Henry Lawson Isolation

900 Words2 Pages

How does the composer distinctively illustrate aspects of society? The impact the environment has on the individual, and isolation are aspects of society that can be examined by popular representation. Physical isolation and the hardships of living in the Australian bush have been effectively explored in Henry Lawson’s short stories “The Drovers Wife”, and “In a Dry Season” and John Currons film, “Tracks”. These concepts are shown through the creation of distinctively visual imagery which allows the audience to feel the challenges and negative effects of the harsh environment by being encapsulated in the personas world through the images created. Physical and social isolation is an aspect of society which can arise from living in an uninhabited …show more content…

Lawson creates a vivid image of the desolation and isolation that the drover’s wife experiences in the bush in “bush all round – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in the distance…nothing to relive the eye save the darker green of a few she-oaks which are sighing…”. The desolate nature of the picture that the reader created in their mind is enhanced by the repetition of the word “bush” and “no”, which helps the responder to imagine the monotony of the landscape and the physical solation of the drover’s wife. The personified trees help us to convey a sense of weariness, adding to the overall image of desolation and allowing us to clearly imagine the harsh environment and the …show more content…

In “Tracks”, Curron explores the harshness of the Australian desert and the impact it has on the personas welfare. Similar to Lawson stories, Curron uses long shots of the landscape portray similar features such as barrenness, desolation, bleakness stunted trees and no water to be seen. This distinctively visual scene provides the responder with evidence that the Australian environment is a harsh and dry place to live in. The close up of Davidsons face demonstrates the physical effects that the Australian desert has on her, as the audience can evidently see her face and lips are sunburnt and peeling, which is a physical impact from the environment. The slow motion scene of Davidson walking through the desert emphasises the impact the environment has on her mental welfare. As a result of the hot and inhabitable environment, she is shown to be delirious, fragile and in a weakened mental state. Australian environment on an individual’s physical and mental

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