| dc.description.abstract | Until very recently, studies of the works of Sinclair
Ross have over-looked his literary artistry to focus on his
place among those writers whose time and place is the
Canadian prairie during the Depression, Ross’s importance
as a literary artist goes beyond this restricted time period.
His imagery and symbolism explicate a view of life which is
timeless. This thesis examines, in particular, the imagery
and symbolism of the horse and the wind as representative of
the polarized but co-existing elements of benevolence and
destruction in the world. In chapter one—a discussion of
Ross’s short stories about childhood—the horse, as symbol
of the creative, benevolent side of life, dominates. The
wind, symbol of destruction and malevolence, dominates the
lives of Ross’s adult characters, as shown in chapter two.
However, neither symbol can exist exclusive of the other. As
a result, the duality of Ross’s vision of life is shov/n more
fully by the interplay of the horse and wind symbols in the
novels discussed in chapter three. This study concludes with
an examination of the horse and wind symbolism in Ross’s final
novel which re-inforces and solidifies his view of the human
condition into a single image illustrating the co-existence
of the benevolent and malevolent elements of life. | |
