St Johns Ravenscourt School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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land,” gave it an inhuman, primeval look.” . . . Over Prairie Trails , and to a lesser extent, Fruits of the Earth , reveal much of Frederic Phillip Grove. Says Malcolm Ross: Here, too, is the portrait of a man; over those lonely trails Grove, always in search of himself, for once found himself.” In Fruits of the Earth , Grove uses the omniscient author technique; therefore he can constantly insert opinions. Also, Grove may, at some points, be identified with Abe. Thus, both books tell much about their author. Over Prairie Trails says a great deal about Grove’s background, mostly from references the book makes. Also this: I have lived in southern countries, and I have travelled rather far for a single lifetime. The Southern Cross is no strange sight to my eyes. I have slept in the desert close to my horse, and I have walked on Lebanon. I have cruised on the seven seas and seen the white marvels of the ancient cities.” Grove was, to his account, a man of the world. DOUG MacKAY FORM V UPPER Emopti {me d JLitewuf Compmiofi bduam Olwa GoUinuil ' i Sk Stoopi to todfM, k Ifrrnikd (JilLujt, md k (Jim o{ Mokjceld Oliver Goldsmith was a writer who appealed to the mass of people because of his farcical comedy, his amusing anecdote and his heartwarming experiences. He wrote in a simple, straightforward style which few writers can duplicate. The Vicar of Wakefield , his major novel, She Stoops to Conquer, his major play, and The Deserted Village , his major poem, have many simi¬ larities with regard to form, content, style, and plot. In The Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith uses beauty of imagery, tenderness of feeling, delicacy and refinement of thought, and a matchless purity of style. These state¬ ments are illustrated by the poor Dr. Primrosewhen he is gathering around him the wrecks of his shattered family and he is endeavouring to rally them back to happiness: The next morning the sun arose with peculiar warmth for the season; where, while we sat, my youngest daughter at my request joined her voice to the concert on the trees about us. It was in the place my poor Oliver first met her seducer and every object served to recall her sadness. But that melancholy which is excited by objects of pleasure, or inspired by sounds of harmony, soothes the heart instead of corroding it”. . . . The Deserted Village is Goldsmith’s nostalgic recollection of his boyhood days. These melancholy r ecollections were awakened by his brothers death. The Deserted Village embodies Oliver’s recollection of his brother and it gives in an artless, but consummate way, romantically simple pictures of a happy rural com¬ munity from which the peasants are emigrating because of the encroachments of the new industrial order. It also gives sweet pictures of the chief characters such as the pastor, the old man, and the school master. This poem has a sympathetic social outlook towards the poor peasants, Goldsmith’s contrasts his brother’s quiet life in the village with his restless, vagrant career: Remote from the town he ran his godly race, Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change his place.” She Stoops To Conquer is a full blooded farce comedy of an amusing incident. Unlike the domestic themes of the previous plays, She Stoops To Conquer was written to amuse the audience. This play attacks the humourless sentimentality of the previous plays with its ridiculous incidents, its sketchy characterization, its comic humour, its brisk action, and its naturally- spirited dialogue. The basic of the play is sound be¬ cause many young men of this time became dashing cavaliers before women of a lower class. This play has simplicity of character, plot, and theme. Goldsmith manipulates incidents well to keep the play moving quickly and realistically. He gives the characters fast-moving, interesting, and realistic dia¬ logue: The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any time.” Goldsmith builds the play up with a succession of incidents and he concludes the play by solving all the problems that arose from these incidents. . . . Each of these three pieces of writing has universal ap¬ peal. The universal appeal of The Deserted Village comes not from its ethical or political lesson, but from its sweet and tender flow of rhythm and its firm hold upon the ever-fresh common-places of human nature. The Deserted Village presents those qualities of sympa¬ thy and description which are truly Goldsmith’s. The universal appeal of She Stoops To Conquer comes from its absolute success at being a comical, amusing, and thoroughly-entertaining comedy of real people, real situations, and real times. The secret of The Vicar of Wakefield ’s universal popularity comes from its truth to nature. . . These three pieces of Oliver Goldsmith’s writing will remain forever as immortal pieces of litera¬ ture because of their universal appeal and the out¬ standing way in which they are written. PETER SHEEN FORM V UPPER

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Voidt It is this afluent age Is that man’s undoing Nothing corrupts like success Rome proved that in 410. When he struggles This beast is noble Like the wild animals He stands pure, happy. He sets his sights and works Towards the aim. In hard toil and great sweat Happy in striving. But soon he cannot work Jobless. He used to worry about leisure Once Now there is to much, the dole feeds him Useless Life without living, life without pleasure Hopeless. Machines that send us to rendezvous with the stars Machines that make things far better than men Machines that think quicker than men by far Machines are killing the happy toil of men. Oh where is the machine That gives the world happiness? JOHN NANSON FORM VI Emrfti fmt, a Gontflmio i ojf JwU off tU Eo dk mi Om 7Wwe In this essay I will endeavour to compare Fruits of the Earth with Over Prairie Trails in relation to the basic elements of fiction, and later, to show what the first book, Over Prairie Trails , sheds light on in the later novel Fruits of the Earth. Over Prairie Trails was written by Frederic Phillip Grove in the fall of 1918 and the spring of 1919- Fruits of the Earth was written much later and was, in fact, the last of his prairie novels. It was first published in 1933, eleven years after the publishing of Over Prairie Trails. The two books are basically very different in that Over Prairie Trails is not a work of fiction, whereas Fruits of the Earth is. The first book is a collection of seven true accounts of trips made by Grove to see his family, while he was teaching thirty-four miles away in a different Manitoba town. The second book, the novel, is the tale of a farmer carving a life for himself and his family on the prairie at the turn of the century. This great difference in form sets the two books in very different categories. This must be realized before any contrast or comparison can seem to be comprehensive. The main character in Fruits of the Earth is Abraham David Spalding, who in no way symbolizes Grove. Over Prairie Trails is autobiographical, leav¬ ing Grove as its main character. The two characters are very different, however. Abe Spalding represents primitive man or humanity as a whole, and Grove is not a fictional character. . . Both Over Prairie Trails and Fruits of the Earth are set on the Manitoba Prairie, and both take place in the early 1900’s. Fruits of the Earth has two dominant moods, which are largely governed by the plot: the first is an atmosphere of rising success; the second, which prevails following Abe’s favorite son, is one of steady decline. Ove JPrairie JHails has several moods, ranging from physical pain and difficulty, to wide-eyed wonder, to urgency. Each account has its own prevailing atmosphere. Apparent in both books, however, is the never-ending battle between the two main characters and the environ¬ ments. Abe fought the land to earn a living; Grove fought the elements on his trips. . . . Over Prairie Trails sheds a great deal of light on things employed and mentioned in Fruits of the Earth . Most important of all, it illuminates clearly, and in plain language, some of the symbolism in Fruits of the Earth . This illumination is especially obvious with regard to the setting of Fruits of the Earth . In constructing the symbols for that novel, Grove needed a primeval setting for his strong farmer, Abe Spalding, who was to represent primitive man or mankind. He chose the Western Canadian prairie. The proof of the entire symbolism is given in Over Prairie Trails. On page fifteen of Over Prairie Trails . Grove numbers him¬ self among the few” who think this backwoods bushland (to be) God’s own earth and second only to Paradise.” Grove states that he moved to the prairies because he wanted the simpler, the more elemental things, things cosmic in their associations, nearer to the beginning or end of creation.” What could be more clear? In recounting the fourth trip, Grove says that the snow, lying smoothly on the

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Ok tfouji %mk, Get Set, Go! The silence is broken by the sounding of a hundred feet as every runner bursts across the starting line. The course is three miles in length. It cuts across ploughed fields, up and down steep fields, through streams, bogs and marshes and sometimes along old roads. The mob of runners go into a sprint for about the first hundred yards. After this, the top runners fall into line, one behind the other with the lead man setting the pace. After the first mile there is a string of twenty runners spaced at unequal distances with a group of fifty away behind and the leader away ahead. As the runners come to the first obstacle, a barbed wire fence, many runners drop out because of cuts and gashes caused by been pushed on to the sharp barbs of fence, or been trampled on. The race goes on for a half mile across a plowed field. The pace of the runners slows down considerably. The soft, loose earth is ex- tremly difficult to move through. This is the real test and many of the runners drop out here. Those who cross the field find their feet, each five pounds heavier because of the mud caked on the bottom of their shoes. Out on to a hard flat stretch of pasture for two hundred yards, then down a step hill into a stream where many of the contestants finish the race, up the bank and along side it for a quarter of a mile more, back across the stream, up a slight ridge and over a fence on to an old trail. The race is almost over. Many of the runners have torn shorts and shirts. They are covered in mud, some are bleeding from cuts received while crossing fences. Soaked from the waist up and dripping with perspira¬ tion, runners press onward, many of them going on sheer determination alone. Their months of valuable training will pay off at last. Their hours of running, five miles a day, running through the parks, golf courses and along the river banks in their community. This is the time they can begin to appreciate their top physical condition. Half a mile from the finish line the pace of the race picks up again. The leader knows the end is near. He has got to hold his place. Behind him he can hear the dull pounding of feet. He has got to keep calm: he has got to remember not to panic and go to fast. Such a move might cost him the race. The last quarter mile is across another stream up on to a huge ridge, and three hundred yards across a flat stretch of ground to the finish line. As the runners come over the ridge, they break into a sprint for the finish line. This is it! The winner rushes into the shoot, gasping and pant¬ ing for air. He staggers over to the side lines to greet those whom he has beaten, with a hand shake. For the rest of the day most of the competitors will be able to do little else, but they all feel that the excitement and challenge of cross-country running is worth it. BOB DUNSTAN FORM IV UPPER ' Relujm - What it %e m to tfouth In the course of growing up, youth asks many questions and receives countless answers to them. It is a very confusing period of life because new ideas are constandy being introduced, and the old ones modified or discarded. This flux has reached its peak in the world of today. Every day, man increases his knowledge and tries to impart this to the younger generation. In this modern world with the emphasis on all things new,” how does something as old as the hills” stand up? Some form of religious ceremony has been with man as long as he has existed. It might have been the wor¬ ship of the moon, the sun or the stars, the earth, animals, or even another man. Man had to put his faith in something and choose whatever suited him best. He usually worshipped things he could not under¬ stand such as lightning or fire and gave the credit of these unknown phenomena to some mysterious creature or God. As time progressed, religion was adapted to take in explanation of everything around man. Life was just one big symbol. As before, religion was a vast source of information about the unknown and supernatural, but there were even more ideas about it. Instead of just governing the world around him, it was thought God could control man. This gave religion a new light. It offered the people security and freedom from their worries and desires. All was taken care of. If you put your faith in this God you would live a good life after death. In different areas of the globe, the great God was called by various names and worshipped in various ways. Each society worshipped the way they thought best, be it blood-sacrifice or prayer. Out of different and varied means of religions, other branches grew and matured and either lived or died out. In today’s world, youth is more demanding than it has ever been before, and it desires to know more about the subject into which it is putting its faith. Nowadays, in the highly commercialized world, it is common knowledge that you do not put your faith into something you do not and cannot understand. A lot of questions youth asks cannot be answered. Even the most learned theologists do not have all the answers. Yet while few advances are made in this field of theology, science has made great steps in the gain-