Attitudes to strangers differs form country to city. In a small populated country town everyone knows each and every person and is not used to seeing unkown individuals. Subsequently for that reason residents of the town think or regard strangers in the town very suspiciously
Country people lead a very simplistic life so their way of thinking is very simple. To them every person fits into a specific category eg truckie or bikie. As they have only seen truckies and bikies pass through their midst. They rarely encounter people other than truckies and bikies. For that reason they assume every one to be either a truckie or a bikie
All of these country ways of living are evident in the poem ‘hillston welcome’ by kominos. In the poem Kominos is given a very unfriendly
Welcome by a resident of the town. To him/her kominos is a stranger and knowing nothing about him, automatically become suspicious. Due to their limited exposure to different types of people they believe Kominos to be a truckie or a bikie. Only when he didn’t fit into either category they thought ask him who he is. Kominos revealed he is a poet.
In ‘lord of the veranda’, Ingram uses the veranda as a symbol for the unchanging nature and simpleness of traditional country life. Ingram
Unlike the country, city life is a more sophisticated way of living. The fashionable city people are slaves to their lifestyle. They cannot act relaxed or casual as they are to busy trying to be stylish. This is big issue among the younger generation
Self image is the major anxiety among adolescence. Youth in the city are absorbed in their materialistic ways.
Appearance is a significant apprehension among girls in the city more likely than the country .the reason for this is girls in the city are more into materialistic things because of the accessibility of such things. The latest clothes play an important role in this. Girls have to be in the most recent fashions because of a fashion conscious society
Peer pressure is also a major factor contributing to self image. Teenagers follow their friends in what they were and the activities they participate in. Also many often drink to impress their friends or to be f considered as being ‘cool’.
All of these aspects of city lifestyle are seen in the poem ‘the girls’. The poem shows how girls in a residential college are immersed in their appearance. In this poem the poet is suggesting how engrossed girls are in looking their best but in the end it doesn’t matter as they give into peer pressure and start drinking excessively. In this poem the girls are too in involved in their materialistic way of thinking just like other youths in the city.
Some of these aspects of youth culture are reflected in an article written by Danielle Teutsch. In this article experts implied binge drinking is a bigger problem then drugs among youngsters. In the last few years the rate of teenagers drinking excessively has risen above the rate of drugs. Another major concern is the number of teenage girls admitting to abusing alcohol. This is a major worry as marketing strategies target young women and this leads to such issues as peer pressure and self image as shown in the poem ‘the girls’
