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Geography matters...

J
Joseph Brili

Geography plays an important role in literature, influencing various elements like plot, theme, and character development. Locations can be used symbolically, such as sending characters south to represent turmoil or north to represent purity. The geography of a work helps drive the story and gives historical and cultural context, as seen in books like The Old Man and the Sea and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where the settings are integral to the narratives. Overall, the document argues that an author's choice of location matters greatly and brings the reader to ideas beyond just setting.

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Chapter 19 Geography Matters...
Key Points It is important to ask where? when reading a literary work. Geography can be used for: Plot Theme Character development/character Writers send characters south to cause turmoil or happiness Low is swamps, darkness High is snow, purity, light
Quote Analysis #1 Geography in literature can also be more. It can be revelatory of virtually any element in the work. Theme? Sure. Symbol? No problem. Plot? Without a doubt.
Quote Analysis #2 Okay, not in every work, but frequently. In fact, more often than you think. Just think about the stories that really stay with you: where would they be without geography. The Old Man and the Sea can only take place in the Caribbean, of course, but more particularly in and around Cuba. The place brings with it history, interaction between American and Cuban culture, corruption, poverty, fishing, and of course baseball. Any boy and any older man might, I guess, take a raft trip down a river. It could happen. But a boy, Huck Finn, and an older man, the escaped slave Jim, and their raft could only make the story we know as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by being on that particular river, the Mississippi, traveling through that particular landscape and those particular communities, at a given moment in history. It matters when they reach Cairo and the Ohio empties into the big river; it matters when they reach the Deep South, because Jim is running away in the worst possible direction. The great threat to a slave was that he might be sold down the river, where things got progressively worse the farther south you went, and hes floating straight into the teeth of the monster.
Quote Analysis #3 So, high or low, near or far, north or south, east or west, the places of poems and fiction really matter. It isnt just setting, that hoary old English class topic. Its place and space and shape that bring us to ideas and psychology and history and dynamism. Its enough to make you read a map.
Examples Lord of the Rings Song of Ice and Fire Wuthering Heights Lord of the Flies

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Geography matters...

  • 1. Chapter 19 Geography Matters...
  • 2. Key Points It is important to ask where? when reading a literary work. Geography can be used for: Plot Theme Character development/character Writers send characters south to cause turmoil or happiness Low is swamps, darkness High is snow, purity, light
  • 3. Quote Analysis #1 Geography in literature can also be more. It can be revelatory of virtually any element in the work. Theme? Sure. Symbol? No problem. Plot? Without a doubt.
  • 4. Quote Analysis #2 Okay, not in every work, but frequently. In fact, more often than you think. Just think about the stories that really stay with you: where would they be without geography. The Old Man and the Sea can only take place in the Caribbean, of course, but more particularly in and around Cuba. The place brings with it history, interaction between American and Cuban culture, corruption, poverty, fishing, and of course baseball. Any boy and any older man might, I guess, take a raft trip down a river. It could happen. But a boy, Huck Finn, and an older man, the escaped slave Jim, and their raft could only make the story we know as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by being on that particular river, the Mississippi, traveling through that particular landscape and those particular communities, at a given moment in history. It matters when they reach Cairo and the Ohio empties into the big river; it matters when they reach the Deep South, because Jim is running away in the worst possible direction. The great threat to a slave was that he might be sold down the river, where things got progressively worse the farther south you went, and hes floating straight into the teeth of the monster.
  • 5. Quote Analysis #3 So, high or low, near or far, north or south, east or west, the places of poems and fiction really matter. It isnt just setting, that hoary old English class topic. Its place and space and shape that bring us to ideas and psychology and history and dynamism. Its enough to make you read a map.
  • 6. Examples Lord of the Rings Song of Ice and Fire Wuthering Heights Lord of the Flies