Drifters - Exrended Response PDF

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Drifters - Exrended Response...

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In the poem drifters, Bruce Dawe conveys the ideas of home life with the use of tone, symbolism, and juxtaposition. Daw portrays the difficult life of a family, as they are constantly moving or ‘Drifting’ from one place to another. He describes the troubles of not being able to settle down in one area for long enough to call it home. He conveys the ideas of belonging using symbolism and the drifting from the third person narrative.

The tone of the poem represents the struggles and the hardships of the family. They are disconnected from a home life, as they cannot settle down in any one area long enough to call it home. The tone is one that is sad to say the least, but is also hopeful. There are phrases such as “Make a wish, Tom” and “she held out her hands, bright with berries” which signify that, though the family is not able to find an identity of home, they are hopeful that it will come one day. This helps responders delve into the emotions of the family as the tone of the poem allows them to understand the effect the ‘Drifting’ has had on this family. The use of this allows daw to convey the ideas of the home life of this family being troublesome, tedious and full of drifting from one area to another.

The symbolism of the shrivelled berries and green tomatoes symbolizes the unfulfilled dreams and uncertainty for the future of the family. They have not been able to settle down in this place and thus, have not been able to fulfil their dreams of belonging to a home and community. The green tomatoes signify the uncertainty for the future for the family. She picks the green ones (unripe) and not red tomatoes (ripe) because she knows that the journey to the new location will be long and tedious and therefore, she picks the green ones in the hope that they will ripen in the long time that they are drifting through the world in search of a new home. The use of symbolism to represent this allows readers to explore the tough life of the family, they are not able to fulfil any of their dreams, and they do not have a place to call home as they drift endlessly. The utilization of this technique allows Dawe to convey the ideas of belonging in this poem as the readers develop a perspective and understand that identity and belonging to a community or area is required to live a proper, healthy life.

The juxtaposition of this poem allows Dawe to convey the ideas of identity, belonging, and happiness in the poem. He uses this particular in Line 5-6 to represent the effect that ‘Drifting’ has on the family. “The oldest girl is close to tears because she was happy…and the youngest girl is beaming because she wasn’t” helps cement the ideas of their life. The oldest girl has established a sense of identity and has discovered a sense of belonging to their home, however on the other hand, the youngest girl has done none of that. She is not happy living here and wants to leave as quickly as she can, and thus, when she gets the news that they are moving, she is ‘beaming’. The oldest girl has been moved to tears because she has to give up the identity that she has developed in this home. The use of juxtaposition has allowed dawe to convey ideas about home life as he has shown that through all changes some will be happy and others will not. It represents a typical household life.

Bruce Dawe successfully establishes his ideas on home life in his poem Drifters through this use of tone to convey to readers the emotions of the characters, as they once again moving to another place affect them. He uses symbolism to represent the characters, the green tomatoes signifying that the journey will be long and tedious, and the shrivelled fruit dignifying unfulfilled dreams for the characters in the poem. The mother has not been able to settle down in this place for long, the oldest daughter does not want to live in this place anymore. Bruce Dawe writes about topics, which affect people on a global scale. People can relate to his work because he writes about that which millions go through, or others in their family have gone through and in turn has affected them.my understanding on his work has been cemented through the analysis of his texts to understand the known and unknown meanings of the poem. Therefore, Bruce Dawe, in his poem drifters, has successfully established the idea of home life in his poem Drifters....