""The furnace belched smoke and sparks into a sky thick with geese heading southward. Their honking sounded forlorn through the rumble of burning iron." (p. 65)
The geese are probably no more forlorn than usual - unless the smoke, sparks and rumbling bother them? But they sound forlorn to a human ear. Why? The furnace represents increased human domination of the environment. In particular, it is being used to produce guns because war with Europe is imminent. Technological destruction has been imported into the ancient world. Bad news. But we also see that the Nantucketers have a peaceful, thriving community when they are not having to fight the renegades. And what figure of speech is being deployed when the honking sounds forlorn?
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've been trying to determine which figure of speech is meant by the forlorn honking of the geese. Sadness? Sorrow?
And the Nantucketers were stranded in the past unable to use a lot of the technology they had known in 1998. But, they arrived with the knowledge of how it was POSSIBLE, they knew it could be done. Unlike their ancestors of the "original" timeline, they didn't have to fumble thru dead ends or mistake to arrive at things like the Bessemer method of making steel. That saved them generations and centuries of effort. True, that was true for their enemies and rivals as well!
Sean
Sean,
But it is the pathetic fallacy...
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I guess I was over thinking the matter! I don't suppose the geese felt or even could feel anything like being forlorn!
Sean
I think you're both over-thinking it. Whenever we hear the geese flying over my house, my daughter and I rush out to watch the great skeins stretching across the sky and to hear the wonderful (and yes, forlorn) honking as they pass over us. It's a truly lovely moment and one that we've shared numerous times since she was a small child (she's now 22 and still loves it).
Although we don't have them here in the UK, I ascribe a similar emotion to the evocative cry of the loon which we often hear in films. A wonderful sound, conjuring up all kinds of emotions.
Hi, Ketlan!
Thanks for the reminiscences about you and your daughter. Your view is that we should simply enjoy, without over analyzing it, things like the passing of flocks of geese (and their cries plus the cries of loons). A valid point!
Sean
Hi, Sean. I appreciate the fact that some readers analyze a text to extract more pleasure than appears on the surface, and I can well understand readers who enjoy the analysis. I do myself, sometimes. Most of the time though, I prefer to read something and take pleasure in the simplicity of reading the story and enjoying what the author has chosen to give me.
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