Bruce Dawe’s “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” Essay Example
Bruce Dawe’s “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” Essay Example

Bruce Dawe’s “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” Essay Example

Available Only on StudyHippo
  • Pages: 6 (1502 words)
  • Published: September 9, 2017
  • Type: Analysis
View Entire Sample
Text preview

“Remember. adult male. thou art but dust. and unto dust though shalt return. ” This is a interlingual rendition of the citation which begins Dawe’s verse form. Enter Without So Much As Knocking. The quotation mark reminds us that life is non everlastingly ; and that we are all faced with mortality.

The verse form itself is discoursing a man’s journey from birth to decease and how all around him life is interpreted by material ownerships. At the beginning of the first stanza. the sentences have been made really short and simple. as if to show the ideas of a new born kid. The first voice that the babe hears when he is born is Bobby Dazzler. one of Australia’s first game shows. The really first thing that the babe hears is non the voice of his female parent. nor the voice of h

...

is male parent. but the voice of philistinism. This first stanza immediately creates the feeling of a place in the fiftiess. where telecasting was something new. The eclipsis that connects the first and 2nd stanzas demonstrates a alteration in clip. in this instance. a alteration of a twosome of old ages.

The words used in the 2nd stanza. such as “well-equipped” and “economy-size” . are words that were invariably used in commercials at the clip. as if life was being sold to the kid. This usage of a commercial like construction is besides apparent in the manner that the household is depicted. each with its ain stereotype: an “Economy Sized Mum” . a sexist description typical to the 50s ; an “Anthony Squires – Coolstream – Summerweight Dad” . Anthony Squires mentioning to a

View entire sample
Join StudyHippo to see entire essay

Australian trade name of suit ; and “two other childs straight off the Junior Department Rack” . mentioning to the baby’s siblings. each free of gender and age and recognised merely by the type of vesture that they wear. From these two stanzas. Dawe is able to make non merely a graphic image of the typical household in the 1950s. but besides give us an penetration to the Television civilization that they are populating and what consequence it has on the household.

The tierces stanza discusses what happens when the Mum character wins the Luck’s-A-Fortch Tricky-Tune Quiz. She takes the male child shopping. They set off in the “good-as-new station-wagon” . yet more advertisement slang which describes the family’s second-hand auto. The short phrases that follow are depicting a child’s position of a route trip and the many regulations that come with it. The statements begin as typical route warnings “WALK. DON’T WALK. ” and go more satirical as they continue. for illustration “NO BREATHING EXCEPT BY ORDER” . These phrases represent the marks that a kid may recognize on a trip. After these. there are the sounds that are present on a auto trip. every bit good as the sound of Mum complaining.

The legion “beeps” that are present may stand for both the beeping of a auto horn every bit good as censoring of swear words. a likely state of affairs particularly in the last capitalised bleep. This state of affairs creates an image or a race to acquire someplace. It could be seen as Dawe’s look of comparing a traffic jam in the haste to acquire to somewhere to the race of people to

acquire to a certain topographic point in their calling or in their life. This full stanza dictates fast and feverish fortunes. which change all of a sudden when geting at the 4th stanza.

The first word in the 4th stanza. nevertheless. followed by a comma. instantly slows the reader down by coercing them to hesitate. The stanza goes on to state of how although the male child is surrounded by so much commerce and fast-paced life. such as the fifty-foot screen and the elephantine faces projected onto it. he is able to bask a natural admiration of the universe. the stars. It is here that there is the first reference of the boy’s emotions. where Dawe writes of the male child basking something.

When depicting the manner the starts are sprinkled over the sky. Dawe has used the word littered. which normally has negative intensions. This could be because the stars had non yet been changed by our universe. and if they were left as they were. untouched. they were non every bit good as what we had created on our Earth. The stanza terminals on a somewhat low note because of Dawe’s metaphor of the stars being like “kids at the circus” Dawe is seeking to demo how the stars are near plenty to the Earth for the male child to make. and hence. for the male child to acquire “kicked” . or injury.

As in the beginning of the 4th stanza. the first word of the stanza brings the reader back to a different portion of the boy’s life and a different event. This new event shows the character as no longer a male child. stand

foring artlessness. but in the company of “godless money-hungry back-stabbing suffering so-and-sos” . We can state from this that Dawe is seeking to demo that the male child has now grown up and has been introduced to the “real world” and is now already a middle-aged adult male. The phrase “goodbye stars” relates back to the 4th stanza. He must besides farewell the “soft call in the corner” ; a farewell to any emotions. It is at this point that Dawe includes the grownup voice of the male child.

The character speaks the demand to care for yourself foremost and first. no demand to believe about the consequence it may hold on others. shown in the statement “hit wherever you see a caput and kick whoever’s down” . This rough alteration from guiltless male child to selfish adult male is how Dawe is making the character. The grownup adult male is shaped by his duologue in the verse form. The character has grown up and no longer discusses his household. yet no reference of a married woman or kids is present until the following stanza. and so merely to knock. This 5th stanza is the first one to portray him as an grownup. and Dawe has managed to do the character seem rough and unkind.

The 6th stanza introduces Alice. most likely the characters married woman. The character besides criticizes Clare Jessup. bespeaking his hypocritical nature. The 6th stanza is really short. as it seems as though it was cut short because of what happened following. Obviously the auto is involved in an accident. shown by the last two words of the stanza “watch it” followed by

a elan. go forthing the reader to conceive of the incident. The elan that ends the stanza shows how short the minute between life and decease is. and how it happens in the wink of an oculus. Until this point. Dawe has been able to make the full character of the character. get downing from birth and stoping at decease. Dawe is able to demo how through different events a individual is moulded into the character which they become.

As the character has died. the storyteller returns one time more to an foreigner. and observer. The reaction to those who perchance go to his funeral where they see his organic structure. is queerly phantasmagoric ; as they focus non on his life and personality. but on what a good occupation the morticians did on giving him a sham sunburn. The thought here is that he’s dead. but at least he looks good. The line ” the old automatic smiling with nil behind it” describes how much of a camouflage he had created for himself. No-one knew him for who he was because he had spent so long seeking to conform to society and kill his individuality. The last few lines of the verse form relate back to his life. “winding the whole show up” refers to the man’s life as if it were a telecasting show. now finished. every bit good as the stoping of the verse form. The terminal of the verse form besides states what the adult male has left. the parking tickets. taximeters and Bobby Dazzlers.

These are all material things. There is no reference of any loved 1. such as his married woman

; or the remainder of his household that are spoken about earlier in the verse form. Alternatively. there is talk of him go forthing the “grieving over halitosis. level pess. shriveling gums and falling hair” . The term grieving is normally used to depict the procedure after person has passed on. yet in this instance is used to demo concern over such fiddling affairs. The 2nd last line in the verse form. “six pess down cipher interested” shows how society regards the dead: he doesn’t affect people any longer. so nobody attentions. The last line links back to the first. “Blink. wink. CEMETERY. Silence” . Just like he came into this life. the adult male blinks into decease and into silence. an stoping.

Get an explanation on any task
Get unstuck with the help of our AI assistant in seconds
New