Henry_Lawson_in_a_Dry_Season_Visual

In order to gain a greater understanding of a landscape, a character or an event a composer will use techniques to create a vivid image for their audience. This is an image that stays with them throughout the text and successfully creates an atmosphere for the environment, persona or occurrence. Throughout the short story “In a Dry Season” by Henry Lawson a strong sense of imagery is created for the responder. With this device we feel a link with the narrator and sense as though we are on the same journey and witnessing the story as it goes on. Various techniques and themes are used to create these mental image, without these themes and techniques. Lawson employs metonym to express the innocence of the newcomers in juxtaposed with a messy and unfashionable group conveyed with the use of alliteration, verbs and further metonymy to convey a dishevelled and dated group. Lawson develops a detailed image of the freshness and naivety of the young travellers through reference to their freshly cut hair and starched collars in “One or two square-cuts and stand-up collars struggle dismally through to the bitter end”. The use of metonymy allows the audience to instantly connect the hair cut and stiff collars to a group innocent to the harshness of the bush. This is contrasted to the unkempt, slovenly appearance of the Bushmen has been evoked in this short story. This tousled exterior has been effectively created with the recurring “s” in “Slop, sac, suits, red face and old fashioned flat brimmed hats”. The repetition of the sound allows Lawson to convey the tedium of bush life and the Bushmen’s fatigue to the reader. As the Bushmen “...drop into the train on the other side of Bathurst...” Lawson conveys a sense of exhaustion. This response is evoked as the reader can visualise the way in which the people fell into the train. The distinctively visual is induced by the verb and the audience can visualize the country and characters becoming more dishevelled as the train progresses toward Bourke.