Introduction
It is ironical that the human race quest to create an ideal world through technological and scientific inventions and innovations have resulted in irreversible imperfections. Today, people crave for convenience and access to everything regardless of uncontrollable aspect like seasons. Unfortunately, this yearning often blinds people from realising the essence of preserving that which is natural thus enslaving them to things like a technology whose solutions upset nature is hence creating a myriad of problems. All these points converge at one notion that attempts to introduce even a figurative unreality into reality disconnects humanity from the land which negatively affects the existence of the human race. This concept is well-illustrated by Barry Lopez who counters the contemporary definition of truth as something factual and thus explicit. Lopez points out that our thoughts, beliefs and, perceptions which are summed up as internal landscape are shaped by our environment which he refers to as the external landscape. Therefore, the truth emerges when the two landscapes are aligned. Since it is impossible to align the two landscapes perfectly then several truths about a concept could exist. In other words, the human perception will always be limited and thus reaching a conclusion that is considered explicit is an impossibility. In this paper, Barry Lopez’s landscape criticism that brings out the author’s view of truth is used to analyse the major themes in there works; ‘The Lady with a Dog’ by Chekhov, ‘Good People’ by Wallace and, lastly ‘The Lesson’ by Bambara.
Discussion
Stories Overview and Main Themes
Different authors wrote the three short stories at different times. Since the authors’ work are influenced by the society that they live in and subjects that they have a personal interest in, it becomes apparent that writers from different geographical locations and times are likely to address the different matter. ‘The Lady with a Dog’ by Chekhov was created in Russia at the end of the 19th Century. The short story is centred on two lovers, Anna Sergeyevna and Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov who are having an affair. Anna has been portrayed as a young attractive and naïve woman who feels trapped in a loveless marriage.
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In contrast, Dmitri is a middle-aged womaniser who is unhappy with his marriage and thus takes comfort in a string of affairs. Dmitri believes that he despises the woman gender yet he confesses that he feels at ease in the company of women which is ironical given that he has dubbed them the ‘lower race’. Even though Dmitri gets into the affair lightly with the assumption that it is just a fling that will end like the ones that he previously had, he ends up falling in love with Anna. The illicit love becomes a point of self-realisation for Dmitri, a womaniser. Therefore, the main theme in the story is the confrontation of morality and understanding the meaning of life.
Chekhov’s theme does not resonate in ‘Good People’ by Foster Wallace which is a story about two young Christian lovers dealing with unwanted pregnancy. At the beginning of the story, it is quite obvious that the two characters are playing different roles in tackling an issue that affects both of them. Lane Dean seems to have shifted the whole burden of deciding whether to proceed with the abortion or not to his girlfriend, Sheri. By pulling back, Lane demonstrates a form of fear that reflects his immaturity. After seating at the picnic table for some time, the duo is forced to confront aspects like their true feelings towards each other as well as religion. Lane’s perception towards Sheri changes as he realises that he has the same responsibility towards the pregnancy as Sheri and he acknowledges his love towards the girlfriend. Wallace merges three themes love, religion and, family as his characters confront life from the three perspectives and strike a common ground depicting a rite of passage into maturity.
Lastly, Bambara’s story ‘Good People’ tells a story from a young girl point of view about life in the slums of New York. Sylvia and his friends have adopted tactics to enable them to cope with their lives in the slums. For Sylvia, the best strategy is to assume the know-it-all pose which allows her to be in control and thus she resents any other form of influence including Miss Moore, a college-educated African American left in the neighbourhood. Miss Moore is determined to educate the young generation and thus one day she organises a trip for the children to visit the toy store at the 5th Avenue. The purpose of this trip is to expose the children to live outside the slum. The children are surprised by the exaggerated prices of toys which make them realise the existence of the social, economic classes in their larger society. Bambara’s main theme is the existence of social, economic classes as well as the choices that the younger generations have to escape poverty.
Analysis
Even though the underlying messages of the three stories are different, a relationship becomes evident by examining them through the Barry Lopez landscape criticism perspective. In all the three stories, the main characters transform once they realise aspects within their environment that were previously unknown (Toner, 2014). For instance, in ‘Lady with a dog’ by Chekhov Dmitri is depicted as a typical sexist who views women as being inferior and thus the occasional flings that he engages in are for his sexual satisfaction. However, at the end of the story Dmitri realises that even though he considered himself young, his youthfulness was fading away and so will be that of Anna. This realisation occurs when he stands behind Anna in front of the mirror and notices his greying hair and fading appearance which contrasted with those of Anna who was still warm and young. As Lopez explains, the truth is only experienced one aligns the thoughts, i.e. internal landscape with the external landscape. This point is demonstrated in the case of Dmitri who notices that nature is taking its course as he is aging and thus he must hold onto the things that he values most in life. From this point, it can be inferred that the truth that comes out once the two landscapes have merged that is the reality in the external environment have ordered an individual thought counters the contemporary notions that culture often forces people to believe. In this case, this skewed concept is morality as the society condemns infidelity regardless of the circumstances. Therefore, Dmitri’s affair with Anna allows him to reflect on his life and appreciate the important things which mean that he undergoes a transformation and becomes a better man.
As mentioned before, the main theme in ‘Good People’ by Foster Wallace is the striking a balance between Religion, Family and, a love which allows one to transition into maturity. According to Lopez, the interior landscape which comprises of thoughts is the reflection of the exterior, and thus truth is mostly revealed in irony, paradox and, contradictions. Based on this view any perception that fails to consider the external landscape is a failure of one’s imagination meaning that there is no truth in pure politics, religion or science. In the story, ‘Good People’ the main characters are forced to confront their religion, feelings towards each other and, family. At the beginning of the story, Lane’s choice of not getting involved reflects his dilemma as he questions his love towards Sheri and his faith in Christianity. Therefore, Lane decides to remain ‘frozen’ which could be interpreted as detachment from reality. However, as the story proceeds he ‘unfreezes’ and realises that he loves Sheri and they both have a responsibility towards the pregnancy, so they join hands and pray for courage which indicates that they are willing to go through it together. As the story begins, Lane thinks that the decision to abort should be made by Sheri; a belief that he holds unto despite knowing that it is flawed. Alternatively, the assumption that Sheri has more responsibility to the pregnancy is unreal thus creating a disconnection between Lane and nature which negatively affects not only Sheri but Lane himself.
Lastly, ‘The Lesson’ by Bambara highlights a common subject that is social-economic differences in the American society. Even though minority communities such as African Americans seem disadvantaged as they occupy the low economic cluster, they have a choice to rise above the poverty. Sylvia and other children live in a slum, but they seem contended after all they do not know any other life other than that offered by their neighbourhood. Miss Moore understood that the children perception of life and their future would be limited to life in the slum which means that they were likely to end up living the same life as that of their parent or even worse. From Barry’s point of view, the truth about life known by Sylvia and the rest of the kids was that reflected the day to day activities of the slum. Therefore, the trip increased the children’s exposure; the changed in the external landscape was meant to influence their general view about life and challenge them to opt for a better life which will drive characters like determination and hard work (Carlson, 2010). In other word’s Miss Moore decided to take the children out of the normal environment served as a form of liberation by influencing internal beliefs, attitudes and, views which will affect the character.
Conclusion
In general, Barry Lopez Landscape criticism challenges the societal view of the truth by recognising the essence of the external environment in impacting a person’s thought process. Chekhov, Wallace and, Bambara acknowledges Lopez’s notion of the truth by demonstrating that a character’s reform is as a result of a realisation of certain aspects in the surroundings that influences a person’s thoughts and perception which ultimately affect the character. Based on the presented point, the major theme from the three stories can be summed up as change whereby the characters are going through situations that make them better people.
References
Carlson , D. (2010). Review: Walking the Two Landscapes. JSTOR , 334-340.
Toner, A. (2014). Landscape as Literary Criticism: Jane Austen, Anna Barbauld and the Narratological Application of the Picturesque. Critical Survey , 3-19. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24712586?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
