Having read both stories ‘squeaker’s mate’ by Barbara Baynton and ‘the drover’s wife’ by Henry Lawson I preferred the drovers wife and in this piece of writing I am going to explain why.
Both of these stories are short stories and are set in the out back in Australia in the early 20th century. One thing which could have made a different to the way each stories was written was that a drover’s wife was written by a male whereas ‘squeaker’s mate was written by a female. These stories considered the issues women had in that area and time.
I preferred the plot of ‘squeakers mate because I felt it gave out a stronger message of how women were treated. It shown emotion and made me feels involved in that emotion. I felt more sorry for the women in this story as she had done so much for this man and he had done nothing in return. She had gone from being in complete power and to having nothing. This was a turn around as the man depended on her to do everything for him as he was really lazy and after the accident she was completely dependent on him for food and water. The man completely abandon her on severaly occasions. I felt the narrative flowed better and I could understand what was happening without having to go back and read it again to understand. It gave a huge impact on me to how helpless she became and that her mate did not care for her properly, she was being put through pain. It went though extremes of control and she was left helpless, whereas she used to be in complete control. This would have been very hard for her because her personality is very organised and she likes to get everything done on time and properly so to not have control over even the smallest things would have been hard for her.
