Language has an extraordinary amount of power to both reflect and shape an individuals identity. Significant use of words and phrases can be effectively put together to form characters and their personality. Choice of language helps to show experiences and tells the readers wholly what the character is like. The power of language can also demonstrate to the readers their attitudes, tonality, posture and attributes that can also reflect from their collective identity to how they act. Language can create an understanding as it can be used to reveal, challenge, and disrupt assumptions, stereotypes and beliefs about individuals and or their culture.
Henery Lawson uses the power of language in multiple of his short stories that really focus on outback Australian culture. Due to how Lawson wrote his stories in the late 1800s there is a large difference from what he saw Australian identity was at the time to what it is now. The language he used was remarkably different and living style was very different this was probably due to how the federation of Australia had not occurred yet in the time he wrote these stories so the Australian Identity and Culture had not been officially set. In two of his short stories, he goes over some major themes that were very prevalent at the time. In his short Story ‘Dovers Wife’ he writes about gender roles and in ‘Our Pipes’ he focuses on smoking.
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In the 1800s men earnt the money for the house and were seen as the boss of the house. While women were responsible for housework and taking care of children and her family. Lawson shows this gender role by completely reversing this in his short story ‘Dovers Wife’. In the late 1980s, it was usual for the men to leave their families for long periods of time due to their job as drovers. So while the males where away herding sheep the women would have to step in charge and take the males role of head of the house. The way Lawson has written the wife to become in charge disrupts the gender expectations, especially in the unforgiving outback they are set in. The family’s home is described to be placed in a “Bush all around” to exaggerate to a hyperbolic degree of the stereotypical Australian outback which demonstrates the vast, rugged land. As the family lives in a harsh environment, the wife of the house is constantly battling different elements of nature and having to come over different difficulties. The different issues the wife comes across are not normal circumstances that bushwomen are traditionally supposed to deal with. The wife’s strong and determined mindset shows her determination to keep her family safe, particularly when faced with one of the most deadly threats at the time. “Snake! Mother, here’s a snake” the exclamatory language shows concern and fright in the son’s voice. The snake is not only just an animal but is a symbol of evil that is a danger to the family, it represents the extent to which nature is unpredictable and how the wife had to be able to act fast and keep her family safe. Keeping the family safe is stereotypically the male’s responsibility but this highlights the false reality of gender roles. The impact of language has helped constructed stereotypes which have given the power to shape behaviour and form the identity of women in that time.
The role of a caring, stereotypical mother is also present in another one of Henry Lawson’s Short stories. In his story ‘Our pipes’ The protagonist Mitchell, his mother is seen as the stay at home mum that helps with the housework and cleaning which is proven as he says “Mother was at work out in the kitchen at the back, washing up the tea-things…’ because of her duties as a mother she has been positionally represented as away from the central business partaking and instead doing stereotypical feminine tasks. The mother and the wife contrast two really different lives, the drover’s wife goes against all stereotypical roles of a bush woman whereas the mother in ‘our pipes’ is a very stereotypical woman that’s voice is generally not very important and is often ignored.
In Henry Lawson’s ‘our pipes’ the mother is very concerned and gets mad about how Mitchel continues to smoke much to her despise. Even though smoking at the time was acceptable his mother still did not approve. ‘You’ve been smoking!’ again the use of exclamatory language reveals to the audience she is not that thrilled about him smoking, and he knows by the heated exchanged conveyed with the exclamation mark. The smoking theme shows a change in old Australian culture compared to the present. Now in society smoking is seen as a bad thing but in the short story it is reversed and the father was proud of the son for smoking. “I started smoking first when I was about fourteen or fifteen’ (...) ‘And what did your old man do when he found out that you were smoking?’ ‘...he seemed to sort of brighten up” expresses how it was such a different time where smoking was more acceptable. The father gives him a positive colloquial expression and further a personal anecdote for Mitchell. Smoking connects him with his father and is something they can share together, much to the mother’s disapproval. Smoking in the 1800s was a way to prove adulthood and growing up because it was a way to engage with other adults and show maturity. Sitting around smoking is not stereotypically Australian but if smoking was replaced and it was sitting around drinking it would be more presently accurate but is still showing Australians stereotypically gathering around to share stories. listening and taking part in smoking with his father and other adults Creates a special experience in Mitchell’s youth and also impacts his language and shapes his views and beliefs. Him growing up and listening to his dad will create similar views shaping his identity and his collective identity.
The language throughout the short stories written by Henry Lawson all have the power to shape and construct a sense of identity. Text impacts what audiences interpret about identities. The strong theme of gender roles and motif of smoking used in ‘the drover’s wife’ and ‘our pipes’ and in other works by Lawson reflect identity especially in with the use of textual forms and conventions, with the help of language structures and features to communicate key information, ideas, values to demonstrate the power language has to shape individual and collective identity.
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