An Analysis of 'The Drover's Wife' by Henry Lawson

The Wife Of His Youth is a short story written by Charles Chesnutt in the late 1800’s. The story starts with the introduction to the Blue Veins society; A society where a small group of colored people formed up in the Northern City after the Civil War. Blue Veins society distinguished a person’s social standing but basically geared only toward those of light complexion where you could visibly see one’s Blue Veins. Mr. Ryder a handsome bachelor, and dean of the Blue Veins society is soon to end his bachelor status and marry Miss. Molly Dixon. That was soon to change when he is approached by a face of his past, the wife of his youth. Mr. Ryder a past apprentice during the Civil War was previously married to Liza Jane. Liza Jane spent 25 years in search of her love Sam Taylor or known now as Mr. Ryder. Late into the story Mr. Ryder throws a ball for the Blue Veins society in honor of Molly Dixon his “soon to be” wife. During the Blue Veins ball, Mr. Ryder reaches out to the crowd with hypothetical question about the wife of his youth; in regards to advice on what he should do. Mr.Ryder brings Liza Jane to the ball and introduces everyone in the crowd as the wife of his youth. This short story really makes one question the certain aspects of race.

It is crucial that we study Australian Narratives as it creates insights into events we may have not explored. This is evident in the novel "Crow Country" written by Kate Constable. It teaches us about Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality, Australia's History and respect, as we experience what it feels like to live in rural Australia, creating an understanding about Aboriginal people. Therefore, through a close read and study of "Crow Country", readers are able to learn new and important things about our past and present, showing that it is crucial to study Australian Narratives.

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

Readers often find Katharine Susannah Prichard’s “The Cooboo” deeply unsettling. The narrative is set in Australia during the European settlement of the continent. The plot revolves around an Aboriginal woman named Rose who is renowned amongst her peers for being an excellent cattle driver. She was so good, that her white bosses even held her skills higher than the other white musterers of the day. This all changed, once she became in the possession of a Cooboo. This term Cooboo is slang for the sound that an infant makes, and had become synonymous with the word for baby. Rose now had this Cooboo to worry about and care for, and it was hurting her efficiency and ability to drive cattle. This was deeply frustrating for her, because she found her identity in her ability to cattle muster. In the story, she was reprimanded by her superior for letting the cattle mob break three times in one day. She used to be his best, but now his go to girl is Minni, who Rose thought “did not ride or track nearly as well as Rose” (Prichard 17). Minni was very pleased with her own performance that day, and was “jabbering of the tobacco she would get” (Prichard 26). Rose was also being ridiculed by all the men, and her and Minni’s man Wongana had called her “a hen who did not know where she laid her eggs” (Prichard 25). This was maddening to Rose, who reasoned that the baby could be blamed for all of her current struggles. While riding back with Minni, Rose took the Cooboo from her breast and

Australia’s Identity plays an important part in the stereotypes identified in the film Beneath Clouds, (2002) directed by Ivan Sen presented through violence, racism and a less than adequate education. Through Drover 's Wife (1892) written by Henry Lawson characters are depicted through one mother 's hardships and the way she raises her family in the absence of her husband. Both Beneath Clouds and Drover’s Wife explore Australian identity and what makes it, along with the integral part of any culture in a diverse way.

This text response will be looking the comparison of the two poems, ‘Drifters’ by Bruce Dawe, And ‘In the park’ by Gwen Harwood under the name of Walter Lehmann. Drifters is about a seemingly constantly moving family, it describes the process the family will go through leaving their newest home. In the park is about a seemingly single mother raising her children, it describes the mother sitting in the park with her children when a previous lover comes by and talks about the children. With in each poem, the form and structure, language techniques and the tone and message will be analysed and compared with the other to gather a grater understanding of the Australian voice.

Australian landscapes have long been used to place fear and anxiety in the Anglo-Australian’s psyche. This anxiety and the requirement for Indigenous peoples to negotiate white ideals is reflected in current Australian literature and cinematic identities. This essay will discuss the critical arguments of what makes the chosen texts Australian literature. This discussion will be restricted to the critiques of the film Lantana directed by Ray Lawrence and the novel Biten’ Back written by Vivienne Cleven. The will firstly look at the use of landscape as a crime scene and how this links to the anxieties caused by the doctrine of terra nullius and the perceived threats from an introduced species. It will then look at the Australian fear of a different ‘other’ followed then by a discussion around masculinity and the need for Indigenous people to negotiate white ideals. The essay will argue that Australian literature and film reflect a nation that still has anxieties about the true sovereignty of the land and assert that Indigenous people have a requirement to fit in with white ideals.

In “Shiloh,” by Bobbie Ann Mason, the reader is able to glimpse the beginning of the end of a marriage. Mason allows the audience to see the different strings unravel as the character’s separates from each other, emotionally, mentally and physically. In “Shiloh,” a woman’s husband, Leroy, has been in an accident and is no longer able to continue with his work of truck driving. The woman, Norma Jean, is unable to cope with her husband being home all of the time and begins to find ways to get away from him and her overbearing mother, Mabel. Throughout the story we see Leroy’s struggle to stay with his wife and Norma Jean’s struggle to break away from her husband. As Leroy and Norma’s marriage continues to drift apart, Mabel

Gwen Harwood’s poetry is very powerful for its ability to question the social conventions of its time, positioning the reader to see things in new ways. During the 1960’s, a wave of feminism swept across Australian society, challenging the dominant patriarchal ideologies of the time. Gwen Harwood’s poems ‘Burning Sappho’ and ‘Suburban Sonnet’ are two texts that challenge the dominant image of the happy, gentle, but ultimately subservient housewife. Instead, ‘Burning Sappho’ is powerful in constructing the mother as violent to reject the restraints placed on her by society, whilst Suburban Sonnet addresses the mental impact of the female gender’s confinement to the maternal and domestic sphere. Harwood employs a range of language and

Australia’s identity has always been a complicated one. Starting with Aboriginal genocide, 1800’s cowboys and villains, two world wars and a bunch of poems describing them, it makes it difficult to conclude on what being an ‘Aussie’ really is. Thankfully, the two thought-provoking poems Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore by Komninos Zervos, and My Country by Dorothea Mackellar both use their discerning selection of themes to reflect modern attitudes in some extent. Along with their themes, Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore and My Country both use their story to capture the attributes modern Australians possess to some degree.

Author and sociologist, Dalton Conley, is a Caucasian boy who grows up in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood in the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the 1970’s and 80’s. In his book, Honky, he tells us a unique view through a young boy’s eyes uncovering the way in which individuals are perceived in social reality, and how some groups of people are classified. He also speaks about how some groups get better opportunities and privileges then others. This book is a very powerful autobiography, according to his book, written by, “not your typical middle class white male.” (prologue, p. xiii) He goes on to say that he is middle class, even though his parents didn’t have any money and that he is a white boy, even though he grew up in an inner city housing project where mostly everyone was Black or Hispanic. Dalton speaks about his experience as a white boy exploring his definition of race and class and saying that, “race and class are nothing more than a set of stories we tell ourselves to get through the world, to organize our reality.” (prologue, p. xiv) He describes his childhood as a “social science experiment, Find out what being middle class really means by raising a kid from a so-called good family in a so-called bad neighborhood.” (prologue, p. xiii)

At first, John from “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Leroy Moffitt from “Shiloh” seem completely different from each other. John is a physician who only believes in what he can physically see, while Leroy is a man lost in his own life, looking for a purpose. John’s wife is very dependent on him, whereas Leroy’s wife Norma Jean has her own life. However, the two seem more alike than first appears. If we compare John and Leroy, we can see both stories demonstrate how husbands can drive their wives away by being too restrictive of them.

Throughout history, Australian has always been perceived as a land of men. This is due to the colonization of Australian during the eighteen and nineteen century, where men are seen inferior to women. They also are domesticated within the house duties that the society has influence because of their gender. Although, Henry Lawson “the drover wife” and The Chosen Vessel” by Barbara Baynton challenges the Australian society through Australian literature by placing women in harsh environments. The drover wife is short stories about women who face the new obsolesce while living within the harsh environments. The Chosen Vessel has a similar aspect of the drover wife but the lead female experience the harness of the environment, which lead to her death. Both women display their own straights and heroics while facing their fears, through their selfless action. They are both portrayed of women of the bush but their fate had stored different outcome for both women. This essay will examine both the drover wife and the chosen vessel both contain a simple plot, but it expands on many issues of gender expectation and domesticated within the household role of the expectation of women. It will also examine the religious aspect of the historical narrative that has been seen within both bush stories.

Homeless, is similar in that it also grabs the reader just by introducing a character,

There can be many reasons as to why Mary Renault wrote The Last of Wine, but I believe that she wrote the book for herself. Mary Renault was a lesbian woman. She was born in the early 20th century which was during a time when homosexuality was highly frowned upon. She was not normal by societal standards. She did not live in a happy home. Her mother had “hoped for a “nice” girl instead of the unruly tomboy she got, and preferred Mary’s younger sister” . She could not be herself without being condemned or criticized. Through her writing, however, she could be anyone she wanted to be. She could express her own thoughts and feelings by utilizing the characters she created in her book.