MDMD5: Cute meets 2: Calling off the Wedding, again

[Paul Nightingale]

Perhaps it is Dixon's dissenting, working-class background that makes it
easier for him to relate to the non-Dutch/colonialist population: "They have
noted his unconceal'd attraction to the Malays and the Black slaves, - their
Food, their Appearance, their Music, and so, it must be obvious, their
desires to be deliver'd out of oppression" (p61). Later on, Mason ("another
story") will refer to "this place as another Planet ... where these
Dutch-speaking White natives are as alien to the civilisation we know as the
very strangest of Pygmies" (p69). Mason, it seems, is guilty of
anglocentrism and, therefore, incapable of the class analysis that Dixon
("what are tha talking about?") provides. Ultimately, Mason's
identity/self-image will depend on his ability to put Dixon in his place.
His "someday, Lad, you'll be running your own Expedition, bearing all the
weight of Leadership" (p72) attempts to belittle Dixon, much as the
colonialist mentality seeks to belittle native populations. Austra has been
given a voice to explain the situation to a baffled Mason, and Dixon has
already denied that the natives are "childlike" (p67).

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