The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx is a novel that makes readers worry about the protagonist’s fate from the very first page. Of course, it is not the first story which depicts sufferings and loneliness of a kind-hearted person in the world that has forgotten that success, beauty and money are not the main values, but it is definitely one of the best.
One of the most well-described themes in this novel is a topic of physical abuse. Quoyle’s father – who to addition to his other faults was a rapist – tried to bring up a real man and that unreasonable wish based purely on his selfishness turned his son’s childhood into a living hell. The man couldn’t even realize that it was okay to be different, that his son’s inability to master the lore of swimming meant nothing at all. He didn’t even try to protect Quoyle from bullying and constant physical abuse. One might mention that Quoyle’s father had been brought up in the same way, but it could not be a plausible excuse, could it be? It was stated that Quoyle was ashamed of his ancestors among whom one could find pirates, murderers, drunks and other people who could only be described as rather unpleasant people. But the interesting thing was that he didn’t think that he was obliged to live in a way they used to live. On the contrary, Quoyle distracted himself from them as much as possible. One would hardly find a person with a kinder heart than Quoyle’s.
A person like Quoyle was doomed to meet a person like Petal. Being rather tired of being lonely and underestimated by others, he jumped at a chance to have a real human relationship. Unfortunately for him, Petal played with his feelings and his hearts and then tossed them away as if they were the most useless things. The rather impressive amount of her own psychological problems, Quoyle’s shyness and new responsibilities which came with two children only catalyzed an inevitable tragedy.
The novel was also about forgiveness and an ability to move on. Quoyle didn’t even think to blame Petal in everything that had happened to them. That quality to forget the evil and focus on something good instead was definitely a distinctive feature of the protagonist. Not matter how terribly people mistreated him, the man didn’t let the seeds of evil grow in his heart.
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx is also the novel about such an important thing as hope. What a human life without any hope is? It is nothing. Quoyle, his aunt and many other characters prove that it is the only one thing that doesn’t let us give up and makes us move forward no matter what. A life is not without a fault and injustice happens more often than not to decent people, but hope gives us courage, it is our source of strengths. To believe in goodness and kindness is a lesson one can learn from this incredibly story.
