Clan – A close-knit group of interrelated families, community, relative
Family ties- links/bonds
Dominate – influence, control, defined
Life- existence, being
It is true that family ties do dominate the lives of the characters in these stories?
BP1- Yes- family influences tradition (following legacy and forefathers), sense of heritage, generational expectation (clan dynamic) Tradition can define and mould who people, forms identity.
Positive binding force of family
BP2- How relationships (parents and children, husband and wife, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren) in the isolated community influence people’s decisions.
Negative binding force of family?
BP3- However, another scope being the relationship the characters have with the land. So beautiful and addictive but yet at the same time can take life.
Those that refuse to be dominated by the chains of tradition, they feel they are not shaped by dedication to generational change – James, Angus- slight guilt that comes with those ideals.
John so young, yet wants to not escape but come back to Nova Scotia.
Tradition/heritage (clan) shapes identity/life
Their lives are permeated with elements of ancestral heritage and the richness of the their Gaelic history.
Clan- Gaelic history; ancestral links, over 300 years; language; song; music; verses; chewing tobacco; drinking rum/sugar; superstitions; oral storytelling; connection to the land; Tradition- come with past generations/ ancestral dreams; storytellers. They are practising the rituals daily. Following in their traditions gives many characters a strong sense of identity and a connection to this landscape. (John- TLSGOB- when he lives in Toronto and doesn’t fit in ‘When I was in Toronto no-one was ever up before seven. It was wonderful sad. There were gulls there though flying over Toronto Harbour. We went to see them on two Sundays.) Linking past/present
(The Tuning of Perfection; Lost Salt Gift of Blood; The Closing Down of Summer)
(vocational-fishing).
While Family ties sometimes bind; in some of stories relationships more often than not divide. (good and bad) (Relationships shape the characters in positive and negative ways)
If not so, why not?
In some
The Return – wife dominates Angus
Miners- (clan) community over family destructive over other parts of their lives. Looking at the Zulus they don’t realise they have the same sense of community (hanging out on the beach naked)
Obligation/roles- following
Generational expectation (miner, farmer, fisherman)
Breaking free from family and clan expectation can create a source of guilt for the choices made (Angus ‘The Return’; narrator ‘The Boat’; James ‘The Vastness of the Dark’).
Relationships: father/son/children; mother/son; multigenerational – ‘The Return’
In ‘The Boat’ the father encourages his children to explore the world beyond Cape Breton through literature and that allows his children to escape the burden of family obligations and thus allowing to live a more individual life. Does this mean it is a richer life as it is overshadowed by sense of guilt for the narrator.
As a result of the domination and permeation of family over the individual, there are those who are damaged and wish to break free from familial ties. (In order to escape the domination of the relationships characters are forced to escape the land, thus the land itself is also a force that overshadows characters’ lives.
Topic sentences
- Some characters in Island manage to show rebellion and attempt to break free of the family and traditional domination in their lives.
- Whilst some characters are chained to the traditions of clan and family ties, others attempt to break free of these binds.
- Within all of the stories there is an enforced sense of family often employed through the use of tradition and clan. (structure, narrative, themes, characters)
- A sense of an underlying draw to family ties and clan can be observed in the lives of the characters.
- Although it is a strong theme, MacLeod doesn’t always show this to be the case…
- Within isolated communities, traditional values and clan can control a family, Alastair MacLeod explores how this affects the lives of his characters.
- Feelings of allegiance to family are an undeniable source of guilt and responsibility for MacLeod’s protagonists.
- Whilst some characters in the collection are content to live dull and repetitive lives arising from ties to family and clan, others dare to abandon this in search of success or happiness.
- MacLeod’s stories portray characters trapped in a cycle of family tradition.
- The effects of family ties and tradition can be catastrophic for some characters.
- MacLeod exploits the way that characters are dictated to and manipulated through imposing family traditions.
- Whilst some characters demonstrate a strong sense of loyalty to their family, MacLeod emphasises how others are able to break free.
More topic sentences for other essays…
- MacLeod portrays the characters in his stories to be connected to the Cape Breton landscape through their livelihoods of fishing and mining, and bound together through shared experiences of the physical and emotional sacrifices that are necessary in their way of life.
- Island reveals the drive to follow Cape Breton’s culture form the characters in the story through personal experiences and views towards mining and fishing.
- MacLeod explores how personal sacrifice can lead to an unfulfilled life. Despair can eat away at your soul.
- Alistair MacLeod explores how the ancestral constraints of roles limit the men who are confronted with either remaining brave by spending a life doing what they really do not want or selfishly following forever their own “dreams and inclinations”.
- MacLeod explores how connections formed within the isolated community run deep due to an unbreakable bond forged from their “fragile interdependence”.
- MacLeod utilizes the connection between the thoughts of the characters and the landscape in order to express more complex ideas on the emotional bond that the characters share with the land.
- Macleod demonstrates that some characters try to move on in search for something other than the place of origin yet the connection of their culture runs too deep.
- Rejecting the notions of their homeland, MacLeod displays how ones environment can shape identities juxtaposed to the norms of their upbringing.
- In ‘Island’, Alistair Macleod expresses the loss of not only physical connections through death as a consequence of mining, but also the loss of emotional connection to loved ones who choose to move beyond their places of origin.
- MacLeod’s Stories explore how regret can shape the way in which characters view those around them.
- Alistair MacLeod uses the environment to portray the emotions of his characters and significant events throughout his stories.
- MacLeod illustrates how the Gaelic culture and tradition that encapsulates Cape Breton can help characters gain a sense of purpose.
- MacLeod depicts loss throughout the short stories of the collection through both the physical and emotional disconnection between the characters
- The Narrators sense of personal isolation stems from their inability to communicate and share the ineffable nature of their “private experience” and thus their incapacity to build connections with other people.
- The working men in MacLeod’s “Island” are forced to lead live that are dictated by their own surrounds
- In the intimately collective ‘The Closing Down of Summer’, the breakdown of communication is expressed also through the natural imagery of Macleod’s writing.