The Australian Outback

The Australian Outback

 The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson paints a picture of the ‘bush”. The ‘bush’ is an Australian Outback where the women and the children are left by their husbands. The husbands leave their homes and their children to fend for their livestock and other agricultural produce. The male figures in the Australian Outback make this sacrifice in order to bring some food for their families. They have to leave their wives and children to look out for themselves for months. The author depicts how the Australian Outback is challenging for women and children. As most of the male population have to leave the ‘bush’ with livestock for months, the women in the Australian Outback have to take up most of the male responsibilities. These unfamiliar responsibilities for the women are what makes the Australian Outback a stressful home for the female population and the children. The Australian Outback is described by the author as a lonely place for the women and children, and a stressful home for the women left alone by the Drovers.

The Australian Outback is a flat country consisting of native apple trees with no underground. The ‘bush’ is 19 miles from the next civilization (“The Drover’s Wife”). This description of the Australian Outback shows how the place turns into a lonely world for the women and children left alone by their male figure in the house. The home is left alone with no male figure to protect them and give them company. In the story, Lawson writes that when the time comes for the Drover to leave with the livestock, the Drover’s family, the wife, and four children ‘are left alone’ in a ‘two-roomed house’ (Lawson). The author emphasizes the two-roomed house to suggest that the Drover would not be around for long. The two-roomed house is for the son and the other for the Drover’s wife and the little kids. This description of the Drover’s house depicts a lonely home full of challenges for the wife and the kids.

The Drover’s wife now has to take up all the responsibilities left behind by the Drover. The women in the “Drover’s Wife” have many responsibilities left for them, as depicted by the author. The women now have the responsibility of feeding, caring, and protecting the children. Raising a family is normally a task done by two parents. In the Outback, things are a little bit different. The women take up all those responsibilities of raising children when their husbands are away droving. The women in the Outback must take up huge responsibilities in the house in order for them to survive.

The first challenge illustrated by Henry Lawson in the ‘Drover’s Wife’ is when a snake appears in the Drover’s house. It is now the responsibility of the mother to protect the children from the snake. The author describes how the mother of the four children snatches her youngest baby from the ground as she fetches a stick to kill the snake. As the mother asks where the snake is, the eldest son yells at his mother, informing her of where the snake is. As young as the son is, he feels that it is her responsibility to kill the snake. He feels that it is his responsibility to protect the family in the absence of his father. This clearly paints a picture of how stressful life in the ‘bush’ is for the family. The eldest son tells his mother to stand back as he will kill the snake himself. “Stop there, mother! I’ll have him. Stand back!’ yells the eldest boy (Lawson). This behavior depicts how the mother of the children has challenging tasks.

Tommy, the young son, also appears from the house yelling and carrying a stick larger than himself. Tommy is also interested in protecting the mother and the little child from the snake. As Drover’s wife yells at Tommy to stand back, Tommy feels the urge to protect his mother by killing the snake. He reluctantly stands back, respecting the mother. Their dog, who all along was interestingly following the proceedings, finally breaks his chains and goes for the snake (Purcell). The snake slithers into a crack in the main house just as the alligator reaches for it. Now the snake is in the house, and the mother has a new challenge. The children cannot go into the house for a snake had bit and killed a boy in the “bush’ recently.

The Drover’s wife tells the children to stand together in the doghouse as she watches for the snake. She puts two bowls of milk down near the wall in an attempt to tempt the snake to come out. An hour passes by, and the snake did not come out. It is almost sunset, and a storm is imminent. The children have to sleep, and the snake is in the house. The mother, again, has a huge responsibility of protecting the children from the storm and from the snake. She also has to feed the children. The Drover’s Wife has to make very difficult decisions at this time. She decides to put the children in the floorless kitchen as she and the alligator watch for the snake.

The Drover’s wife and the alligator watch for the snake the whole night as the children sleep. In the process, the Drover’s wife has to talk to the children about the dangers of a snake bite and how it is not good to swear. These events sum up the life of a Drover’s wife. They are left with enormous responsibilities that are unfamiliar to female parents. The author depicts how life in the ‘bush’ is lonely and challenging for Drover’s wives. They have to feed the children, care for them, and at the same time, protect their children from different dangers.

For anyone to survive in the Australian Outback, one has to possess certain skills and strengths. The wives have to be ready to take up new responsibilities and sacrifices that are unfamiliar to them. The Drover’s wife stayed up the whole night watching out for the snake. She had to sacrifice her sleep in order to keep the children out of harm’s way. This strength and sacrifice are what is needed in the Australian Outback for survival.

Works cited

“The Drover’s Wife.” Eastoftheweb.Com, 2016, http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DrovWife.shtml.

Lawson, Henry. The Drover’s Wife. Arsalan Ahmed, 2015.

Purcell, Leah. The Drover’s Wife. Currency Press, 2016.