Over the past two decades, there has been a dire need for critical analysis of written literature as a means to relate them to the contemporary world and allow for relation of roles, advice, and themes to the everyday life. The intention of this critique is to significantly analyze the novel, "The Enchanted Bluff", and "Life in the Iron-Mills" written by William Cather and Rebecca Harding Davis respectively. The paper also seek to compare and contrast the two novels on the basis of relationship of the protagonist and antagonist, the setting time and place, relationship of biological and mythological allusion, themes, meanings, and ideas.
In The Enchanted Bluff, Carter bases her story within the theme of growing up. The novel is full of vivid descriptions of natural sceneries that can be directly related to the contemporary world. The narrative is based on a description of a turbulent flowing western river; the channel was never the same for two successive seasons. Every spring the swollen stream. This symbolizes the rapidly evolving and continuously growing world in terms of financial viability and social development. The six boys living along the river signify how human life keeps changing as the water keeps on flowing to the east. Cather opens the story in an enchanted atmosphere where the boys are sharing their dreams and illusions. Every person has dreams and illusions which can be either achievable or in achievable. The idea of growing up is real and should be embraced by every person and dreams that matters should be our drive towards achieving them.
Contrary to the bible the novel doesn’t agree on the existence of God in the passage, “enormous, barbaricred moon that is “as big as a cart wheel” and appears as an angry heathen God”. This also means that God is unreal and strange which is totally different from the Christian perspective of the same. More so, the boys’ imaginations of the future apply to each person’s life when young. Despite that, not all dreams will be realized dreams will live on as long as the human beings continue to exist. Unlike The Enchanted Bluff, Life in the Iron-Mills is centered on a symbol of a woman whose impression on the minds of the reader embodies mystery, unanswered questions, and spiritual hunger combined with uncanny physical power, “a nude woman’s form, macular, grown course with labor, the powerful limbs the tense, rigid muscles, the clutching hands, the wild, eager face, like that of a starving wolf. Moreover, the novel also doesn’t assign a name to the narrator of the story and too dwells on a river called Ohio River.
The two main characters in the story, Debora and Hugh Wolfe, strives to survive emotionally, physically, and spiritually due to exploitation in the industrial sector, Iron mills. The story is an analysis of economical injustices the poor people experience due to their race, religion, or gender. The story outlines the importance of the combination of temporal and spiritual elements to liberate the poor from slavery. Use of imagery is quite eminent in the story; Deborah is shown as a spiritually dead person, “soul starvation”. The story widely exposes the moral corruptness of institutions and individuals holding higher ranks in the government today. For instance, the foreman at the even couldn’t help his own brother-in-law instead he says to him “I wash my hands of all social problems,-slavery, caste, white or black. My duty to my operatives has a narrow limit. The modern society is irresponsible and what is worse is their justification for it, the Lord will take care of his own. This means that people justify even their wrong doings using the Lords name which is inappropriate in accordance to Christian’s principles. Life in the Iron Mills symbolizes the contemporary social institutions that are unwilling to liberate the poor or help religious institutions. The social riddle as used in the passage refers to individuals and society as a whole failing to take care of the indigent. The symbol of the risen savior brings along hope for a better days yet it doesn’t unveil the solution to their problems. Similarly, the contemporary world is faced with difficulties, and though people will always have hopes for better days, the solution to the predicaments facing the poor is not yet known.
The two novels are evidently similar in the use of various ideas and symbols expressed through narration. The use of the river in both novels signifies a rapidly changing and continuously evolving world. The two novels clearly show that each person has a dream or hope, but achievement of this dreams are obstructed by the human nature and factors ranging religion, race, and believes. However, Carter doesn’t strongly rely on the God, whereas the Rebecca entirely depends on Christianity principles. Moreover, Carters characters are young filled with imaginations and delusions, whereas Rebecca characters are mature and lives in the reality.
References
Cather, Willa. The Enchanted Bluff. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
Davis, Rebecca Harding. Life in the Iron-mills: Easyread Large Edition. New York: Cengage Learning, 2007.
Harrington, Ellen Burton. Scribbling Women & the Short Story Form: Approaches by American & British Women Writers. Rheinland-Pflaz: Peter Lang, 2008.
Stout, Janis P. Picturing a Different West: Vision, Illustration, and the Tradition of Austin and Cather. Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 2007.
Werlock, Abby P. Companion to Literature: Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. New York: Infobase Publishers, 2009.
