The Loaded Dog Scaffold

Purpose: To make fun of human foolishness

Visual Image: The making of the cartridge

Technique: Cumulation
Example: Andy sewed on another layer of canvas, dipped the cartridge in melted
tallow, twisted a length of fencing-wire round it…dipped it in tallow again…”

Explanation:Lawson begins his story of human foolishness and impatience with the
distinctively visual image of the disproportionately large explosive device Andy has
constructed to catch fish. Lawson uses a cumulation of ingredients included in the
“formidable bomb” to emphasise how potentially lethal it is:

Andy sewed on another layer of canvas, dipped the cartridge in melted tallow, twisted
a length of fencing-wire round it…dipped it in tallow again…”

Through this visual image Lawson is emphasising the silliness of these men whose
inherent laziness leads them to try and dangerously blow a catch of fish out of the
water, as opposed to more conventional methods of fishing.

Other terms for visual images- visual picture, picture, mental picture, visual
representation, pictorial representation

Focus Human foolishness

Visual Image The men being chased by the retriever with the bomb in its mouth

Technique : Repetition and exclamation

Example : “Run, Andy! Run! Look behind you, you fool!”

Explanation : Once the explosive device has ignited, Lawson creates a humorous
visual representation of the men being chased by the retriever, as he joyfully tries to
return the bomb in his mouth. The slapstick images of the men being chased by their
loyal dog are conveyed through the repetition and exclamation in:

“Run, Andy! Run! Look behind you, you fool!”

The effect of this is to highlight the panic and desperation of the men in the face of
this potential danger, but it also reflects the foolishness which caused the situation in
the first place.

Technique: onomatopoeia
Example: “…the live fuse swishing in all directions and hissing and spluttering and
stinking…”
Explanation: Lawson creates a visual picture of the potentially lethal nature of the
bomb after it ignites. The onomatopoeia of:

“…the live fuse swishing in all directions and hissing and spluttering and stinking…”

powerfully conveys the threat that the bomb poses but is also a manifestation of the
foolishness of the men and their carelessness in leaving the bomb lying around.
In using a sound image to create a visual one, Lawson recognises that the experience
of ‘seeing’ actually engages a multiplicity of senses.

Technique: cumulation
Example: They could never explain…why they followed each other… Dave keeping
in Jim’s track…Andy after Dave and the dog circling around Andy.’
Explanation: Lawson continues to develop the visual image of the men being chased
by the dog particularly in the slapstick images as they run around in circles one after
the other. The cumulation in:

They could never explain…why they followed each other… Dave keeping in Jim’s
track…Andy after Dave and the dog circling around Andy.’

vividly depicts the foolishness of the men as they run around in circles chasing each
other and the dog. The effect is to create a cartoon like quality, one in which the men
look increasingly ridiculous and no doubt provoking a humorous response in the
reader.

Technique: simile
Example: ‘Jim swung to a sapling and went up it like a native bear.’
Explanation: As Lawson continues to describe the scene of panic, he creates the
distinctively visual and also humorous image of Jim running up a tiny sapling to
escape the dog and the ignited bomb. The simile:

‘Jim swung to a sapling and went up it like a native bear.’

comically compares Jim’s actions to that of a koala bear. It is an amusing description

that highlights the audience’s sense of the men’s foolishness.

Technique: active verbs/onomatopoeia

Example: ‘The dog…capered and leaped and whooped joyously round under Jim’
’the sapling bent and cracked.’
Explanation: Lawson continues to develop the visual representation of Jim’s
foolishness in his description of the dog running about under the tree and finally the
tree breaking under Jim’s weight. The active verbs in:

‘The dog…capered and leaped and whooped joyously round under Jim…’

visually reveal the slapstick image of Jim trapped by the dog, while the onomatopoeia
of ‘cracked’ in ‘the sapling bent and cracked’ uses a sound image to more
authentically represent Jim’s foolish behaviour.

Technique: Understatement/simile
Example: “It was very good blasting powder…” ‘looking as if he had been kicked
into a fire by a horse and afterwards rolled in the dust…'
Explanation: At the end of the story Lawson describes the final consequence of the
men’s foolish actions in making the bomb, namely its explosion. Lawson interestingly
chooses understatement to visually depict the explosion in:
“It was very good blasting powder…”

In leaving the details of the explosion to the imagination of his readers, Lawson is
allowing the responder the opportunity to contemplate the worst possible scenario.
The description of the injured yellow dog is the only marker of what happened, in
particular the simile:

‘looking as if he had been kicked into a fire by a horse and afterwards rolled in the
dust…'

is a distinctively visual image of the consequences of the men’s foolish behaviour

when they decided to catch fish with dynamite rather than fishing rods.