Quotes/Notes for Ploughing

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Quotes/Notes for Ploughing ‘mother’s face grew queer and questioning, her eyes far back on those springs, she might never see again, dear and blithe they had been’ – this shows that jean Guthrie does not really like her life anymore, she wishes that she could go back to better times.  The reason she doesn’t enjoy life anymore is because John Guthrie has changes so much – ‘the dourness hardened, hard and cold, in the heart of Jean Guthrie’s man’‘one night they heard her cry to John Guthrie – ‘“Four of a family is fine, there’ll be no more” and father thundered at her, that way he had “Fine?  We’ll have what God in his mercy may send to us, woman.   See you to that’ – jean hates childbirth, she has a terrible time with this, This also shows how religious John was, mainly due to his back ground – He thinks God should decide when they should have children as well as how many they have.  (Big families were normal at this time)‘ “Come over Jehovah” – Will cried to the horse, John Guthrie came ‘fleeting across the yard into the stable’ this is because he does not believe in this word being used, as it is like taking his makers name in vain.  The incident which then happens is – he hits Will and he fell below the feet of their horse, Bess the is bleeding ‘and then John Guthrie dragged his son aside an paid no more heed to him’ – this is almost like he cares more about the horse than his own son.  He then states ‘ “if I ever hear you use that word again, I’ll libb you.  Mind that.  Libb you like a lamb”’ – this show how violent and threatening he can be towards his children.The two Chris’s come up a lot in this section – ‘two Chris’s there were that fought for her heart and tormented her’ There is the English Chris, who is the one which wants to go on to further education and to the middle-class of a teacher at the moment it looks as though this one will prevail, and the Scottish Chris is the one which loves the land and beauty and
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sweetness of Scotland.  ‘Flowers of the forest’ – this is a lament about the soldiers, which went to Flodden and never returned, it is written from the point of view of a women and her husband does not come back it, had a great meaning to Chris, she first hears it when she is a child in Echt, it makes her want to cry, here she writes an essay about it significance of which her school masters approves.  Her first experience of childbirth ‘mother had an awful time as she’d always had.  She was sobbing and ill when she went ...

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