In A Dry Season
Purpose/main ideas: Informs the responder about life in the bush and how harsh it is. It describes the bush and the typical rural characters. Feelings about the countryside and about social injustice are clearly expressed.
There are 3 main ideas: Images of the monotonous and harsh landscape of the Australian bush The range of typical bush characterised The hardships and social injustice of life in the bush including unemployment

Quote | Technique | Explanation | The last horrible spot in the bush, in a dry season, is where the bush isn't... Somebody told me that the country was very dry on the other side of Nevertire. It is. We crossed the Macquarie – a narrow, muddy gutter | | Humour used to....the harshness of the bush environment Use of understatement followed by a short sentence.... Metaphor used... | Draw a wire fence and a few raged gums, and add some scattered sheep running away from the train. Then you'll have the bush all along the New South Wales line... | | The use of imperative language and second person in the first lines of the story are used to engage the reader and....monotonous landscape of the bush | They talk of settling people on the land! Better settle in it | | A sarcastic tone created with the use of explanation and italics to effectively convey the narrator's negative impression of the bush | Death is about the only cheerful thing in the bush | | Irony and black humour used to convey... | Slop sac suits, red faces, old-fashioned flat-brimmed hats...begin to drop into the train... | | Lawson's characters are stereotypes. Through the use of personification each type is characterised by items of clothing which are typically worn. Costuming and attire create a vivid impression of the type of characters you are likely to encounter in the bush. The use of alliteration contributes to the impression created and adds interest and humour | One or two square-cuts and stand-up collars struggle dismally through to the bitter end | | As above | The only town I saw that differed much consisted of...and a women standing at the door throwing out the wash-up water | | Absence of any female characters reinforces the harshness of the landscape-no place for a women. | God bless the publican and the coach driver! God forgive our social system! | | Authorial commentary in these exclamations highlighting social injustice | They dress like the unemployed, but differ from that body in their look of independence | | The use of the simile here to describe the shearers as the fortunate few because they at least had some income and independence. We are reminded here of the major problem of unemployment | Naive industry was represented at one place along the line by three tiles, a chimney-pot, and a length of piping on a slab. | | Irony used to emphasise the lack if industry and employment opportunities in the bush. | draw a wire fences and a few ragged gums and add some scattered sheep running away from the train. | | The description establishes the monotony and predicability of the bush. The use of second person here gets the responder involved and allows them to engage the text through picturing the scenery. | By way of variety, the artist might make a fettlers tent on the line, with a billy hanging over the fire in front, and three fettlers standing round filling their pipes | | Meaning that railway towns are so uniform that the only variation is dreamt up by an artist to make the town in the painting more interesting. |