In C.E. Morgan’s All
the Living, it can be difficult to
tell where the land ends and the characters begin. The land shapes the lives of
the characters, and their identities can revolve around it as well. Through the
format of the novel and the setting being described like a person, and vice
versa, the land feels never-ending and inescapable.
In the novel, Morgan
does not use quotation marks. The dialogue is not set apart from the descriptions,
which gives the scenery and the people an equal sense of importance. Without
quotation marks to catch the reader’s eye, everything looks the same. It also causes
the dialogue to come across like no one is really speaking because it loses the
sense of action and just seems like another description. The novel is quiet,
just like settings in the novel are described as quiet or silent. For example,
when Aloma first arrives on the farm the “breezeless day was silent” (Morgan
4). Additionally, there are no chapters, so the novel feels sprawling, like how
the land is often described through phrases like “a long view of the back property,”
“far below,” and “into the distance” (Morgan 5). The format of the book mirrors
the descriptions of the land in the novel, showing how much of a pervasive
force the land is in the novel—even the style of the novel itself is not safe.
Morgan
also personifies, or just uses descriptors usually indicative of personhood, the land and other inanimate objects that make
up the setting. For example, the pews in the church were described as “dirty
blond” (Morgan 71). Also, at the beginning of the novel, “the bottomland yawned
into view” (Morgan 3). The sky was later described as looking “like the palm of
a great empty hand” (Morgan 187). These description paint a clear picture of
the dirty, run-down, lacking, lethargic world Aloma lives in, while also imbuing
the setting with human traits. These human traits make the land like its own character.
Characters
are also described like landscapes. When Aloma was looking at Orren, she “saw
the knobby ridgeline of his Adam’s apple” (Morgan 51). Bell was characterized
by “the gravel of his voice” (Morgan 128) and “the blackish curls there and the
white scalp beneath like snowy ground peeking through brush” (Morgan 70). The land
is demonstrated to be part of the people. By describing people like places, and
places like people, the two become almost interchangeable. This shows the
connection that exists in the novel between the characters and the setting.
The
land affects the format and the characters in the novel. Setting is an integral
part of the story, and Morgan uses these various techniques to represent that. The
characters and setting blend together, and the distinction between the two
categories is blurred. This demonstrates the power the land has over the characters’
lives, which is communicated through the story through the rain or Aloma’s inability
to leave.
Allyson,
ReplyDeleteI love how your post well encapsulates the overarching theme of nature in this novel. One of the first things I also noticed while reading this book was the lack of quotation marks distinguishing speech from thoughts and descriptions. An all-seeing narrator shows not only the actions of each of the characters, but also highlights the traits of the land. From the beginning of the book, the arching mountains and veering cliffs set the stage for a lonely and confining experience as Aloma grows up in rural Kentucky. However, the land and its fruits create the livelihoods of the other characters in her community. When comparing his own farm to that of the Fenton’s, the man at the feed store is quick to note that his is “just about the biggest place. Tobacco, mostly,” he explains that the farm work is what brings him the most income (141). Not only does a large, productive farm warrant bragging rights in their community, though. It is something tended to and nurtured that men devote entire days to, just as Orren does through his time in the old house.
Likewise, the land can be the resting grounds for death, and this is evident when Bell shows Aloma the cemetery in the town, saying, “This is my favorite place” (139). Graves are sites that people rest in peace for the rest of their lives, but they are also visited by the people celebrating their memory and keeping their vitality alive in spirit. The land connects the living to dead and the organic to inanimate.
The idea of setting transcending just location is interesting, considering not only the characters of the story are paralleled in their land, but the relationships are also paralleled in their lands. This is best seen in Aloma and Orren’s relationship. At the start of Aloma and Orren’s relationship, they spend all of their time together exploring the unknown area surrounding Aloma’s mission school. Their relationship corresponds to this as they remain unknown to each other shown when Aloma states “But even as she grasped at him ever tighter with her hands, allowing him no distance at from her chest, she sense that she was merely knocking at the door of his flesh” (Morgan 109). Even though they were physically close, much like their surroundings they were unknown. Once on the farm the increasingly unhospitable land matches the relationship between Aloma and Orren. The drought, hostile rain, and scorching heat during harvest are respective to their small bickers growing into large arguments. Their arguments escalate from small miscommunications growing into very heated arguments ending in yelling and very near violence and resulting in the silent treatment. The deterioration of their land mirrors the deterioration of the relationship between Aloma and Orren.
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