Setting-jemima

'A gathering light' is set in the early 18th century (1906), in North Woods, rural America. North woods was also known to tourists as Ho De Ron Da, which is the Indian or native Americans name. The setting of the story flips alternately every other chapter, the first chapter will be set at Mattie home on the farm and the other chapter will be based at Glenmore where she works, the story eventually merges together at the end and we see how the story ends. The first half of the story is set at her Mattie's family home, a farm in rural country land. Her life is full of hard work, milking cows, plowing felids and feeding her family, school, friends and reading all have to fit around this. The hard work in this setting effects how Mattie and the people in north woods live, without modern machinery everything was done by hand and everything took twice as long. Mattie and her family of 4 sisters and father live in an old wooden house on their farm, the sisters all go to local school, the school has one class and a good teacher but resources are hard to come across. Mattie is very lucky that she has a good teacher, miss Wilcox, miss Wilcox inspires her to aim for college in New York, which is an event happening though out the book, this school setting effects Mattie and her friend weaver to attend high school in New York later in the book. The second Half of the story is set at Glenmore, a holiday hotel for rich tourists, Glenmore is situated on the edge of one of the four Great Lakes, which in the book is known as fourth lake. Mattie works as a maid at Glenmore to help support her family, while working at the Glenmore, Chester Gillette, a visitor at the glenmore commits the murder of grace brown on the lake and Mattie who has acquired Grace Brown, the victims, letters which Grace asked her burn before she was murded. Her curious nature is tempted to find out the true story and read these letters. During this time era there was little rights for woman. Woman were still expected to raise a family and were expected to obey men. After the death of Mattie's mother, Mattie was expected to raise or look after the other sisters, modern machinery and time was not on her side, as raising a family in this era was backbreaking and time consuming work, leaving very little time for creativity or leisure let alone Mattie's school work. So overall the setting and era Mattie lived in was a hard one but it is described as beautiful and scenic for those who had time enough to enjoy it.

My first physical setting is the glenmore, Mattie describes this setting on page 1, while she is standing on the porch looking out at the scenery and trying to divert her mind from the recent murder of Grace Brown, at this point of the story, no one knows where Chester and Grace have gone and they are feared drowned, no one knows the actual reason for the missing couple. Mattie describes the setting as 'so vast and brilliant that you can't help but stop what you're doing' pg1. Here is her description of the glenmore at the space and moment of time:

'When summer comes to North Woods, time slows down. And some days it stops all together. The sky, grey and lowering for most of the year, becomes an ocean of blue, so fast and brilliant you can't help but stop what you're doing- pinning wet sheets on the line maybe, or shucking a bucket of corn on the back steps- to stare up at it. Locusts whir in the birches, coaxing you out of the sun and under the boughs, and the heat still the air, heavy and sweet with the smell of balsam. As I stand here on the porch of the Glenmore, the finest hotel on all of Big Moose Lake, I tell myself that today- Thursday, July 12, 1906- is such a day. Time has stopped, and the beauty and calm of this afternoon will never end' page 1 Through out the novel Mattie describes glenmore as a fancy and beautiful place to be. Although it hides many secrets... Although it hides many secrets...

My second setting is Minnie's house, Minnie is Mattie's long time friend, although Minnie is now married and not at school, Mattie always try to find time to visit her. Minnie lives down an old dirt road on rural country land much like Mattie. 'Halfway down the turnoff - a dirt road that was corduroyed here and there with logs laid side by side to make it passable- Minnie's house came into view ' page 85 Minnie lives in a small wooden house which was built by her husband Jim, this was a common thing for people in this era. 'It was a one room log house, a low and squat as a hop toad. Minnie's husband Jim had built it from trees he'd felled.' Page 85 It is a very humble little home as money did not grow on trees for young farming couples in early 1900s. ' she would have liked a clap board house, painted white with red trim but that called for money and they didn't have much' page 85 The outside of Minnie house seemed newly cleared and still a work in process. Work for men was hard in this time and place, having to build their own house, clear the land for their own farm, plant, plow and harvest all the produce. This defiantly called for the need for big meals from the woman when they returned home, who were expected to stay in the kitchen or work in the house. ' planks laid end to end over the muddy ground served as a walk way. Charred tree stumps stuck up in the front yard, as black and random as an old mans teeth. Jim had planted a vegetable garden in the back of the house and fenced a field for their sheep and cows.' Page 85 Minnie seemed to live a hard life as a woman, the aspect of feminism had not yet come around and for Jim and Minnie starting of as a young couple in the farming industry certainly seemed like a hard living.