The Concept of Distinctively Visual Explored Through Henry Lawsons In A Dry Season and Sean Tans The Rabbits - Literature Essay Samples

Distinctively visual refers to the understanding of how relationships and perceptions with others and the world are shaped through unique written and visual language texts. This concept and the idea that these texts allow readers to ‘see’ then ‘feel’ can clearly be explored and reflected through â€Å"The Drovers Wife (1892)† and In A Dry Season (1896) by Henry Lawson, and alternately through â€Å"The Rabbits (1998)† By John Marsden and Shaun Tan. These texts incorporate a variety of literary and visual techniques, coupled with intricate narrative styles which help shape our understanding of the difficult experiences they depict and invoke a variety of emotions including admiration, sympathy and empathy in the reader. â€Å"The Drover’s Wife† incorporates a colloquial and relatable narrative style which effectively shapes understandings of the hardships and the difficult impact of isolation on the wife of a sheep herder, and invo kes feelings of empathy, sympathy and admiration in the reader. This is reflected through the technique of descriptive language. For example, â€Å"bush all around- bush with no horizon†. This creates a visual image, describing the place as featureless and lonely. The repeated reference to the absence of defining features emphasises the isolation and sensory deprivation the inhabitants must feel. This is furthered through alliteration. â€Å"No undergrowth, nothing to relieve the eye†¦ nineteen miles to the nearest civilisation† to assist the reader to visualise the isolated landscape and the alienation that the woman must feel. There is a constant referral throughout the narrative to the absence of her husband and the despondency she endures from it. This can be seen with a metaphor: â€Å"she [thinks] how her husband would feel when he [comes] home and [sees] the result of years of labour swept away. She cries then†. This causes the reader to envision the landscape and the sufferances it has endured, while invoking a sense of sympathy for her loneliness and a sense of admiration for her constant independent protection of her children throughout the story. These feelings are reproduced through omniscient narration â€Å"She rode nineteen miles without assistance, carrying the dead child†. This represents the traumatic experience the woman endured, yet she is able to move on from this to deal with other obstacles, producing feelings of both commiseration and admiration in the reader. In comparison, The Rabbits uses a more visual approach to induce emotions in the reader. Subsequently, Sean Tan and John Marsden utilize an amalgamation of rich images and sporadic word choice in ‘The Rabbits’ to present a dim picture of the white man’s invasion, producing feelings of sympathy but also admiration for the Indigenous inhabitants. This can be seen through the technique of visual salience in regard to the large cent ral placement of a boat. This allows the reader to discern the negative environmental effects of settlement, overtaking the landscape, as-well as fostering feelings of sympathy to the impending doom of mechanical ascendancy over the natural world. This is augmented by the technique of colour. A variety of monochrome, dark, black and white images are portrayed to impact the reader, as it delineates a bleak existence following the invasion, and invokes a sense of sympathy and loss for the way that life permutated from nature to industry. Tan also utilizes the visual technique of positioning, a lone marsupial is placed at the edge of the frame. This allows the reader to envision the isolation and separation from nature that occurred following the invasion, as well as invoking a sense of devastation for the immense loss suffered by the indigenous culture. The literary technique of exclusive language is also used. There are constant references to the invaders as ‘they’ and à ¢â‚¬Ëœthem’ which represents a distinct difference between the two cultures and the way the inhabitants feel alienated and powerless to the overwhelming dominance of industry. This also allows the reader to feel the conflict due to the complete opposite values, as the whites viewed their endeavours as ‘development’ whereas the natives viewed it as devastating and calamitous. Comparatively, Henry Lawsons â€Å"In A Dry Season† encapsulates the harsh reality of living in the inhospitable Australian Outback and the affect it has on its occupants through his homodiegetic narration, invoking admiration and sympathy in the reader. He uses clothing to symbolise the struggle with adversity in this harsh environment â€Å"Slop sac suits, red faces, and old fashioned, flat brimmed hats†. These Australian hats signify the wearers are poor and uncomfortable, and also alludes to their low position in society, provoking a sympathetic response in the reader. This emotional response is furthered through his authorial comments such as â€Å"death is about the only cheerful thing in the bush† which is a sarcastic paradox alluding to the danger posed in the bush and the monotony experienced within it. The characters which Lawson portrays in the narrative are not personalised, reflecting the stoic and ignorant nature of Australian people â€Å"I don’t wanner; I’ve been there†. Lawsons use of laconic wit mocks the way the ‘young man’ speaks and their lack of intellectual and educational behaviours. Lawson also utilizes an exclamatory comment to invoke emotion in the reader â€Å"They talk of settling people on the land! Better settle in it†. The authorial comment is making the point that it is challenging to live in the outback that envelops such harsh conditions, refusing to romanticise the outback setting as the reader feels a sense of admiration for the inhabitants. Therefore, the idea that distin ctively visual texts allow the reader to ‘see’ then ‘feel’ can clearly be represented through The Drovers Wife and In a Dry Season by Henry Lawson and The Rabbits (1998) by John Marsden and Sean Tan. These texts follow separate idiosyncratic approaches to invoke feelings of sympathy and admiration to both the lone bush woman and the native inhabitants suffering invasion. These two texts follow unique narrative styles coupled with literary and visual techniques to portray this.