Notes

Henry Lawson’s texts “The Drovers Wife” and “In A Dry Season and Russell Drysdale’s painting “Sunday Evening” (1941) use distinctive images to portray people, places and ideas in ways that present to us the harsh realities of the Australian outback. Australian Write Henry Lawson presents to us through his texts the harsh realities and lifestyle of people living out in the bush. Russell Drysdale presents to us through painting the struggles of living in the bush and how the land in which people inhabit shape and form them.
Through the text of “In A Dry Season” Henry Lawson presents to us the monotony of the people, places and ideas in the Australian bush to represent the dullness, harshness and struggle of the environment in which they inhabit. “In A Dry Season” uses distinctively visual language to further build the readers knowledge on this world by narrating to us in a train travelling from Bathurst to Bourke the places and people he encounters on the way. Immediately Lawson conveys to us a feeling of monotony as the responder discovers through the text that the places, people and ideas are very much alike wherever he goes. The use of irony “Death is the only cheerful thing in the bush” creates a distinctively visual image in the responder’s head of an unchanging, relentless, monotonous environment where death seems to be the only thing worth being happy about. “Draw a wire fence, and a few ragged gums add some scattered sheep..” creates a sense of emptiness and sparseness by using distinctively visual image to delineate the negative imagery and connotations of the bush. Use of alliteration in “some scattered sheep” further conveys the monotony of the bush. ‘ragged’ and ‘scattered’ gum suggests that the environment is old and shabby, with sheep dispersed across the land because of the emptiness and no one to take care of them due to the extreme environment. Lawson effectively depicts the bush as a dismal, uninviting environment but is also able to appreciate the character’s ability to cope in that environment. The themes of harshness and monotony shown in “In A Dry Season” particularly their effects of the people are also portrayed in Lawson’s other stories particularly “The Drover’s Wife”. Henry Lawson is effectively able to use distinctively visual of this harsh, callous bush environment through the use of irony, alliteration and monotony to portray the people, places and ideas in the text.
Henry Lawson portrays the people, places and ideas of the Australian bush in his short story “The Drover’s Wife” similar to “In A Dry Season”. Lawson creates distinctively visual images to portray the bush as a harsh inhospitable wasteland but focuses more on the effects the bush has on the people themselves. Distinctively visual images are used to convey both the hostility of the bush and to celebrate the strength and resilience and perseverance of the characters within the story. The Mother’s strength and resilience are portrayed as the mother attempts to survive in the bush alone with her children while the husband is away. The anaphoric repetition of the verb “fought” in “fought a flood, fought the pleuro pneumonia and fought a mad bullock” emphasises the image of a women actively addressing and dealing with life’s obstacles and challenges. It is this strength and resilience, which stops her from becoming a victim in this harsh and difficult landscape. Lawson creates images of the bush women and her stoicism, as she can withstand the harshness of existence without complaining. The adjectives “Gaunt and sun brown” create a vivid scene of a hard-working women who has had little to no experience of life’s luxuries, a women who has been changed by the bushes lifestyle and forced out of her traditional role. Through acknowledging the stoicism of her persona Lawson is showing us that not only men worked hard but also the women. The women remains anonymous and therefore represents all of those who attempt to live in the harsh Australian bush. Through “The Drovers Wife” Henry Lawson is able to use distinctive images to portray people, places and ideas of the Australian bush in ways that celebrate the strength and resilience of those who can withstand the harsh lifestyles in the bush.
Russell Drysdale through the distinctively visual image of his painting “Sunday Evening” (1941) is able to show the struggles and hardships that portray the people, place and ideas. Alike Henry Lawson’s texts, Russell Drysdale reflects on the impacts that the harsh reality of the bush has had on the characters. The distinctively visual image portrays Drysdale’s vision of the uniquely Australian qualities of life in the bush; aridness, isolation, desolation and wide horizons. The painting consist of a typical Australian family facing the daily obstacles and struggles to survive in the bush. The harsh environment is conveyed through Drysdale’s use of colour and colour tones throughout the painting, the use of colour and colour tones consist of “muted, earthly tones-brown, reds and oranges” which create an atmosphere of despair, isolation and a dry uninviting barren landscape emphasizing how hard life is in the Australian bush. The surreal images of sparse vegetation and elongated figures, exacerbates the emaciation of the family. The characters have long legs and necks and their body language suggests the difficulties they face while living in such a desolate and isolated environment. Russell Drysdale was able to capture a time in Australian history that Lawson sought to describe in his short stories, it is through these distinctively visual images Russell Drysdale portrays the monotony of the people, places and ideas in the Australian bush in ways that present the responder with the harsh isolating lifestyles and its effects on the people as a reality.