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Kit's Wilderness
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From: Beth Wright <bethlibrarian>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 11:57:44 -0700 (PDT)
Contributors to CCBC-net have written about the pit mine in Kit's Wilderness as a metaphor for the battle between dark and light. I also saw it as a metaphor for the past. When Askew and Kit descend into the pit they are surrounded by ghosts and memories from the past, including children from the days of the mine's operation, but also as far back as prehistory with Lak and his baby sister, and as recent as Askew's own troubled past with his father. Extending the metaphor, only by going down into the pit (back into the past) and confronting what he finds there (his violent relationship with his father) can Askew come back out into the world (a less troubled life). The mines work on another level as well; many people consider mines to be open wounds on a landscape, the same way Askew's unhappy past is a wound on his soul. The wonderful thing about the pit mines and all the metaphors they suggest is, as Megan pointed out, they are perfectly natural to the setting -- an organic, unforced source of meaning and depth to the story. William Mayne's 1970 novel Ravensgill includes many of the same themes and metaphors, and is a great book to read along with Kit's Wilderness.
Beth Wright Youth Services Department Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont
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Received on Sun 30 Jul 2000 01:57:44 PM CDT
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 11:57:44 -0700 (PDT)
Contributors to CCBC-net have written about the pit mine in Kit's Wilderness as a metaphor for the battle between dark and light. I also saw it as a metaphor for the past. When Askew and Kit descend into the pit they are surrounded by ghosts and memories from the past, including children from the days of the mine's operation, but also as far back as prehistory with Lak and his baby sister, and as recent as Askew's own troubled past with his father. Extending the metaphor, only by going down into the pit (back into the past) and confronting what he finds there (his violent relationship with his father) can Askew come back out into the world (a less troubled life). The mines work on another level as well; many people consider mines to be open wounds on a landscape, the same way Askew's unhappy past is a wound on his soul. The wonderful thing about the pit mines and all the metaphors they suggest is, as Megan pointed out, they are perfectly natural to the setting -- an organic, unforced source of meaning and depth to the story. William Mayne's 1970 novel Ravensgill includes many of the same themes and metaphors, and is a great book to read along with Kit's Wilderness.
Beth Wright Youth Services Department Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com/
Received on Sun 30 Jul 2000 01:57:44 PM CDT
