The Mountian And The Valley -symbolism Essay, Research Paper
The Mountain and the Valley:
The Symbolic Mountain of David & # 8217 ; s dreams and hopes.
& # 8220 ; The mountain inclines were less than a mile high at their
top-most point but they shut the vale in completely. & # 8221 ;
( Buckner, 7 ) . Our first position of the Mountain in Buckner & # 8217 ; s
authoritative The Mountain and the Valley prepares us for its
importance throughout the novel. Its presence hangouts David
throughout his life ; it is symbolic of fulfillment and
David & # 8217 ; s desire to go forth the Annapolis Valley, but due to
fortunes remains insurmountable. The mountain is a
symbol that profoundly influences Buckler & # 8217 ; s narrative and T
pervades the narrative, by stand foring both David & # 8217 ; s dreams and
inability to go forth: beginning in his childhood, go oning
through his adolescence, his immature maturity, and eventually
following him into the grave.
In his young person the supporter of the narrative, David Canaan,
is a sensitive male child who becomes progressively cognizant of the
difference that sets him apart from his household and his
neighbors. He views his first trip to the mountain as a
big measure in his life, even at the age of 11. Buckner
portrays David & # 8217 ; s infantile delectation ( at eventually being large plenty
to travel fishing on the mountain ) as an escapade: & # 8221 ; As they
came near to the mountain, it was so exciting that David was
about afraid. & # 8221 ; ( Buckner 22 ) This effort to scale the
mountain fails, as do all David & # 8217 ; s efforts to mount the
mountain except his concluding 1, & # 8220 ; they were traversing the span
to get down to mount the mountain when they heard the
voices & # 8221 ; ( Buckner 23 ) . David & # 8217 ; s beget ends their jaunt
because of the decease of vale husbandmans Pete and Spurge. The
calamity and decease in the vale makes David & # 8217 ; s journey to the
mountain impossible. Before he faces the intelligence that he knows is
bad from the other vale work forces nearing, he must & # 8220 ; touch it
, [ the mountain route ] anyhow, before he knew indisputably
that the twenty-four hours was over & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 34 ) , symbolically seeking
for what he missed. The mountain, in David & # 8217 ; s head, represents
something better, or grander, than his rural vale life. The
predominating subject of David non rather acquiring beyond the
mountain begins here, in his young person. Later in the novel, when
David is twelve, on the trek up to happen a Christmas tree,
David asks his sister Anna & # 8220 ; If anyone walked through the
mountain, hebdomads and hebdomads, I wonder where he & # 8217 ; d come out
& # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; . ( Buckler, 56 ) The mystical inquiry of what was beyond
the mountain is lingering in his head even during this happy
minute, in David & # 8217 ; s guiltless young person.
The mountain throws its influence into childhood of
Anna, David & # 8217 ; s duplicate sister, in a different manner. Anna sees & # 8220 ; A
rainbow arched from mountain to mountain & # 8221 ; . ( Buckler, 29 ) . This
symbolises Anna & # 8217 ; s subsequently flight from the Valley and ability to
mesh & # 8211 ; although she ne’er rather gets it right- both the metropolis
life of Halifax and her state being in the Annapolis
Valley. The rainbow appears & # 8220 ; about faded over the valley & # 8221 ;
( Buckler 22 ) . This shows how Anna will go detached from
her childhood place, as she makes the foreboding that she
subsequently fulfils of get marrieding a crewman.
In David & # 8217 ; s adolescence, the mountain takes on a more
defined form in his head. At age 13, & # 8221 ; The mountain across
the lake looked like a faraway furniture of a dream. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler
88 ) . David & # 8217 ; s ideas of his hereafter, while chew overing decease
and assisting his household fix the old Gravess in the graveyard,
are really positive. He shudders to believe of Anna in the
graveyard, but does non visualize himself at that place. He believes he
will be something great, and his dreams are still come-at-able
in his head, and & # 8220 ; the mountain looked to him as if, with one
great spring, he could touch it. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 88 ) Merely as, when
he & # 8217 ; s 14, & # 8220 ; the afternoon, in a steady stillness seemed to convey the
mountains closer & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 96 ) . David begins to force the
mountains, and what they represent, to the dorsum of his head.
His dreams are come-at-able and fulfillment of them an
inevitableness of the hereafter. Toby & # 8211 ; the metropolis male child from Halifax
who visits David ( and is besides a character foil of David ) – is
introduced when they both are about 16. Toby becomes
David & # 8217 ; s merely friend, and doesn & # 8217 ; t understand when David Tells
him that & # 8220 ; you can see everything & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 138 ) from the top
of the mountain. Anna, David and Toby turn back after get downing
up the mountain, and one time once more David is unsuccessful at
mounting to the top of the symbolic mountain. He is frustrated
when Toby says that & # 8220 ; It isn & # 8217 ; t like it was a existent mountain
& # 8230 ; What makes it so fantastic? & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 138 ) . David is
looking for understanding from the foreigner Toby, and doesn & # 8217 ; T
have it. The mountain, or misinterpretation of it shows how
different Toby and David are and how David & # 8217 ; s aspirations and
dreams seem little, and are non understood by Toby. David & # 8217 ; s
desire to go forth the Annapolis Valley and dreams of fulfillment
seem to blanch, or seem unrealistic & # 8211 ; & # 8220 ; the idea of the
mountain went every bit lint-gray as the toes of his larrigans in
November slush. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 139 ) – when the & # 8220 ; verbosely & # 8221 ; male child from
Halifax remarks on the mountain.
Dave enters the universe of a immature grownup through
heartbreaking fortunes: his girlfriend dies and he feels
someway responsible, slumbers with his girlfriend & # 8217 ; s female parent and
attempts ( unsuccessfully ) to go forth place. Yet, his & # 8220 ; childish
exhilaration & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 168 ) about the mountain remains.
Joeseph, David & # 8217 ; s male parent, suggests he and his boy, now 19, and
the remainder of the household, travel to the top of the mountain in
hunt of a big tree for a keel. The mountain is eventually
resurfacing in David & # 8217 ; s head after the twine of bad
fortunes, and the mountain shows us that David is
get downing to trust once more. He wonders why, & # 8220 ; though he was
nineteen he & # 8217 ; d ne’er been to the really top yet. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 168 ) .
They begin their trek up the mountain, but are stopped once more
by returning Toby and Anna, and it becomes another failed
effort -in Toby & # 8217 ; s new auto & # 8211 ; to make the top of the mountain.
The mountain illuminates the discreteness get downing in David.
David believed that if he & # 8221 ; had been traveling to the top of the
mountain with his household
entirely, their bond would hold been the trip & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 172 ) ,
and that with Toby & # 8220 ; that he could hold shared toby & # 8217 ; s
exhilaration: non because of the mountain & # 8230 ; but the auto & # 8221 ;
( Buckler, 172 ) . David is left unrealized and desiring
more.Climbing the mountain entirely ne’er enters his head at this
point. He feels separate and cut off from his household, as
though he & # 8220 ; had to maintain up a reconciliation act & # 8221 ; ( Buckler 178 ) to
maintain everyone happy. The mountain therefore shows david & # 8217 ; s
inability to be content or fulfilled, as he has to move or
& # 8220 ; balance & # 8221 ; in the presence of his household, but David is still
cleaving to the hopes that the mountain represent.
In the concluding phases of David & # 8217 ; s short life, his maturity,
he recognises the double nature of the mountain. His Illness and
his male parent & # 8217 ; s decease trap him into the humdrum life of a
husbandman, where & # 8220 ; his ideas clung low to his encephalon, like the
clouds that curled above the mountain. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 221 ) His
inability to move, and his beliefs that he can still achieve his
dreams are shattered. David sets out, determined to mount his
mountain, and his & # 8220 ; tendrils of idea Begin to curve outward & # 8221 ;
( Buckler 280 ) . David begins his concluding trek to the top of the
mountain, this clip & # 8220 ; perfectly alone & # 8220 ; ( Buckler, 281 ) . He
experiences a mental discovery of kinds, and recognises his
dreams and inability to achieve them for what they are. He is
seized with a new positive mentality, and believes that he can
& # 8220 ; live once more & # 8230 ; and get down once more & # 8221 ; ( Buckler 182 ) . & # 8220 ; The Shape
and color range out to him like voices & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 281 ) and
David sees the faces of everyone he knows on his journey up
the mountain, forgiving each one: & # 8221 ; all the faces there were
everyplace else in the universe, at every clip waited for him & # 8221 ;
( Buckler, 289 ) . The mountain, as a symbol of his, is no
longer insurmountable, in David & # 8217 ; s head. This new waking up is
ironic and & # 8220 ; as he raised his caput and saw that he was at the
really top of the mountain & # 8221 ; ( Buckler 291 ) , at the same time stating
himself he will & # 8220 ; state them merely as they are, but people will
see there is more to them than the side that shows & # 8221 ; ( Buckler,
294 ) , David drops dead. David & # 8217 ; s old ideals about his dreams,
represented by the mountain, are back merely before his decease.
The book ends with David as a & # 8220 ; grey organic structure falling fleetly
& # 8230 ; .exactally down over the far side of the
mountain. & # 8221 ; ( Buckler, 296 ) .
David, ironically, reaches his end in decease. He sees
everything, as he Told toby he would in his childhood, at the
top of the mountain. The mountain followed David throughout
his short life, as a symbol for his dreams and desire to
become-or be-somewhere beter as a kid, as his desire to
leave as an stripling, and as the realisation that he is
trapped & # 8211 ; inable to go forth & # 8211 ; in his grownup life. Each of
David & # 8217 ; s dreams were realized in his decease, through the
influence of the mountian.The book David longed to compose down
when he eventually reached the top can besides be read & # 8211 ; the
portrayal of the people that he yearned to compose is the novel
itself, The Mountian and the Valley.
