26 pages • 52 minutes read
Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Rawlings uses the isolated setting of the orphanage to echo The Different Kinds of Isolation. The remote location, deep in nature, affords scenes of great beauty. Descriptions of blooming wildflowers and colorful sunsets evoke feelings of happiness and warmth, as in this quote: “He liked the late spring, he said. The rhododendron was in bloom, a carpet of color, across the mountainsides, soft as the May winds that stirred the hemlocks. He called it laurel” (241). Such passages illustrate why the narrator might find the solitude conducive to artistic creation. However, the mountain environment isn’t always so benign. In the winter, harsh snows and bitter winds cut off the inhabitants of the orphanage from the world—a bleak image that suggests loneliness.
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By Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
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