Bruce Dawe Essay

In the poem ‘Enter Without So Much as Knocking’, Bruce Dawe uses the language of television to display the effect technology and advertisements had on daily Australian life in the 1950’s. In the first stanza, Dawe wrote “…first thing he heard was Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7: Hello, hello, hello all you lucky people…” The stanza is focused on a ten-day-old baby who has been taken home and the first thing he hears is the catch phrase of a TV personality. This tells us that in Dawe’s world, children are exposed to the news and the power of ads as young as possible, to force them into a life of technology and big companies. In stanza three, the language becomes more demanding and jarring. Dawe uses capitalization, repetition and short sentences to create a list of rules society is being forced to follow. He uses road rules such as “walk. Don’t walk. Turn left. No parking,” and the lack of emotion in the words highlights how he believes this is not the way to live. The fifth stanza is written as the adult. It’s a long sentence filled with the jargon of advertising and superficial connections to family and friends, and through this language use Dawe shows us exactly what he’s afraid of.

Good morning and welcome to the Sunday afternoon poetry session. The alienation of individuals and groups within society is a tragic feature of Australian life. The despair and despondency experienced by those individuals allow for artistic endeavours that address issues that have left them outcast and marginalised from mainstream society. The isolation of minority groups such as migrants, Indigenous Australians or those deemed to be “other” from Australia’s dominant, white culture, provides an interesting lens through which our society can be viewed and examined. Two poems that explore and address the alienation of a minority group are Lisa Bellear’s Women’s Liberation and Uyen Loewald’s Be Good, Little Migrant. Through the use of the highest form of literature, although with differing emphases, the two poets put forth the harsh reality of the estrangement their own social and ethnic group face.

‘Enter Without So Much As Knocking’ by an ex-Vietnam veteran Bruce Dawe was published in 1959 and can be found in his Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems 1954-1992. ‘Enter Without So Much As Knocking’ shows how consumerism has a negative effect on society. The poem portrays the life of a typical man who is living in the suburbs. It begins with the birth of a child. As the baby begins to observe the world he has been brought into, he sees instructions, signs and expectation. Dawe stresses the point of the first thing that the baby heard, a voice of consumerism on television opposed to a loving and comfortable family. The baby has been brought into a materialistic world, a world where such a significant event has just taken place, a new

As in the beginning of the fourth stanza, the first word of the stanza brings the reader back to a different part of the boy's life and a different event. This new event shows the character as no longer a boy, representing innocence, but in the company of "godless money-hungry back-stabbing miserable so-and-sos". We can tell from this that Dawe is trying to show that the boy has now grown up and has been introduced to the "real world" and is now already a middle-aged man. The phrase "goodbye stars" relates back to the fourth stanza. He must also farewell the "soft cry in the corner"; a farewell to any emotions. It is at this point that Dawe includes the adult voice of the boy. The character speaks the need to care for yourself first and foremost, no need to think about the effect it may have on others, shown in the statement "hit wherever you see a head and kick whoever's down". This harsh change from innocent boy to selfish man is how Dawe is creating the character. The adult man is shaped by his dialogue in the poem. The character has grown up and no longer discusses his family, yet no mention of a wife or children is present until the next stanza, and then only to criticize. This fifth stanza is the first one to portray him as an adult, and Dawe has managed to make the character seem harsh and unkind.

For generations, poets have used their literary vehicle to express themes and produce content that remains relevant to a modern reader.”Enter Without So Much As Knocking” by Australian poet Bruce Dawe is a prime example of this, as Dawe uses the generic conventions of the genre to present his thoughts and comment on topics that in a way that remains relevant for future generations of readers. One reason the poem is still relevant and popular today is the attention it brings to capitalism and the complete materialistic nature of the pictured society, which forces readers to reflect on their own context and society. By having strict rules that govern Dawe’s pictured society, it reduces the value of life, and through his alliteration at the start

David Johnson (not his real name) was one of the premier bodybuilders of the mid-to-late 1960s. Although he did use drugs, such as anabolic steroids, to win many of his titles, later in his career he disavowed the use of most drugs with one notable exception. Johnson had a preworkout ritual that he claimed allowed him to train more intensely and concentrate more effectively throughout his training session.While marijuana has always had a relatively innocuous reputation compared to other mind drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, few people are aware of its true effects on the body. Entire volumes have been written documenting the physiological effects of marijuana, but many people are still confused.Active IngredientsKnown to botanists as Cannabis

Women in the book are silent observers, made to feel powerless. The book begins with families during the dust bowl and how “the women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole” (Steinbeck 7). Being “whole” meant that the men felt safe and were at peace. This quote means that if the women saw that their husbands were peaceful and pleased then everything was going to be fine. Gender is used here by the women not knowing what to feel until they see how the men feel. This theme continues with the Joad family throughout the book.

Women have been historically treated as second class citizens in both domestic and professional life. Society has circled around men for the past millenniums and Morrison depicts these gender double standards in Song of Solomon. She establishes the norms that women were subjected to and the social pressures that forced them to act, behave, and even live in a certain manner. Throughout the novel, Morrison continually describes Milkman 's perspective toward the women that are involved in his life and it reiterates how society during this time neglected gender equality. We are able to see and be submerged into how his mother behaves under his father’s command, and how both of his sisters are forced to grow up and live under the shadow of another man. Morrison accentuates the patriarchy that was prevalent in society during the 1900s by depicting the discrepancies between how men and women were both treated and raised.

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This shows that in the 1500’s, daughters must obey their families demands. All things considered, “True, and therefore women, being the weak vessels , are ever thrust to the wall” (1.1.16-17). This shows how men think of women, weak and unable to do anything masculine in any way. In these days, women were just supposed to keep their husbands happy. Not to tell the men to stop talking about them that way or anything negative towards the men.

Its comments on female sexuality and what was thought at the time to be the “norm”, you were either a pure virgin, or a loving wife and mother if you were neither you were considered a whore and outcast by society in

In addition to bravery, independence is also a trait shared by many female characters. For example, Ruth risks her own safety to travel alone at night to her father’s cemetery, just so that she can connect with the dead one she loved. Ruth and Macon’s daughter Corinthians developed a relationship with Porter, a tenant of her father’s property. Following her own will and relying on her independent judgment, Corinthians led her hair loose and went to bed with him, swearing that she would not “collect her hair into a ball at her nape” for anything in the world (202). The exertions of bravery and independence from the female characters might not be as drastic and thorough as Jake’s converting wasteland into farm and Milkman’s heroic quest to the South, due to the confinements black females faced in in the 20th century America, they nevertheless reveal the frequency and intensity of women declaring independence in Song of Solomon. Since Wang argues that Pilate differentiates herself from the female cast due to her androgynous nature that integrates masculine and feminine qualities, the critic implies that other female characters display only “feminine” attributes. However, Wang reaches such conclusion by assigning gender to neutral traits like bravery and independence, establishing a premise according to the stereotypical gender codification that invalidates the critic’s conclusion about the Lacanian androgyny in

Shire highlights a gender divide by focusing on daughters within this poem. In fact, there is no mention of sons at all. Daughters symbolize the challenging experiences women and girls have in a patriarchal society. Furthermore, daughters represent the marginalized subgroup striving for identity and success within a dominant culture. Therefore, they are a cultural and historical symbol of resilience. At least, this is what she wants the reader to internalize.

accordingly. Another difference is that the choral dirge was not made up of only men (“She’s

The roles that women played in The Bible excerpts and in Cry, the Beloved Country are similar despite being written in such different time periods. Women were shown as both