Bruce Chatwin's 'On The Black Hill' : Tradition And Modernization

"Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken” (Frank Herbert, 1965). Bruce Chatwin’s On the Black Hill, is ‘a work of great dramatic intensity’. The novel spans the majority of the twentieth century, a period of immense social, economic and political change, and clearly chronicles the conflict between modernisation and tradition that occurs during this period. Throughout the closely intertwined lives of Lewis and Benjamin Jones, this conflict is apparent, and a sense of the immensity of the changes which are taking place is conveyed. It is difficult to judge whether Chatwin endorses the traditional or modernising aspects of the world he presents in On the Black Hill. However, while evaluating Chatwin’s stance on the subject of change, we must keep in mind that the twins live their life blocked off from the world, virtually unchanged, and as a result, something is always missing in their lives. Something inside them is always ‘asle...