Kay+Ho+Janan

I'm Janan Cheong and I am working with Daryl Ong and Chan Martin. _


 * __ Title __**** : The Drover’s Wife (Abridged) **


 * __ Composer __**** : Henry Lawson **


 * __ Year __**** : Published in 1892 **


 * __ Text Type __**** : Short Story **

The short story “The Drover’s Wife” is written by Henry Lawson, Australia’s most famous writer and poet. The story tells us about the life of the average bushwoman of Australia and also tells about the harsh conditions of the Australian bush.

“The Drover’s Wife” has the Australian bush or Outback as its setting. The plot, such as it is, suggests the absence of action that characterizes life in the Outback. This short story is talking about the wife are left at home with her four children and her duty is to protect her children while her husband is out droving to earn a living. Henry Lawson mentioned about “the gaunt, sunbrowned bushwoman” which indicates that the surroundings are harsh and dry. He also mentioned that when one of his siblings yelled: “Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!” His mother dashes from the kitchen and snatched her baby from the ground. This indicates that the snake was a dangerous creature in the bush.

Lawson's story is told in simple prose and uses a good description to explore the woman's life and circumstances. The lonely vigil allows the woman time to look back on her life - the highs and lows, the loneliness, and her hopes and fears. He uses rhymes, rhythms, similes and many more types of poetic terms. He also uses adjectives to describe how a character looks like, example are “four ragged, dried-up looking children”, “the gaunt, sunbrown bushwoman” and “a sharp-faced urchin of eleven”.

This short story constructs an image of the Australian bush and outback as a harsh place to live in. Lawson is successful in creating a bond between the reader and the main character through his powerful scenery and the highly developed characterization. This bond enables the reader to truly appreciate the accomplishments of this young woman and other women like her. “The Drover’s Wife” is a tribute to these women and gives them the recognition that they rightfully deserve.

The text shows that the life in the outback is harsh, dry and isolating.

_

__**Migrant Women on a Melbourne Tram**__

Impossibly black Amid the impudence of summer thighs Long arms and painted toenails And the voices Impossibly obscure She hunches sweltering Twists in sweating hands A scrap of paper – address, destination, Clue to the labyrinth Where voices not understood Echo Confusing directions. (There was a time They sent them out of Greece  In black-sailed ships  To feed the minotaur.  Whose is the blind beast now  Laired in Collingwood,  Abbotsford, Richmond,  Eating up men?) Street-names in the glare Leap ungraspably from sight Formless collisions of letters Impossibly dark She is forlorn in foreign words and voices, Remembering a village Where poverty was white as bone And the great silences of sea and sky Parted at dusk for voices coming home Calling names Impossibly departed.

__Jennifer Strauss__


 * Title:** Migrant Woman on a Melbourne Tram
 * Composer:** Jennifer Strauss
 * Year Published:**
 * Text Type:** Poem

The poem “Migrant Women on a Melbourne Tram” is written by Jennifer Strauss, who is a Melbourne poet who works at Monash University.The poem tells us about a black migrant woman that is on a bus in Melbourne and who is unfamiliar with Australia.

The woman had long arms and painted toenails from the sentence “long arms and painted toenails”, and the speaker is being sarcastic about how women are on the bus showing their thighs by wearing clothes that expose them. “Clue to the labyrinth” means that she has no idea of the streets of Melbourne and they are like a maze to her. “Where voices not understood, Echo” means that the people giving her directions but she doesn’t seem to understand their language and she always hears them as echoes. “They sent them out of Greece, In black-sailed ships, To feed the minotaur” means sending black people, like the black women, out of Greece on ships to feed a beast is probably something the speaker read in a text book in college, and the poet added this to show her feminist support. The repetition of the word “impossibly” implies the notion that this whole “journey” on the bus in a sense that it is impossible for her.

The text shows that the woman is a visitor to Australia and she is unfamiliar to the streets and language of the country.

_

**__Similes In Sydney__**

In the morning, we circled the Opera House In the safety of the procession of tourists Queuing for a view of the gilded chambers Imagining songs with ungraspable words. Faceless, predictable - we tilted our cameras The same angle as the rest ; one long shot, Then a close-up of the magnificent wedges…

Later, an early dinner in Chinatown, before Crossing the intersection to get the theater In time for Miss Saigon, when an Aussie Woman asked if we were Vietnamese and Upon receiving a "no" for the answer claimed She couldn’t tell us apart from any other With Asian glaze and all-else ochre.

**Yong Shu Hoong**


 * Title**: Similes in Sydney
 * Composer/Writer**: Yong Shu Hoong
 * Year Published**:
 * Text Type**: Poem

The poem “Similes in Sydney” is written by Yong Shu Hoong, an award-winning Singaporean poet and literary advocate. This poem tells us about a family who is in Sydney and they are having a tour around the city. “In the morning, we circled the Opera House” means that walking around the Sydney Opera House and looking at its magnificent structure for the first time. “Imagining songs with ungraspable words” means that the building looks so amazing that a song is describing the Opera House with indescribable words. “we tilted our cameras, the same angle as the rest ; one long shot” means that the tourist are taking pictures at the same angle and at the same thing. This shows that Asians have many things in common. The text shows that the Australians can’t differentiate where the Asian tourists come from because they look almost the same.

Janan,


 * You have analysed the literary devices closely
 * You have provided evidence and discussed the intended effects on the reader
 * Please discuss the interpretations/representations of Australia in a broader sense
 * You need to provide more detail please and write more than what you have completed

Great! These are quite goood analysises even though they are incomplete. They could be extended. Julia.

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