The Secret River is not written by an Aboriginal author but an a descendant of white settlers. Some critics criticize The Secret River as having racist stereotyping under the guise of postcolonial text. But postcolonial theory is not always well-suited to the Australian context. The novel follows the life of William Thornhill, a decent but poor man who eventually comes to New South Wales in 1806 for petty theft. The novel is the outcome of Grenville`s research on the history of her ancestor Soloman Wiseman. She has drawn him as being morally ambivalent about the way he sees and treats the Aborigines. Grenville`s portrait of Thornhill is not a hero to lead readers` moral path in the story. Instead, he takes part in a massacre of Aborigines to disperse them and to take up the land around the Hawkesbury River. Although he gains hundreds of acres of land, he remains `emptied` and never feels triumphant. In the last scene of the novel, he sits on the bench feeling punished and staring into the dark. Grenville encourages readers to reflect up on the question of what it means to be a white Australian and to call upon White-settlers to atone for the their treatment of the Aborigines.