Alice Munro's Short Stories and Landscape

To begin, Foster made it clear that no matter what type of story it is, geography is there and it shapes the story. Whether it’s humans, land, canoeing, or sailing it’s geography. Not many people realize that geography is as big as it is. Writers use geography to represent what is going on in their lives and to show their personality. In poetry, writers use a better sense of people as geography. While in books and stories, the writer can take their time showing people the land. Foster states that no matter what it is, where it happened, or how it happened, it happened due to geography and writers have to show that. Foster explains, “Geography in literature can also be more. It can be revelatory of virtually any element in the work” (Foster 174). This statement shows that writers need to have a better understanding of what the geography is like before writing, and how important is to get a visual idea of the story. Moreover, geography’s impact is also shown throughout The Crucible.

In their passages, N.S. Momaday and D. Brown differ in how they used imagery as Momaday displays his admiration for the land while Brown illustrates the devastation of the land. Momaday describes that in summer "there are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel" (Momaday). Through this, Momaday admires the landscape and tries to explain the beauty of nature. Additionally, he uses onomatopoeia when he describes the grasshoppers “popping up like corn,” emphasizing the ecstatic and lovely scenery (Momaday). As he uses a metaphor to compare the prairie during the summer to an anvil’s edge, he further creates a scenic image of the land, emphasizing the hot weather and create an intense image. In contrast, Brown writes a similar landscape but with a dreary image. Frustrated, he abhorrently describes that in one summer "the sun baked the dry earth drier, the streams

Representation of setting; Bonnie Doon; Small town, on big lake, holiday home ‘serenity’ escape from life, stillness, quiet, desolate, barren, powerlines, insect-zapper-ironic-noisy, Images family bonding – gender representation, Simplicity of family – easily satisfied Representation of Setting – City scrapers; Canberra: high camera

The ‘tourist destination’ portrayal of the landscape is highly emphasised in Joe’s narration. This depiction of Australia as a natural, dramatic landscape is continued throughout the film, with several other settings and landscapes showing a direct link with this first representation.

Grenville portrays how secrecy and distrust are an issue among differing people groups through the figurative language used to describe the landscapes and behaviours of various characters. One example is towards the end of the book, when Rooke is looking out into the bay. He sees how the “wide dark flatness” of the water and shore has “retreated into the night”. This darkness is symbolic of the deception and fraudulence that Rooke had been mulling. The abundance of the darkness is used as a comparison to the excess of deception among the British settlers, who were often disguising their true aims and intentions behind sincerity and inclusion. Despite the darkness the moon still shone out over the water like a “wide eye” but was unable to light up the whole foreshore. This demonstrates how even though some secrets may be uncovered there is often more deceit hidden. Grenville further establish distrust through the fear of the description of the trees as “gnarled pink monsters” with “twisted arthritic fingers”. By Rooke also referring to the land as made “according to a different logic from the world” Grenville is portraying the British settlers as viewing NSW as both foreign and terrifying because they no longer understand it therefore creating rift of distrust. The words “gnarled”, “monsters” and “twisted” also depict a fear of the land and all that it might hold because these words hold negative connotations of a horrifying and terrifying appearance or façade.

In The Horizontal World by Debra Marquart, Marquart acknowledges multiple depictions of the dullness that is the Midwest, while also conveying her predisposed love for the land. Through the use of similes and diction, Marquart perpetuates the stereotypes of the bland and boring nature associated with the Midwest, to then use rhetorical modes and allusions to expose her profound connection to the land and possibly redefine the audience’s previous perceptions.

Strayed describes her surroundings in vivid detail, from the heat of the Mojave Desert to the weight of her massive hiking backpack. Imagery is used much more frequently at the beginning of the memoir, as further on in the book Strayed says she had “come to take [the scenery] for granted” (223). She also uses imagery more often in the beginning because she describes more of the scenery in the beginning and does not reflect as much on the past, as she is more focused on “concentrating on… my feet thudding against the dry and rocky trail, the brittle leaves and branches of low-lying bushes” (50). However, as she nears the end of the trip, she spends less time detailing the scenery because she is spending more time coming to terms with her upbringing and her mother’s death. Strayed uses imagery most of all in order to more adequately describe her surroundings to the

The affection of nature on the main character. “The main character is a young man who believes that he knows the frozen wilderness, but he is still a tenderfoot who has not yet learned to respect the power of nature” (James M.

Already in the beginning, miles of farmland wedge between John and Ann as he ventures off to “help [his father] with his chores, while “mak[ing] sure he’s all right in case [they] do have a storm.” Without her husband for company, she spends the day alone at home, painting, “brooding” and witnessing the intensity of the storm grow vicious. As “the double wheel around the moon” foreshadowed, the storm tested the “elements of human meaning and survival,” forcing the wise to stay indoors away from its “sharp, savage blows.” Also, the desolate prairies, themselves, add to the tense, stultifying aura of solidarity. While the landscape lay bleak and uninviting, how even “the distant farmsteads [Ann] could see served only to intensify a sense of isolation” appears clear. Not only “miles deep between her now and John,” Ann faces a natural barrier between the neighbouring homesteads as the “long white miles of prairie landscape” conceived a “region strangely alien to life.” In essence, the physical barriers, from the “sudden, maniac raging of the storm” to the vast stretches of farmland, allows loneliness and the “ever-lurking silence” to creep into the characters’ hearts until suffering takes control of their

In this segment, Montag expresses complexity for the surroundings by using numerous details and imagery throughout. Also, he conveys this theme by using figurative language such as personification, similes, and metaphors. These help to show details and provide context for Montag’s feelings of his surroundings. For example: in the first paragraph, Montag’s use of personification is marvelous. It gives the reader a feeling for where Montag is, and puts you in his shoes. When the author uses sentences like, “The land rushed at him, a tidal wave,” and “The stars poured over his site like flaming meteors”, it shows how connected Montag is to the land, and makes the reader feel connected too in a wonderful way.

Navigation is as hard as it already is, and for many moving to new places is a hassle. Wherever they go, something also seems to get in the work and work against them. In the except, The Street, Ann Petry establishes the wind as a foe through the use of personification and imagery, to further intensify Lutie Johnson’s discomfort in the new setting.

In Alistair MacLeod 's collection of short stories, 'The Boat ', 'The Return ', and 'The Lost Salt Gift of Blood ', MacLeod explores the connection between identity and belonging with nature. MacLeod, through the powerful landscape of Cape Breton, the weather, the winter seas, fishing, and the coal mines, provides a background to the human events and the drama to the stories. However, Cape Breton is more than just a landscape and becomes a strong character in its own right, providing a strong link to the life stories and emotions of the characters who are descendants of the Scottish and Irish immigrants who came many years ago and carry their tradition and culture with them. The lives of the men and women are linked to the landscape as

Australia has a prolonged tradition in portraying and illustrating the complex and breathtaking landscape which surrounds it. The landscape representation has been extrapolated along time in different backings as painting, literature or cinema and embodies the post-colonial performances. According to the Tweed River Art Gallery (2009), Macleod is influenced and astonished by the greatness and sharpness of the Australian landmass and this is what he intends to represent in his pieces. His sources of inspiration embrace such impressive dissimilar environments as New Zealand, the central Australian desert, and Antarctica. Euan Macleod’s work suggests an utopic world where the countryside is prosperous and wealthy and the human manifestation is

The novel is set in Yorkshire, a barren landscape in an isolated region of Northern England. The detailed descriptions of the environment allow the mood and tone of the novel to be revealed.

The downpour recounts an idiosyncratic phenomenon from his childhood that lingered a cherished occurrence on the writer’s mind; watching as the rain drenched earth and everything on it, then becoming shadowed by the vehement thunder to follow, impacted the writer tremendously as the result/damage of the aforementioned coerced an aesthetic appreciation towards this phenomenon. This heavy downpour embarked the unforgettable memories of playing outside in the heavy rain as he reminisced on the vast imagery of nature’s elements along with the striking sounds that followed. In this extract, the writer’s application of stylistic devices and emotive languages such as: his amplification of “The Downpour” in his description, energizing personifications,