The rabbits by john marsden essay

In the openings of pages 9 and 10 of ‘ The Rabbits’, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, techniques such as colour symbolism, font and salience and reading path are used to create issues involving the mistreatment of the Aborignal people after the ‘ Invasion”. Colour symbolism is used in many different ways in this opening to emphasise how the Aboriginal are being treated by the European settlers. The colour of the rabbits’ clothing shows us their superiority to the Aboriginal people and creates the image of how the Aborignial people are being mistreated. The colour of the background shows us how the Europeans has taken over from the Aboriginal people. Shaun Tan cleverly use colours to create an image of how the evil force has taken over the good force. The way the font is used emphasises extreme anxiety as they do not know what is going to happen.

Following on the sentence “ they didn’t live in trees like we did” shows bewilderment. The Aboriginnal people do not understand the approaching ‘ invaders’. The font is handwritten emphasising extreme anxiety. The possums suspended upon the tree branch exemplify the text. The words are deliberately situated in such a way that they symbolise the altitude of the vegetation which further shows its significance. Salience and reading path are used to show how much changed when the Europeans came to Australia. The reading path is used to show the emotions of the narrator when he wrote it.

The way the text is written shows how sad the narraor was when he or she wrote it.