courtesy of Brad Rushworth
The Loaded Dog
Purpose:
Entertains with the dog chasing the men and blowing up the other dog and it informs with the idea of the importance of mateship in the bush.
Plot:
A group of men (Dave, Jim and Andy) are camping and use cartridges to blow up ground searching for gold. They get sick of fishing the normal way, so they decide to blow up the fish in the waterhole. When the cartridge is built, the dog steals it and accidentally lights it. Tommy (the dog) chases the men with it, and in the end blows up this other yellow dog that nobody likes.
Themes:
Human interaction with the environment and associated consequences of manipulating it..
Human and dog relationship, importance of mateship in the bush. No discrimination amongst characters; dog is an important friend.
Narrative Structure:
Orientation: The three men are camping on a riverbank searching for gold. They invent a way of using blasting powder to catch fish since the conventional way is ineffective.
Complication: Tommy lights the fuse in the fire and chases the men.
Middle: The tale is crafted to describe the humorous details of Tommy chasing the men who desperately try to avoid him. Tommy eventually has a whole town running from him, while he is enjoying all the excitement and attention.
Climax: Tommy is confronted by a vicious yellow mongrel cattle-dog who chases Tommy and steals the cartridge from him.
Resolution: The yellow dog is blown up and other pack dogs suffer burns. The Bushmen laugh in hysterics. Dave apologises but it is remembered for years afterward.
Characterisation:
The main character is Tommy the dog.
He seemed to take life, the world, his two-legged mates, and his own instinct as a huge joke.
Tommy is described as having a red, idiotic slobbering grin of appreciation of his own silliness. He is fun loving and a great retriever. The trio loves him and he is loyal to them too.
When chasing townsfolk he is described, he tried to make friends with everybody showing his good nature. And the dog that had done it all, Tommy, the great, idiotic mongrel retriever, came slobbering round Dave and lashing his legs with his tail, and trotted home after him, smiling his broadest, longest, and reddest smile of amiability, and apparently satisfied for one afternoon with the fun hed had.
Language Techniques:
Use of humour throughout. The descriptions are embellished to excite the audience.
Detailed descriptions of how the cartridge is made, where the dog chases them, their reactions and the consequences all appeal strongly to the audience. The story is comical and hilarious since we emotionally connect to the group.
Limited presence of an authorial voice makes a more unified tone and is told by an observer who exaggerates comic detail.
Black humour It was very good blasting powder.
Strong tension crisis and dramatic imagery dog grinned, legs started before his brain.
Action words eg swooped, bound round (assonance), spluttering, dive, flung, burst, jolt, wedged, etc
Metaphoric descriptions coloured fool
3rd person objective???
Style:
Short paragraphs build tension
Descriptive language, Euphemisms
Humorous tone
Sardonic humour, bitterly mocking, cynical, negative look at the world.
the "type of australian" that is represented in each character in henry lawson's short story "the loaded dog". 
