Ray Cooper/Irving Blog

 

         

          Mary Rowlandson, as we read, had a very particular attitude towards nature. She shared in the Puritanical belief that nature (as well as individual human nature) is essentially evil or non-pious. She believed that nature was something to be tamed, and that human nature was selfish, immoral, and very much in need of guidance (i.e. God). While the captivity narrative did include details about nature, the tone was often distraught or depressed in some fashion rather than celebratory. Nature was painted a harsh mistress in the captivity narrative; it was something to test Mary rather than be enjoyed. In the first picture above, note that the woman's head is turned toward the devil rather than the angel at her shoulder. This represents the Puritanical idea that humans are naturally inclined to evil or destructive thoughts or behaviour. 

          In my opinion the largest difference in tone is between Rowlandson's narrative and the writings of Washington Irving. While Rowlandson constantly hoped to escape her harsh environment and captors,while Irving took his time in recording and illustrating the glory of nature: 

"a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice." (Sleepy Hollow)

This quote concisely notes the colour, texture, and location of this parts of nature. Not only is a great amount of attention paid to detail, but the word choice is celebratory in and of itself (i.e. "crowned"). Irving goes beyond celebrating nature; he even attributes to it fantastic power: 

"Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the minds of the descendants of the original settlers. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions." (Sleepy Hollow)

          In Rowlandson's narrative "evil" was things that occurred in daily life that one should avoid for their love of God, as well as the blatant evils of war. In Irving's writings evil is something that is over-the-top and would naturally be avoided by everyone, such as a headless horseman's apparition. One does not need to be pious to fear that vision. In both Irving's Sleepy Hollow and Cooper's The Pioneers nature is depicted as luscious, beautiful, free, and bountiful. Though I believe this sentence was written about Rip Van Winkle rather than Sleepy Hollow, Mr. O'Brien captured this idea perfectly and it is applicable to Cooper and Irving's writings: 

"The mountains are personified as a place of importance, a natural world ranked higher over civilization, like nobility applied to a region instead of an individual." (O'Brien Cooper-Irving Blog)

Nature in Cooper and Irving's writings is free to interact with (or impose upon) the characters however it likes. The image stacking of the picturesque landscapes is quite different from the small, restricted, manicured lawns we see so many of in New Orleans. Much like an architect may be able to articulate the countless pieces of a home, Cooper can articulate the countless pieces of nature. There is an element of celebration and awareness in Cooper's writing that reminds me of the transcendentalist writings of Davidson/Thoreau: 

"The mountains are generally arable to the tops, although instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with rocks that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and picturesque character which it so eminently possesses. The vales are narrow, rich, and cultivated...Beautiful and thriving..."

Both Cooper and Irving use directional and distance words to give their narrated landscapes distance, depth, speed, and geographical specificity:

"pines that rose without a branch some seventy or eighty feet...shot forth horizontal limbs...the buck, as he rather darted like a meteor than ran across the road"

Cooper and Irving do their best to incorporate the speed, sounds, and various experiences caused by nature. These men appreciate things like unbridled fantastic phenomena, and would most likely write quite a tribute to events such as the Northern Lights, which I've posted below. Nature is not something to arrange or suppress, but something to pay attention to as something larger than all of us.