The Shipping News

1654 Words7 Pages
People within society tend to confront challenges within their lives, one way or another. ‘The Shipping News’, written in 1993 by American author E. Annie Proulx, is narrated within the contexts of Proulx’s personal hardships, thus showing its impact upon the involvement of the main character Quoyle. In ‘The Shipping News’, the protagonist, Quoyle, an awkward, worthless, yet kind-hearted man faces the sufferings of an uphill battle in life, due to childhood experiences. His personality, which collides with the challenges that face him, promotes the values of social and economic change within societies. In turn, Proulx shows that confidence in oneself is considered the best way to overcome suffering one may have in ones life. Furthermore, an insight into the belief of ‘knots’ permeates throughout the book, the knots symbolizing the variability and unpredictability of human life, which is shown starkly by Quoyle’s interactions throughout the novel. Through the development of the characters, the physical, cultural and social settings of Newfoundland, the audience is able to gain an insight of the beliefs mentioned. The belief that human life is seen as a symbolic notion of ‘knots’, is supported by the interactions between main characters of ‘The Shipping News’, as well as their experiences with the physical, cultural and social settings. Knots are an inherent symbol that may be displayed in Quoyle’s life. Quoyle’s life is just like a rope: it may be altered and tied into different knots to adjust to the changing situations. This ‘rope’ of his has been affected, tied and retied, strengthened and weakened, in order to accommodate himself. While it first appears to the reader as slow, the subtle ‘unknotting’ of Quoyle’s life begins to show after the transition to the aptly named Newfoundland. As Quoyle and the Aunt move back to Newfoundland to start a new future, the
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