Perception of Australia by Henry Lawson (Essay Sample)

Henry Lawson through his texts provides his perspective of how society can make it difficult in the moment to capture such a tragic experience of living within the Australian outback, having to be identified as the overshadowed outcasts who speak the language of struggle and share the culture of hardships thus provides his vision of Australia’s identity being quite the opposite with the characteristics of personal, narrow and a bit sentimental. While on the other hand demonstrates how adversity could potentially lead to a unique form of growing resilience. Even though Lawson expresses adversity as a summoned provocation towards Indigenous Australians, he presents resilience as a cicerone to overcome the hindrance. A paramount example of this is apprehended by the iconic image of Darren Pateman’s Walkley photograph of the cricket match that took place in Cessnock which was encapsulated in a heavy bushfire back in October 2002.

Resilience as the cicerone to the ongoing crisis set by adversity is manifested through Henry Lawson’s text ‘The Drover’s Wife’. A story which shares one of the most conspicuous traits of resignation and acceptance of life found through resilience. A short story which perceives a woman who occasionally dreams of having the life of a photographer within the fashion industry in spite of her never having to complain nor wishes things to be different, it’s as if she knows the difference between living in a painful reality and a desired fantasy therefore she will perish despite her having to consistently fight and carry the struggles. She is a woman of perish as well as perseverance but also exhibits the resilience spirit through her tough persona which gives no room for both wavering and weakness within the bush, and whether or not her trait of resignation was inherent, she developed the apprehension of resilience within her rural surroundings thus it has made it clear that she has embraced and that is what gives her and her family life.

As of this, it is also evident within Lawson’s ‘The Union Buries Its Dead’. A text which highlights the important theme of approaching hardship and stereotypically Australia’s response to life’s challenges. Several times throughout the text Henry Lawson repeats the sentiment “it doesn’t matter”. His approach, therefore, seems to include a dismissal of difficult emotion. Although the potential for such emotions are raised throughout the text, Lawson continues to dismiss them. This reflects his point of view applied within Walkley's photograph signifying that the reality of life doesn’t matter within Australia. Another important aspect of Lawson's characters' approach to hardship is humour. Throughout the text,The narrator addresses sombre circumstances with sardonic banter throughout the narrative, making even a funeral seem lighthearted. Furthermore he provides his final twist of the story set by the narrator sets the capstone to his approach to hardship as he takes an unconcerned approach to the The fact that the story's young protagonist dies alone and nameless. Despite the fact that the situation is a tragedy in actuality, it seems to Lawson that within the bush it is simply just another casual day.