The novel "As for me and my house" by Sinclair Ross.

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In the novel “As for me and my house” by Sinclair Ross the nature, wilderness and weather are very present. Sinclair Ross gives more life to his characters by using the climate and weather. He emphasizes the way they feel on their inside and their different attitudes toward their lives. The climate and weather are always present whispering to the reader what the character’s attitudes really are, the way they are really feeling. Climate and weather are used by Sinclair Ross to represent the dark and bad side of our society.

 

The different characters in the novel, all have different attitudes towards nature and wilderness. Phillip Bentley, his wife, Paul, El Greco and Judith West all have a different perception of nature and wilderness and this perception really shows how they are in the inside. Those various attitudes really describe what they want and what their fundamentals characteristics are.

 

Always in the house and sometimes roaming around in the garden. El Greco is the dog of the family. But he never goes too far towards the prairie. His masters would never let him: “He was a wolfhound; we should have let him live like one”(1) For El-Greco his life was comparable to a life in a prison with two guards always watching him and never letting him go far or escape. El-Greco is a wild animal. His original habitat is the wilderness. When he goes with Mrs. Bentley to see the moon rise, he starts howling at it: “…and when it was well above the horizon he went off and howled at it …”(p.169) For him, he lives in a fake world where everything is artificial and without meaning. That’s why from time to time he tries to run away and go to the prairie. The house of his masters isn’t his place. He wants to go where he really belongs. But again, his masters won’t let him go. Because he, after being domesticated, can’t go back in the wilderness, the wolves would kill him. Maybe knowing this, El Greco feels powerless. He wants to go but inside maybe he is scared of what could happen. Ignorant about this, El-Greco can’t control his need anymore and decides to go. El-Greco the day after is found dead.

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Paul, friend of the family, is a teacher in a school. He is educated and very knowledgeable. Mrs. Bentley and Paul are kind of close. His personality attracts her. He is sweet and gentle unlike her husband Philip. So sometimes, Philip gets jealous of him. Paul follows the rules at the letter, justice and law. Paul is not made nature, but he defies it. He is defiant of the wilderness. Even though he knows that the nature and wilderness are a no trespassing zone, his education, his principles and knowledge makes him in a way stronger than those natural ...

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