The American Dream has long been a model of success, in which its participants find satisfaction in materialism and wealth. Since the birth of the United States, a single story has served as the poster child of the American Dream: the tale of a man born into disadvantage that rises to success through his own hard work. The Shipping News’ protagonist, Quoyle, born into a family of poor immigrants, is seemingly set up to live out this tale, but fails. Due to a series of events in which the perfect American life turns against him, Quoyle abandons America, and returns to his ancestral home of Newfoundland. While in Newfoundland, Quoyle experiences unprecedented personal growth, becoming a better father to his two young daughters, and a more self-sufficient
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She focuses on the whole of Newfoundland, illustrating everything from its geography to its history, its culture to its industry. Proulx, originally from New England, had fully immersed herself in her research for The Shipping News, visiting Newfoundland several times, “talking to residents and absorbing the atmosphere” all while studying its history and dialect (Contextual Encylopedia of American Literature 1335). Her desire for accuracy had no limit, exemplified by her drawing of character names from the telephone directories. Still, Proulx became an award-winning author, not through her cultural accuracy, but her writing style, in which she most notably drops pronouns and verbs (Constantakis). This unique syntax The setting becomes a picture of two conflicting characteristics. On one hand, the it is dreary and dangerous. The island of Newfoundland, “...six thousand miles of coast blind-wrapped in fog,” harbors a land composed of “tundra and barrens” and “stunted spruce” (Proulx 32). Its waters are rocky and dangerous. On the other hand, Proulx simultaneously uses language that transcends into magic realism to capture the mystical beauty of the island’s physical features, its “bergs with cores of beryl, blue gems within white gems, that some said gave off an odor of
She focuses on the whole of Newfoundland, illustrating everything from its geography to its history, its culture to its industry. Proulx, originally from New England, had fully immersed herself in her research for The Shipping News, visiting Newfoundland several times, “talking to residents and absorbing the atmosphere” all while studying its history and dialect (Contextual Encylopedia of American Literature 1335). Her desire for accuracy had no limit, exemplified by her drawing of character names from the telephone directories. Still, Proulx became an award-winning author, not through her cultural accuracy, but her writing style, in which she most notably drops pronouns and verbs (Constantakis). This unique syntax The setting becomes a picture of two conflicting characteristics. On one hand, the it is dreary and dangerous. The island of Newfoundland, “...six thousand miles of coast blind-wrapped in fog,” harbors a land composed of “tundra and barrens” and “stunted spruce” (Proulx 32). Its waters are rocky and dangerous. On the other hand, Proulx simultaneously uses language that transcends into magic realism to capture the mystical beauty of the island’s physical features, its “bergs with cores of beryl, blue gems within white gems, that some said gave off an odor of