Parker Point: A Short Story

About a year later, Robinson’s uncle came to visit. He had served in the first World War. Afterward he had settled in California. When he returned to visit his family in Georgia, they scarcely recognized him, because he was dressed so finely (Mann 57). Once he learned of their troubles, he was immediately convinced that his sister and her children would do better in California. Within a few days, she boarded a train with her five little ones.

“Woah! Why are you wearing makeup? Do you not think you’re pretty?” My cheeks flushed. I hadn’t been expecting any comments, or for anyone to notice at all, but suddenly the mascara coating my eyes and the pink lipgloss I was wearing felt like a big neon sign saying “look at me.”

The setting of Alistair Macleod’s short story, The Boat, complements the setting of Alden Nowlan’s poem, Warren Pryor.  Each of these writing pieces contain the element of a smaller town with a tight knit community.  In the short story The Boat, our community is a Nova Scotian community whose primary industry is fishing.  This results in most of the members of the community partaking in the fishing lifestyle.  Another influential location this writing piece takes place in is inside of the house, “which was one of about fifty that marched around the horseshoe of [his] harbour,” (Macleod 263).  Most of the homes in this town are situated close to the water as it is there where most of the men work as fishermen.  Inside the house was his father's room where “magazines and books covered the bureau,” (Macleod 265).  It was in their father’s room where the children discover their love of reading and become more dedicated to their schooling.  Both the short story and the poem contain the setting of a school, which is symbolic as it is their education that allows the characters to be free of their obligations and the way of their town.  Finally, the setting takes place on the Jenny Lynn, “she was what Nova Scotians called a Cape Island boat and was designed for the small inshore fishermen,” (Macleod 262) and it is on this boat where the father and son make their final journey out to sea.  Likewise, the poem Warren Pryor takes place in another resource based community, however, this

It is a fabulous place: when the tide is in, a wave-churned basin, creamy with foam, whipped by the combers that roll in from the whistling buoy on the reef. But when the tide goes out the little water world becomes quiet and lovely. The sea is very clear and the bottom becomes fantastic with hurrying, fighting, feeding, breeding animals”(57)

The fisherman in my text was inspired by the heroic actions of Hale and John Proctor. The fisherman is shown that he does not feel concerned about his own sense of belonging but he cares more about the other’s. the fisherman in contrast to the island, has morality and compassion for those who are disempowered. When the strange man was discriminated for his difference, the fisherman stood up for him and tried to help him achieve a sense of belonging. Ultimately his fate was similar to John Proctor’s as he too, was persecuted due to a misplaced sense of justice.

Within a few minutes of leaving Saltburn, we are walking along the cliff-top to Hunt Cliff. The cliff face hereabouts supports colonies of kittiwake, and during the breeding season, you will hear an unmistakable ‘kitti-wa-a-k’ call. Kittiwakes live out at sea feeding on small fish and squid, and they only come ashore to breed. In summer, swathes of wildflowers bathe the cliff top with colour. The coastal grasslands sustain the scarce dyer’s greenweed and three species of orchid, as well as other plants including sea plantain, spiny restharrow and wild carrot.

Grey, the sea stretched for acres. Beneath the oceans topography, shoals of fish swam through and around the ship wrecks in a frenzied motion. Here, all stood still. Only slightly did my rowing boat rock, creaking in the tide. We rolled to and fro slightly; the seaweed twisted and writhed beneath the hull. Like a snake, it squirmed away, coming to rest only after we had passed. The oars made long, slow and deliberate wakes through the lagoon. I stopped sculling; the boat glided silently towards the stony, promontory beach. We had landed.

The 150-year-old cottage, a paint-peeling two story clapboard, came complete with a detached kitchen and maid’s quarters tucked behind.The four-sided wrap-around porch, half screened, half open, housed wooden rockers, ping pong table, two hammocks and a kid’s dining table. We had arrived at Pawley’s Island, SC, a strip of land three miles long and one house wide. The island included only single-family homes, a couple of boarding houses, an Episcopal Church and weather-beaten wooden pier. Our two-week multi-family vacation, one of many for the next fifteen years, was paid for with ninety-one year old Damo’s sudden royalties from an old dormant coal mine.

With Bishop being familiar with the Nova Scotia coast, she really has a connection in the poem with the landscape and what is going on around her, which the reader can appreciate throughout the first couple of stanzas. The reader can identify this connection with the vivid use of imagery Bishop portrays. She starts out the poem describing the scenery and a little bit of the culture that has surrounded her for most of her years. Lines 1 – 4 cite, “From narrow provinces /of fish and bread and tea, / home of the long tides/ where the bay leaves the sea.” With these particular lines, Bishop creates a soothing and comfortable image and tone. She sets the mood of the poem by the repetitive syntactical use of language. Bishop does a great job with this by having the reader appreciate what she is seeing and displaying a meaning of what is behind these “long tides” and the bay.

This transition is critical to successful implementation of socially conscious marine policy. In “Anthropology of Fishing”, James Acheson claims that past approaches have been accounts of life aboard ships rather than “shore-based studies of fishing communities” (Acheson 1981: 276). He goes on to describe a number of social structures of fishing communities that differ in their regard of resources as individual or communal. Understanding of these structures is valuable to understand how fishermen interact with each other and their environment. Through this understanding, existing policies can be reformed that target harmful group action but allow for the more sustainable small scale fishing. While some of Acheson’s analysis is based on characterizing the personality of fishermen, he makes a valuable point that management of resources would better succeed were policy to incorporate existing elements of social interaction between actors in the society (in this case the fishermen and middlemen acting as vendors). Hilborn too states that policy would be more effective and longer lasting were it to involve fishermen (Hilborn et al. 2003: 388). These two key pieces are elements employed by modern strategies to promote lasting management and conservation of

”No, I’d say brave in this case,” Willow confirmed, ”And even braver that you stick with it after all you’ve probably seen.” Hopping down from the bar stool for the second time tonight, Willow was thankful that David suggested the move. The booths would provide much more comfort for the group to relax and converse. She took the first open spot and was followed by David. For a brief moment she was worried about the previously mentioned cold. A medical doctor with David’s experience should have enough training to be a factitious cleaner, so Willow reasoned she should be alright. If she had not caught the bug from one of her students by now then David surely wasn't going to get her sick. "Lucky me! Flanked by two handsome established men," she

Carl dangled his feet off of the dock and looked out over the water eagerly watching for the return of the shrimp boats. Carl had a reputation as a hard worker and some of the private boat owners would pay him to carry the heavy totes of shrimp from the dock to the shops that stood between the dock and the main road. The shops were well known for selling fresh shrimp right off that boats. The big boats used conveyors they didn't have any use for a 14 year old kid. The few private owners in the small boats were kind and paid well. In a good week Carl could make $115 dollars. The good days were when the boats returned during high tide. The docks floated and when the tide was out it was a 15' walk up hill which was hard work and he couldn't carry as many totes. He glanced at his watch, it was 3:30, low tide. He looked over his shoulder he barely see the tops of the shops and the statue of the fisherman that lined the boardwalk separating the docks and main road. When the tide was in, you could see the back of the shops and the old statue of the fishermen that the locals believed was good luck. The dock rose and fell with the tide and would be almost level at high tide. Carl could almost run with totes on those days. Carl's hopes seemed to drop in time with the tide, just before the lowest point the first of the private boats rounded the channel heading toward the docks.

She didn't regret that decision. Sleep was good. Every extra minute added another dollop of sanity into her upcoming day, so she preferred to snuggle up in bed rather than doll herself up. She wasn't Naomi, nor did she want to be Naomi. Carter was happy enough with her messy dark hair pulled up into a loose ponytail that hung out the back of her blue baseball hat that had the word mermaid embroidered across the front. The hat was silly, offly resembling something a modern day Little Mermaid would wear if she decided she was edgy and had second day hair. It was a gift from her little sister from a few Christmases ago, and even without the sentimental attachment, Carter liked the hat by

The small town in Chester County, Pennsylvania had a similar outcome in the 1970s. The picture appears to show a typical town in rural America. The small town’s picture appears to have been taken on a dark and dreary day. The town appears almost empty with only the cemetery of the dead remaining. From the picture, it appears as though quite literally, rural life in America is dying with the many dead people in the cemetery. All the trees in the town have no leaves. They sit leafless and dead along the streets and in yards. The grass also appears browner and lifeless. This is all very symbolic in the idea that this town, and in general that small towns are dying out. This left rural towns secluded and out of reach to the busy outside world. People wanted to be a part of the new technological world, which often left these small rural towns in the dust. Leaving the rural areas created more urban sprawl, which led to many issues.

Imagery is the strongest supporter of the theme. A description of the sea in its states of calmness and roughness are depicted. Sight and sound help intensify other images. The poems’ strongest feelings are usually expressed by their imagery, though rhythm is also used to convey meaning. Arnold uses the first stanza of the poem to create visual, auditory, and olfactory images that will allow the reader to picture the sea of which the speaker is viewing. Through the use of several poetic Figures of speech, sounds, and irony of words are also used. Line one; “The Sea is calm tonight”(1) has a gentle rhythm that can be compared to the “ebb and flow” (17) of the sea. With this description one can imagine a beautiful beach with water lapping upon the shore. The second line also gives the image of a calm sea. In the opening stanzas words such as “gleams”(4) and “glimmering”(5) are used, giving a sense of light. In contrast the ending stanzas use words such as