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Analysis Of Shadows On The Rock By Willa Cather

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A Scoundrel Named Quebec
Shadows on the Rock, written by Willa Cather, is a novel about French colonists in Quebec and how they are adapting to the “new world” they have to create. Euclide Auclair is a philosophical and humane apothecary that lives in the “new world” of Quebec as a French colonist. Cecile Auclair, Euclide’s daughter, is a thirteen year old, who has become the woman of her home after her mother perished. A villain is a “cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.” The “villain” of Willa Cather’s Shadows on the Rock is the city of Quebec in that the author uses multiple actions, characteristics, and details to convince the readers of this.
This novel is a bildungsroman, not necessarily about a character, but rather the setting. The reader can see the city of Quebec develop and mature as if it where the protagonist. This protagonist can be considered as a “villain” throughout the story because of the major rejection it receives from the French immigrants. Many of the French immigrants learn about the climate and weather differences …show more content…

They also try to preserve a proper French garden with French plants and flowers surrounding their household and shop. As discussed when Euclide was creating different medicines: “It was one of the medicinal plants of the New World in which he had great faith. It had been first brought to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, he said, and had been for a time a very popular remedy in France.” (Cather Kindle Locations 1704-1705). Inside their home and garden, the reader can see how the Auclair's are trying to present the impression to visitors that they are more French than Canadian. Discrepancies in climate and people make it near impossible to duplicate or imitate France in Quebec. Progressively, they reach to perceive the artificiality of their

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