The Efforts of a Fisherman: ISU Essay
The life of a fisherman in the early 1900's was not an easy life. Six out of seven days were spent toiling for long hours, putting oneself into extremely dangerous situations, doing the same repetitive tasks year in and year out. This is exactly what life was like for Nova Scotian fisherman, David Jung. Jung is the protagonist in the novel, Rockbound by Frank Parker Day, a story of the small, desolate island Rockbound on the south shore of Nova Scotia in the early 1900’s. The book’s plot is set around the timeline of David Jung’s life. It tells his life story from when he was a young orphan at thirteen to when he is happily married living on his own island. In a classic book like this, one can pull numerous themes away from it. Author Frank Parker Day clearly demonstrates the theme of relentless effort will eventually pay off. This is shown through the conflict, the setting, and in major events in the plot. Rockbound is filled with many literary devices to illustrate this theme, but conflict is one of the most effective, specifically person versus person and person versus nature. An example of the former surfaces right in the beginning of the novel, when David is attempting to get a job at Uriah’s fishery. When David asks for the job, he is immediately turned away, but with persistence and relentless effort, David eventually wears Uriah down. “’I knows how to work’ repeated the boy… ‘You ain’t got no place around here’, ‘Yes I is… Give me a months trial.’ David had gone over all the possibilities of this conversation many times before. ‘Done’ snapped the crafty Uriah”(5-7). This shows that David’s persistence and pushiness paid off despite all efforts of the stronger, older and powerful Uriah. A second example of how conflict is used in the novel to reinforce theme occurs when Mary, the island’s new schoolteacher, moves