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Contemporary English Speaking

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Published in: English
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Give an interpretation of Margaret Atwood’s short story “Death by Landscape.”

Madhusudan N / Delhi

16 years of teaching experience

Qualification: M.A (University of Delhi - [DU], New Delhi - 1992)

Teaches: Accent Training, English, Hindi, Bank Clerical, Business English, Corporate Communication, Effective Communication, IELTS, Public Speaking, Spoken English, ACT Exam, PSAT

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  1. 2015 Interpretation of Margaret Atwood's short story "Death by Landscape,' The Contemporary English-Speaking World Give an interpretation of Margaret Atwood's short story "Death by Landscape." Created by Maxsudan Tutor 10/12/2015
  2. Author's Introduction Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Margaret Atwood is one of today's leading fiction writers. She studied at the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College, becoming a lecturer in English literature. Today I have an opportunity to interpret one of her great works of fiction "Death by Landscape". As reading is one of my hobbies so I decided to go through this novel in entire. It was really an interesting novel and as per my understanding I would like to interpret my thoughts here. Atwood's short story The story is about 2 girls in their early teens who attend a three year summer camp in northern Ontario. The camp was named as Camp Manitou. Lois went on a canoe trip when she was just fourteen. Most girls of her age whose parents could afford such camps routinely packed off their girls to such camps, which bore a generic resemblance to one another. This canoe trip was to be a long one, into the trackless wilderness. It was Lois's first canoe trip, and her last. Lois is portrayed as a middle-class Canadian, somewhat uninteresting whereas Lucy is portrayed as a wealthy Chicago girl who hails from a family possessing glamour and mystique. These two girls sustain the friendship during the winters, which both girls feel kind of a sisterhood relationship. The camp was headed by Cappie who happened to be the owner and the administrator to manage the camp. She was in her forty's and had a fawn colored hair that looked as if it was cut with a bowl. She had a over washed skin and stringy neck. She was always happy, sure of herself, her plain face almost luminous. She wanted to cause joy always. She had a good hold over the camp and she knew Lois since she was nine years of age. At Cappie's camp the children learned to sail and swim well, and paddle a canoe, and perhaps ride a horse or play tennis. When you weren't doing these things you could do Arts and Crafts, make bracelets made of colored braided string. At the camp Manitou there were many things that Lois didn't like much at all. She hated girls making loud sounds at the dining hall, rowdy songs being sung loud with craze and madness dancing all over the hall and floor. She always hated writing dutiful letters to her family on fortnights to show that she was having a gala time. She never liked to be there for such a long period but she always quite knew that huge money has been paid for this camp. The rooms were so small to accommodate more than seven other girls. She never liked to undress herself in front of other girls, though nobody cared about what others do. During nights she always felt very lonely and missed her mother every time. She experienced some of the girls crying at night having gone through the nightmares and some snored due to bad nose
  3. and sometimes there were instances the girls used to wet their beds. She was afraid of heights and many times she got home sick. It was altogether a different feeling the day she became friends with Lucy. She became one of the best friends in this summer camp though she had many good winter friends out their when she was at home. Lois always helped Lucy as she was just ten. She somehow arranged her bed in the top bunk right above her, to keep an eye on her always. She started liking Lucy as she was exceptionally well behaved. Lois knew that Lucy belonged to a decent family and she was from Chicago USA. That they had in-house maid and Lois family could afford to have a cleaning lady twice a week. They were both very teens' at a time when this was thought in their letters they pretended to be sisters or even twins. Lois always had a strain a little over this, because Lucy was so blond, with fair skin and blue eyes like a doll's, and Lois was just the ordinary, tallish, thinness, brownish person with freckles. They signed their letters LL, with the Lis twisted together like the monograms on a towel. During their summer camps Lois and Lucy behaved so normal and acted as they were real sisters but when they were off the camp they only wrote letters once or twice. When they met on their next summer camp it was kind of real shocking for each other. Lois was surprised to see Lucy as she had now grown too matured. Lois noticed that Lucy reacted more lazy, slow and languorous. She was more pensive hard to wake up early in the morning. She remembers the day in the camp when the entire crew went for canoeing and they all had good fun and enjoyment. This time they didn't had the horse riding fun. They all stopped at noon for a small swim and some packed lunch. At last in the evening they reached a spot with birch and decided for an overnight campsite. Lois and Lucy made the camp fire and the rest performed other activities. As the sun went down and everyone in the crew had their part of supper, it was time to get into their tents. Lois and Lucy weren't interested to step into the tents and requested Kip and Pat to allow them to slip in their sleeping bags. Somehow Kip agreed and allowed the two girls to be own their own as she knew that they were old hands. In their sleeping bags they were now enjoying the moments of being alone and talked about their experiences and memories. The lake in the morning was nice and calm. The sun started to grow hotter as they day passed by. The crew decided to stop for lunch at the next campsite named Lookout Point. The site itself was down near the water on a flat shelf of rock and sheer cliff. As the other members were busy preparing their lunch Lois and Lucy decided to make the climb anyway. They didn't want to hang around waiting for the lunch. They informed Kip that they would just climb around the rock and would be back shortly. Kip was okay with their idea as she knew that both were old timers and old hands. They walked up the path which was dry earth and rocky with pink grey boulders jagged with edges. The forest seemed too dry and the sun blazing very hot over head. They reached up on a steep rock sweating all over. They sat on a gingerly scorching hot rock few feet away from the steep edge which drops into the lake with nothing to propel but their arms. Lucy was very excited looking down at the edge and said it is very deep down here. Lois was always frightened of the heights and she merely closed her eyes and walked a bit away from the site. Lucy knew that Lois always feared from the heights so she tried to be a bit mischievous and tried to pull her towards the cliff. Lois was frieghtened and she yelled and stepped back. But then Lucy said they she would like to pee. Lois knew that Lucy was adept in peeing in the
  4. woods. So she handed her the toilet papers so that she don't spoil her hands. Lois stood up and started to walk back down the path, to be out of sight. As Lois walked down and waited for Lucy to come back after her peeing, she looked at her watch it was quite a time now. She should have by now come back. She called her twice but as there was no noise from the other end, she was now a bit surprised. She thought may be Lucy is still trying to play around and not responding to her call. She called her again but as there were no responses from her she climbed up again and she saw no one over the cliff. She climbed further up laid down to see if she could find Lucy. Panic was rising over her head and she could hear her own heart. She looked all over around again but she could find no one except her heavy breath and fear. She now understood that there's something very bad has happened. She ran down the patch, stumbling with her breath going very fast, she was too frightened and was crying all the way down. She was feeling terrible, guilty and dismayed as if she committed some big crime. As she reached the campsite she started shouting and yelling and told Kip and Pat that Lucy has disappeared. Kip and Pat went up to look out and they searched and called and blew whistles thinking if she would respond, but nothing happened. It was really a shocking moment for all. Kip and Pat asked Lois to explain everything from the beginning. She explained every moment. They all spent their night wishing if they could hear some movement or sound from the woods nearby. They took the canoes and searched the base of the cliff peered down the water there were no sound of splash, nothing at all. It seemed as she simply vanished into air. In the morning the police and the shepherded dogs arrived and they searched every nooks and corner, but it yielded no results. Lois was by now very traumatized with pain and sorrow. She was now feeling so numbed as if she has drowned. She was questioned several times by everyone and she had only one true story that she could narrate. She was now feeling so alone that she was longing for her parents to come and get away from this site as soon as possible. Lois now is a grown up married and have two kids, but she still lives not one life but two lives. Her own and another shadowy life that haunts her and would not let her live the real life. Every day she goes through a trauma and thinks what would have happened if Lucy had not stepped away and disappeared from time. Lois has collected some seven paintings of landscapes and hangs them over the wall of her big house. She feels that Lucy is still alive somewhere in the paintings, as everyone has to be somewhere and it's the painting that Lucy exists. The story at the end tells up that Lois has kept Lucy alive in her imagination.

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