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Question:

Larrikin and battler characters in Australian Literature encourage readers to question the social and cultural assumptions held within Australian society.
Discuss at least two of Harwood’s poems evaluating the extent to which this may be the case.

Larrikin and battler characters have been widely used in Australian literature to emphasise the myth of Australia as an egalitarian society. The larrikin is a recurring character in Australian society and literature, form the swagman who stole the jumbuck to Barry Humphries (a.k.a. Dame Edna Everage) and The Chasers (The Chasers War On Everything). The larrikin is a character who is not fazed by authority, who does not conform to social norms and who does not take themselves too seriously. The battler is also a character who appears often in Australian literature, the battler is a character who continuously struggles against hardships, not always caused by poverty, readers are often encouraged to sympathise with them and both the larrikin and battler characters are often viewed as heroic characters. Gwen Harwood is an Australian poet of the post world war two era whose writing contains numerous characters that can be classed as larrikins and/or battlers. Harwood makes use of poetic conventions such as tone, imagery,   and juxtaposition to encourage readers to question the social and cultural assumptions held within Australian society.

Kröte is a character that reappears in a number of Harwood’s poems and is often depicted as a larrikin. In the poem ’Monday’ the persona Kröte does not always conform to the social norms and is not fazed by authority which is typical of the larrikin. Harwood employs the poetic technique of imagery to represent Kröte as purposefully defying social expectations and mocking authority. The image of Krote drinking on the beach at noon demonstrates an obvious disregard for his society’s laws by which ‘liquour is forbidden’ in the area, yet Krote ‘keeps his...