Cultural Cringe Comparison Essay
Dorothea Mackellar’s “My Country” and Barron Field’s “The Kangaroo”
Cultural cringe is an internalized belief by people that their own culture is more inferior to that of another country. This mostly results in the act of comparing cultural practices in their country with those of other countries. Below is a discussion about cultural cringe in relation to Dorothea Mackellar’s “My Country” and Barron Fields “The kangaroo”
The poem “My Country” bases its setting around the land of Australia, where Mackellar uses juxtaposition in the first two stanzas to bring out the idea of the unique Australia’s wild land scape compared to the England’s wild land scape.The scenery of England is described as ‘grey-blue distance, brown streams and dim skies; on the other hand the land scape of Australia is described as a land of sweeping plains, of droughts, flooding rain and ragged mountain ranges (Mackellar). When we look at the description of the two countries we are convinced that the author loves her country much and she tells us that the savannahs, and the unpredictable weather season makes it beautiful. This makes us see a different look of things when we engage this poem from a cultural cringe perspective because Mackellar loves her land much and appreciates deeply its harsh conditions for they make it even more beautiful.
On the other hand Barron fields “The Kangaroo” presents a good picture of the restored nature of….Continue Reading….