In Wordsworth’s The Prelude he discusses the importance of imagination and nature in childhood in order to shape the human being. Jose, Opal and Billie Jo have all experienced nature and use their imaginations freely, which has shaped the people they are and are to become.
Jose's experiences relate to Wordsworth in section 9 lines 258-87 in which Wordsworth has his first encounter with the death of someone who drowned or committed suicide. This leads to his growing consciousness, as it adds to his experiences and other tragic events which occur in his environment. Like Wordsworth Jose also experiences death, the death of his friend Medouze and of his grandmother Ma Tine. His environment is already tragic in that everyone around him is barely making a living cutting sugar cane, and the only way to advance is to do well in school. Both Medouze and Ma Tine’s death remind Jose of the horrible lives they lived, and he becomes more conscious of the destitute the people and his village are experiencing. Jose plans to continue to work hard in school and use his imagination to continue to write the stories of his village.
