Alistair MacLeod

‘Did you used to chew tobacco? Yes, a very long time ago, before you were ever thought of. And was it hard for you to stop? Yes It was, Alex, he says quietly, more difficult than you will ever know.’ – The Return In Alistair MacLeod’s intricate oeuvre of short stories Island, he depicts a microcosmic community that is on the cusp of socioeconomic and cultural change. MacLeod explores the conflict between the past and present through these torn characters with in Island to reveal the hardships they face, he suggests it is not possible for the past and present to coexist as they ‘exclude each other in a manner that [is] so blunt and too clear.’ Despite the inevitable need for the Cape Bretoners to change their ‘old ways’ and move into the present…

Contemporary Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod features the idea of story telling centrally in his short story Vision. MacLeod draws upon passionate communication, Metafiction, and first-person address to demonstrate how the context of a story is consistently determined and re-shaped depending on the intent of the teller towards the listener. MacLeod’s Vision suggests that stories are powerful methods of communication that must continuously be told, heard, and retold to ensure that they are not…

“The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod was able to show the pressure that parents place on their offsprings in a very relatable manner. His words were able to capture, in great detail, a child’s train of thought and how they would act when placed in a very difficult position. The narrator had to decide whether he should follow in his family’s tradition and become a fisherman or stray off and continue his education. As a student about to graduate in less than a year's time, I am able to relate with the…

In the short story “The Boat”, Alistair Macleod describes the conflicting relationship between a mother and a father based on their different attitudes about their children’s futures. The story is told through the perspective of the son in the family, looking back on his childhood in the 1930’s in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The narrator begins the story with the first trip he took with his dad on their boat. It was a 32 by 9 foot “Cape Island boat” designed for small inshore fisherman. Coming…

Art and literature are the foundation of life. Long before Netflix and social media existed, people used books to entertain themselves. Mason Cooley said “reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are”. Even in 21st century, the age of technology, people use books as a source of entertainment and writing as a form of self-expression. Books and reading in general has many benefits like mental stimulation, gaining knowledge and much more. The function of books, reading and…

Pressure from family can lead to stress or even become overwhelming. This is apparent in the story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod. The narrator of the story is a son that is raised in a lifestyle that revolves around fishing on a boat. However, the son has repressed thoughts about gaining knowledge and studying instead of living his life on the boat. Even though his father urges him to study instead of working on the boat, the son is pressured by his mother to stay. Also, he does not want to…

“No Great Mischief” by Alistair Macleod is a novel that is told from the first person point of view through Alexander, our protagonist, and uses flashbacks and memories to help the reader understand the family history and dynamic better. The theme of this story is of nostalgia and the importance of family. The history of the family traces back many generations and holds a lot of meaning to each and every one of the family members, also know as clan members. For this essay, my focus is on…

life strived in adolescence. To Every Thing There Is a Season by Alistair MacLeod is a coming of age story “seen through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy, who as an adult remembers the way things were back home on the farm on the west coast of Cape Breton” (Penguin Random House). Along the lines of the story, the protagonist awakens to a bigger picture of life outside his own small world as he steps his way up from ignorance to knowledge, idealism to realism and selfishness to selflessness.…

The book by Alistair Macleod, No Great Mischief, is a novel written in the first person, it talks about a man looking back over his life experiences that including many different topics ranging from why people cry when they see tomatoes being wasted to animals in families. The book also mentions the hardships that families in the regions must endure. Although this novel is not historically accurate, it still tells more history about the family back to the Highland MacDonald clan in Scotland…

The author of “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood”, Alistair Macleod, has presented whoever the reader is with a wonderful, vivid image of Newfoundland. The story shows how much effort the author put into the imagery in order to give the reader a great painting in the mind. Saying that “even far out, somewhere beyond Cape Spear lies Dublin and the Irish coast; far away but still the nearest land, and closer now than is Toronto or Detroit” (Macleod) helps us understand that John (the son) would not like…