Henry_Lawsons_Short_Stories

HENRY LAWSONS SHORT STORIES A perception of others and the world is represented through distinctively visual techniques used throughout Henry Lawson’s ‘The Drovers Wife’ and ‘In a Dry Season’, as well as ‘AUTHOR’s ‘RELATED TEXT’. This includes imagery, the use of an omniscient author, symbolism and tone in order to set a setting which internally gives the reader the ability to situate themselves within the intended environment. As a result the reader is made to feel a sense of isolation and experience the monotony and hardships of the Australian Bushland, shaping Henry Lawson’s personal home + (RELATE TO QUESTION) The vivid imagery of the environments help to create feelings of isolation and monotony as experienced throughout the day to day lives of Australian bush people. ‘The Drovers Wife’ is used to portray a setting of isolation through the physical lacking of the farm. Henry Lawson describes the bush to have “no horizon”, “no ranges in the distance” and “no undergrowth” and as a result provides the reader with a glimpse of the bleakness and emptiness of the bush woman’s life. This sense of monotony and isolation can also be recognised through ‘In a Dry Season’ where as the reader is told to ‘draw a wired fence and a few ragged gums’ which helps to illustrate the monotonous environment, ‘the shutters are up and the place is empty’ is also used to represent the alienation of the passing town. The hardships of the Australian bushland can be identified through the main character of both ‘The Drovers Wife’ and ‘In a Dry Season’. ‘The drover, an ex-squatter, is away with sheep. His wife and children are left here alone’. With this the women must deal with the common hardships of life in the Australian bush. The battle between herself and the snake is used as a metaphor to uncover the bush woman’s struggles against the outback, consisting of a flood which ruined an important dam, the dishonest sundowners and swagmen, as well as a bush fire which threatened to burn her house down. ‘In a Dry Season’ a passing shearer is described to ‘dress like the unemployed, but differ from that body in their looks of independence.