Is contemporary Australian culture moving away from religious traditions? And what are the repercussions of such a shift?
All Australian men and women work hard from Monday to Friday. They work to earn a living. They need the money to support themselves and their family. However, when Friday night comes, I’m sure everyone will agree with me. IT’S PARTY TIME! But boy do they regret it Saturday morning. Some describe it as “being hit by a train.” May this be an example of the Australian culture shifting away from Religious traditions?
Bruce Dawe renowned for his amazing collective poetry has had many successful pieces of writing. One none could forget would be “And a Good Friday Was Had by All.” This historic poem is very controversial. The poet, Bruce Dawe uses persuasive language to show he is very strongly opinionated about the shift of the Australian culture away from the religious traditions. He highly believes that this shift is very well happening. It is plain to see that Dawe uses an Australian vernacular to represent the working class, blue collared man. His poem has the motif of religion attached to it. We never know, Dawe could have been a religious believer himself. However he could Mr. Dawe and the working class men have experienced “the shift of cultures away from religious traditions” due to society’s expectations? What do you think? I believe so.
Throughout the context of the poem, Dawe places many biblical terms. Sarcasm and Australian Larrikin from a blue collar perspective is the only possible way Dawe expresses his tone through the poem. “God Almighty he laid down on the crossed timber.” This quote extracted from the poem creates a faint graphic of the crucifix and Jesus, followed by “spikes steady and I let fly with the sledgehammer… bones give way the iron shocking the dumb wood” where the brutal and blunt images are clearly shown through this. He supports these images