Register to read the introduction…
In escaping her current life, Maggie also leaves behind her best friend Nell, a representation of self-confinement comparable to Maggie’s own unintended self-confinement that results from her misplaced compassion by marrying Edward Vardoe. Maggie doesn’t leave Nell entirely behind though, the two women share a strong commonality in their respective self-awareness’. Nell’s act of sending her beloved swamp angel to Maggie is emblematic of the duo’s departure from isolation; at once, Nell eliminates the final barrier between herself and her daughter and Maggie is reminded that one may let go of the substance but it is the essence that is and must remain eternal. The center of consciousness narrative, one of many utilized by Wilson in the novel, is first portrayed through Maggie Vardoe’s perspective as she observes a flock of birds in the process of migration, symbolic of Maggie’s own imminent journey and her ability to submerge herself, and her consciousness, into the environment. Maggie’s compassionate nature is immediately evident as she worries about not being able to follow-through with leaving Edward if he were to fall ill, implying that she would be inclined to postpone her plans to leave until he was cared for and returned to good health. Despite Maggie’s compassionate nature she is simultaneously resentful toward Edward and the person she has become in his presence thinking to herself “I’m always unfair now, to Edward. I hate everything he does” and “I’m unfair to him in my heart always whatever he is doing, but tonight I shall be gone” (7). Wilson implements this shift to the first person narrative momentarily to reinforce the absolute necessity under which Maggie surrenders. After her beloved, Tom Lloyd, was reported “killed in action” combined with the passing of her father and tragic death of her daughter, Maggie had “tried to save herself by an act of compassion and fatal stupidity” (6) by marrying Edward Vardoe. In planning her escape Maggie secretly gains employment, making fishing flies – as her father taught her – and introduces herself “Lloyd” as “the word Vardoe died in her mouth” (4). Maggie is successful in her efforts to save the money required to leave Edward Vardoe as planned and immediately reclaims her identity as Mrs. Lloyd, in the cab, as she “leaned back in the car with a relief that made her for a moment dizzy” (11). Optimistic and revitalized after her first night out on her own, Maggie passes through the village of Hope, midway between city and wilderness, “she was so far now from what she had left behind her on Capitol Hill that she had no fear of being overtaken” (34) a key turning point in Maggie’s life.
…show more content…
Reassured by the fact that she had already ventured far enough to avoid any interruptions by Edward Vardoe, she is filled with a renewed sense of confidence as “Tom Lloyd’s own widow again” (34), and recognizes that leaving him in the manner she had was the only thing she could do for herself and had to do in order to pursue her lost happiness and regain a sense of purpose. She begins her pursuit by reuniting herself with the land and stays for three days at the Lake Similkameen cabins. She immediately lies down on the ground beside the “life giving river” where “time dissolved, and space dissolved” and “she was all but a child again” (36). Completely immersed in her environment, Maggie takes pleasure in the sight of a deer, admires the “elegant brownness” of a pine cone and then drinks of the water, an evocative christening complementing her mythic rebirth into the world; the world she longed for while trapped with Edward in Vancouver. Maggie, being a fly-fisherman, decides to cast her line across the “lively stream” and “she forgot – as always when she was fishing – her own existence” (36), but she jumps back to life the moment she feels the line pull and “she landed the fish, took out the hook, slipped in her thumb, broke back the small neck, and the leaping rainbow thing was dead” (37). In that moment, Maggie proves herself capable of, again, allowing her needs to take priority by easily taking the life of the pipefish to sustain her own existence.
Reassured by the fact that she had already ventured far enough to avoid any interruptions by Edward Vardoe, she is filled with a renewed sense of confidence as “Tom Lloyd’s own widow again” (34), and recognizes that leaving him in the manner she had was the only thing she could do for herself and had to do in order to pursue her lost happiness and regain a sense of purpose. She begins her pursuit by reuniting herself with the land and stays for three days at the Lake Similkameen cabins. She immediately lies down on the ground beside the “life giving river” where “time dissolved, and space dissolved” and “she was all but a child again” (36). Completely immersed in her environment, Maggie takes pleasure in the sight of a deer, admires the “elegant brownness” of a pine cone and then drinks of the water, an evocative christening complementing her mythic rebirth into the world; the world she longed for while trapped with Edward in Vancouver. Maggie, being a fly-fisherman, decides to cast her line across the “lively stream” and “she forgot – as always when she was fishing – her own existence” (36), but she jumps back to life the moment she feels the line pull and “she landed the fish, took out the hook, slipped in her thumb, broke back the small neck, and the leaping rainbow thing was dead” (37). In that moment, Maggie proves herself capable of, again, allowing her needs to take priority by easily taking the life of the pipefish to sustain her own existence.