Distinctive_Voices-_Harry_Lavender_and_Bruce_Dawe

Distinctive voices help shape meaning and create memorable characters, but also show that people’s experiences can be brought to life through distinctive voices. This is shown through the core text of The life and Crimes of Harry Lavender written by Marele Day. Through the hard talking private investigator Claudia Valentine, the underworld figures Harry Lavender and the majestic yet volatile personified city of Sydney. Day manipulates language to create particular meaning and structure through literary devices. The related texts Weapons Training by Bruce Dawe explores the concept of distinctive voices through a range of poetic techniques. To reveal the brutal reality of the 1970 Vietnam War. As well as the Hitchhiker by Roald Dahl, which explores the concept of distinctive voices through linguistic devices, used to promote power and significance of stereotype in life. These texts explore various perspectives and experiences in life and are brought to life through the development of distinctive voices. In the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender by Marele Day. We are first introduced to the cold male like figure Claudia Valentine in the opening scene. The scene is seedy and, mysterious and dark. The simile “I woke up feeling like death” as well as description of “ash tray full” and “ Jack Daniels empty”. Suggests a stereotyped representation of a male. Furthermore Day gives her protagonist a masculine tone as Cluadia is a detective and works in a dominated males industry we see that the environment she is living in as shaped her into the women she is today; The Private investigator voice of hers is shown through her comfortable use of jargon “The crimes don’t discriminate anyway. They’ll blow away a women on their trail as readily as a man” Marele uses Claudia’s sick, witty and tongue in check manner to emphasize her strong and confident manner and show how she challenges the role of a detective and how it has made her straight to the point and upfront in everyday situations and always has her mind on the observation of others, this is evident through her figurative and colloquial description of Steve Angell ‘ eyes like pools you find beneath waterfalls. It was all I could do to stop my self taking off my clothes and diving in”. We also see Claudia’s disgust in the city and the façade that it covers itself with, “The flower shop was near Kinselas an elegant night spot that used to be a funeral parlor … now people ate kidneys and crumbed brains .. and afterward went upstairs for the show”. By using a juxtopision of images to create feeling of death and to show that the city has its own personality and voice referring to sick connotations of people eating body parts in a funeral parlor, compared to the innocent chapel it used to be personifies the idea of how the city really is as it is promoted as elegant and respectable yet there is a grotesque side to it, which suggests the idea of facades which is what motivates and makes it the ideal setting for a hardboiled detective like Claudia Much like the hard-boiled detective we have the brutal, insulting and dehumanising Drill Sargent in the poem of Weapons training By Bruce Dawe. The poet uses the drill Sargent to show a soldier real experience in war. The poet does this through the drill sergeant’s distinctive voice, through the use of language and tone and a range of poetic devices. The poem is broken up into 3 stanzas The 1st Stanza starts off with “And” which immediately shocks the reader and grabs our attention as it makes the reader feel as if we have come into the middle of his drilling and the sudden shock and notion of always be prepared for anything in the circumstances in war. The second stanza starts off with “look at your front” making us feel pressured to pay attention also in this stanza the voice is intensified and makes the mood make us feel uneasy, with the fastening of the pace, this is shown through the literary technique of using no commas, full stops making it seem as if he very angry the structure also sets a scene of a fast pace machine gun with his words tumbling out, the effect of this further emphasizes the fast pace and quick actions you must take in war. The sargent uses derogatory and dehuminising comments to show power through the metaphor “open that drain you call a mind”. In the last stanza o the pace steadies and talks man to man to the soldiers to make them feel comfortable in they environment and uses sexual connotations but then goes back to his the sargent persona to emphasise the brutal reality of way by stating the repetition of “Your dead dead dead.” We see the resemblance of Cluadia and the Sargent As he is very assertive much like her straight to the point attitude. They both have great passion for their jobs and in result of this it has consumed their lives and this is what makes us urge to empathise for them. This is depicted between both characters the Sargent being angry and serious and how Claudia’s profession has forced her to separate herself from her family “few hard edges, scar tissue, especially with the kids it was hard leaving the kids”. Shows that they are both trapped in their own worlds and don’t know how to get out of them. The other text that co- insides with the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is the Short story of The Hitchhiker. With the fingersmith who controls the narrative. His contrasting persona to the narrator as the fact he presents a mysterious personality is appealing to the reader. In the first paragraph we see the narrator provides visual and precise description, which enables the reader to grasp onto this story. As the first person narrator uses jargon relating to a car shown through the quote “ 3.3 Li, which means 3.3 litre… long wheelbase, fuel injection. Top speed of 129 mph.” Emphasising the masculine voice. We also see Claudia valentine is the first person narrator and she also establishes a masculine voice shown through chauvinistic quote of “ I woke up next to a good looking blonde”. Both masculine voices are creating stereotypes. This is appealing to the audience as the reader finds the topic of cars and sex relate to men. Another iconic character in the life and crimes of Harry Lavender is the notorious underworld figure Harry Lavender. He came to Sydney as a polish migrant as Nazis killed his family. This is believed to make him the vulgar brutal and almost monstrous man he is today. Harry’s voice is manipulative and egocentric and the purpose is to provoke and arouse the reader this is depicted as he believes he is a “legend of his era” he believes he is the hero of Sydney and his actions saved Sydney much like a soldier and believes he should be remembered as a soldier when he dies. This is shown through the parody and juxtaposition of “ They will remember me the city’s son going down they will remember me”. By relating himself to the Anzac soldiers highlights the arrogance in his voice. Harry’s life experience makes him believe he is a legend therefore his distinctive voice is shown through him relating himself to legends such as Anzacs. This therefore shocks the reader, much like his un speakable actions he commits throughout his metaphorical “playground of the city”. Harry’s actions comply with the dehumanising vulgar and arrogant ways of the Drill sargent in weapons training by Bruce Dawe. The drill sergeants distinctive voice is shown through shocking and insulting the reader much like Harry. This is shown the rethorical question of “Why are u look at me are you queer'” Both The sargent and Harry have the “I don’t care what you think of me mentality” showing their arrogance and insensitiveness to their victims and soldiers. Furthermore we can see a link between Harry and the fingersmith in the short story of the Hitchhiker. As the fingersmith thinks he is invisible as he can steel anything he wants and never get caught. Similarly to Harry as he boasts about his achievments believing he created the city and is portrayed as a very arrogant character by relating himself to the Anzacs and believes when he dies it is the “end of a era”. This proves that both characters are arrogant speak highly of themselves. The narrator does this to shock the reader but also create an immediate reaction and intrigue the reader. They use language techniques and colloquialism to grasp the reader’s attention this is shown through both the hitchhiker “ The secret of life. Is to become very very good at something, that’s very ard to do” shows he can controls people and has a secret talent to pickpocket people. Where as Harry uses personifaction to show his control of the Sydney “ I gluide effortlessly, along the streets, jump from building to building”. The core text of the life and crimes of Harry Lavender. The city is personified almost as an urban jungle full of facades. Day tries to interpret her view on Sydney through Claudia, this is shown through the personified quote of “ Duck under the monorail the sleathy snake like creature” Presenting Claudia’s untrust and doubt in the city but also relating it to snakes showing the cunning and sneaky side. Day also tries to manipulate the reader’s view of Sydney “Beautiful bright lights covering the facades of multitude of sins”. Cluadia valentine views these double meanings of the city as she has seen the “underbelly side of Sydney”. Which has changed her view and deception of the city knowing the seedy side of it and in a way has defined the trust no one type of women she is. In relation to this the poem of Weapons training by Bruce Dawe. Conveys the message of how the war dehumanises men, the brutality of it and how pointless it is. Dawe uses the drill sargent to convey his message by using derogatory comments “ Charlies are coming at you, you can smell their rotten fish sauce breath” The sargent says this do degrade the enemy, much like Claudia’s degrading view of her enemy Harrys empire the City. The sargent also uses brutal honest views “there you are on your tripe’s.. Your dead dead dead” much how Claudia uncovers the cities facades in a brutal honest way “Glebe Island Container Terminal… I wondered how many kilos of heroin where in those containers”. Through this we see both authors are trying to convey the true message of both the environments they live in and the characters they are surrounded by, through the use of brutal honesty , manipulation and facades to convince, intrigue and shock the reader. Through the signifigant use of each individual characters distinctive voice. In conclusion we see that all three texts The life and crimes of Harry Lavender by Marele Day, Weapons Training by Bruce Dawe and the Hitchhiker by Roald Dahl. We see that the life you live shape you into the person you are. We see this throught Cluadia as she has become the cold hard masculine figure, the Drill sargent who is the unsmiling war sargent and we have the fingersmith from the hitchhiker who is the lower class notorious pickpocketer. There distinctive voices are highlighted through literary devices to engage the reader, empathise and connect to each of their own characteristics.