The Shoehorn Sonata by John Misto “On the other side of our barbed wire fence were twenty or thirty Australian men – as thin as us – and wearing loose hats. Unlike the Japanese, they had hairy legs. And they stood in rows – serenading us. » John Misto created a written visual image that shines through in Act 1, Scene 7 (page 52). This is brought up in the play when Bridie and Sheila are interviewed by Rick (the host). They were originally talking about the conditions they were in, how they were starving and the lack of nutrition, and then we move on to how they sang. through hunger at Christmas. The Japanese then allowed the Australian men to visit the nurses, while the nurses sang them a Christmas carol. “The Japanese let us do it.” Misto created this image for the viewer to understand the separation between men and women in war; this is the image created that was used to show the division of the Australians by the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to be able to control the Australians while they were in the POW camps. In this quote, the audience uses their imagination to imagine this division of Australians. The separation of the sexes aims to distance the feelings of the prisoners; not allowing them to communicate or be together is blocking the emotions they would normally feel. The Japanese are stopping them just to feel emotion, stopping that would dehumanize the Australians to make them do the job, like a robot, just a number for the Japanese to count. Simply giving orders by the Japanese, and not responding, commenting or rebelling would lead to death. The visual language used emphasizes how the audience understands what is being said, "-as skinny as we are-" gives a side note to the audience. This simply gives the public the information needed to understand the state of Australian men, because the public already knows the state of nurses; the relationship makes the state of men known to the public. The hyphen gives space for the reader or viewer to pause and think about what is being said, this helps the viewer understand what is being said due to the emphasis on the quote..