T he novel Harvest by Jim Crace is set in an unnamed village somewhere in the countryside of the author’s native England. It is a narrative without specifics of time or place, the narrator explains “We do not even have a title for the village. It is just The Village. And it’s surrounded by The Land.” The novel as evident from the title is about rural England but it is also a narrative of change, at a time when the English countryside is pillaged and communities shattered, as England’s fields are irrevocably enclosed.
The story unfolds within a period of seven days and is narrated by a character called Walter Thirsk. Walter Thirsk is not just an ordinary character. In the beginning, the narrator speaks for the community, “bounded by common ditches and collective hopes,” yet one where “their suspicion of anyone who was not born within these boundaries is unwavering.” The “they” proves crucial, as the narrator who initially speaks for the collective “we” reveals that he is in fact an outsider, brought to the village 12 years earlier by the man who is the master of the manor, and that he is someone who has become a part of the community, yet remains apart from it Therefore his unique position in the novel allows him the perspective of both an insider and an outsider.
The storyline unfolds around the theme of rhythmic village life in English countryside being suddenly disrupted when the barn of the manor house is burnt down after the annual harvest. Though it is evident …show more content…
Evaluations of common rights are inseparable from the larger question of enclosure and the engrossment of small farms. For enclosure meant the extinction of common right and the extinction of common right meant the decline of small
The story unfolds within a period of seven days and is narrated by a character called Walter Thirsk. Walter Thirsk is not just an ordinary character. In the beginning, the narrator speaks for the community, “bounded by common ditches and collective hopes,” yet one where “their suspicion of anyone who was not born within these boundaries is unwavering.” The “they” proves crucial, as the narrator who initially speaks for the collective “we” reveals that he is in fact an outsider, brought to the village 12 years earlier by the man who is the master of the manor, and that he is someone who has become a part of the community, yet remains apart from it Therefore his unique position in the novel allows him the perspective of both an insider and an outsider.
The storyline unfolds around the theme of rhythmic village life in English countryside being suddenly disrupted when the barn of the manor house is burnt down after the annual harvest. Though it is evident …show more content…
Evaluations of common rights are inseparable from the larger question of enclosure and the engrossment of small farms. For enclosure meant the extinction of common right and the extinction of common right meant the decline of small