Drovers Wife free essay sample

In our prescribed text, ‘The Drover’s Wife’, by using an anonymous bush woman as his protagonist, Lawson extends his narrative beyond the story of a particular individual, to encompass the stories of all such women. The narrative emphasizes their fierce independence as they battle a hostile environment to ensure their survival and the survival of their families. The harshness of their environment is established in the opening paragraphs through the cumulation of negative visual and auditory images such as ‘The stunted, rotten apple trees’ and ‘a few sheoaks†¦. ighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek’. The harshness si similarly reflected in the adjectives which describe ‘four ragged, dried-up looking children’ and ‘the gaunt sun-browned woman’. Thus by linking the environment to its inhabitants, Lawson’s omniscient third-person narrator shapes our understanding that the unique Australian trait s of resilience and courage are the product of an interaction with a hostile environment. The repetition of ‘black’ in ‘a black one’ and in the alliterative ‘black brute’ reflect the white colonial perspective of danger and evil. Further reinforcing the horrifying realism of the dangers is the onomatopoeic repletion of ‘thud, thud’ and the biblical allusion in ‘the original curse’ to convey the wilderness to which the woman and her children have been exiled. The negative connotations of ‘worn-out’ and ‘sickly’ remind us that Lawson’s narrative has created a bush world of ceaseless struggle, a world where human beings are at the mercy of an unforgivingly hostile environment. Thus the narrative serves as a voice for individuals who carved new lives in an alien world and became part of the Australian myth. My related text which is the ABC documentary ‘A few Good Songs’ conveys the idea that documentaries also tell stories to entertain and to convey ideas. The documentary opens with images of the documentary’s narrator walking through the streets of Soho, the area in London where Cat Stevens grew up. The narrator begins the documentary with the rhetorical question, ‘Who was Cat Stevens and who is Yusuf Islam’? The question introduces the transformation that the subject of the documentary underwent, from pop star of the past to the devout Muslim of the present. In his early life Steven’s explains that he felt the need to escape the monotony of his life. He escaped to the roof ‘to get away from the lower earth, to look to the sky’. This need to rise above the ordinary is also shown as he recounts how he used to write songs while doing the washing up in the family’s restaurant. The interviews with Stevens and his narration and guided tour through his old neighbourhood create a feeling of intimacy with the audience and allow the responder to empathise with Steven’s unusual story. Music is an important aspect of this documentary as Steven’s music provides an insight into his changing concerns and his quest for self-fulfilment. He notes ‘songs are the narrative to my life’ and this is illustrated as the documentary traces his musical and spiritual evolution. The documentary creates a cold isolation of Stevens’ hospital ward through a dramatisation. This technique of recreation is also used when the story of Stevens’ near drowning is recounted. Stevens’ states that he believes he was saved by the hand of God. At this point the documentary cuts to a mosque and the call to prayer is heard on the soundtrack. This juxtaposition of shots effectively conveys how influential this experience was in Stevens’ conversion to Islam. Video-footage is utilised to show the different stages in Stevens’ life. Similarly, in our prescribed text ‘The Loaded Dog’, the narrative contributes to the creation of Australian myths by the composer’s ability to spin a yarn. Balancing the life-threatening aspects of the hostile environment of the outback with the larrikin nature of the characters, allows Lawson to tell story that is both entertaining and inspiring. The defining feature of the narrative is its humour as a reflection of the larrikin nature of the characters. Equally the hyperbole, that is a feature of pub yarns, conveys to us the overwhelming impact of the environment on their consciousness- an impact that is manifested in the black humour of their tales of survival. Thus the bizarre attempt by Dave, Jim and Andy to ‘blow the fish up in the bag waterhole with a cartridge’ becomes an outrageous attempt to outwit nature which denies them access to ‘fresh-water cod, bream, catfish and tailers’. The balance between the use of cumulative adjectives a red, idiotic, sobering grin’ and the authorial intrusion ‘he seemed to take life, the world†¦. and his own instincts as a huge joke’ mirrors the larrikin nature of men and their dog. It shapes our perceptions of the ability of both man and beast to cope with an essentially hostile outback. Lawson uses cartoonish visual images of the men following each other chased by the dog and of the sapling bending under the weight of Jim to deposit him near the live cartridge, to undercut the immediacy of danger by concentrating our attention on the slap-stick comedy that is unfolding. Paragraph 3- ‘In the Ghetto’) P. S Need to get notes on this. Through our study on Telling Stories i have become aware that composers tell stories to entertain and to convey ideas. Our study on Henry Lawson’s texts has made me aware of the power in which composers have of telling stories and the effects they may have . The ABC Documentary ‘A Few Good Songs’ conveys the idea that documentaries also tell stories to entertain and to convey ideas.