek and Warren (1956: 96) presented three perspectives of sociology literature relationship including the sociology of the writer, the social content of the literary works, and the literature’s influence on society.

First, the sociology of the writer or biographical perspective deals with the life story of the author which includes social status, social ideology, and another factors related to the author who creates literary work. The relationship of sociology and literature exists since literary work is written by the author, the author himself is a member of society, the author make use elements in society as the source of creative process, and the literary work produced is then consumed by society.

Second, the social content of the works themselves or literature text perspective discusses about literature as the reflection of society life.

Much the most common approach to the relations of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social documents, as assumed pictures of social reality. A literary work must have implication and purpose upon society.

Last, the influence of literature on society becomes the concern of sociology of literature as receptive perspective sees the society acceptance of literature. Literature arise problems of its readers as well as the actual social problems influence literature. Receptive theory deals with reader’s ability in understanding literary works since literature not only provides aesthetic aspects but also another important aspects such as ethical, cultural, philosophical, logical, historical, even scientifically aspects. It strengthens the function of literature for both entertaining and educating its reader who is a member of society.

Sociology of literature is one approach of literature which has a reflective characteristic (Endaswara, 2013:77). Many literary works took the historical event as a major theme. Many researchers also want to see the literature as the reflection of the society. A literary works considered success if it could reflect the condition and situation of its period.

Furthermore, Endaswara explained that the literary works which reflect the condition of the society would become a witness of time. And trough literary works, the reader could feel and even understand the situation in the period.

Sociology of literature is a branch of study of literary works which is looking at literary work as its relation to the social reality, author and literary creating process and also the reader of its work. It can be said that sociology of literature is the relationship between literary works and their social context. Sociology of literature focuses on the relationship between literary work and social structure in which it is created. In addition, it does not only concern with literature as a social document but also with the social, political, economic and several social factors on the literary works.

There are several approaches to sociology of literature. The most common approach to the relation of literature and society is the study of literary works as social document.

Laurenson and Swingewood also stated that there are three perspectives related to sociology of literature. First is the research which is considered the literary work as mirror of age, second is the research which is considered the literary works as the sociology of the author, and the third is the research which is considered the literary work as manifestation of history events and the social culture condition (Laurenson and

Swingewood , 1972:13–21).

Another perspective in sociology of literature is literature as the manifestation of history events and social culture condition. Literature and history cannot be separated, because literature is the media of the author to express his view and feeling about the past time. Goldmann in Anwar

(2012:14) describes that theoretical concept about the relation between literature and the author. He states that the literature is the expression of author world view. The world view could be found trough the characters, objects, and the relation between them in the literary works. That is why, the author need to have a rich experience to build the imaginary relation in their literary works.

Based on the explanation above, it can be seen that some definitions of sociology of literature emphasize that sociology of literature is one of approaches in the study of literature which consider the whole shape of social aspect of human being related to the literary work. In other words, it is considered that sociology of literature concerns on the relationship between individual authors and the circumstances of social and cultural era in which they live and write.

Having the explanation about the divisions of the sociology of literature above, the researcher considers that the subject matter of the research discusses much about the social content of the work. In this case, the researcher explores the portrait of Australian people in the late

18th century to early 19th century in a novel by James Tucker entitled The

Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh. The analysis deals with the social and cultural study particularly Australian society. It shows the function of literature as a device to represent social life and issues. For instance, literary works may contain an issue of the contribution of society toward individual development and society’s response toward a particular issue.

Literature, especially its social content, is a reflection of social reality. All of the social content in the literary works is a sort of picture of reality which is reflected by the author. C. Conceptual Framework

The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh

Sociology of Literature

Portrait of Convicts Portrait of Common Portrait of Australia’s and bushranger people in Australia Aborigines lifestyle

The portrait of Australian People in Late 18th Century to Early 19th Century in the novel

(Figure I)

Dealing with the theories previously stated, literature is related to

the society because it reflects the social condition that happened in a

period. The authors saw the things that happened in their period, and then

they wrote their ideas or experiences into literary works. The Adventures

of Ralph Rashleigh is a novel written by James Tucker. It depicts the social phenomena in the early eighteenth century in Australia. In this research, the researcher explains the portrait of early Australian settlement in Australia, the convicts, bushrangers and also Aborigines. The researcher intends to examine the novel by using sociology of literature approach. The aim to be achieved in this research is to reveal the portrait of the Australian People in the late eighteenth century to early nineteenth century as reflected in the novel.