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Sunset Song By Lewis Grassic Gibbon Sparknotes

1697 Words7 Pages

The following essay is a social analysis of the character of Chris Guthrie in Sunset Song written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Chris Guthrie is a character who possesses many other admirable qualities alongside her independent thoughtfulness; including her confidence, resilience, sensitivity and sexuality to name but a few. The main and recurring theme throughout this novel is that of change, and Gibbon cleverly depicts this theme through the eyes of the character Chris Guthrie. Gibbon uses advanced symbolism to portray these qualities to the reader and to explain the character's development process from childhood to adulthood. In Sunset Song, Chris Guthrie is introduced as a fifteen year old Scottish peasant girl living in the small Scottish …show more content…

Like many young girls, Chris was of the opinion that she ought to follow her mother's way of living. However she also felt a duty to listen and obey her father's instructions. Torn between two opposing paths Gibbon uses this to show the reader how Chris had two conflicting sides to her character; an aspect many readers may be able to empathise with. Primarily, Chris had a passion for land and the farm life through her relationship with her mother, Jean Guthrie. In a bid to link Chris's life with the land, Gibbon divides the middle of the novel (The Song) into sections; Ploughing, Drilling, Seedtime and Harvest, each section is symbolically represents of a specific stage in Chris' life. She had developed a close bond to the farming way of living and highly valued the fact that the farm was the most important aspect in their lives: 'The land was forever, it moved and changed below you, but was forever, you were close to it and it to you, not at a bleak remove it held you and hurted you.'1 Chris's close relationship with her mother is representative of her closeness to the land; Gibbon uses this notion to introduce the impact the land has on Chris's character and explains the way she finds safety and solace in it in times of need or

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