What stood out to me the most in Rebecca Harding Davis's The Yares of the Black Mountains were the references to nature and religion. As I will discuss tomorrow in my lead respondent, I discovered a strong parallelism between the mention of the environment and the mention of God. Between pages 254-256 lots of imagery is used to describe the scenery of the beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains. The widow, who is from New York is not used to such beauty and clarity in the environment. She begins comparing her relationship to nature to her relationship with God. On page 255 Davis writes, "She did not know the name of plant or tree or bird, but she felt the friendliness and welcome of the hills, just as she used to comforted and lifted nearer to God by distant church music, although she could not hear a word of the hymn." Here I can see the unknown of nature compared to the unknown of religion. The widow doesn't know much about the environment because she has not seen much of it but she is moved by what she feels. Similar to how she feels about God, she mentions that even though she couldn't hear the words of the hymns she was still moved by it. It's obvious that she finds hope and comfort in nature, also that she views it as powerful, which is why she is bringing her only son, all she has left, to the mountains to be cured from his illness.
There are many more significant references throughout the story, but you will have to stay tuned until tomorrow to hear the rest!!!
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This is a really good point about the reading. I noticed that the only time religion was talked about was when nature was mentioned, which you talk about in your blog. You made a good parallel between the widow not understanding nature like she doesn't understand God or religion. I think that this shows how the complexities of nature and God are sometimes hard to put into words. Can't wait to hear what else you have to say about this during your lead respondent!
ReplyDeleteI am really excited to hear about this parallel between god and nature that is quite intresting i am most waiting to here how you will unflod that in a class discussion.
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