Distinctive Voices- Harry Lavender and Bruce Dawe

Distinctive voices help shape meaning and create memorable characters, but also show that people’s   experiences can be brought to life through distinctive voices. This is shown through the core text of The life and Crimes of Harry Lavender written by Marele Day. Through the hard talking private investigator Claudia Valentine, the underworld figures Harry Lavender and the majestic yet volatile personified city of Sydney.   Day manipulates language to create particular meaning and structure through literary devices. The related texts Weapons Training by Bruce Dawe explores the concept of distinctive voices through a range of poetic techniques. To reveal the brutal reality of the 1970 Vietnam War. As well as the Hitchhiker by Roald Dahl, which explores the concept of distinctive voices through linguistic devices, used to promote power and significance of stereotype in life. These texts explore various perspectives and experiences in life and are brought to life through the development of distinctive voices.

In the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender by Marele Day. We are first introduced to the cold male like figure Claudia Valentine in the opening scene. The scene is seedy and, mysterious and dark. The simile “I woke up feeling like death” as well as description of “ash tray full” and “ Jack Daniels empty”. Suggests a stereotyped representation of a male. Furthermore Day gives her protagonist a masculine tone as Cluadia is a detective and works in a dominated males industry we see that the environment she is living in as shaped her into the women she is today; The Private investigator voice of hers is shown through her comfortable use of jargon   “The crimes don’t discriminate anyway. They’ll blow away a women on their trail as readily as a man” Marele uses Claudia’s sick, witty and tongue in check manner to emphasize her strong and confident manner and show how she challenges the role of a detective and how it has made her straight to the point and upfront in...