English Module A Essay- Henry Lawson PDF

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MOD A - THURJAH KETHIRASINGAM

 Henry Lawson and Judith Wright’s works, influenced by the context and paradigms of their time period, reflect distinctive images of the adversities experienced by the early Australian European settlers in the 19th century. Henry Lawson’s prose fictions, “The Bush Undertaker” and “In a Dry season” both composed in 1892, in conjunction with Judith Wright’s poem “South Of My Days” composed in 1998 cultivate an understanding of their experiences through sensory perceptions ingrained in memory. Lawson reflects the revolutionary shift in romanticism within the 19th century by highlighting the desolated periods from which they emerged. His distinctive visual images through his stories heighten the forlornness in the Australian bush whilst simultaneously portraying human connection to nature which also resonates through Wright’s works to convey the reality of Australian life in the bush.  The representations of humanity’s connection with nature highlights the perseverance of individuals in the face of adversity as a reflection of the changing contextual zeitgeists of the 19th century. Lawson conveys the distinctive images of the natural world and its connection to human behaviour in his sketch “The Bush Undertaker”. This notion is exemplified through his representation of anti-romantic paradigms through the harsh Australian setting within Lawson’s respective milieu. Lawson’s distinct visual of the bush is depicted with the monosyllabic plosives “bare, brown” exploring the vast “barren” environment, thus reiterating the monotony of the lifestyle of the bush people.The distinct monotony of the environment is portrayed to impact on an individual’s sensibility through the illustration of the undertaker’s disorientation as a result of the discovery of his friend’s grotesque corpse shown by the apostrophe, “It’s all over now; nothin’ matters now…Brummy – (tomorrow’s) come fur you..”, exhibiting the debilitating effects the remote bush has on human psyche.  Furthermore, Lawson allows the audience to visualise the same concept of the punitive environment and thereby represents the human connection with nature in “In a Dry Season”. Lawson’s use of homodiegetic narration and vernacular colloquialism to explore this in his travelogue of the tedious journey to Bourke and the harsh setting of the outback.  Lawson encapsulates the monotony of the environment through the paradoxical comment, “Death is about the only cheerful thing in the bush “, a contextual insight reflecting the bleak psychological state of individuals due to this confinement. This thereby imbues a distinct image of Lawson’s personal aversion to the bush through the obliteration of life in rural Australia. The natural world becomes a reflection of oneself as depicted through the omniscient narrator’s cynical lens, concluding that “The only town I saw that differed much. Woman standing at the door throwing out the wash-up water”. Lawson’s anticlimactic comment highlights the significance of the minor differentiation between towns whilst also accentuating the desolation within the society. 

MOD A - THURJAH KETHIRASINGAM

This sentiment is further supported by the poem “South of my Days”, in which Judith Wright conveys her personal relationship with the natural world, with her romantic ideologies in stark contrast to Lawson’s reflections of the natural world.Wright distinctively establishes an image of an Australian stream personified to be “willow-choked” to depict a visual imagery of the native foliage having its flow of water being “silenced”, with this inversion compelling the audience to develop a connection with the creek. This is then accentuated with a distinct image of humanity’s connection with the natural world as Wright portrays with imagery “slope a tangle of medlar” denoting the “tangle” as an innate barrier for humanity to connect with the native landscape.  Both Lawson and Wright explore how segregation from humanity in the harsh environment fosters isolation by creating images pivotal to the creation of Australian identity whilst allowing the the audience to empathise with and vicariously synthesise these notions. While “The Bush Undertaker” divulges how the extreme effects of a segregated lifestyle results in the deterioration of sanity, “In a Dry Season” evokes the less extreme yet equally significant impact of socio-geographic isolation in instigating profuse cynicism. “The Bush Undertaker” conveys isolation resulting in a sense of madness, depicted in the characterisation of the undertaker an experienced shepherd segregated to his lonely abode and “his soliloquy interrupted by the return of the dog”. This connotative semantic reflects his isolative nature by distinctively creating a sense of loneliness that allows the audience to educe empathy for societal seclusion experienced by the protagonist. “In a Dry Season” displays a distinct image of vast desolation as the narrator depicts a sensory description of the isolation surrounding him with the polysyndeton, ‘a public house and a general store, with a square tank and a schoolhouse’, coerce the audience to visualize a punitive and unfruitful image nurtured by isolation. The monotonous environment highlights the desolation felt by Wright further emphasized by the notion of an isolative nature as she encapsulates using cumulative imagery in the “rises” ‘high” and “slopes” in conjunction with the metaphorical “bony slopes”, illustrating a portrayal of desolated “tableland” and a sense of emptiness and fragility of a landscape that is devoid of people. As Wright implies an isolated atmosphere with the personification of the environment “winc(ing)” under winter, a distinct visual of an inhospitable landscape is made and deeply imbues the isolative sensibility of which Wright grew up in.  Therefore, Lawson’s anthology of short stories, “The Bush Undertaker” and “In a Dry Season” and Wright’s “ South of my Days” develop portrayals of similar concerns that shape the understanding of established values of that time. Through the exploration of the monotony of isolation and humanity’s connection with nature, the composers enable the audience to develop a distinct image of the intrinsic paradigms of individuals during the 19th century bush life....