Canadian weathers and landscape are not like any other, and this is reflected people. The short stories, “Cornet at Night” by Sinclair Ross and “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod, the settings are a good example. The characters in these stories all have emotional connection to their environment; they all depend on the weather to provide for their family. Sometimes ones characteristics change when their environment changes. The characters have a dependency on the environment which reflects in their actions and feelings.
The fathers in these stories know that they cannot wait for a nicer day to go out and get work done. They are also so have great knowledge of the environment they work in. In “Cornet at Night” the father has the strong will to work and know he has to get started right away. “”Can’t help it – I’ve got to cut,” my father said at breakfast. “No use talking there’s a wind again and it’s shelling fast.””(Ross 219) The father knows that it has to be done then and that he would fall behind in his work. In “The Boat” the father knows the sea and his equipment better than anyone. He is the most skilled. “In the weeks that fallowed he got up rather miraculously, and the gear was ready and the Jenny Lynn was freshly painted by the last two weeks or April when the ice began to break up…” (MacLeod 272) Not much work was getting done before when he wasn’t working, but as soon as he got out and started working everything was done that would have taken the uncle and the son months to finished. These men have a great knowledge of the environments and timing.
The Essay on The Apostate Johnny Work Story
The Apostate is a short story about the life of a boy named Johnny who works long hard hours in the mills during the Industrial Revolution. The author wants us to sympathize with Johnny, but he also wants to raise more in depth issues that occur throughout the story. The author, London emphasizes several themes in this short story. The title The Apostate was not a thoughtless one. An apostate is ...
Sometime characters change when their environments change. The boy in “Cornet at Night” went from farm to town and he notices a difference in himself. “But in town is different there are eyes here, critical, that pierce with a single glance the bubble of his self-importance, and leave him dwindled smaller even than normal.” (Ross 223) He changed the way he presented himself and the way he felt about himself. The young musician, that was hired, changed cause of the harsh environment and what it takes to work with it. “He looked older now, stretched out limp on the bed, his face haggard.” (Ross 234) The sun and the work aged him compared to the young, city soul he was before he had come there. These boys are examples of how people change.
Characters personal spaces reflect their inner most feelings. In “The Boat” the fathers room is his place of safety, but also the place where you see his inner thoughts and dreams. “Between the kitchen, clothes rack and barometer, a door opened into my father’s bedroom. It was of disorder and disarray.” (MacLeod 264) The father’s room is filled with books, which signifies his wish to be a scholar. His environment is a good example of how the way the room is in disarray, so are his inner thoughts and feelings.
Authors relate how the environment signifies characters mental state. The father is connected with the weather on the day he dies. “On November twenty-first the waves of the grey Atlantic are very high and the waters are very cold.” (MacLeod 276) Weather it was weather or suicide it reflects how the father had a world wind of emotions and that his life came to an end that day, which had to be sad for the son to. The weather both gave him his life and took it way.
In these stories the characters are connected to their environments in different ways. Some are connects with their work, some are connected with their characterizations. In both the stories it was what gave the environment that support and gave the family’s life.
