Higher Prose – “Sunset Song” Revision
This document provides an overview of the key ideas, events and themes related to Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s “Sunset Song”. It is not a definitive guide and you should use the notes to assist you in forming an overall impression of the text.
KEY THEMES / CENTRAL CONCERNS
- The death of a way of living / change in Scottish farming society.
- The experiences of growing up and reaching maturity as a woman – Chris Guthrie.
- The experience of dealing with difficulties and change in life.
WAR - Important both for what it does to people and also for its effect on the main themes.
LOVE OF THE LAND - Obviously these are closely related to the main theme.
POLITICS - Although Gibbon does not seem to come down firmly on one side, he obviously approves of the various forms of socialism portrayed in the novel: John Guthrie’s anger at middle class characters, Strachan’s ideas, Long Rob’s ideas, the ploughman’s union etc.
MUTABILITY - The sense that nothing human endures, that it is only the land which survives.
Chapter / Chris / Kinraddie / WorldUnfurrowed Field (Prelude) / Sets scene – history of Kinraddie
Ploughing / How Chris (Guthries) came to Kinraddie/Blawearie.
Chris’ desire for education
Jean’s Death / Social change, class structure, change of land use.
Increased access to education for women.
Drilling / Chris becomes a woman – housewife role and sexuality.
John Guthrie’s illness and death. / Change in world order. OLD IDEAS are being abandoned.
Seedtime / Chris marries Ewan – pregnancy.
Argument with Ewan – Undermines his masculinity / Build up to the war – increased progression towards industrialisation of farming.
Harvest / Chris & Ewan run the farm
Ewan (junior) is born
Ewan goes to war – returns and is a changed man – “brute”
Ewan is killed – Chris’ reaction / The Great War – Kinraddie’s men go to war.
Long Rob objects.
Impact of war on the land and community – loss of trees.
Unfurrowed Field (Epilude) / Memorial to the fallen (including Ewan). Chris marries Rev. Colquhoun / Clear examples of the change in use of the land and increased size of farms / reliance on livestock and technology.
The following section includes specific quotes from each chapter which link to the key themes (& sub categories) of the text. There are more examples but those listed are powerful/memorable quotes.
Chapter / Plot event / Quote / Key Theme(s)Ploughing
John’s mistreatment of Will
Chris’ education in Echt – choices
Chris’ ignorance of reality of life – birth of twins.
Two Chrisses
Death of Jean Guthrie / “If I ever hear you take your maker’s name in vain…I’ll lib (castrate) you”
“Chris and her reading and schooling, two Chrisses there were that fought for her heart”
“What has father to do with it? Will stared… Don’t you know?”
“one was right douce and studious and the other…laughed at the antics of the teachers…and minded Blawearie…till she was sick to be home again”
“Mother below would be needing her help…They were crying her name…it sounded like the lowing of calves that had lost their mother” / John acts as a powerful, controlling influence in the family. Hints towards importance of religion.
Chris loves the land and community but feels she would like to progress as a woman and become educated.
Chris’ youth and ignorance is displayed – she will change later.
Chris’ choices reflect the choice that women had to make – commitment to the family and farming or a more self-serving desire for a career. Women leaving tradition behind.
The first example of loss that Chris faces. She is already being identified as the mother figure and her choices in life will now be restricted.
Drilling
End of education for Chris
Chris’s growing awareness of her sexuality and fear of her father.
Will leaves home and John’s anger results in his stroke and death. / “You’ll be leaving the college now…education’s dirt and you’re better clear of it”
Event with tink in the barn.
“she didn’t dare sleep…she heard John Guthrie get out of bed…a beast that sniffed and planned and smelled…she held her breath, near sick with fright”
“it was hardly a week before his own rage struck down John Guthrie”
“half paralysed” / Chris is now expected to conform to the traditional female role.
There is a suggestion that Chris has become aware of her sexuality – a woman, not a girl – this brings some excitement but also fears.
Chris’ freedom is further restricted by the need for her to care for John. Ultimately she will appreciate her father and will have control of the farm.
Seed-Time
Further revelations of John’s desires.
Chris’ reaction to John’s death
John’s funeral
Chris & Ewan Marry / “You’re my flesh and blood, I can do with you what I will, come to me Chris”
“Sleep, she could sleep as she chose now, often and long…My father’s dead”
“Oh father, I didn’t KNOW…she minded then…all the fine things of him…he’d never rested working and chaving for them, only God had beaten him…”
"he took her close to him, and they were one flesh, one and together" / The unspoken idea of incest is suggested and shows John’s expectations of power/control.
Chris is now in sole control – strong woman – new choices in life.
Gibbon highlights with the death of John comes the death of the traditional Scottish man who would do anything to provide for his family.
Chris has matured into a woman and it seems she is meant to be with Ewan.
Chris & Ewan's confrontation
Birth of young Ewan
Ewan goes to war
Ewan's treatment of Chris when he returns on leave
Chris has sex with Long Rob
Death of Ewan - Sadness, regret – Chris
Ewan’s love for Chris – his desertion / “living off my meal and my milk, you Highland pauper!”
“She took pleasure in being herself…cooking and baking and running to the parks with the piece for Ewan”
“He’d grown sick of it all, folk laughing and sneering at him for a coward”
“like a beast at a trough”, “strange swaying figure”, “beast-like mauling”
"a man to love her, not such a boy as the Ewan that had been"
"What have they to do with my Ewan, what was the King to him, what their damned country"
“he’d made her that promise that he’d never fail her…he’d to try to win to her side again, to see her again” / Chris still feels in charge of the farm but this undermines Ewan - Link to him leaving for war?
Positive relationship contrasts with later behaviour of Ewan
There is a sense that Ewan feels the need to be a true man.
The brutalising impact WAR has on humans - men.
Chris has matured sexually and in her view of what she values in a man.
Impact of war on family/community. It is not their concern but their lives are hugely influenced by the events.
Even though Ewan knows he has no chance of getting to Chris he feels he must try. He belongs at Blawearie.
Epilude –The Unfurrowed Field
- War memorial - Emphasis on the end of an era with the loss of Blawearie’s men.
“Chris Tavendale alone never shed a tear…they’d the last of the light with them up there…maybe they didn’t need it…you can do without the day if you’ve a lamp quiet-lighted in your heart.” / Various examples of changes to community and farming life.
- Grassic Gibbon suggests impact of the war and modernisation of farming on the community.