Along with Kim’s previous blog entry, I also wish to respond to Olivia’s free-write concerning “The Country of Pointed Firs”. As I was reading, I too noticed how the element of time was a circling theme to the narrator’s story. Olivia comments on the pause of time within this society when explaining how “the pace and atmosphere of life is slowed down” on Dunnet Landing, and how the central characters “almost lived in the past because there was no rush to get to the future”. I really liked her phrasing of these two statements because they connect with how the older generations of people living in this society feel no need to connect to the modernization of the present moment. These characters have lived out the majority of their lifespan, encountering numerous adventures and experiences, so they neglect the need to search for any new mysteries to life. They have the stories of their past to hold on to, and through this tradition of story-telling (as Olivia points out), they can form cultural customs and ideals relating to the present society, while maintaining their personal relationships within their current lives.

Captain Littlepage even comments on this pause of time, when stating that the ship men believed that life right now “’twas a kind of waiting-place between this world an’ the next” (22). He seems to make an argument for the neglect of a future, because if the present condition of our life truly is just a waiting-place for the next world we are encountering, we might as well just sit back, relax, and wait for that moment. There is no need to worry about the outcome of our life in this world, since our past actions will have no effect in the next; we simply will just voyage on into another dimension of time as a new form of life.

Although reincarnation into a different world is not just the ending of one life, but the opening of another, I feel that Captain Littlepage’s theory of moving on can also connect to a closing of our past links in life. I form this connection through a small statement that the narrator makes, when she is leaving the island and the company of her friends, saying: “So we die before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to their natural end” (100). Although we may not have the knowledge of where our life is heading, or what type of future we are working towards, we are able to reflect on our past experiences and see when the different phases of our lives have reached their end. It’s interesting how individuals can change their lifestyle and alter their character in so many different ways, how we can see parts of our lives and selves actually ending, and how we purposely do nothing to stop this death from happening, so that we can make room for new chapters of existence to grow.