Birthrights and Burdens.
Jan. 24th, 2012 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
take_flightThe contrasts between the various sub-settings in the story "Boys and Girls" tells us a great deal about the narrator’s feelings towards each of these places.
The narrator describes her father's work area as being bright, clean, meticulously organized, and ingeniously set up. On the other hand she describes her mother’s work area in the kitchen as dark, hot, disorganized, noisy, dreary, and peculiarly depressing.
The words she uses paint a vibrant picture for us and illicit in me strong emotions towards each place. Not only is it evident that she dreads having to work with her mother in the house, and particularly in the kitchen, but she has also caused me to have those same feelings of dread right along with her. On the other extreme it is quite clear that she loves the work outside and downstairs that she does with her father. Working with her father makes her feel important and valued, like she is doing something that not many girls are able or allowed to do and that makes her special.
I think that many of her feelings towards the work with her mother have nothing to do with the work at all, but instead are symbolic of her need to stand out and be recognized, to not be forgotten, to be seen as worthy and important. Helping in the kitchen to her means that she is accepting her fate as “just a girl” and therefore resolving to blend in to the background of the home. During the story when important things happen or people come to visit, it always occurs outside the home. When the mother comes down to the barn the narrator comments on how strange it is to see her mother out of the house, I think she feels that if she were to work in the house with her mother she would become unseen as well.
I find the description of the bedroom to be decidedly revealing. The narrator is not scarred of the dark outside, the winter storms nor the slaughter of animals; however she is quite terrified of “the things that nobody had any use for anymore.” The children find safety and protection in the imaginary shelter of their beds, here they are safe, they are not at risk of pulled in to the useless things.
The multitude of binaries in these descriptions include, but are not limited to, mother and father, boy and girl, useful and useless, light and dark, excitement and dread, clean and cluttered, safe and vulnerable, ambition and resignation. I think these binaries are all very useful in adding to the imagery and emotions of the story because they all serve to provoke certain universal reactions in the reader; For example most people reading the narrators account of her bedroom, would get an uncomfortable feeling, they would not feel cozy, warm or protected, as is usual of a child’s bedroom. Munro does an exquisite job of placing these binaries throughout the narrative at precise points causing us to empathize with the narrator.
Alistair MacLeod’s story “the Boat” follows the inner turmoil of a young boy as he is forced to make the decision of whether to appease his mother’s need for stability and tradition by following in his father’s footsteps as a fisherman or honouring his father’s dreams by getting an education and striving for more than the same dangerous lifestyle that killed him.
The Characters Eustacia Vye, Ham Peggoty and the story of Moby Dick all depict tragedies which involve water and drowning. The allusions to these stories would lead me to believe that the life of a fisherman is not portrayed in a positive light by MacLeod.
The repeating theme of drowning in these stories cause me to see the sea as a large dark entity that will open up and swallow you whole. The allusions to these characters create a resentment and fear of life on the sea.
One other commonality that all these characters share is a desire to do something that they will not accomplish. They all want something from life that will not manifest as their lives unfold. Eustace dreams of a life beyond the mundane confines of heath, Peggoty yearns for the love of a woman who does not love him in return, and Ahab has a determination to conquer the infamous Moby Dick. All of their stories end in a tragedy involving water and drowning, not a positive omen for the young fisherman.
The narrator describes her father's work area as being bright, clean, meticulously organized, and ingeniously set up. On the other hand she describes her mother’s work area in the kitchen as dark, hot, disorganized, noisy, dreary, and peculiarly depressing.
The words she uses paint a vibrant picture for us and illicit in me strong emotions towards each place. Not only is it evident that she dreads having to work with her mother in the house, and particularly in the kitchen, but she has also caused me to have those same feelings of dread right along with her. On the other extreme it is quite clear that she loves the work outside and downstairs that she does with her father. Working with her father makes her feel important and valued, like she is doing something that not many girls are able or allowed to do and that makes her special.
I think that many of her feelings towards the work with her mother have nothing to do with the work at all, but instead are symbolic of her need to stand out and be recognized, to not be forgotten, to be seen as worthy and important. Helping in the kitchen to her means that she is accepting her fate as “just a girl” and therefore resolving to blend in to the background of the home. During the story when important things happen or people come to visit, it always occurs outside the home. When the mother comes down to the barn the narrator comments on how strange it is to see her mother out of the house, I think she feels that if she were to work in the house with her mother she would become unseen as well.
I find the description of the bedroom to be decidedly revealing. The narrator is not scarred of the dark outside, the winter storms nor the slaughter of animals; however she is quite terrified of “the things that nobody had any use for anymore.” The children find safety and protection in the imaginary shelter of their beds, here they are safe, they are not at risk of pulled in to the useless things.
The multitude of binaries in these descriptions include, but are not limited to, mother and father, boy and girl, useful and useless, light and dark, excitement and dread, clean and cluttered, safe and vulnerable, ambition and resignation. I think these binaries are all very useful in adding to the imagery and emotions of the story because they all serve to provoke certain universal reactions in the reader; For example most people reading the narrators account of her bedroom, would get an uncomfortable feeling, they would not feel cozy, warm or protected, as is usual of a child’s bedroom. Munro does an exquisite job of placing these binaries throughout the narrative at precise points causing us to empathize with the narrator.
Alistair MacLeod’s story “the Boat” follows the inner turmoil of a young boy as he is forced to make the decision of whether to appease his mother’s need for stability and tradition by following in his father’s footsteps as a fisherman or honouring his father’s dreams by getting an education and striving for more than the same dangerous lifestyle that killed him.
The Characters Eustacia Vye, Ham Peggoty and the story of Moby Dick all depict tragedies which involve water and drowning. The allusions to these stories would lead me to believe that the life of a fisherman is not portrayed in a positive light by MacLeod.
The repeating theme of drowning in these stories cause me to see the sea as a large dark entity that will open up and swallow you whole. The allusions to these characters create a resentment and fear of life on the sea.
One other commonality that all these characters share is a desire to do something that they will not accomplish. They all want something from life that will not manifest as their lives unfold. Eustace dreams of a life beyond the mundane confines of heath, Peggoty yearns for the love of a woman who does not love him in return, and Ahab has a determination to conquer the infamous Moby Dick. All of their stories end in a tragedy involving water and drowning, not a positive omen for the young fisherman.
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Date: 2012-01-29 04:30 am (UTC)