Preview

Henry Lawson Short Stories Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
526 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Henry Lawson Short Stories Essay
Henry Lawson Essay
Distinctively visual depictions of the land shape people and their experiences, allowing meaning and depth. In henry Lawson’s short stories the Australian outback evokes a sense of isolation, ultimately shaping the identity of the individual. This is portrayed in the ‘drover’s wife’ and ‘in a dry season’. Furthermore Archie Weller in ‘pension day’ creatively depicts the inextricable connection between indigenous Australians and the land. Thus, depicting how the land can come to shape an individual’s sense of identity.
Henry Lawson’s ‘The Drover’s Wife’ distinctively visualises the harsh and unforgiving nature of the bush, as it shapes the identity and experiences of the protagonist. The emphatic placement of “bush" in” bush all round-bush with no horizon”, sets the scene of the outback, where the protagonist becomes the “bushwoman”. The alliteration and harsh “t” and “r” sounds of the “thunder rolls and the rain comes down in torrents” visualizes the harsh nature of the storm as representative of the bush. This nature of the bush shapes the protagonists identity as she goes from being “like a princess” to being metaphorically “blackened” showing how the bush has transformed her. The allegory of the “Young Ladies’ Journal” visualises the role of the bush in leading her to sacrifice this aspect of her identity.
In Archie Weller’s “Pension Day” the land is distinctively visualized to show the close connection between the indigenous protagonist and the “red land”. The protagonist is depicted as the “leader of the red back people” visualizing his significance in the community, however the colonisation of Australia leads him to be “torn away from his red land’s breast”. Weller distinctively visualizes the “red dust and thin mulge bushes” and the metaphorically “glittering seas of broken glass” to demonstrate the protagonists great appreciation and understanding of the land. This is paralleled with the metaphor “shimmering emptiness of desert” which

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the Tim Winton’s novel ‘Lands Edge’ and the 2009 film ‘Australia,' varying images of Australia are explored, through the illustration of the landscape as a result of the descriptive language used and also through the use of visual techniques used in the film ‘Australia’. Tim Winton’s ‘Lands Edge’ depicts various images of the costal, remote costal and suburban life of Australia throughout his life. In contrast in the film ‘Australia’ portrays images of the remote rural desert Australia landscape and also Australia's wetland. In Addition, throughout both texts there are varying images of Australia to emphasis the different8 connections Australians have to the land which then generates a greater understanding to the reader by depicting the…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this response, I intend to discuss Arthur Streeton’s Fire’s On, a 183.8 x 122.5cm oil on canvas painting, produced in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia in 1891, after “nationalistic sentiment” had taken its toll with the centennial of the European settlement. Fire’s On depicts the steep “walls of rock” “crowned” with “bronze green” “gums” and the “crest mouth” that he encountered on his journey through the Blue Mountains. Streeton created this painting to justly portray the rough, “glor[ious]”, unsung landscape of Australia, namely its “great, gold plains” and “hot, trying winds”. Thus, Streeton defied the inaccurate depictions of Australian landscape produced in the early nineteenth century by early immigrants, showing “green…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many immigrants describe their initial experience of Australia to be one of struggles and displacement. This is likely due to a lack of attachment to the rugged Australian landscape and unfamiliar people. Raimond Gaita in his memoir Romulus, My Father, and Sobonfu Some in his short story A Place to Belong both explore the immigrant experience of struggle and displacement through contrasting views of the natural surroundings and a sense of foreign place acting as…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A sense of belonging is heavily influenced by connections to places. Gaita’s memoir ‘Romulus my Father’ set in the 1950’s context, explores the difficulties migrants endured whilst attempting to assimilate and accept the Australian culture and way of life that differed greatly from their own. ‘The rabbits’ a picture book with sparse text, is an allegorical representation of colonization, that effectively also explores the difficulties faced by Aborigines to maintain their sense of belonging to their land, as the white settlers have taken their domestication to a ruthless efficiency. Through analyzing both texts, it becomes amply clear that a…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The memoir Romulus, My Father written by Raimond Gaita follows Gaita’s father, Romulus, as he experiences life in Australia and issues such as belonging to family and land. The family home of Frogmore was a house secluded and surrounded by the harsh and confronting Australian landscape. Gaita uses striking imagery to connect with the reader so that he can communicate how Christine, Raimond’s mother, never belonged or felt comfortable in a “landscape that highlighted her isolation”. In contrast however, Raimond wrote that, “the landscape seemed to have a special beauty… the experience transformed my sense of life and the countryside, adding both a sense of transcendence”, revealing that he joyously accepted the Australian landscape. These differing views between mother and son are another way that the estranged relationship between Christine and Raimond is emphasised, a state further increased by Christine’s mental illness.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Raimond Gaita’s text, Romulus My Father, conveys the notions of belonging through a reflective autobiographical memoir in which he celebrates and bares witness to his father’s values. He uses first person narration, drawing the reader into the confidence. He portrays the Australian landscape as an evocative metaphor for belonging, identity and alienation through his use of vivid, powerful imagery. The remains of earth scattered below the ‘colliding worlds’ depict the hardships that Romulus will face to conform this new and uncomfortable environment. The Australian landscape symbolises Romulus’ and Christine’s estrangement from their surroundings and contrasts to the lush European sensibility, ‘to the European eye it seems desolate’. The fragmented image symbolising the isolation and alienation experienced by those who feel they are not a part of the world in which they inhabit. These feelings of isolation are particularly evident in the characters Romulus and Christine, who feel they cannot connect to the barren nature of the Australian environment. This sense of separation is emphasised by the metaphor of Peppercorns, ‘to mediate between the local and European landscapes’ illustrating their conflicting notions of belonging. The wire fencing between the colliding worlds symbolises the barriers and conflicts that Romulus will have to face in order to feel accepted in his new world. This sense of not belonging can be contrasted…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Drovers Wife

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The effect of the hardships of the environment on the drover’s wife is clearly seen through Lawson’s description of her physical appearance, “The gaunt sun-browned bush women”. This is further reinforced by the brutal and comfronting imagery used to portray her children as having a “ragged, dried up look”. Powerful imagery of the physical toll on this “once young city woman” is effective in establishing a strong impression of the woman battling against isolation in the bush.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘The drover’s wife’ Lawson creates powerful images by employing distinctively visual language that enables the responder to feel the hardships that others face. Concrete sensory description is effectively used to create a beautiful image when The Drover’s wife sits to watch the snake all night. ‘A green sapling club laid in readiness on the dresser by her side, together with her sewing basket and copy of the young ladies journal.’ The journal is symbolic of the approach she takes in not letting the bush take away her femininity. Juxtaposing to this, the club is symbolic of what she needs to do, it displays her innovative ways and her ability to be content with her lifestyle. The sewing basket acts as a ‘bridge’ between the two as it represents both sides of the woman. Images of a resourceful, cooperative and woman of sophistication are conjured up in the responders mind. One is able establish a relationship of commendation with the drover’s wife whilst despising the Australian Bush for what it puts her through.…

    • 769 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The bush is displayed negatively through visual techniques in ‘The Drover’s Wife’ due to the unpredictibiliality and loneliness that an individual experiences. Throughout this text, Lawson expresses the bush as being a negative place to live. “No undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eye… Nineteen miles to the nearest sign of civilization” The use of assonance throughout the text, creates a sound of isolation in the bush and brings the responder to consider how although people choose to live there, it isn’t always seen as a positive way of life. The bush life can be extremely dangerous for one person let alone a whole family. A bush woman in ‘The Drover’s Wife’ faces a snake entering her home and having to quickly evacuate her children. “Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!” Effective dialogue is used to show how living in the bush causes the mother having to constantly worry whether the snake will strike at her or her children. Living in the bush is described as dangerous and lonely, displaying a negative atmosphere.…

    • 812 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Raimond Gaita’s memoir, Romulus My Father demonstrates how an individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging to an environment. Gaita uses first person throughout the book, not only to express his experiences but to articulate both his mother and fathers experiences of belonging to their surroundings also. Romulus is a migrant to Australia who ‘always considered himself Romanian.’ Gaita often expresses Romulus as being at odds with the environment, never reconciling to the Australian landscape, whose foliage and vegetation “seemed symbols of deprivation and bareness.” This statement is symbolic of how he feels towards Australia and demonstrates how Romulus chose to only see the negative aspects of his surrounds and focused more on his desire to be back in Europe amongst “soft and gentle foliage”. These two simple descriptions of different landscapes are instantly juxtaposed and express Romulus’s feelings of loneliness in Australia…

    • 2226 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disticivley Visual

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Drover wife is about a Drover (a farmer or someone that herd livestock such as cows and sheep) who goes away for a long period of time working while his wife and their 4 children live all by themselves out in the outback. Throughout this story she is experience many different harsh experiences living in the outback. During this story, she is portrayed as a tough, determined woman facing many difficult challenges by herself including floods, drought and disease. This gives the reader an impression of her courage and strength. Lawson describes the Drover’s wife as a ‘gaunt, sun-browned bush woman.’ This makes us as responders, imagine a woman who has had a hard life and been struggling. The Australian bush is effectively described throughout the story with the use of visual imagery. The harsh conditions of Australia are brought to our attention by ‘Bush with no horizon, for the country is flat.’ The author describes how there are no distinctive features. The bush is portrayed as an unfriendly places ‘nothing to relieve the eyes’. The author also illustrates how hard it is to survive in the outback ‘the bush consists of stunted rotten apple trees’. Lawson uses descriptive language and adjectives to illustrate the house the family lives in. ‘the two roomed house is built of round timber slabs and stringy bark’ it describes how the primitive house is small and home-made.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctively Visual

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages

    the short story “The Drover’s Wife” by Henry Lawson. An interesting visual scene of the role of a woman in society in the Australian outback is presented through the literary technique of chronological listing. when the drovers wife is up all night waiting for the snake to surface vivid recollections of her previous experiences of ‘drought’ ‘fire’ ‘floods’ ‘sickness’ ‘loss’ ‘stranger danger’ and ‘isolation’ gives us an insight into the interesting distinctively visual roles placed on a drovers wife in the Australian bush. Similarly in the film “Australia” by Baz Luhrmann we are shown through interesting film techniques of montage, tracking shots, and aerial views a wide array of distance (Darwin to Faraway Downs) from civilisation, various weather conditions communicating the hardships and the isolation endured in outback society.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Much like many hardworking Australians, Henry Lawson failed to make it happen in the city, so he took a journey inland. This journey inland is a reflection of most of Henry Lawsons work, depicting the hard life of the country. Giving a different, realistic perspective to the usual laid-back image of the country lifestyle. ‘The Drover’s Wife’ written by Henry Lawson shows a hard-working mother willing to do anything for the protection of her kids, whilst her husband goes droving. Staying up at night to look out for a snake, fighting bushfires, dangerous men and trying to fight farm illnesses.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctively Visual

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Henry Lawson establishes the harsh environment of the Australian landscape through vivid images of relentless isolation, poverty, survival and sacrifice in the words “bush all around-bush with no horizon” this emphasizes how they are surrounded with cruel repetitiveness and nothingness that accentuates their isolation and aloneness. The monotonous description of the landscape and their day-to-day lives contrasts the characters realization that they are tied to the land and grind of reality that the drover’s wife won’t experience any break in the uniformity of the scenery as she’s engulfed by existence not existing. Imagery is used to convey distinctively visual to the audience giving a clear tone and mental image of the characters surroundings.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Drovers wife shows the harsh landscape of the australian outback through the tough times the drovers wife has to endure by herself to survive. The perception of her is that she is a protective mother and a persistent battler against the diasters of the australian outback. The use of alliteration “no undergrowth, nothing to relieve the eye…nineteen miles to the nearest…civilisation” shows the drovers wife as being desolated and isolated from society.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays