Wilderness

Introduction

Mary and the Puritans travel through the dark forest in the hope of finding their “city on the hill”. The following comprehension exercises will help you engage with what happens next this section of the novel.

Remember to use the words of question and use evidence from the text to support your response.

Alliteration

Since alliteration is the repetition of sounds at the start of important words, writers use this device to help convey their ideas to the reader by focusing our attention on the most meaningful images in the sentence.

1. “Sadness caught my throat as I thought of the cottage behind all dark and deserted…”
2. “I saw fleeting joy pass over many faces, each time followed by the same shadowing sadness.”
3. “We filled our aprons and ate them until our mouths were stained red and our hands sticky.”
4. “The leaves and litter of centuries lay thick on the forest floor.”
5. “This was the Wild Wood, greater than any that we had heard if in fireside stories.”
6. “To enter was to step into a realm of mystery and who knew what forces held sway in its dark depths?”
7. “By the time they had finished talking, the sun was sinking behind the forest.”
8. “I write by flickering firelight.”
9. “…these men know the sight of every hidden stream and spring in the country.”
10. “Fear grows as the night falls fast upon us.”
11. “The cries are of creatures unknown to us…”
12. “All around the trees were dead and dying.”

Select five of the examples and explain what impact Rees was hoping to achieve by using alliteration. For some of the sentences, you could simply paraphrase her words.

Similes

By comparing one idea or thing to be like another, writers are able to convey their ideas more effectively to the reader. Write out the following sentences from Entries 36 – 43 and identify the similes by underlining the two ideas or things being compared. It is also a good practice to circle the word that makes the comparison a simile.

1. “I saw again the hollyhocks, delphiniums and Canterbury bells, shining bright, like jewels in the sunlight.”
2. “The town turned out to watch us and it was like a fair, a festival, such as they had at Lammas or Harvest…”
3. “The road forward was broad and well-made, winding off into the distance through land as open as parkland…”
4. “It began that way, like a high day, a holy day, until even the doubters among us were laughing.”
5. “…we built fires and cooked on them like a beggar band.”
6. “Two men stole from the margins, as quiet as ghosts.”
7. “Sometimes the way is as wide as a King’s riding, other times it disappears completely…”
8. “Their small fire shows, tiny as a spark, in the great blackness.”
9. “From it, the trees spread out in all directions, as vast as the ocean we crossed to come here.”
10. “First sighting made it seem near enough to reach out and touch…”
11. “The effect was eerie and not a little sinister, as if we travelled a road used only by ghosts.”
12. “It sounded like a prayer, but could have been a curse.”

Select five of the examples and explain what impact Rees was hoping to achieve by using the similes. For some of the sentences, you could simply paraphrase her words.

If you are not sure how you explain this writer’s technique, our guide to Analysing Similes will help you improve your analysis.

Essay Question

Read through the following extract from Entry 37:

Today, the way was narrowed. The broad road we took out of Salem has diminished to a track. Roads are few here. Most long journeys are taken by sea or by river, but we have elected to travel overland. Around us the ground was still open, allowing us to pass with relative ease, but thick swathes of dark green smudged each horizon. On all sides, the great forest loomed. Our progress, slow at the best of times, slowed further. We could only travel as fast as the heavy carts and lumbering cattle would allow. For a long time the trees stayed a blur, getting no nearer. The forest came upon us gradually. The single trees dotting the landscape grew more numerous and clustered closer together, the strands of beech, oak and pine became more substantial, but nothing could prepare us for the forest itself.

The trees massed in a ragged line. The track we were on wove into it and soon became lost in the shadowy depths were towering trees cut the bright day to half light. Cedars spread huge branches. Pines reared up so tall that their tops seemed to bend together. Rough-barked trunks grew to such girth that four men with linke arms could not reach around them. The leaves and litter of centuries lay thick on the forest floor.

Through the trees we could see only blackness. The cavalcade stopped, even the animals were reluctant to enter; they turned, lowing plaintively, and the horses stamped and whinnied, tossing their heads nervously. The children no longer played and ran about. They returned to their mothers, clutching at their skirts. Women turned to their menfolk who stared as round-eyed as their children. This was the Wild Wood, greater than any that we had heard of in fireside stories. To enter was to step into a realm of mystery and who knew what forces held sway in its dark depths?

Explore how Celia Rees presents the forest as a scary place to travel through. You should consider:

• the words and phrases used to describe the forest;
• the animals’ reaction to the forest.
• the people’s reaction to the forest; and
• anything else you think is relevant.

Alliteration Suggested Answers

Identifying Alliteration“Sadness caught my throat as I thought of the cottage behind all dark and deserted…”

“I saw fleeting joy pass over many faces, each time followed by the same shadowing sadness.”

“We filled our aprons and ate them until our mouths were stained red and our hands sticky.”

“The leaves and litter of centuries lay thick on the forest floor.”

“This was the Wild Wood, greater than any that we had heard if in fireside stories.”

“To enter was to step into a realm of mystery and who knew what forces held sway in its dark depths?”

“By the time they had finished talking, the sun was sinking behind the forest.”

“I write by flickering firelight.”

“…these men know the sight of every hidden stream and spring in the country.”

“Fear grows as the night falls fast upon us.”

“The cries are of creatures unknown to us…”

“All around the trees were dead and dying.”

“the cottage behind all dark and deserted…”

When the author describes the cottage as “dark” and “deserted”, the alliteration of /d/ emphasises the building is abandoned and that the narrator misses her old home.

“the same shadowing sadness.

The repetition of the /s/ in “shadowing sadness” draws the reader’s attention to the inescapable heartache the travellers feel when they remember their old homes.

“our mouths were stained red and our hands sticky.”

The alliteration of /s/ in “stained” and “sticky”, which both describe their “hands”, highlights their enthusiasm towards picking strawberries.

“The leaves and litter of centuries lay thick on the forest floor.”

The “forest floor” is crammed “thick” with “leaves” and “litter” which have gathered over “centuries”. The writer reinforces the huge amount through the triple alliteration of /l/ in these two words and the verb “lay”.

“This was the Wild Wood.”

The alliterative “Wild Wood” emphasises the location because the repetition of /w/ slows the phrase down and forces the reader to dwell on the image.

“dark depths”

The writer describes the woods and their “dark depths”. The alliteration of /d/ almost forces the reader to pause, which emphaises the “mystery” of the location.

“the sun was sinking behind the forest”

The alliteration of /s/ in “sun” followed by “sinking” creates a falling rhythm to the sentence which mimics the slow descent of the sun beneath the horizon.

“I write by flickering firelight”

The rhythm created by the alliteration of /f/ in “flickering” and “firelight” mimics the small and quick movement of the flames in the fireplace.

“…these men know the sight of every hidden stream and spring in the country.”

Celia Rees summarises the sources of drinking water by using the alliteration of /s/ in “stream” and “spring”. In this way, she suggests “these men” are very familiar with the wilderness.

“Fear grows as the night falls fast upon us.”

Celia Rees summarises the sources of drinking water by using the alliteration of /s/ in “stream” and “spring”. In this way, she suggests “these men” are very familiar with the wilderness.

“The cries are of creatures unknown to us…”

The alliteration of the hard /k/ in “cries” and “creatures” emphasises the scary sounds made by these mysterious animals.

“All around the trees were dead and dying.”

The writer creates an ominous tone by describing the “trees” as “dead and dying”. The alliteration emphasises this sense of doom.

Importantly, alliteration is the repetition of sounds at the start of words. In all of these examples, there is a consonant sound being repeated. The forward slashes around the letters indicates that it is a sound being transcribed rather than simply just the letter from the alphabet. In this way, /k/ is the opening sound of the words “cries” and “creatures”.

Similes Task

In the list of answers for the first part of the exercise, the two things being compared are underlined and what connects them has been written in bold. The “like” or “as” have been italicised. These are the three crucial elements that make up a simile.

Identifying Similes

1. “I saw again the hollyhocks, delphiniums and Canterbury bells, shining bright, like jewels in the sunlight.”
2. “The town turned out to watch us and it was like a fair, a festival, such as they had at Lammas or Harvest…”
3. “The road forward was broad and well-made, winding off into the distance through land as open as parkland…”
4. “It began that way, like a high day, a holy day, until even the doubters among us were laughing.”
5. “…we built fires and cooked on them like a beggar band.”
6. “Two men stole from the margins, as quiet as ghosts.”
7. “Sometimes the way is as wide as a King’s riding, other times it disappears completely…”
8. “Their small fire shows, tiny as a spark, in the great blackness.”
9. “From it, the trees spread out in all directions, as vast as the ocean we crossed to come here.”
10. “First sighting made it seem near enough to reach out and touch…”
11. “The effect was eerie and not a little sinister, as if we travelled a road used only by ghosts.”
12. “For a moment we stayed as watchers, as if after all these weeks of journeying, something was holding us back.”
13. “It sounded like a prayer, but could have been a curse.”

“I saw again the hollyhocks, delphiniums and Canterbury bells, shining bright, like jewels in the sunlight.”

The author compares the various “shining” flowers to sparking “jewels in the sunlight”. This simile is effective because it suggests the flowers are beautiful and rare.

“The town turned out to watch us and it was like a fair, a festival, such as they had at Lammas or Harvest…””

Celia Rees compares the number of people coming out to “watch” the travellers begin their journey to the size of crowds you would expect at an “fair” or “festival”. This simile is effective because it suggests their movement is an exciting celebration.

“The road forward was broad and well-made, winding off into the distance through land as open as parkland…”

The narrator compares the “land” to “parkland”. This simile suggests their “road forward” is “open”, wide and pleasant to walk through.

“It began that way, like a high day, a holy day, until even the doubters among us were laughing.”

The simile comparing the travellers’ feelings on the journey to a “holy day” suggests they are excited and happy.

“…we built fires and cooked on them like a beggar band.”

The speaker compares their camping and cooking to a “beggar band”. This simile suggests they have “built” their “fires” simply where their wagons stopped and they looked quite rough.

“Two men stole from the margins, as quiet as ghosts.”

Celia Rees compares the “two men” coming out of the trees to “ghosts”. This simile suggests they were “quiet” and looked like they were from another world.

“Sometimes the way is as wide as a King’s riding, other times it disappears completely…”

The writer compares the some of the road to a “King’s riding”. This simile suggests the “way” was wide and well-travelled.

“Their small fire shows, tiny as a spark, in the great blackness.”

Mary compares the light of their “small fire” in the darkness of the wilderness to an insignificant “spark” in the “great blackness” of their universe.

“From it, the trees spread out in all directions, as vast as the ocean we crossed to come here.”

The author compares the “vast” number of “trees” to the “ocean” they had crossed. This simile suggests they could easily become overwhelmed and lost in the wilderness.

“First sighting made it seem near enough to reach out and touch…”

The narrator compares their “first sighting” of the village to something which you can easily “reach out and touch”. This simile suggests she felt incredibly close to their destination.

“The effect was eerie and not a little sinister, as if we travelled a road used only by ghosts.”

The speaker compares the “road” which they “travelled” to a route that was “used only by ghosts”. This simile suggests she feels like she has entered another world beyond this life because the place is so eerily quiet and unused.

“It sounded like a prayer, but could have been a curse.”

Mary mentions how the “old man muttered something” and compares it to a “prayer”. This simile suggests he was speaking quietly, almost to himself, and offering thanks to his gods.

In these suggested answers, the first sentence focuses on the key phrases from the text and identifies that a comparison is being made between the two images. When you are writing an essay, you do not have to immediately include the writer’s method, such as a simile. You should make sure you demonstrate your understanding of the language first because that is where the majority of marks are actually allocated.