Bruce Dawe, Micheal Leunig and the ideas they convey about society in the poems Enter without so much as knocking, Life Cycle and the cartoon Sunrise. Bruce Dawe has used the techniques similes, aliteration, imagery and compound words to express his views on society while Micheal Leunig has used exageration and symbolism to draw and show his.
Bruce dawes main purpose in his poetry is the express the unspoken social issues concerning the comon Australian suberban resident. Dawe has a mocking approach to the issues he presents in two of his poems Enter without so much as knocking and life cycle. Both poems have a similar themes with the cycle of life and the lack of uniqueness within these familes lives. Enter without so much as knocking shows a negative impact on society as the poem describes the life of a man living in the suberbs. It starts of with the birth of a baby that was blinked into a life of consumerism instead of that of a loving family with one economy-sized Mum, one Anthony Squires-Coolstream-Summerweight Dad along with two other kids straight off the Junior Department rack. A technique Dawe uses to exspreses himself are compound words. The words ???set – up??™, ???well – equipped??™,???smoothly – run??™ and ???economy – size??™ are all a reflection of language commonly used in advertising, further exspressing the idea of consumerism. He effectively uses a number of imagery techniques also, examples of these are “Human Life as a Game show” and “Family as an advertised product”. In general, Bruce Dawe tries to portray that people in these societies are too ashamed to face the fact that they have surrendered to consumerism.
The poem Life cycle is very similar to Enter without so much as knocking in the way that it starts with both families bringing in a child the world to almost smother it with there ideas of sports and teams, its almost religious. When Dawe writes the poem his tone is slightly mocking as he describes how the families act, covering the child in club colours and listening to them cry out as if already yelling for there team. The poem goes on to describe the lives of these sports fenatics and there social calenders will map around the football season, from there wedding to the honeymoon they have to be after the season ends. Dawes tone seems to gentle in the end almost becoming compstionate with the older people as they wait for hope thatthere team to reach the top of the standings and bring about there salvation. Similes are used throughout the poem by Dawe as he writes how this societys actions and views are like something larger than life to them, such as a voice like the voice of God booms from the stands. Aliteration is the other technique used to make the poem flow with words like carn they cry carn, hoisted shoulder high and passion persisting.
Last but not least is the cartoon Sunrise by Micheal Leunig. One of the most influential consumer world products, the television, is being discussed in this cartoon. When first looking at the cartoon (or any of the cartoons by Leunig) you dont see anything overly special, yet the concepts behind them are revelant and important in todays society, as Leunigs cartoon shows how the TV is such a dominant force in the consumers world. The main idea that I see behind the picture is the power of consumerism. It has made me realize just how much it has corrupted our minds. In the picture you see a man and a child looking towards the TV to see the sunrise, while at the back of the picture we see a window with the sun rising just outside. In the picture you can see the two figures sitting before the tv reaching and watching it almost in devotion. This cartoon shows us how Leunig is implying that the consuming population would rather turn to the fake manufactured aspects of the world such as the tv instead of facing the reality that is nature and real life. Two techniques that are seen withing the cartoon are exaggeration and symbolism. Leunig drawings are mostly drawn with a thin black quivering line, he uses exaggeration to draw the features the people in his cartoons and the use of exageration is also used when drawing the features he wonts to stick out and make a point with. The use of symbols and symbolistic objects are used in excess in all of Leunig??™s works. In the picture Sunrise symbolistic object is the tv itself. When we look at the tv its drawn as an overly large block thats very dark, the tv is placed the corner looking out at the room and people giving off a menacing feeling, this can symbolise that society is drawn towards something they should be or would be better off without.
I think that Bruce Dawe and Michael Leunig have very valid points in there texts about consumerisom and more importantly society and that they manage to covey them very clearly. I think there ideas are revelant and important to take note of and to concider them a warning as well not to get sucked up into a society filled with materialistic things.
