the+Depression+of+the+early+30s

=How does George Johnston depict the Depression of the early 30s? Has this increased your understanding of the [|Depression]?=

George Johnston depicts the [|depression] as “//a great river flooding or changing it’s course… the insidious creeping movement of, dark, strong, unpredictable forces, the flow of hidden currents, a clod of falling and dissolving, a slide of earth, the cave in of an entire bank, a sudden eddy swirling around a snag, tilting it over, sweeping it off into the black oblivion//.” (pp 152, chapter 9) George’s use of language in this extract, his choice in using words such as ‘//dark’//, ‘//dissolving’// and ‘//black’//, give an ominous feeling to his description. Johnston depicts the unexpected feeling that was felt before the depression through the words ‘//unpredictable forces//’, ‘//hidden currents//’ and ‘//sudden eddy//’, as well as on page 145, where Johnston states “//we never suspected at the time… that the sudden fall in wheat prices, and the loss of Jack’s employment were the first hint of the disaster that was to come//”. Johnston’s choice of language is paramount to understanding the effect the depression had on the working class. The language used throughout chapter nine conjures dark imagery, supported directly by the words and phrases; ‘//black oblivion’, ‘hidden currents’// and Johnston’s description of those accepting handouts, wearing coats that were ‘//dull black’//, as if the coats “//became a kind of badge of adversity, a stigma of suffering.”// (pp 153) Johnston portrays the depression as an unexpected and devastating occurrence on Melbourne that broke up families and changed people forever, letting them slip into the ‘ // black oblivion’. //  The use of the text in the above answer demonstrates how we are to discuss the text and use the ideas of the text to 'make' answers. Although it does need a bit of spit and polish please, please use this particular paragraph as a building block for your woen way of writing about the text. Copy the specific language used and the accumulative effect of it on the reader. Need to perhaps refer to the words 'dark', 'black' as adjectives (this is why the study of grammar is sooooo important). Rather than saying - the language is effective, say the use of vivid/ bleak adjectives helps to create a sense of forbodding. this indicates to your reader that you are aware of language and you know what the function os specific words are in a sentence. If you are still unsure about grammar, we will be having a grammaar refresher on Friday 13th March at lunchtime, so stay tuned.

Davey feels that it's pointless going through the same routine every day when there are people living in the terrible state that they are. Johnston shows this through his use of dark descriptive laguage as shown above, and he makes it out to be very robotic in the way people attend their every day lives. This segment of the novel is represented to be quite dull and "black and white". This gives readers a first hand and more emotionally descriptive outlook on the great depresion of the 30s.

This book shows fantasy style writing when it mentions the depression, words like "Black" or "Unpredictable Forces," This builds a false understanding of this time, [Explain this further. How is it a false understanding?] but later on it describes it a bit more in realistic depth "Listening to Helen- because she talked on about the disaster of the depression and the way the capitalist were trying to keep the masses in there places" pg 180 chapter 10. It shows some parts of the great depression by its image as well, such as the description of the art center and the school's structure. Also the way it is imaged in black and white makes it feel more in that gothic saddness.

[The above has some interesting notions that need further exploration].

The way George Johnston describes the depression in his book 'My brother Jack' is in a very bleak view as is appropriate to one of the darkest points of Australia's grand history where many families where forced upon the brink of desperation and poverty.

Davy is in a well off position during the novel- but Johnson uses Davy's night of sleeping in the park and semi-homelessness as well as the antics of Jack's job hunting to portray what people went through. Talk of the masses of black coats and the sustinence workers sweeping the roads/paths give visual images of the bleakness of the time. He expresses it as a time where people were somewhat lost- the younger generation trying to restore romance and glamour whilst the adult world is reeling from the war and their emptying pockets. Also the bitterness of the time- as in when Jack snr forces Davy to put the sign refusing "susso's" in.