The Father’s Land Lost: Country versus City in the Early Novel - Literature and Painting in Quebec: From Imagery to Identity - page 71

fall as an allusion to the economic reprisals following the failed patriots'
rebellions, precisely the time frame encompassed by the title of chapter
seven, 'Dix ans après' (ten years later), which creates what Andrès terms
a 'hole' (trou) in the novel's plot, occulted by the narrator (373).
When the son succumbs to a fatal illness, 'la misère' (63; poverty),
even the gravedigger haggles about how much money it will take for a
church ceremony, and the penniless Chauvin is finally obliged to see his
son put to rest in a pauper's grave. Clearly the city, unlike the country,
is governed by market values not moral ones, and the Chauvin's only
friend is an old voyageur, Danis, untouched by city values, and charac-
terized by his good nature, honesty, and generosity (68).
The reintroduction of the role of voyageur is far from gratuitous, as
the narrator then invites the reader to leave the city squalor and shifts
the scene abruptly to the wilderness north of the city:
Avec la permission de nos lecteurs, nous leur ferons faire un agréable
petit voyage à la Pointe-aux-Anglais, à quelques milles au-dessus du vil-
lage du lac des Deux-Montagnes, et nous les ramènerons dans les deux
canots qui viennent de paraître à l'horizon. Partis du poste du Grand-
Portage sur le lac Supérieur, depuis près d'un mois, ils avaient traversé
une longue suite de lacs, de forêts et de rivières, sans presque rencontrer
d'autres traces de civilisation que quelques croix de bois plantées sur la
côte vis-à-vis des rapides, et qui y avaient été placées par d'anciens voya-
geurs, pour léguer à leurs futurs compagnons de voyage l'histoire affli-
geante de quelques naufrages arrivés en ces endroits. [71; With our readers'
permission, we'll take them on a short, pleasant trip to Pointe-aux-Anglais,
a few miles above the village of Lake of Two Mountains, and lead them to
the two canoes that have just appeared on the horizon. Having left the
trading post at Grand-Portage on Lake Superior, about a month ago, they
had crossed a series of lakes, forests, and rivers, almost without encoun-
tering any traces of civilization other than a few crosses planted on the
shore opposite the rapids, erected by former voyageurs to leave to their
future successors a reminder of canoe accidents that had happened in
these places.]
The description captures perfectly the juxtaposition of the vast space of
the wilderness ('une longue suite de lacs, de forêts et de rivières') with
specific places ('croix de bois') that serve as memorials ('léguer …
l'histoire'), which characterized the landscapes of numerous short sto-
ries of the early nineteenth century. Here, however, the voyageurs push