Leunig Comprehension

 

Meaning a few lines what the metaphor or symbolism means

2 paragraphs what are the main ideas

2-3 paragraphs techniques writing at least 2 effect explain use evidence how does visuals/cartoons help with what he has to say

Leunig writes ‘A quick repair. It’s worth a try.’ meaning that when life becomes ‘loose and worn’ and things don’t go well, it is most definitely meaningful to find something, an object maybe to make a ‘battered grin’ or just ‘a sigh’. Something like a ‘scrap of string’ can even fill a large gaping hole in life. The word ‘quick’ itself can be said out loud quickly. The short sentences further allow readers to remember the word ‘quick’.

Leunig wants people to ‘live’ life and use it. He describes the negative aspects of life in four stanzas. Unnecessary useless things build up, we age, our ideas don’t succeed, and as time goes on, it becomes more difficult to uselife. It ends positively, saying that life ‘works and lives’. To die happily, you must ‘use’ it. Live life as you want so that you can die happily. You have to find those happy things, make choices, and actively embrace the positive. After the difficulties there are always heals available.

Leunig’s use of a straight line at the end of the second, fifth, and sixth stanza allow some points to be emphasized. It works when we are reading the poem to have the space to breathe and then say the last line. ‘A lived in life Can be happily died in.’ or ‘Or just a sigh.’ Most new lines begin with a capital letter, but some do not.

Repetitive use of ‘it’ and ‘or’ for usually three times allows us to visually imagine that there are many different types, for example, ‘…could hide the dint. Or be a wedge, or a patch, or a splint…’ When the author wants to emphasize the good times in life, he uses: ‘…it works and lives! It all still goes. It forgives. It’s a miracle.’ He is building up evidence for what it is, explaining and ending with the most important word of all: miracle.

The illustrations achieve the goal of allowing Leunig’s ideas to be expressed and influence the audience’s responses. Accompanied with the question ‘Who will dare to inhabit the thing and use it?’ is a man standing on top of a spherical shape with a background of stars. He is even posing in a gesture of thinking. We may think that this is trying to tell us to stay on top of life.

As the pictures progress, the man hunches over, falls onto the ground, and then flips over. Finally, with patches all over his body, he holds a ‘scrap of string from the soul’ and lies on his side to sleep eternally. The crescent moon in the background