Analysis of the Symbolism in The loons

ISSN 1009- -5039htp://www.overseaen.comOverseas English團卵黃譜Tel:+86- -1-5690811 5690812Analysis of the Symbolism in The loons郭德勝(廣西師范大學(xué)外國語(yǔ)學(xué)院,廣西桂林541004)Abstract: Margaret Laurence, the famous Canadian woman writer, is regarded as "a founding mother of Canadian lterature". The lors isone of her famous novel. The story is about Piquette Tonerre, a half- -bred girl who grows u under harsh circumstances in a white soci-ety that spprpsss half- -breds. They seck to ft into the main currents of culture but is marginalized by the white dominated society, whichhas always been highlighted by the author in many of her major works. The most prominent feature of this novel is its symbolism, namelythe prallel of the loons and Piquette. The article gives a tenative interpretation of the symbolism between the loons and the heroine pi-quette from three aspects: the environment, temperament and destiny.Key words: living condition; symbolism; pun; theme中圖分類(lèi)號:1106文獻標識碼:A文章 編號:1009- -5039(2011)09 -0295- -021 Introductiongate of the habit of taking a form as concept. Symbol is always inits way. lt is a way of associating, i.e, conneets the things seenIn the 1960s to 1980s, Canadian literature reached its peak.in sight with the things felt before and then forms a fresh andMost of the literary works dealt astutely with the theme of clash-peculiar artistic conception.es, communicationraces and cultures. A lot of famous writers appeared at this time.2.1 The environment of Piquette is like the Loons'Margaret Laurence (1926-- 1987 )is one of the great novelists ofAs the title suggests, the story would talk something aboutthe twentieth century. This short story is a realistic depiction thatne loons, a special type of birds. They have never been a pro-renders an objective rather than an idealized view of thetagonist in the text but as a "third" person. Piquelte, the host ofmarginalized ethnic. Lyricism of language is employed when itthe text would have some contact with the loons. Now we see anobvious comparison between them from their living condition,ioms are employed in the dialogues between characters in an at-temperament and destiny.tempt to invite readers to become involved in the inner lives of2.1.1 The living condition of the Loonscharacters. The most prominent feature of this novel is its sym-The loons of Canada is a kind of living creature that gotbolism. The loon is selected in Advanced English Book edited byclose to vanishing completely. The loons live on the lake. PeopleZhang Hanxi. The loons played an important role in Englishcan see their nests just up the shore there, behind the logs. ”teaching for English majors. The article has a very high appreci-There are loons here, on this lake. You can see their nests justation in value 1 ideological literature and art.up the shore there, behind those logs." "That evening I went outThe story is about Piquette Tonnerre, a half- -bred gin whoby myself, scrambling through the bushes that overhung the steepgrows up under harsh circumstances in a white society that 8up-path, my feet slipping on the fllen spruce needles that coveredpresses half- -breds. The story is told through another girl, V anes-the ground. When I reached the shore, I walked along the firmsa, who used to be Piqutte's doctor and she invites her to spendto the small pier that my father had built, and satthe summer holiday with them in the Diamonddown there." Scrambling, steep path, slipping and the fallenof her health. Nine years after that, Vanessa happens to meet herspruce needles that covered the ground, all these vocabularyin a cafe and she tlls Vanessa comes home on her two children.shows that the living environment of the loons is ulterior andBy using an appropriate tone, Margaret describes the alienationcomplex. They are far from other animals. And people just canfelt by the young Piquette Tonnerre, who represents an ethnichear their voice in the evening but can't see them.group rejected by a cruel sociely, just due to the fact that they2.1.2 The living condition of Piquetteare different.While Piquetle Tormerre, the heroine of Margaret Laurence's2 The Major Symbolism in the Workshort story The loons, as the descendant of the Metis, is the rep-resentative. Her life is terribly poor.Symbolism, in generally, is one of the writing skills. Its goal"The Tonnerre family's hut stood at the centre of the thicketis to convey elusive ilusion and its content is mysticism. Whatin a piece of land clear of tree just below Manawaka, where thethe writer wants to expound isn't the realistic objective world, butWachakwa River is so dirty. The foundation of this dwelling washe individual subjective inward world. The word symbolisma small square cabin made of poplar poles and closed the narrowcomes from the Greek word symbolon. The original meaning ofwith mud, which had been built by Jules Tonnerre some fftythe symbolism in Greek is "broke one board into two pars andyears before. But when he came back from Batoche with a bullettake one part of each other, in order to indicate the authenticat-in his thigh, Riel was hung and the voices of the Metis entereding object of connecting. And then it has evolved to be the dele-their long silence. Jules had merely intended to stay the winter in中國煤化工MHCNM HG收稿日期:2011-06-08修回日期:2011-07-15作者簡(jiǎn)介:郭德勝,男,廣西師范學(xué)院外國語(yǔ)學(xué)院芙語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)碩士,主要研究方向為英美文學(xué)。本欄目責任編輯:插莽事小中外文美文化研效重295Overseas English 痛外美語(yǔ)2011年9月the Wachakwa Valley, but the family was still there in the thir-ties, when I was a child. As the Tonnerres had increased, theirsurface, seemed to embody Canada government paying much at-settlement had been expanded, until the clearing at the foot oftention to indigenous cultures, in fact ,t reflected that they exert.the town hill was a chaos of shed with one slope roof, woodened a profound culture pressure policy on it in order to devastatepacking cases, warped lumber, discarded car types, unsteadilyit. People are generally interested in something novelty in non-chicken cages, wire with sharp-pointed hooks and tin cans."mainstream culture, especially less, fine or is about to disappearFrom above description,ve have a main understanding toor even in what has been los, Indian culure has been eroded bythe living condition and environment of the heroine's family.the white culure, having lost its mainstream and tending to de-Their shack is in a clearing at the center of the thicket, below astroy. People are eager to see the things related to Indian culture,mountain called manawaka. So, their geographical position is fareven it is an Indian name of the lake.away from the modem society of the white and they can't contact3) 1 didnt know what happened to the loons. "Perhaps theywith the America lifestyle and mainstream culture. Everythinghad gone away to some far place of belonging. Perhaps they haddisplaced in chaos in a small square cabin. How poor! Thebeen unable to find such a place, and had simply died out, hav-kept their lift working at iregular jobs or as section hands on theing ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not."(1)C.P. R. or on government aids. They lost their land and home,"Do not care about his life and death has been" is far moreand can't find their own position in a mainstream society of whitethan the loons? This may be a muttering to the real cause ofpeople. Among themselves they spoke a patois that was neitherdeath of Piquette.Cree nor French. Their English was broken and full of obsceni-ln front of the article, the cause of death of Piqutte wasties. So language became another barrier that deepens their nodescribed merely by a "shack on fire, " Her death seemed to besense of belonging.an accident in mother's view and the end of her life seemed to2.2 Surfaces and Depths- - - Symbolical Meaning in Punend. However, I went to the Diamond Lake last summer again.Diamond Lake has changed dramatically; there are no traces ofThe biggest feature of the short story is brief but to thethe loons. Complex feeling to the fate of loons inadvertently re-point. Simple words are deep in significance. As in the loons,veals my guess to the real cause of Paulette's death.Margaret Laurence not only used the loons to symbolize theSeemingly casual description is a hint to readers. Casual re-character but also used a lot of pun, which has further effect onmark drew overwhelming sadness, Tone of the full -text pushthe symbolism. Only a short sentence or even few words madetragedy to a climax, so that readers, after reading still had thereaders ponder.rather bleak recollection of Sense.1) Piquette was picking up stone and snail shells then drop-In the loons, in using concise language, Margaret [ aurenceping them again "who gives a good goddamn" she said.describes Paulette's contradictions and pain, bitter life through"Who gives a good goddamn "is exacly a symbol of protest-different periods of her life to show us scene of the occupieding to the white people. For another thing, the Metis have neverhabitat, a tragedy of birds in the brink of extinction, the scenecared themselves. Although their forefathers were expelled to um-suffering of indigenous peoples in the margins of society. Delicatecultivated lands, they accepted such fate. They didn't work to-vivid characterization and the plain language of the short text butgether to get nid of poverty and isolation. They have been livingmeaning in far-searching, has a great breadth of the epic, full ofon govermment aids. They would get mixed up in a noisy brawlhistorical mission and realistic.and would hit out at whoever was nearest or howl drunkenly a-mong the offended shoppers on the street. They were abandoned3 Conclusionat the edge of the eity, but they accepted all of these without anycomplaint. Unlike her family, not having been yielded in suchbackground of the author as well as the Metis. Symbolism hascondition, Piquette was all out to make herself merged into whitebeen showed in detail as the most important part. Through twosociety. Then, she realized her dream by marrying to an Englishclues in this novel;man. However, that man abandoned her. To some extent, she was1)The loons - lake (river) --- development of civiliza-deserted by the white people society. As a matter of fact, she losttion--- -draw them away- -they disappeared finallytheir ethnic roots of the alienation. When Piquette was in search2)Piquelle (Tonnere)- - Metis Canadian Indians一white peo-for a sense of soul belonging, she lost her own one. What sheple dominating world society-- -marginalization.cared is not herself in fantasy but the real herself. "Who givesThese two clues described the similarities (iving condition,well goddamn" represented a kind of satire to the Merits. Self-temperament, and destiny) between Piquette and the loons; showlove is the better way to get others to love you .How can you ex-us the miserable life of each other. The puns in the novel showpect other to love you even you do not care about yourself.us the symbolism. What the loons to the human society is what2) For Galloping Mountain was now a national park, and Di-the Merits to the white people society. Each symbolized the trag-ic, clash, and struggle in the marginal condition.that an Indian name would have a greater appeal to tourists.References:The Indian civilization in human history, one of the mostancient cilizations, created by Maya Indians, is the mainstream[1] ZHANG Han -xi. Advanced English [M].Foreign Languageculture of the North American continent. It is beautiful and mys-Teaching and Research Press,2004:205- -220.terious but suffered a drowned Disaster almost destroyed com-2]張?chǎng)斡?高級英語(yǔ)學(xué)習指南[M],武漢:湖北人民出版社,2000.pletely with the invasion of European settlers. The establishment[3]王助.加拿大古等1中的些礎梅蒂爾人[U.世界民of the Govermment, the implemenlation of the combination of as-族,2003():中國煤化工simiation and suppression of cultural policy by the white, elimi-[4]張曄.《潛水TYHCNMH G北方論叢,2003():nated Indian culture step by step, only to remind that unusual98-101.296中外文學(xué)文化研究本欄目責任編輯:備芥莽