OK- the site just told me my stuff is too big to pm so let's try it here:
Here's an essay I did for Shipping News. One thing that I didn't do was quotes- lots and lots of quotes! A note my teacher also gave me was that I had listed some good points but needed to go into them more (you may find this helpful).
here's the essay:
Essay: How does The Shipping News interrogate the values of the local and the global?
The novel The Shipping News by Annie Proulx aims to portray the often conflicting values of the local and global communities by following the life of Quoyle as he journeys to the isolated community of Newfoundland and deals with the transition from small local town to being part of a much bigger global enterprise. It also deals with how the changing priorities affect the individual.
A technique the author used in the novel was visual devices- pictures of knots from the Ashley Book of Knots. Knots symbolise the versatility and variability of the human experience- to such a small fishing community they are present in all aspects of life. They signify different kinds of connection and strengths according to their specific form, being able to be tied and re-tied whenever the need arises to adapt to new conditions. At the beginning of each chapter a different type of knot was shown and briefly described, foreshadow an event that will occur later in the chapter or merely to draw attention to one of the chapters mundane details. Collectively, all the introductions function to blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction, jolting the reader back into the physical world rather than remaining in the representational-fictional world, providing a link between the two.
Another important note is that the Ashley Book of Knots states in the last chapter that there are still old knots to be recorded and new knots not yet invented. This addressed the very quality of knots, that they can be reinvented according to lifes needs. Such is the life of the Quoyles- they must examine the binds of the past to discover a new life- in a nutshell, undo and retie the knots of the past. Knots have until then bound the Quoyles to their past- Nolan leaves knots around the house and Quoyle finds a knotted brooch left by a dead ancestor.
Knots ability to be reinvented according to lifes needs is a repeated motif concerning the Quoyle family house- which symbolised the weakness and ultimate breakdown of Quoyle dynasty. Quoyle eventually recognises how wrong the house is, winched to the rock like a prisoner. At one point in the novel, Nutbeem states his disgust at the modern world that has left the days of "knots and lashings" behind in favor of the "brute force of nails and screws." The house on the point belongs to the brute world of winches, weldings, and chains. The entire base is shackled to the rock. Symbolically, the Quoyles cannot make the house into another place; the metal shackles do not allow for a reinvention, but serve as anchors to a shoddy past. The house therefore plays an important role in the novel's moral scheme: the house falls, in accordance with the idea that that which cannot flex and reform, must break forever. There is also something unnatural about the house, since it was brought over from Gaze Island by sheer force, as if it was never supposed to stand where it stood. It was, quite simply, never meant to be.
At the time the novel was written the author had previously visited Newfoundland and discovered that the northern cod supply had reached an all-time low due to year-long trailer fishing (a socio-economic change), prompting international companies to seek the oil in the area. This had dire consequences on the surrounding community and the authors context came through in the novel in the form of meta-fiction. After a character had spoken, the author would add her own thoughts afterwards, much like an anecdote.
The consequences of globalisation on local community includes Bill Prettys sadness over depleting natural resources nostalgia not only for a place that will never return to its former state, but a way of life that is lost forever- technological changes have replaced the small fishing season with mass year-round operations. As thus traditional means of life are being replaced by the machinery of mass production. Diverse skills are being lost.
Another notion explored in the novel is that of a regional lifestyle- rather than trying to tell a story with a specific, detailed location the author has sought a story out of the conflict and tension that stem from a specific geographic place, in particular the local personalities and entities that make this place different than from any other. Whether it is Bill Pretty representing the old way of life or Petal Bear representing the tragic, rushed life of globalism, each character represents something and their relationships and actions correspond to what they symbolise in the novel.
In any other big town Quoyle might have been referred to a counselor to deal with the tragic events in his life. But here in the isolated town of Newfoundland not only does he explore his family past but deals with it and moves on- the local values of the town fulfilling Quoyle. It is also the only place where Quoyles family roots are laid to rest. For Quoyle, being one of the exceptions in the family of abusive people, it is ironic that to finally separate himself completely he must return to his ancestral home in order to break the chain and begin anew.
The final confrontation between local and global values arises when Tert Card departs, making his final appearance in a bar with Quoyle. The roles these two represent (global and local respectively) are dramatised- Card is about to leave Killick-Claw for a job representing the new, multi-national oil industry which Quoyle opts to remain, coving local stories, representing the local peoples interests. In addition to this Card is willing to leave his wife and children behind, while Quoyle stays for his children, who have settled and made friends. Card leave Killick-Claw, which Quoyle returns home to his children, both characters going in opposite directions.
In this instance, the local values seem focused on family ties and personal relationships, while the global is more centred around spreading business and power to more and more places. Once Tert Card has left, Jack Buggit explains to Quoyle that There's two ways of living here now. There's the old way, look out for your family, die where you was born, fish, cut your wood, keep a garden, make do with what you got. Then there's the new way. Work out, have a job, somebody tell you what to do, your brother's in South Africa, your mother's in Regina, buy every goddamn cockadoodle piece of Japanese crap can. Leave home. Go off to look for work. And some has a hard time of it. Jack's tone when talking about the "old" ways is much more benevolent than his snide impatience with the "new" way of life. The old types look out for their kin while the new ones buy "goddamn cockadoodle crap." The old way dramatises values of rugged individualism, familial loyalty, and subsistence living, while the new way suggests separation from family, alienation of the worker, and a global trading system.
The conclusion of the novel is in favour of the local values in life- the preservation of natural resources and the preservation of traditional values that form the way of life for the isolated community of Killick-Claw. After thoroughly interrogating the values of the global and local in the course of the novel (many times, different characters and to varying degrees) and through following Quoyles inner and physical journey, we, like the author and the character Quoyle have found solace in the local values in life.
Best wishes!
glitterfairy.
PS- as to links to other texts, I'm doing MacLeod's Lost Salt Gift of Blood as my other eng ext text, and linkin park's 'Numb' as my related text. I'm working on that particular speech/essay now, so if you want to have a look at those (or who knows? I could use any help I can get!) you're more than welcome.