Having read both stories ‘squeaker’s mate’ by Barbara Baynton and ‘the drover’s wife’ by Henry Lawson I preferred the drovers wife and in this piece of writing I am going to explain why. Both of these stories are short stories and are set in the out back in Australia in the early 20th century. One thing which could have made a different to the way each stories was written was that a drover’s wife was written by a male whereas ‘squeaker’s mate was written by a female. These stories considered the issues women had in that area and time.
I preferred the plot of ‘squeakers mate because I felt it gave out a stronger message of how women were treated. It shown emotion and made me feels involved in that emotion. I felt more sorry for the women in this story as she had done so much for this man and he had done nothing in return. She had gone from being in complete power and to having nothing. This was a turn around as the man depended on her to do everything for him as he was really lazy and after the accident she was completely dependent on him for food and water.
The man completely abandon her on severaly occasions. I felt the narrative flowed better and I could understand what was happening without having to go back and read it again to understand. It gave a huge impact on me to how helpless she became and that her mate did not care for her properly, she was being put through pain. It went though extremes of control and she was left helpless, whereas she used to be in complete control. This would have been very hard for her because her personality is very organised and she likes to get everything done on time and properly so to not have control over even the smallest things would have been hard for her.
I though the drover’s wife as not as powerful as the message was not as strong and didn’t have a great impact on me emotional for the women. I did not have as much sympathy for the characters as it was not written as well, the narrative did not flow as well so I sometimes got confused while reading it and had to go back again. In the drovers wife she had children to help her in her worries.
The main characters in ‘squeaker’s mate’ were the man and the women (mates) and the second women. The women also had a dog, which was her companion. The man was very ignorant, lazy and stupid. He did not seem to really care about his mate has when the tree fell on her he did not help she insulted her and he did not care for her properly afterwards either. All the work, which the women usually did, was left undone because the man refused to do all the work.
The woman in this story is very organised, likes to get the job done, caring, and has a lot of patience. She not only has patients with her self but with her mate and seems to put up with a lot of grief. These two do not have a very good working or personal relationship together I think the women is the only one doing the work in the relationship. The women’s dog is very obedient he is her only companion they have a very good relationship and even though he is a dog it seems like he understands her and what she is feeling.
The dog is very protective of her for example when the other woman in the story tries to reach the water her attacks the women to protect her.in this story none of the names of the charcters are mentioned I think this is to give the effect that they are slaves of marriage because slaves are never named or it is just to make the charcters 2nd, nothing people or to make it a less personal story so we can change the situation to fit our own maybe.by not naming them you are reinforcing their lowly role.
I feel the women in the a drover’s wife does not have as nice a character and I feel for the other women more. I think her situation is not quite so bad and that I have more pity for the other women. They both become dependent on their man but certainly squeaker’s mate is to the more extreme. Having explored these issues I still feel squeaker’s mate was the better story. In both stories the author looks at the women’s place in the society, the hard and different lifestyle they have in the Australian out back. There is a lack of education and marriage situations were not very good. I believe that handled these situations better it used more emotions and stronger feelings of the grinding poverty of squeakers mate.
Overall I think that squeakers mate uses better language and direct speech to show the characters feelings effectively, it uses colloquial language. This meant I could understand the atmosphere and setting better giving me a clearer idea of the characters personalities and feelings so I could understand the story better. As I have said the main reason why I thought squeakers mate was the better story was because I felt for the women more. The story used emotion much better by using extreme circumstances.
