Henry Lawson: The Loaded Dog

Distinctively Visual

Distinctively Visual

As part of this study you will be asked to explore the ways the images we see and/or visualise in texts are created.

You will consider how literary form and structure and the language used

in different texts create these images, affect

interpretation and shape meaning.

Distinctively Visual

The scenes created by Lawson allow the reader to appreciate a place they have

never seen. He draws on personal experience to depict a bush lifestyle that

is fast disappearing.

Distinctively Visual: elements conveyed through …

Context Audience Form

Imagery Symbolism language

Plot Summary

Three men are mining at a nearby claim and camping in the bush. After deciding that they’d like to go fishing, they invent a way to fish using their mining skills, and decide to blow up the fish in the waterhole. They set about creating a cartridge, but before they can test their fishing prowess, the retriever dog steals the lit cartridge, chasing the men with it, before finally blowing up the mongrel dog in town.

The Loaded DogThe harsh nature of

making a living in the Australian

Bush.

The Australian Gold Rush

Living in the BushThe bush setting is simple and harsh. The men live in a campsite not far from the “claim”. The weather is hot and unrelenting, “They had a cat that died in hot weather” … their only relief from the weather comes from a nearby creek nothing more that “a chain of muddy water-holes”

Life in the Goldfields

The Loaded Dog opens with a detailed and realistic description of people and place in the goldfields "There is always a rich reef supposed to exist in the vicinity” … "They'd make a … cartridge of blasting-powder” … "The result was usually an ugly pot-hole in the bottom of the shaft and half a barrow-load of broken rock"

Australian Larrikinism

A larrikin is considered to be "a mischievous young person, or "a person who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions” It has been said that Australia’s larrikinism may have arisen in reaction to corrupt, arbitrary authority during Australia's days as a penal colony.

Literary Form

• Third person, omniscient narration. Linear structure. Uses a mix of short sentences and long descriptive paragraphs

Form

Characterisation

• motivated by 'fun' and when left to his own devices seems to be able to create a whole lot of mayhem 

Dave Regan 

• Dave’s partner in crime.

Andy Page

• Different to the other men, he wasn’t interested in their 'damned silliness'

Jim Bently

• The retriever dog, described as being a black, overgrown pup "who was always slobbering

Tommy

Literary Techniques

• Of an ‘overgrown pup’ with a ‘vicious mongrel’ helps us relate to the shift in tone

Juxtaposition 

• in the ‘foolish, four-footed mate’ reminds us of his close bond

Alliteration 

• of ‘tail like a stock whip’ - "Jim swung to a sapling and went up it like a native bear"

Simile 

Literary Techniques

•  separate the characterisation of these dogs: big, black and young with vicious, thieving canine

Contrasting adjectives

• makes us feel dislike for the ‘yellow’ dog; ‘sneaking’ and ‘fighting’

Emotive language 

• separates listing of specific features of the pack of hounds: spidery, mongrel sheep-and cattle-dogs

Em Dash 

Literary Techniques

• "There was plenty of fish in the creek, fresh-water bream, cod, cat-fish, and tailers"

Listing

• ‘elaborate’ instructions to explain the process of mining and cartridge construction through verbs including ‘bound’ ‘pasted’ and ‘sewed’"

Imagery

• shifting between long descriptive paragraphs and short sentences like “Dave got an idea.” creates grabs the attention of the responder. You immediately feel as though you have to focus, to lean in closer, links to the oral traditions of the bush stories are emphasised.

Sentence Structure

Literary Techniques

• Run, Andy! Run!”  increases panic and heightens tension for the responder.

Repetition

• Language that would have been used at the time, “Don’t foller us!”, adds realism.

Australian Idiom 

• The responder feels as though they are witness to the story. 'Why not blow the fish up in the big water-hole with a cartridge?' he said. 'I'll try it.'

Direct Speech