Look at the maps below
Nova Scotia is one of the four Atlantic provinces of Canada and home to nearly 1 million people. Located on Canada's east coast Nova Scotia includes over 3,800 coastal islands in addition to the mainland territory. Halifax, with a population of over 400,000 people, is Nova Scotia's largest city and its political capital. It is also one of Canada's major seaports and a main gateway to the Atlantic Ocean.
During the times when the majority of people arrived in Canada by boat, Halifax's Pier 21 was the place where nearly all immigrants to Canada first landed, making it an important landmark for Canadian immigration. Nova Scotia is also home to Canada's oldest African-Canadian community.
from: https://www.canadavisa.com/about-nova-scotia.html#gs.RgR_lC4
During the times when the majority of people arrived in Canada by boat, Halifax's Pier 21 was the place where nearly all immigrants to Canada first landed, making it an important landmark for Canadian immigration. Nova Scotia is also home to Canada's oldest African-Canadian community.
from: https://www.canadavisa.com/about-nova-scotia.html#gs.RgR_lC4
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Click on the images below for a look at Cape Breton in video:
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HISTORY OF NOVA SCOTIA
Look at this video for an overview of the history of Nova Scotia:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZI8m0pzaBs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZI8m0pzaBs
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Click on the image below:
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The landscape
For many people their birth into a particular family and culture is so intrinsic to their identity that the idea of choosing another life in a radically different world is never even contemplated. For others, there can be the awareness that although life is very difficult, the landscape they inherit becomes their destiny. In MacLeod’s stories, accepting the life the landscape offers you can give certainty and security to your identity, but it can also limit your potential. MacLeod has chosen Island as the title for his collection of stories. This symbolises the emotional isolation and silence of the characters.
The landscape calls up a powerful response from those who inhabit it. They are hemmed in by rocky shorelines and forced indoors by ‘stinging sleet’ (p.116) and ‘the shrieking tenor of the wind’ (p.116). The landscape is elemental – it damages and consumes the people and physical toughness is needed to survive. The father in ‘The Vastness of the Dark’ has lost fingers to a dynamite accident, has a scar that ‘runs like violent lightning down the right side of his face’ (p.34) and lungs damaged by coal dust. The people are hardened by difficult lives. This is clear when the men of ‘The Closing Down of Summer’ must dig the frozen ground to bury their dead.
MacLeod depicts the proud strength of the people who rise to the challenges presented by the landscape. Women, such as the mothers in ‘The Boat’ and ‘The Return’,fiercely defend their lifestyle and despise the compromises their children have made to lead city lives. In ‘The Boat’, the mother of six daughters who leave the island one after the other looks on her only son ‘with bitterness’ (p.25) for abandoning his heritage. In ‘The Return’, Angus’ mother turns her anger on him for rejecting his brother: ‘I have my alcoholic ... who was turned out of my Montreal lawyer’s home’ (p.87).
The men who stay accept their destinies more meekly. Some take refuge in drink; others silently endure the burden of physical labour, putting aside their own wistful dreams. The father in ‘The Boat’ encourages his children to pursue the education he longed for, to escape the limitations of the landscape. He sees the value of embracing a larger landscape to understand the world.
There is a place in the clan and the community for all who belong there. Some of the people see a choice, to accept or reject this destiny. Others take up the place that is offered to them without seeming to choose. MacLeod admires the strength and endurance of those who accept life in this landscape but he reveals the physical and emotional price they pay.
For many people their birth into a particular family and culture is so intrinsic to their identity that the idea of choosing another life in a radically different world is never even contemplated. For others, there can be the awareness that although life is very difficult, the landscape they inherit becomes their destiny. In MacLeod’s stories, accepting the life the landscape offers you can give certainty and security to your identity, but it can also limit your potential. MacLeod has chosen Island as the title for his collection of stories. This symbolises the emotional isolation and silence of the characters.
The landscape calls up a powerful response from those who inhabit it. They are hemmed in by rocky shorelines and forced indoors by ‘stinging sleet’ (p.116) and ‘the shrieking tenor of the wind’ (p.116). The landscape is elemental – it damages and consumes the people and physical toughness is needed to survive. The father in ‘The Vastness of the Dark’ has lost fingers to a dynamite accident, has a scar that ‘runs like violent lightning down the right side of his face’ (p.34) and lungs damaged by coal dust. The people are hardened by difficult lives. This is clear when the men of ‘The Closing Down of Summer’ must dig the frozen ground to bury their dead.
MacLeod depicts the proud strength of the people who rise to the challenges presented by the landscape. Women, such as the mothers in ‘The Boat’ and ‘The Return’,fiercely defend their lifestyle and despise the compromises their children have made to lead city lives. In ‘The Boat’, the mother of six daughters who leave the island one after the other looks on her only son ‘with bitterness’ (p.25) for abandoning his heritage. In ‘The Return’, Angus’ mother turns her anger on him for rejecting his brother: ‘I have my alcoholic ... who was turned out of my Montreal lawyer’s home’ (p.87).
The men who stay accept their destinies more meekly. Some take refuge in drink; others silently endure the burden of physical labour, putting aside their own wistful dreams. The father in ‘The Boat’ encourages his children to pursue the education he longed for, to escape the limitations of the landscape. He sees the value of embracing a larger landscape to understand the world.
There is a place in the clan and the community for all who belong there. Some of the people see a choice, to accept or reject this destiny. Others take up the place that is offered to them without seeming to choose. MacLeod admires the strength and endurance of those who accept life in this landscape but he reveals the physical and emotional price they pay.