Margaret Lawrence Where The World Began Essay

Margaret Laurence’s “Where the World Began” is an essay focused on describing her most adored childhood memories while growing up in the apparent “dull, bleak, flat, uninteresting” plains of the Canadian Prairies (Laurence 58). However throughout her essay Laurence does not simply give depictions of her prairie birthplace or her childhood. She strategically uses these examples to help portray Canada and the astonishing affection she holds towards the nation. Through the intense details of Laurence’s prairie birthplace she describes the lively landscape, activities she once enjoyed, and the stories of the abnormalities that made her hometown energetic and alive. Laurence constantly poses the question, “how can a town so flourishing be considered

Confessing later in the essay that the place where her world began was “a small prairie town” (Laurence 58). The use of this initial thrilling explanation of her hometown shows that although many people would have a standard view of life on the prairies being “ dull, bleak, flat, and uninteresting” (Laurence 58). Laurence refutes these ideas saying that it was “never merely flat or uninteresting. Never dull” (Laurence 59). Thus summarizing how she sees the rest of Canada and the world through her small hometown

Growing up in these small town communities I always felt comfortable and content constantly having a large amount of outside space, and a variety of kids to play with. However as I grew into my teenage years playing outdoors and the creation of imaginary games came to an end, so did the fun idea of living in a small town. Due to the constant downgrading of the amazing northern areas done by my peers I too vacantly began to take for granted what all the northern small towns had to offer. I had set my mind on moving to Toronto for post secondary