Notesale: Turn your study into money

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In the first paragraph of drilling, we see the calming effect of the land and standing stones on Chris
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She then
quickly relaxes once she starts to notice the sounds and surrounding of the land
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The use of exclamation points show how extreme Chris’ emotions are as she is running up towards
the standing stones
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To show her calming down process, the sentences used are lengthened and slowed down
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The beginning of the calmer
words is started with “fine quiet couch”, that almost slow down the reader and quieten the tone
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We can physically see her calming down, and Grassic Gibbon uses
words such as “quivered” and “relaxed” - words that are things that have happened and are not in
present tense (unlike “panting” and “flying”)
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This is described as having a full sun where there is no
corruption present, no sun when lots of corruption is present and a covered sun when corruption is
there but there is also non-corrupted ways amongst the characters / scene
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There are many more examples of this throughout the book
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She cannot bear the thought of going through childbirth again and decides to
poison herself
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Chris is visibly upset by her mother’s death (“the child in your heart died then”) which is a contrast
towards how she feels after her father’s death later on in the book
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We learn that Will has reached a breaking
point with his father and is planning on trying to move out at the first chance he can get, and we
learn he eventually does move away with his girlfriend
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In this period of
time, the males tend to become stronger and more sexually aware of themselves
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(“for every harvest there come something queer
and terrible on father”) (“he’s be fleeter than ever and his face filled out”)
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Despite the things she had gone through such as watching her mothers painful childbirth
and hearing her father cry in physical pain from sex, she is not repulsed by the idea of sex and
does not have any malicious or corrupted thoughts regarding it
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This is a contrast to her father as he would have been angered it anyone had even suggested the
idea of having sex for pleasure, due to the corruption of the church
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The moonlight enters the room and so does the smell of the land outside and we can see
the girl physically calmer and more connected to her surroundings
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It is in this moment when Chris reconsidered going to see the tink in
the shed as she is suddenly feeling a sexual desire as she admires herself in the mirror
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Chris will always snap back to reality after going off on tangents
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She has childish and
immature views of what her future lover will be like and what love as a whole is, and comparing this
description to her real future husband - Ewan - it is no surprise to find he is far off her ideal man
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After telling
us about this sensual view of the night time, with Chris admiring herself and showing love and sex
as a pure and natural idea, he follows it up with the darker side of John Guthrie
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He is described as
being cat-like as he creeps around outside Chris’ room at night, and it brings an eerie and creepy
tone to the novel
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GIBBON

One of the peasants (Cuddiestoun) overhears rustle noises and weird noises coming from the
bottom of the Reverend’s garden, and being a nosey man, he throws gravel at what he believes to
be dogs in the grass
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As Gibbon appears, it is immediatley stated that he is
not wearing his minister hat
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The fact that he is not wearing a hat tells us we are looking at Gibbon as a man and not as the
minister, as the hat represents his position in society
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It is clear the minister was having sex with the peasant girl as he is panting and out of breath
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This is an example of the teachings of the church being corrupted as the man who spreads it does
not worship it
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Although no one knows the
real story, Long Rob takes an interest in it surprisingly as he is never usually one to gossip and
passes the story across to John who is fully aware of exactly what the minister had been doing
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As the land starts to take it’s toll on John, he becomes much angrier inside and darker
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(“the long stiff slopes of the dour red
clay” - harshness of the land) (“and a darkness down on the land he loved better than his soul or
god”)
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His father is very angry at this and feels
embarrassed by his sons actions so calling upon Gibbon, he asks for help in speaking to Will
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Gibbon tries to talk to Will but the boy
leaves in anger
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He ruins it the next day
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Him and his mates got drunk at a pub
and Gibbon started to preach in the middle of the pub
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On his journey back from his visit, Gibbons drops his chamber pot and then his hat falls and then
he falls himself
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Gibbon then bursts into tears and has a breakdown over Kinraddie (“what a bloody place was
Kinraddie! And how’d the porter like to love ‘tween a brier bush and a rotten kirkyard in the lee of a
house with green shutters?”)
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COMMUNITY
The community in Kindraddie is a very close group of people, and the fire at the Knapp brings out
the heroics in some of the characters
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The first one the arrive at the Knapp is John Guthrie who saves Chae and his family before he
does anything else
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Long Rob also gets there as quickly as he can (“louping dykes like a hare”)
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Long Rob is shown as heroic as he contstantly is risking his life to run back into the burning
building to collect belongings for Kirsty and Chae that are of value (and no value) to them
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Once it’s over, no thank you’s are exchanged and everyone just goes back on with their lives like
nothing happened
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On the way back from the fire, Chris is assaulted by two men
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She fights back, and kicks him and scratches him until he lets her go
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Also initially scared, she later feels aroused when thinking about the kiss
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Although we don’t find this out until later, the man who kissed her is Ewan, her future husband,

English Chris makes a return after the death of her mother when the ignorant peasant Cuddistoun
makes a sexist comment about how she belongs in the kitchen
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(“suddenly Chris hated the lot, the English Chris suddenly came back in her skin in a minute, she
saw them the yokels and clowns everlasting, dull-brained and snide”)
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This results in the men having a conversation about how they think education is wrong and that is
just makes people turn against each other (Ignorant opinion) and others believe it is very important
and a blessing (heroic opinion)
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They
both start blushing at the attraction
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This is important
- the wild cat is Scotland’s most vicious beast and as John Guthrie is also compared to as a cat,
we can take from this that there is a little bit of John in Ewan
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The Guthrie family are sitting waiting for the bells to ring to symbol New Year when they have a
quick reflection of the year
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(“God, I wonder why
Jean left us?”)
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This
is another ruined relationship because of the corrupted teachings of the church
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Grassic
Gibbon compares Ewan and John again regarding the darkness lingering in Ewan
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His innocence returns very quickly after
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Chris isn’t embarrassed by her attraction to him and this also shows us how she is not corrupted by
anything she has been through
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She realises it was Ewan on the road that night and it is the first example of his
brutality
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He is one-sided character
as he isn’t from the are but from the Highlands
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His swift fleeing of the town brings a lot of gossip with
it and father is embarrassed
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Chris finds her father covered in blood and tries to help him but he orders her to leave him as he
has his storke
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Chae’s wife annoyed
Chris by being so bossy that the girl orders her to leave
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Guthrie is left paralysed, using a whistle to get her attention, and the chapter ends with an angry
blow heard over the moor

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