Significance of Wilderness in “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood

The short story “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood does take place in a Canadian setting of wilderness. The character Lois has a fear of nature, and wilderness. Lois goes on a camping trip and is afraid of the atmosphere. In time she does adapt to it. Her friend disappears and the blame is on Lois. Lois cannot accept the fact that the blame has to be taken upon her and knows that the disappearance of their friend is just an excuse. “The protagonist cannot believe that Lucy has died, and for this reason she has been living two lives. At the end of the story, Lois can finally accept the wilderness as part of herself” (Wilderness Tips, 1991). The significance in this story of wilderness is that Lois did spend most of her time painting and drawing pictures about the wilderness eventhough she was afraid of it. She was trying to overcome the fear and hoping that in making this art it would have worked.  A significance of wilderness of the act of overcoming fear can be described in the movie “Home alone”. The boy is afraid of being home alone and doing things on his own such as going out shopping for groceries. One day robbers come into his house and he is afraid of them but he overcomes the fear by setting traps. He is also afraid of the man who always shoveled snow because he heard certain rumors about him. He then overcomes his fear by simply associating with him. This benefits him in the end because the older man saves his life. The “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood is a significant story that demonstrates the theme of wilderness and fear that can be overcome by certain characters.

Works Cited 

Kellman, Steven G. (September, 2006). Salem Press. Retrieved November 22, 2007, from Magill’s Survey of American Literature Web site: https://salempress.com/Store/samples/survey_american_lit/survey_american_lit_atwood.htm