Dec 23, 2009

The Country of the Pointed Firs | Themes

Community
Community is one of the central themes of The Country of the Pointed Firs. The entire novel focuses on the narrator’s description of the tiny community of Dunnet Landing. As the central character, Mrs. Todd functions as a touchstone by which the narrator is able to perceive the lines that interconnect the individual members of the community. The narrator meets or hears of many members of the community through Mrs. Todd, and learns of their relationships to one another. Although most of the people she meets—all of them over the age of sixty and either...