Leunig: Seashell Cartoon and “Prescription Nature” by Mr Richard Louv, p. 70
Extension task: drawing upon two similar key ideas (Ex 29, p. 70), in the cartoon and the article, write a comparative paragraph(s)
Key idea: In his cartoon, Leunig graphically contends that the younger generation is becoming increasingly desensitised to their natural and social environments.
Key devices (graphic elements):
- the graphic images in the foreground portray/depict a father talking to his young son.
- the caption consists of a boy listening to a seashell and describing his response. He hears a lot of harm being done to the natural world, to fish and to people. He repetitively states, “I hear boat people crying. I hear villages being swept away”. He prefers to listen to his i-Pod.
- (positioning) The cartoonist encourages viewers to recognise the degree to which the young boy finds it easier to turn away from the distress of others and the problems of the world, rather than engage and deal with the difficult problems. (The captions and depictions of the young boy suggest that he is insensitive to other people’s pain …)
In “Prescription Nature”, Mr Richard Louv contends that the younger digital natives are becoming indifferent to nature often to their detriment.
- Mr Louv refers to the teacher’s anecdote to describe a school excursion.
- Description: This young boy is like the school children on the excursion do not recognise the joyous birth of the young dolphin.
- Mr Louv uses alliterative phrases to describe the children who are walking like “blinkered horses” with their “backs bent”.
- The fact that they “walked right past this once-in-a-lifetime event without looking up” seeks to shame those students who appear completely indifferent to the natural world.
- In a censorious tone, Mr Louv suggests that these school children are typical of the digital generation that is “blocking our senses rather than using and growing them”.
Sample paragraph (s) based on an authors’ key (similar) ideas
Both Leunig, in his cartoon entitled Seashells, and Mr Louv in his article entitled “Prescription Nature” depict the dangers of the younger digital natives as they become increasingly detached from their natural environments. Specifically, Leunig graphically contends that the young boy is becoming desensitised to the problems of his natural world and prefers his i-Pod. This young boy is similar to the children whom Mr Louv depicts in the anecdotal reference to the school excursion. In the cartoon, Leunig depicts the father and son having a conversation about the sea-shell. In the caption the boy describes his response. He states that he hears a lot of harm being done to the natural world, to fish and to people. He repetitively states, “I hear boat people crying. I hear villages being swept away”. He prefers to listen to his i-Pod. (positioning) The cartoonist encourages viewers to recognise the degree to which the young boy finds it easier to turn away from the distress of others and the problems of the world, rather than engage and deal with the difficult problems.
Similarly, Mr Richard Louv also contends that the younger digital natives are becoming indifferent to nature often to their detriment. The young boy with the sea-shell in Leunig’s graphic depiction is similar to the school children in Ms Carol Birrell’s excursion which Mr Louv uses to highlight the children’s indifference and disengagement from nature. Mr Louv uses alliterative phrases to describe the children who are walking like “blinkered horses” with their “backs bent” and who miss the joyous occasion of the dolphin’s birth. The fact that they “walked right past this once-in-a-lifetime event without looking up” seeks to shame those students who appear completely indifferent to the natural world and who are obsessed with their mobile phones. In a censorious tone, Mr Louv suggests that these school children are typical of the digital generation that is “blocking our senses rather than using and growing them”. Accordingly, he expects that most parents and educators, like Ms Birrell, to be disappointed and alarmed at this indifference.
- Return to Exercise 29, p. 70-74 (Orange Workbook)
- See Extension Task: comparisons and reason/logic: Exercise 29, Mr Louv
- Return to the Orange Workbook Online Exercise Program