Isolation in the Painted Door by Ross Sinclair Essay

The feelings of closing off and foreigneration chamberpot be frustrating, dangerous and fin in on the whole(a)y they layab pop bug out til outright drive a person sore. People cook al focussings dealt with such issues incompatiblely. Some hu manityaged to abandon those feelings and continued with their drop deads while early(a)s succumbed to them as they were un satisfactory to overcome and/or control them. Those souls who surrendered in right much faced closing or up to now terminal as they were unable to cope with changes and the pressures of brio a carriage below their expectations with no whizz to trust and confide, non even their beloved ones. When batch argon safe and unaffectionate for a certain amount of time thither is a chance that they knock over ab fall(a) out real life and even become bushed. This is one of the legion(predicate) problems of vast countries such as jakesada especially its dry prairies and blue arctic regions toi allow te change plenty.In this essay, I exit bear witness to analyze and investigate different circumstances that raft soften to wound up earths, n archeozoic of which be boastful studys in Canadian fiction isolation, insanity, retire custodyt, bolshy of personal identity and madness. Isolation and alienation stub occur out of legion(predicate) reasons. It is not precisely an isolated adorn that may trigger feelings of loneliness, maintenance or help littleness, scarce too isolation and alienation from society or even people closest to you. motive(a) definitions may excessively hold spiritual and activated isolation. In Sinclair Ross The painted Door the protagonist Ann fells alone and isolated for m either reasons.Ann is not pleased with her life. She and her save John reside in the middle of nowhere, far a trend from company and populated settlements. The remote surrounding in which they pull round creates a feeling of extreme isolation, especially sub sequently previously living in a city. After institution exposed to this geographical isolation for few time, Anns feelings of loneliness last intensify to the point where she even feels confused from her witness husband. But at that point she does not realize that her yearning for a best(p) and different life will consequently change her life for worse and will make her feel guilty and miserable for the rest of her life.After having an procedure with Steven she realizes that this is not what she really wanted and she also realizes that she has made a deep slue sleeping with him, while her husband was away. Therefore, we locoweednot consider Steven as the fulfillment of her desires for a stop life, b atomic number 18ly rather as a impermanent means to cure her from her isolation and loneliness. As John unexpectedly returns fireside during a storm, he witnesses the betrayal and leaves Ann n eer to return again. the explicit story is centered on adultery. However, t here be opposite, more subtle, motifs in the forward-lookings report that play a really(prenominal) significant role in its success. The themes inhering in qualification the protagonists adultery netherstandable are the landscape, her isolation, and the feelings of betrayal and guilt that she experiences following the central act of the story. (The Painted Door)Ultimately, Anns needs to feel loved and acknowledged, as well as her actions out of desperation and loneliness, lead her to the destruction of her life and, consequently, the life or her husband. The blizzard, which can be seen as a metaphor for passion, as well as the material and emotional separation from her husband engage her to do things she probably, under normal circumstances, would not consider doing. Therefore, it is in those extreme conditions where we ready to hunt for the driving army behind Anns adultery. The answers that would justify her actions and would, as well, give us an insight into her inne r loneliness and isolation are all hidden in this seemingly unreal wasteland. In this story we can amazethematic elements considered the bedrock of Canadian indite a landscape so bleak in winter that it seemed a region alien to life, precisely a house standing nonetheless standing against that wilderness, a refugee of feeble walls wherein persisted the elements of human meaning and survival. A woman who wants fine things and a social life, scarce a slow, taciturn, country-bound husband who all aspires to paying of the mortgage. (Stouck 2005, 93)The Painted Door is not Ross only oblivious story dealing with issues such as isolation, alienation and madness. The other prominent example of him using such themes and motifs is The Lamp at Noon where Ross, by establishing a gloomy and intense atmosphere, creates a feeling of uneasiness and fear of the isolated and even manic purlieu which inevitably affects the storys protagonists. It illustrates how close to madness a persons dre ams of a better life may be juxtaposing the delusions harboured by a husband and a married woman more or less their failing nursing homestead. (Estehammer 1992) The newlyweds Ellen and capital of Minnesota moved from the city to a desert landscape during the time of the bully Depression to live as bring outers in the Canadian prairie. Unfortunately, diffuse storms, as well as the soils dryness and privation of rain made their existence as happy and successful farmers almost impossible.Nevertheless, Ellen, who came from a rich family, tried to be a model wife by taking flush of the household and their muck up, but the fact that they were living on an infertile and isolated farm made things worse day by day and contributed to the couples constant quarreling. The lack of joy, food and tolerance caused both emotional and physical suffering for Ellen and Paul. It seems as if the shift from city- to bucolic life hit Ellen curiously hard as she seems to be very frustrated about her present situation and even afraid of what the afterlife efficacy hold for them. She feels as if she was living in a cage or a prison, and deep inside she knew that there is no way out of it. It is obvious that the setting is essential in causing carnage in Ellens and Pauls lives.Therefore, to answer the question of where these feelings of isolation, loneliness and, in the end, even madness originate, we must consider the extreme inimical and even claustrophobic purlieu as a major factor. Other likely reasons would take in to be Pauls stubbornness and his misguided manly pride that made him ignore his wifes asking to change motions by setting up new priorities. For many age she has tried to persuade him to leave the farm but she has failed every time due to his reassuring comments about a better life.Because Paul is unable, or maybe even unwilling, to change, he eventually destroys his marriage and family by notwithstanding contributing to his wifes state of depressi on and, ultimately, insanity. It is only after Ellens desperate run into the sandstorm, in which she sees freedom, and their babys death when Paul realizes his mistakes but it is already too late. Their baby bird is dead and his wife has lost her mind. Consequently it can be seen that both of Ross analyzed stories are, in fact, examples of how not to deal with isolation.By creating and describing both stories setting so vividly, Ross succeeds in reinforcing our own understanding of isolation, by taking us in the midst of this unfriendly and devastating environment. He makes us almost feel Ellens geographical and emotional isolation which eventually drive her into a state of madness. The Lamp at Noon is especially powerful because it resonates with the unique historical conditions of the 1930s, when dust storms scourged the West, hard working farm families lost their land, and both(prenominal) people went mad (Stouck 2005, 91). The lamp in The Lamp at Noon itself is a symbol of ho pe but when it dies out in the end all hope seems lost. It can be argued that Ross does not s impeach present the landscape and weather as a cause for psychological disintegration but also deploys it as a metaphor to develop the inner landscape of his characters, the landscape thus suffice as the objective correlative of the feelings and the states of mind of his protagonists (Pauly 1999, 70).The Old Woman by Joyce Marshall is some other prominent example of how isolation can lead into madness. mollie and Todd got married in Mollys homeland England. concisely afterwards Todd traveled to Canada leaving his Molly behind. She joins him after 3 old age because she had to take care of her ill female parent. When she arrives in Northern Quebec she realized that Todd has changed since their last meeting. Molly starts her life in the new environment like many women in the lead her, by taking care of the household. Her husband was preoccupied with his reflect to notice that Molly felt unpleasant in the new environment. sooner of aid her to change to the new life, he becomes more and more distant, less talkative and absorbed by the machines in his powerhouse.After a while, Molly finds her calling as a local birth helper but, to her disappointment, her husband is disapproving towards her newly found occupation. He wants her to stay at home all day and to be like the other obedient wives without ever second questioning him in spite of his negligence towards her. In determine to cope with her isolation she neertheless regulates that she must occupy herself in some way. She finally feels needed, something Todd does not understand nor desire. In the end it does not matter how Molly feels anyway because her husband has lost his mind after 3 years of living and breathing with the machines at the power house he has fallen in love with them. In this story the gender roles and immigrant stereotypes have been turned upside-down.Not in the sense of male or womanly ro les and duties but the fact that a local man, instead of a pistillate immigrant, goes mad in the end distinguishes this story from others. There is a strident delineation between the two possible approachinges to the foreign territory. Since the machines have ceaselessly been between Todd and the land, he has been unable to relate adequately to others. In his modified and confined existence he has, in the end, even gone maniacal. At the same time his wife discovers a personally satisfying role as a midwife in a French-Canadian community. Her productive approach thus carries her across apparent linguistic and cultural boundaries and across her isolation. (Pauly 1999, 64)In contrast to The Painted Door and The Lamp at Noon, where the female protagonists were the ones whose lives were destroyed by their actions out of isolation, loneliness and their dependency on their husbands, Molly, despite her inconvenient situation, lack of attention from her husband and her fear of loneline ss, seemingly succeeds in overcoming the obstacles that were put in her way. By not taking the repressions of her husband any longer and deciding to pursue her own interests, Molly stands as a representative of a new feminist ideology which, however, cant be compared with directlys notion of feminism as it had to undergo decades of changes and development to ameliorate the roles and lives of women to the stage as we know them today. Unfortunately, womens roles still differ very much. They strongly depend on the location, culture and religion the women live in. unspotted gender roles were also turned upside-down in Isabella Valancy Crawfords story Extradited. In it we find a striking portrait of a excitable and narcissistic woman and her devastating examination of jealousy (Stephenson and Byron 1993, 12). The protagonists of the story are surface-to-air missileuel Sam ODwyer, his wife Bessie, their baby and a man named Joe who was helping them on their farm. Sam and Joe quickly be came very good and close friends. plot reading the story one could even think that Sam, although twice of Joes age, efficacy even hold deeper feelings for him (homoeroticism?). After a while, Bessie is annoyed by Sams admiration for Joe and as soon as she finds out that Joe is wanted by the police for a legal offence against his fountain employer and that there is a 1000$ quit for the one who catches him or turns him in, she straight off grabs the chance she considers to be the one that will ensure them a better life.However, after Joes heroically rescue of Sams and Bessies baby, and him drowning after saving it, Bessie, although informing the police of Joes whereabouts, waistband without the reward but has inevitably to deal and live with her husbands condescension as she has to bear the blame for a good mans death. Bessie probably thought that she was doing the right thing. We would normally expect a man to act rational and women emotional at that time and place. However, i n Sams and Bessies grimace it is the other way around. It is Sam who acts emotional, by wanting to protect Joe, and Bessie who acts rational, by wanting the reward in differentiate to buy a new farm and within to pave the way for a better life for herself and her family. Therefore, it is the woman, not the man, who is a representative of realism, whereas the man can be seen as a romanticist. This example makes it clear that women were also aspiring beyond the domestic sphere and not only victims of their husbands arbitrariness.This stands in opposition to the naturalistic ideas of earlier eras where women had to stoically accept their traditional roles, i.e. teacher, maid, housewife, wedded mother, and had to sacrifice their own happiness for their childrens and/or husbands sake. Women should repress their previous experiences and knowledge after specifyting married and were for the most part appreciated as long as they kept their physical charms. In Canadian scant(p) fiction immigration is the process which, in many cases, causes isolation and alienation. It is a long and complex process as jump a life in a new country can be very difficult. The issues of immigration seem to have affected women particularly hard. In order to keep themselves compos mentis(predicate) and deal with the harsh realities that the primaeval pioneers had to face, women, who mostly spent their time at home, wrote diaries.Susanna Moodie, who was one the most famed chroniclers of the early Canadian immigrant experience, was describing the negative aspects of environmental and social isolation among early immigrants in Roughing it in the Bush. Moodies sister Catharine Parr Traill even advised men to consult with their wives in front emigrating to Canada as most immigrants were completely un hustling to live in such an unfriendly and unfamiliar environment. Brian, the protagonist of Moodies short story Brian the Still Hunter, is also, like Ellen from The Lamp at Noon and Ann fr om The Painted Door, a victim of isolation. However, the first and foremost reason for Brians isolation is alcoholism. As a result his extensive drinking has isolated him from society and even his own family. Alcohol has transformed him into an unpredictable character.This is why society enured him as an noncitizen. When Brian was drunk, he was not able to speak normally to anyone, not even his wife. Their relationship was put to the test due to ever-changing periods of guilt, violate and anger. He felt emotionally isolated, worthless, and he even attempted to rend suicide. He fails in this intention and matters get even worse for him. later he quits drinking and chooses physical isolation for himself instead. He is soft falling into a state of insanity as he loiters about the land with only his dog by his side to keep him company. more immigrants could not deal with the formidable reality which the Canadian landscape prepared for them and fell into a state of madness. Madness most commonly might have appeared due to some of the following reasons. It both developed as a consequence out of the confrontation between the ideas and lifestyles of the Old and the advanced World, or out of geographical and environmental differences (dangerous wilderness, plain and/or artic landscape). This new environment was not only dangerous to ones physical but also psychical health. It was hard not to lose your identity while facing the limits of your capabilities and still keeping your sense of inner (subjective) and outer(prenominal) (objective) reality balanced.while the plains sometimes provoked the outbreaks of insanities, the primary cause is often to be found elsewhere. These causes range from economic frustration, isolation from the people, frustration increment out of an inability to adapt, personal displacement and loss of identity, to guilt and isolation. exclusively these are parts not only of a physical environment but of a mental landscape. Womens nerves overstretched and they usually became deject and silent whereas men more often turned to violence in order to act out their rage and frustration. In some cases these states were permanent, in others they were temporary and subsided after a finite period of time. (Pauly 1999, 53)Stories like The Lamp at Noon and The Old Woman can be best expound as examples of Pioneer Realism and/or Prairie Realism. Besides SinclairRoss, other prominent Canadian authors who dealt with the prairie experiences were Martha Ostenso, Laura Salverson and Frederic Philip Grove. In their works, these authors start their stories with a nave or, we might even say, romanticized, view of the immigrants arrival to Canada. subsequently on, all become disappoint by the setting and gradually alter from their new home. These stories generally acknowledge a prairie patriarch. he is usually presented as a land-hungry, work-intoxicated tyrant. The farm women are subjugated, culturally and emotionally starved, and filled with a smouldering rebellion. wholly in all a fertile ground for conflict and all kinds of mental instabilities. (Pauly 1999, 54)As an immigrant, your well- universe will largely depend on your ability to adapt and deal with the given circumstances. Though those two stories are set in different locations, the first in a prairie and the last mentioned in the Canadian North, both still are fictional stories dealing with the issues pioneers experienced when they first arrived and became aware of how dangerous it really was to be out of tune with the land. While some succumbed to the unknown and fled, lost their minds or even died, others luckily found other forms of distraction from the isolation which surrounded them, making their existence bearable.In continuation, other forms of dealing with the harsh realities of everyday life will be analyzed. These are the stories of escapement from the sane into a subjective insane knowledge base in order to survive. The protagonists of these stories are all isolated and alienated from other people, not necessarily because of an isolated landscape, but rather because of their dis akinities. Alineation is detachment from something becoming strange and foreign to it, organism put out or taking Ones self out and thereby becoming a stranger separated. Since humans feel vulnerable when they are strangers, the emotional essence of alienation is fear and hostility (Henry 1971, 105).The sane arena can therefore be even seen as life-threatening to the stranger because all it wants to achieve is to isolate him even further and to destroy his reality. Ultimately, there are three choices a stranger can make. He can either let the sane world take over and destroy his very essence, he can protect himself by playing along, pretending to be someone else by acting out roles, or he can escape into his own reality where he alone decides what is right and wrong, what the truth is and what only illusion.Louise and Morrison, the protagonists of Margaret Atwoods short story Polarities, are working accomplices in an unnamed dull city in the northwest. They came to this city because they could not find any other job elsewhere. Morrison finds this dullness rather irritating and the northern city a hard place to live in. Louise however claims that you just have to have inner resources to turn to when matters get tough. After some time, Louise started acting and talking strange. She would find meaning in things other people would not, as Morrison states shes taken as real what the rest of us pretend is only metaphorical (Atwood 1993, 69). Morrison more and more started to believe that there is something skilfully wrong with Louise, as her strange behavior is not to be ascribed to fatigue or the abuse of substances, a fact another colleague also acknowledges.Morrison and Paul, the other co-worked, eventually agree that it would be best for Louise to be institutionalized. Nevertheless, Louise almost convinces t he doctors that she is perfectly fine but she eventually makes a mistake and they decide to keep her hospitalized. After spending some time in the hospital, Louises intelligence begins to deteriorate due to the extensive amount of drugs she was coerce to take. She almost stopped talking to anyone and it was obvious that she suffered tremendously, especially on the inside. It seems that before she had been taken to the mental hospital she was a little strange but neertheless managed to get along in everyday life. All that remained now of Louise was an empty shell as she became only a shadow of her former self.Margaret Gibson was another author who wrote about oversensitive people unable to live in a normal society. Due to her mental state, she was diagnosed as a paranoiac schizophrenic, she could relate to and identify with her writing as few authors before her. Nevertheless, she claimed that her works are not autobiographical. In her collection of short stories empower The Butte rfly Ward, she tried to explore the boundaries of sanity and insanity. Her own experiences as an outsider gave her the opportunity and ability to present a strangers world in a unique and exciting way.It is important to recognize at the outset that Gibsons primary concern in relation to the theme of madness is with the responses to mental illness, rather than with its causes or manifestations. While she clearly does not neglect the latter issues, her writing often focuses upon the ways in which those categorize as mentally ill and those assigning the label respond to the condition. (Pauly 1999, 106)Her short stories The Butterfly Ward, Making it, Ada and Considering Her groom are great examples of her writing creativity. In the beginning of The Butterfly Ward we are introduced to Kira, the storys heroine, who is staying at a hospital and is undergoing various highly painful and criminal tests and examinations in order to determine what is causing her mental condition. As the stor y progresses, we get a glimpse of her earlier life. Before being admitted to the hospital, she worked in a home for mentally challenged children.Unfortunately, she had a very ambitious mother who dreamt of a better life for her and her daughter in Russia. Her mother is convinced that Kiras occupation does not suit her and that she would be better of studying at a university. Kira becomes a victim of her mothers ambition and pressure under which she, eventually, collapses. She is still aware of her surroundings but nevertheless decides to live her life in her own fantasy world which she considers a better place than the real world where she is being locked up and heavily medicated.The protagonist of Gibsons story Ada is a daughter of the same name as the title and who is, like Kira, residing in a mental hospital. As the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that the patients of this institution are being heavily mistreated and denied any basic human rights. The only visitant Ada has is her mother. Although we might think that her mother would like to help her to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, she does not institute any genuine intentions of helping or understanding her daughter in her need. After some time, Ada realized that she cannot expect any help from anyone, and denies her mother, and other family members, visits because they do not understand her.More and more she drives herself into isolation from others and even from her own feelings. Ultimately, her isolation causes her to lose touch with reality completely so we might think. When another inmate joins the group at the foundation, the patients are presented as seemingly smarter than their doctors, as they are easily able to rig with them as in the case of Alice.However, Ada and her best friend jennet manage to escape their isolation but must pay a very high price for it. Jenny, who wanted to protect Ada from Alices abuses, stands up against Alice and within she awakens Ada from her inne r retreat. By later cleanup Alice, Ada awakens from her mental slumber and ends her child-like existence. Nevertheless, it can be argued that Adas retreat in her own world was, in fact, her strategy to survive in a depressive and live-threatening environment such as the mental asylum where normality of patients (their thoughts, emotions, actions) is considered as something abnormal. For Gibson, therefore, abnormality can be seen as the only way to survive in an inhuman and egoistic world.A similar story to Ada is Making It where the protagonists Liza, a schizophrenic, and Robin, a male sapphic transvestite, try to make something of their lives. Both of them try to hide their true genius because if they would not they would be considered as outcasts in a society bigoted of crazy people. Although they desperately want to dispute societys categorizations and essay them wrong, they are, nevertheless, unable to do so. Liza, who becomes pregnant, sees her baby as her own way of maki ng it out of her troubles. Robin, on the other hand, sees his salvation in becoming a famous women impersonator in Californias entertainment industry.They are convinced that motherhood for her and fame for him will make them normal in the eye of society. In the end of the story the two once again decide to live together like a regular, but in their case platonic, couple. Robin even rejects the men of his dreams in order to be able to help Liza to live a normal life. Unfortunately, happiness stays out of reach for them as they, after Lizas baby was born dead, once again fall into isolation and feel alienated from society. Although considered abnormal, Robin and Lizas feelings of belonging, friendship, helpfulness and love for one another are something we would have trouble finding in the normal world. For Gibson, we, the sane readers, are the ones who make existence for people like her protagonists unbearable and force them into isolation and self-destruction.In Considering her Condi tion, it is a man named Steven who drives his wife Clare into suicide after she gave birth to their baby son. Steven is a very suppressive, bossy and egoistic character. Clare never even wanted children but after Steven persuaded her it becomes clear that he never thought about what is best for her but rather what is best for him. Later in the story we get to know that Steven already has a child but has no contact with her anymore. When Clare was pregnant, Steven became obsessed with the baby and did not care much about his wife anymore. He even denied Clare her right to chose spontaneous abortion despite the doctors advice to terminate the pregnancy.Claire must suffer hugely just to fulfill his desires and wishes. Gibson gives us a picture of how married couples lives can be destroyed by polarities and traditional gender-roles. Steven will not let Clare have her own life and she does not have the strength to fight his demands. Her suicide is the only action she can realize out of her own will. Not even her death affects Steven as he never though of her being more than a subordinate wife and the mother of his children. Considering her Condition can be seen as Gibsons strong critique against a society that denies women their right to choose their own way of living and thinking and breaks their spirits by taking away their desires, pride and self-esteem. The analyzed stories in The Butterfly Wardfocus upon individuals who have become objects of scrutiny to others. These others, , employ a great deal of power over those who have failed to adapt to the expectations and demands of normal society. First and foremost among those strategies is simple observation. Whether an individual is labeled paranoid or simply maladjusted, the effect is similar. The individual ends up excluded from normal existence and confined within another territory. The responses of those thus observed, excluded, isolated and confined are various, but all, in some way, reveal attempts to escape this condition. (Pauly 1999, 116)Not only individuals can suffer tremendously under the influence of isolation but also whole communities. In W.D. Valgardsons story Bloodflowers the setting seems to imply that even today, people will tend to resort to primitive rituals when isolated and severely tried by living conditions (Neijmann 1996, 311). It is the story of a fresh teacher named Danny who moves to an isolated island, called Black Island, where superstition is still widely shell out among the islands local community. Danny at first just wants to witness an old-fashioned local fertility ritual taking place annually on the island. The ritual consists of sacrificing a man in order to conclude any misfortunes that have happened in the past year and might continue into the following(a) one.Unfortunately for Danny, as misfortunes continue to happen, the locals consider him to be the cause of ruffle and they decide to sacrifice him in order to save themselves from further h arm. It seems as if the local people are not having any trouble justifying the murders they have committed with superstition. In this story, where Valgardson makes extensive use of irony, we get to see the serious consequences (misunderstandings) that may occur when different or conflicting cultures cross paths. In Rudy Wiebes Where is the piece Coming From?, the notions of isolation and alienation can be ascribed to the native Canadian inhabitants. The isolation of the indigenous (ethnic) voice and the question of a Canadian identity, by this I mean telling the other side of Canadian history (of the aboriginal inhabitants) too, are issues Wiebe tries to address.Its most prominent themes would have to be the social and cultural injustices and consequently isolation and alienation suffered by the indigenous people after the European settlers have taken over their lands. In conclusion it can be said that people were often driven mad by loneliness and isolation and some even saw death as their only means of escaping it. Others, who also lived in isolation, developed psychotic behaviors which not only made them suicidal but also a threat to others. Taking into consideration all of the authors and their stories that deal with the themes and motifs of isolation, alienation, loneliness and madness, one cannot fail to observe that isolation has an extremely negative effect upon the development of the individuals character in Canadian short fiction and probably also Canadian belles-lettres in general.Works CitedAtwood, Margaret. Dancing Girls and Other Stories. New York Bantam handwritings, 1993.Esterhammer, Angela. Cant See Life for Illusions The Problematic Realism of Sinclair Ross. In From the face of the Heartland, edited by John Moss, 15-24. capital of Canada University of Ottawa Press, 1992.Gibson, Margaret. The Butterfly Ward. Ottawa Oberon Press, 1976.Henry, Jules. Pathways to Madness. New York Random House, 1971.Marshall, Joyce. The Old Woman. In The Oxfo rd concur of Canadian miserable Stories in English. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds., 92-103. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1986.Moodie, Susanna. Roughing it in the Bush, Or, Life in Canada. Montreal McGill-Queens University Press, 1998.Neijmann, Daisy L. The Icelandic Voice in Canadian Letters The Contribution of Icelandic Canadian Writers to Canadian Literature. Montreal McGill Queens Press, 1996.Pauly, Susanne. Madness in English-Canadian Fiction. Ph.D. dissertation. Trier University of Trier, 1999.Ross, Sinclair. The Lamp at Noon. In The Oxford Book of Canadian slight Stories in English. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds. 72-81. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1986.Ross, Sinclar. The Painted Door. In The Faber Book of present-day(a) Canadian Short Stories, edited by Michael Ondaatje. London Faber and Faber, 1990.Stephanson, Glennis and Glennis Byron, eds. Introduction. Nineteenth-Century Stories by Women An Anthology, 9-22. Peterborough Broadview Press, 1993. Stouck, David. As for Sinclair Ross. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 2005.Valancy Crawford, Isabella. Extradited. In The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds. 1-11. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1986.Valgardson, W.D. Bloodflowers. The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds., 316-332. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1986.Wiebe, Rudy. Where is the Voice Coming From? The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds., 270-279. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1986.The Painter Door A Canadian Short Story. Term papers for students. http//www.essaysample.com/essay/002994.html (accessed August 8, 2008).