Dobson Quotes Flashcards
Over the hill thesis
‘Over the hill’ is about a man who coming to the end of his life and doesn’t allow fear to overrule his mind. This seemingly smaller scale narrative paradoxically emphasizes the complexities of human behaviour, as we as individuals have the power to manifest an experience to be tragic or triumphant.
OTH care free attitude quote
The persona doesn’t give in to despair as he is characterised to light his pipe with “quite unconscious insolence”, this is symbolic of the persona’s resilience and care free attitude represented through the peaceful tone, as the persona continues to acts presently in the face of life obstacles.
OTH mountains quote
“He could move mountains if he cared, but a mountain in the palm of one’s hand/ is a troublesome thing, so he lets them lie.” Through this metaphor, the ground becomes a symbol, representing a steady life and the mountains are the challenges. Dobson’s ambivalent tone emphasises this anticlimactic statement as she highlights the persona’s awareness and understanding that changing the natural way of things would only wreak havoc.
OTH loneliness quote
This visual imagery of nature “the roan earth” and “he crests the hills and fills the sky” highlights the man’s loneliness by contrastingly placing him in a wide and never-ending natural environment.
OTH optimism quote
The persona’s willingness and positive attitude towards change is demonstrated as the stars, which are representative of the end of his life, are personified to be his companion. Nature is personified to be his companion as demonstrated through “A match against the friendly stars/ hanging his cap on the horn of a moon.” Unlike young girl at a window’s hostile atmosphere, the stars are ‘friendly’ and the persona nonchalantly places his cap on the moon through Dobson’s use of focalisation. This focalisation allows the audience to see from the persona’s point of view, in this case the persona’s optimism makes him feel like his with the epithet of friendly stars and moon. As such, Dobson emphasises how the idea of loneliness shouldn’t deter individuals from surprising changes because it is a shared experience that can be comforting if embraced. The persona’s eyes are described metaphorically as having ‘lit windows’ suggesting that there’s a light within him, this symbolizes his willingness to embrace change and his optimistic outlook on life even though death is coming. Here the empowering visual imagery characterises the persona with strength, further highlighting the transformative effect of change.
Cocks Crow thesis
The persona acknowledges what she wants through reflection however, she still remains trapped by societal expectations of what she must do and thus faces the anomalies of wanting and feeling guilty.
CC isolation quote
Dobson demonstrates that nature allows for liberation and reflection as it is free of judgement and expectations. In her isolation the persona discovers, paradoxically, that she loves her mother and daughter, “And that love grows about the bone,” yet she needs more personal time and isolation to “escape her bonds.”
CC personas discovery quotes
She realises that she cannot be free of her responsibilities, “Too brief illusion!” The exclamation mark indicates the persona’s frustration at having to return to the house and deal with her responsibilities. The persona is able to acknowledge her wants and needs in order to reach self- actualisation but instead denies herself of such, due to a combination of her as an individual and societal expectations. The persona is feeling guilty yet is still yearning for more, this demonstrates the contradictory nature of human emotions as although they are able to acknowledge one it still remains stuck alongside another.
CC connection to chilldren
Dobson highlights the paradoxical tension of the personas conflicting desires between exploring themselves as an individual by leaving familial duties vs maternal love of family. “Cut off from human cries” which is normally a sign of deep maternal love but the use of periodic listing emphasises the interconnectedness of wider human emotion, and the persona’s disconnect from this connection.
Tautology/congery definition
Alludes to the necessity of solitude, the persona’s extreme longing to be isolated in order to reconnect with wider society.
CC societal moulds quotes
Surrounded by other people, the self is influenced and moulds to be an image, only when the alone entirely true self, “wanting to be by myself alone”.
CM thesis
In Canberra Morning, Dobson utilises the first-person voice in order to comment on the minutiae of daily life, whereby as the speaker, Dobson critiques the idiosyncrasies of individuals such as the bus driver.
CM satre
Utilising a literary allusion to philosopher Jean-Paul Satre, Dobson juxtaposes high and low culture, by framing the driver as nothing more than an everyman, who ‘listens moodily to the Top Forty’, despite his faux-appearance of being an intellectual.
CM annonomoly quote
Dobson frames the influence of anomalies on human behaviour in the first stanza of the poem, whereby she subverts the audience’s expectations in the sense that the ominous image of the shadow, where ‘low-bellied cats creep under parked cars’ and ‘stealthily flatten the grasses’, juxtapose darkness with the responder’s traditional perception of mornings as light-filled times, particularly in the bush capital of Canberra.
CM difficulties of the everyday
In the second stanza, Dobson gives us an account of the hustle and bustle of students preparing to catch the bus for school in the morning. The process of aging and the value the persona comes to associate it with. With each day brings the opportunity for change and rebirth “like low bellied cats”, indicating that humans have control over their behaviour to seek new opportunities. An observation on the paradoxical pleasures and downfalls of ageing. Persona comments on the small difficulties of the everyday, Intertextual reference to Sartre. Re-imagining everyday phenomenon through a different lens, the anomalies that branch from the mundane.
