Comparison Of Joe Wilson's Courtship By Lawson And Banjo Paterson
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The context of an artist has a profound impact upon their work. Although Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson both wrote about life in the Australian bush they portrayed it in vastly different ways. A deep, unconscious effect is imprinted on a person by their context. A person who has grown up in West Africa is going to have very different views to someone who grew up in Oxford, England. This is very similar to the matter at hand. Henry Lawson was born in a more suburban area, and consequently, he takes an opinion which is negative to bush life. Opposing this is Banjo Paterson, who grew up in a more rural area, shows an idealistic view that idolises bush life. In the short story “Joe Wilson’s Courtship”, Lawson paints a realistic and dull picture…show more content… It takes more than that to hurt me”. This was followed by “I was about the reddest shy lanky fool of a bushman … my hands shook so that a lot of tea spilt into the saucers”. Combining the use of first person narration, colloquial language in “reddest shy lanky fool of a bushman” and a cliche in “my hands shook so that a lot of tea spilt into the saucers”, establishes a negative, shy and clumsy stereotype of Joe. The effect of these quotes extends further to the point that it hints that all bushmen are like this, as the quote references ‘fool of a bushman’ , implies that all bushmen are fools. Contrary to this, in short story “Bush Justice”, Paterson represents the bushman as “Old Considine”. “He was an honourable old fellow, and people trusted him implicitly, and if he did now and then overlook a defect in the title to a piece of land - well, no one ever discovered it...” is highly meaningful. This is achieved through the use of an implied litote in “if he did now and then overlook a defect”, high modality in “implicitly” and a highly slackened tone in “overlook a defect… - well, no one ever discovered it”. These quotes suggest that Old Considine, who is a bush lawyer, is a very respectable and easy going