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SUNSET SONG CHRIS ESSAY

Kirsty Clyne

In “Sunset Song” by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, he manages to create admiration for Chris
Guthrie, the protagonist who lives in 20th century Scotland
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One way Grassic Gibbon helps to build admiration for Chris Guthrie is by demonstrating
her strength and optimism
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An example of this
positive outlook is after her mother’s suicide in Drilling and Chris realises that her spirit can
rise above the pain of tragedy
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Another point in the novel when Grassic Gibbon addresses Chris’ strength is how despite
being surrounded by corruption, she manages to stay uncorrupted throughout the whole
novel herself
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The sun imagery shows corruption by describing it as dark, (“a cloud came over the sun” when corrupted Ewan returns home from his war training) and shows no corruption when it
is light (“sun shone down on Blaewearie”)
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These occur after John Guthrie has had a stroke and cannot move for
himself so he uses a bell to call for Chris
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Although this scares Chris to the
point where she pictures him moving down the stairs similar to a frog, she is not corrupted
from these events and even proceeds to be able to have an uncorrupted view on sex and
is not shamed as she knows it is a natural thing for humans
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After Ewan
returns from basic war training, he is abusive and Chris notes that “it seemed like he had
hated her that minute when he looked at her in the kitchen”
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Chris stands up to Ewan, showing her strong personality as she bears a kitchen knife in
selfdefense and is very “cold and secure and serene” with him
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A final example of Chris’ optimism is when at the very end of the novel, she marries
Colquhoun showing that she has overcame Ewan’s death
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Chris’ relationship with the land is shown throughout the novel
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This takes place after John
Guthrie’s death, when Chris has the false belief that she is now free to do whatever she
wants
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“you were close to it, and it to you” and “it held you and hurted you” show the idea that the
land almost has a tight grip on Chris, not letting her leave
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She has
realised the importance of the land at this point and understands now that there never was
a choice to make as the land has made it for her
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She realises that “she could no more teach a school than fly, night and day she would
want to be back”, showing that she understands that her becoming a teacher would have
been ridiculous
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She describes the stones as being “the only place where ever
she could come and stand back a little from the clamour of the days”, as they help her put
into perspective her problems
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She also finds comfort in the physical
touch of the stones, and in times of panic she is immediately relaxed by them (“she went
and leant her cheek against the meikle one”)
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Grassic Gibbon shows her state of mind by using his punctuation, word choice,
and structure of sentences to convey her emotional presence
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Her words are short and harsh sounding, and she is only
thinking of herself
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The longer word choice helps to slow down the pace with
words like “tremulous amorphousness”’s repeated use of ’s’ slowing the narrative down
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However, after Chris finds out she is pregnant, she is not admirable
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It is a severe exaggeration, and has major problems with characterisation as
Gibbon portrays her freaking out despite her connections to all things natural
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She sees her pregnancy as an end of “days of
love and holidaying and the foolishness of kisses” but only for her and not for Ewan which
leads to her building a resentment for him towards the end of the chapter
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This can also be perceived as unrealistic as Ewan should have noticed a change in her
body considering she has apparently been pregnant for four to five months now
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The baby
growing in Chris is described as being “her rig and furrow” and that “she had brought him
the unsown field and the tending and reaping was hers” which mirrors the crops currently
growing in the Blaewearie fields
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This
does not make sense as a prison suggests being punished for committing a crime or doing
something wrong but becoming pregnant is natural
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This imagery is repeated slightly on, helping to develop the idea of being confined
due to the pregnancy as she thinks she will be stuck in the house and will become unable
to be a part of the world outside
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This strange reaction to her pregnancy also causes her to become irrational when arguing
with Ewan
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He walks away from
her, as she is being unusually harsh to him but her mood changes again and she feels
guilty
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Her temper changes quickly - “it
was as though she were dry within and his speech set a fire to it”
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She is completely
out of control and he leaves her again
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She gets angry and
blows on her father’s old whistle to make him come back but he still does not
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Due to her hitting him, he hits her twice and she loses her footing
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She has became
suicidal and is repeating “never again”, and “the loch” which shows that she is wanting to
drown herself in the loch and that she never wants to return to him
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She thinks about it “Ewan would see to her, Ewan would take heed”
which in turn does not at all fit in with her character or anything that has just happened
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