Characters

[Michelle]

I found Mathinna’s story most agonizing and thought-provoking. Hazel’s journey was painful and well told, to be sure, but we’ve all read some form of it: overcoming childhood abuse, poverty, abandonment, societal mistreatment and judgment. Mathinna’s tale, on the other hand, of being forcibly wrenched from one world as it becomes eradicated, with no actual chance of finding acceptance in another life and thus ultimately having nowhere to exist, is less often told on such an intimate level—and this is so despite the indictment of our own country’s dealings with its native, indigenous population. We know well the history of our misguided actions, but we don’t always get to experience it on such a personal level as we did with Mathinna.

[Betty]

Librarian Trev wrote: "Did you like Mathinna, Evangeline, or Hazel’s story best? Which character did you most identify with and why?"

Of the three main characters, I did like Hazel the best. Hazel came from a very difficult home and mother who ignored and abused her – but who taught her a trade which she was able to use both during her imprisonment years and after her release. Hazel rose above her tough early years, was imprisoned for a minor offense and ended up being a medical assistant and a very good mother to an orphaned baby girl. Her story was the most interesting and told of the violent conditions that women were treated. The novel was based on true facts during those times in England and Australia.

[Retta]

It is difficult for me to designate a favorite female main character in Exiles because Hazel was a Irish child beggar and thief due to the intolerable conditions the British had placed on the Irish in Ireland during that era. In contrast, Evangeline was an daughter of an English clergyman in Turnbridge Wells, England whose sheltered secular life with her father made her the weakest character but with a noble heart. Mathinna 's character personalized and personified the Palawa Aborginal people making her the strongest of the female characters in Exile. Christina Blake Kline's own experience as a graduate student to Australia combined her three life experiences to develop these three distinct and individual female characters to tell their story of
betrayal, hardships as female convicts in 1800s, displacement of your childhood, and female abuse through physical, verbal, and mental means that were imposed on all 3 characters. I see Mathinna, Evangeline, and Hazel as a trifecta in The Exiles.

[Maxine]

I can’t say I liked any of their stories as all of them suffered .

Matthina’s was very compelling as she was ripped from her family, her culture and her home on a whim by the white governor’s wife. Then when she did something that didn’t agree with their ideas, she was dropped like a hot potato .
She was left bereft in an environment that she did not choose, was not accepted in and had no real skills to navigate with.

Evangeline’s story and the power of the step mother was extremely sad. Here was a young woman, brought up naively but with integrity, and the system allowed her to be so abused.
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As for Hazel, her childhood was horrific. Her unloving and uncaring mother did one good thing in her life—she let her observe her as a midwife and using her natural remedies. That gave her a small step up in thriving in the world. Unfortunately, there are people in the world like BUCK ,who are really disgusting examples of humanity and act more like animals,who came into her and Evangeline’s lives.

[Lorraine]

Mathinna’s story affected and angered me the most. To me it just smacked of racism and how unfair life can be and how do I deserve to be so fortunate while others still suffer. I don’t, but yet I am.

[Sue]

I liked the outcome of Hazel's story best since she was able to have a stable life in which she was respected. It's just horrific how circumstances and the loss of hope destroy valuable lives. Even though the story takes place long ago, we can still see the same forces in our culture.

[Michelle]

Our own “culture,” indeed: recently learned that the protestors who pulled down Queen Victoria’s and Elizabeth’s statues in Canada had done so at the discovery of additional, unmarked mass graves containing over 1000 indigenous children from provincial schools, not for the first, or, sadly, the last time, apparently. It would have been bad enough that they were taken from their families and cultures, losing their very names and identities, but they were also starved and abused to the extent that many took their own lives. A Christian education!

[Katie]

I enjoyed each character's story in it's own right. We are provided glimpses of tragic paths, each painful and fraught with injustice in its own right.
At first I couldn't believe Evangeline was "allowed" to drown. I decided this made the narrative more true to the history we are being exposed to.
Hazel was our character allowed to become a heroine and I was happy to have her "save the day".