Do you know the feeling where you cannot enjoy the present and live in the past? Such a character is Lois from “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood, who survived her friend Lucy’s death as a child. The girls were walking in the camp’s highlands, and one of them fell off a cliff and was never found. The Canadian landscape reminds Lois of a terrible event from the past, including the purchased paintings partially recreating childhood times.
The natural setting in “Death by Landscape” matches Lucy’s psychological state on their last camp visit. The girl was from a wealthy family, but her parents were going through a divorce, which affected her mental well-being (Atwood 18). As a result, Lucy felt depressed and discouraged, which changed cheerfulness to silence and indifference. Hence, she was like the surrounding rocks and water bodies, which were also quiet and remote. The irony is that one of the hills was the last place where the girl was alive.
Lucy’s death influenced Lois’s physical and psychological self by dividing life into before and after. The woman had a husband and children, but all these achievements passed by without mental involvement (Atwood 22). It is essential to understand that most likely Lois felt guilty for the death of her friend due to insufficient attention to the deceased’s emotional state. Thus, the purchased paintings are a tribute to the memory that does not allow us to let go of the situation that happened.
The landscapes remind a nightmarish childhood event where Lucy fell off a cliff for unknown reasons. The pictures symbolize melancholy and depression, as do the natural wealth of Canada in the book. Atwood uses a description of emotions and represents the sensations that a person feels in a particular scene. Such themes, figurative language, and literary techniques convey Lois’s pain even many years later. Besides, “Death by Landscape” can serve as another reminder that friends’ suspicion of a psychological crisis should receive enough attention and treatment.
Work Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Death by Landscape. 1st ed., Difusion Centro de Invesigacion y Publicaciones de Idiomas S.L., 2015, pp. 1-48.