City and the Country in Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the specific features of the country portrayed in the short novel The Country of the Pointed Firs by the American regional author Sarah Orne Jewett in comparison with the city environment. The popularity of the local color movement was increasing during the era of the Industrial Revolution. Disillusionment of hard conditions brought by the new way of life in urbanized and overcrowded cities was one of the main reasons why thousands of readers were enthused to read about calm rural areas. The theoretical part introduces the Local Color movement together with the importance of Sarah Orne Jewett as one of the most significant New England authors of the 19th century. The analytical part deals with the specific features included in this novella, starting with the unusual usage of the narrator, followed by a women’s world of Dunnet Landing, ending with different dialects used in this book, the superstitions and the importance of community.