Theme Of The Boat By Alistair Macleod

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Alistair MacLeod has a unique style of writing in the story, “The Boat”, which is composed of fairly simple words to present the reader with a smooth read. The context of the passage is witnessed in the eyes of the narrator, and it voices the dedication of his father; whom works diligently as a fisherman with his son following his footsteps. The excerpt from the story relates to the story as a whole since his father carried on the tradition of fishing at sea from previous generations - despite his appreciation for books, he gave up on his dreams for the sake of family heritage. MacLeod describes the father in the story with detail about what he was wearing “rubber-booted heel” (228), his age “sixty-five” (228), and also reveals facial features …show more content…

The theme of concurring through fear and believing in the light of success is tied to the personification because the father acknowledges that the voices he listens to have restricted him throughout his entire life, which has caused a battle of depression within himself. The symbol of desolation is displayed in the story; the father reaches a point where he can no longer live a life filled with misery, and therefore, commits suicide to escape his pain. MacLeod combines numerous coordinating conjunctions, specifically “and” (228), to join words together, and since it’s the narrator’s thoughts; it would be reasonable for the sentences to run-on longer. A simile in the sentence, “his blue eyes flashing like clearest ice beneath the snow that was his hair” (228), is to implicate an image for the readers of the father’s colorful eyes. At the beginning, there is color in the passage that shows his father is an ordinary man that has feelings and wants happiness. However, the next sentence, “his usually ruddy face was drawn and grey” (228), shows a shift in the atmosphere; considering there is no longer color in the setting. When the narrator describes his father working, the color in the scene disappears to show his hatred of being a

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