Roughing It in the Bush

Analysed from a pioneer’s

perspective

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Roughing It in the Bush represents the record
of a new era in a new country by a new settler.
So, perhaps you need some clues in order to
put everything together to see the work in the
perspective of its time and place.

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This PowerPoint intends to be practical, so you
should read first the story by Susanna Moodie.
I will combine some information with some
questions. Try to answer them before clicking,
and then, my answer will appear.
The pages I will provide belong to A New
Anthology of Canadian Literature in
English (ANA).

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Are you ready?

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In the introduction entitled “Pioneer
Memoirs” (p.86) from the Anthology you will
see that Roughing It in the Bush is included
into the pioneer memoirs genre:
It “shapes the account of a pioneer”, “it is usually a story of
hardship and struggle against nature (…) and climate” and it
emphasizes “these individuals (…) as representative (s) of a
collective experience in the development of a nation”.

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Can you apply this definition to Roughing It in the Bush?
Of course! It fits very well.
In which way?
Susanna Moodie was a pioneer, a settler, an immigrant
who recounted her experience in the new land to make
other possible immigrants be aware of the true hard
conditions on weather, nature and job opportunities.

Can you find any quotation supporting this statement?

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I have found this one:
“The general interest once excited, was industriously kept alive
by pamphlets, published by interested parties (…) They told of
lands yielding forty bushes to the acre, but they said nothing
(…) would barely return fifteen; when rust and smut (…)
would blast the fruit (…) The necessities of life were described
as inestimably cheap (…) (However) the necessities of life
which would be deemed indispenable to the European could
not be procured at all, or if obtained, could only be so by
sending a man and team through a blazed forest road (...)” (p.
95-96)

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But, was she “a representative of a collective
experience in the development of a nation”?
Did she feel still British or did she think of
herself as a Canadian?
This is a hard question, because all her life she
felt she was an exiled British lady in a strange
land.
Can you find any quotation which shows it?
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Many of them!
“(…) from my own experience during a sojourn of nineteen
years in the colony.” (p.97)
“The love of singular names is here carried out to a marvellous
extent.” (p. 102)
“-Do you like the country?
-No, and I fear I never shall.” (p. 111)
“Mrs H----. Is it the custom in your country to catechize strangers
whenever you meet with them?” (p. 112)

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But the best one can be found in the last
chapter, ”Adieu to the Woods”, and
summarises her life and thoughts in just one
sentence:
“If these sketches should prove the means of deterring one
family from sinking their property and shipwrecking all their
hopes, by going to reside in the backwoods of Canada, I shall
consider myself amply repaid for revelling the secrets of the
prison-house, and feel that I have not toiled and suffered in
the wilderness in vain.” (p 122)
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That said, a question arises: did she then
cooperate in the development of Canada as a
nation?
Could you link it to Margaret Atwood’s view of
Moodie and her work?
Very clearly!

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Margaret Atwood considered Susanna Moodie
as a “literary foremother”, as you can read in
Unit 1:
“She saw Moodie as a pioneer woman (…) both praising the
Canadian landscape and accusing it of destroying her.” (p.2)
Even Margaret Atwood tried to guess how
Moodie felt:
“I am a word/ in a foreign language.” (ANA, p 774)

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But that was Atwood’s own vision;
her reconstruction of Moodie’s experience.

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During the 18th and 19th centuries a great
number of immigrants arrived in Canada.
They had two main origins.
The first origin was from Great Britain. Could
you mention some characters in the story
belonging to this group?
The best example! Susanna Moodie herself
and her husband.
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Most English immigrants financed their own
expenses to travel to Canada. However, a
minority of them were so poor that they
received some financial help to pay for their
journey.
When you read the chapter “A Visit to Grosse
Island”, could you distinguish both groups?
How are both of them characterised?

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Very well!
Susanna Modie and her husband are
characterised as middle class, educated, quiet
people, who get surprised, in contrast, by the
wild attitudes of other people:
“The vicious, uneducated barbarians, who form the surplus of
overpopulous European countries, are far behind the wild man (…)”
(p.99)
“Many were almost naked, still more but partially clothed.” (p. 99)

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However, she blames the country, and not the
social class or the origin for their
misbehaviour:
“Our passengers, who were chiefly honest Scotch labourers
(…) and who while on board ship had conducted themselves
with the greatest propriety (…) no sooner set foot upon the
inland that they became infected by the same spirit of
insubordination and misrule, and were just as insolent and
noisy as the rest.” (p.100)

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As a confirmation, Uncle Joe’s mother makes a
prophecy:
“(…) I have seen a good deal in my time; but I never saw a
gentleman from the old country make a good Canadian farmer.
The work is rough and hard, and they get out of humour with it,
and leave it to their hired helps, and then, all goes wrong. They
are cheated on all sides, and in despair take to the whiskey
bottle, and that fixes them.(…) I give you just three years to
spend your money and ruin yourself; and then you will become a
confirmed drunkard, like the rest.” (p.106)

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The second group of immigrants belonged to
the “loyalist group”.
If you recall USA history, in 1776 the thirteen
colonies achieved the independence from Great
Britain. Many of the people who had supported
Great Britain in the war, after being defeated,
had to flee America and find another home
country. Those people were “the loyalist group”,
still loyal to Great Britain.
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Can you find in the story any character
belonging to this second group of immigrants?
Sure!
Uncle Joe and his family:
“Uncle Joe’s father had been a New England loyalist.” (p.101)

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However, it is important to notice that the
loyalist was the father, and not Uncle Joe,
since “yet Yankee he was by birth, ay, and in
mind, too.” (p.100)
Why is this distinction important in terms of
Uncle Joe’s characterization?

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That is!
Because not being British, but a true
American, he lacks the civilised part of his
personality:
“When a man gets into difficulties, it (whiskey) is the only
thing to keep him from sinking outright.” (p101)
“I could not help your son giving way to drink and getting into
my debt.” (p.104)
“I swear myself, I know.” (p. 116)

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And could we apply the same conclusion to
Uncle Joe’s mother?

“I was an American born, and my heart was with the true cause.
But his (her husband’s) father was English (…) So he dragged
me from my comfortable fireside to seek a home in the far
Canadian wilderness” (p. 110)

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Of course!
That could explain her swinging between
rudeness, frankness, meanness and comicality.
We have just characterised her!
Now, try to find your own examples of each
feature!

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Could you conclude that she was another
pioneer?
No doubt!
With different circumstances, but a true
pioneer.

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Now we have our last character, Brian, the
still-hunter.
Before we start analysing him, what was the
first impression he caused on Moodie?
True! A sad one:
“the face itselfwas sorrowful and taciturn; and his thin,
compressed lips looked as if they were much accustomed to
smile.” (p 113)

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Something in Brian made Moodie wish to
investigate more about him. The first thing she
learnt of him was that he was a hunter. A wild
man:
“”’tis Brian B---, the still-hunter (…) A sour, morose, queer
chap he is, and as mad as a March hare.” (p 113)

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Now you need to read the story told by Layton
to Moodie about Bryan’s life.
And then, let’s compare and contrast his
characterization with Uncle Joe’s, taking into
account that at first they both seemed to be
wild pioneer men.

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Uncle Joe Brian, the still-hunter
- He drank too much. -He also drunk too much!
- He came in Canada many years -The same! He had arrived 20 years
ago. before.
-He had lost his lands because of a -Yes! He also led a bad life. But his
wild life. brother-in-law was in charge of
- He was American. his land.
-He never regretted having such -He was British!
behaviour. -He regretted his past life. Indeed
-He continued being a rude man. he completely changed his life.
-He was taciturn, but a kind, good
person.
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What conclusions can you draw about both
characters?
I will give you mine, but yours is also welcome!
My conclusion is: even though they both
seemed to be rude men, it was the country
which made Brian so; but he had religious
values and he was much more civilised than
Uncle Joe.

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We have almost finished.
I hope you have enjoyed this PowerPoint and
it has given you a new vision to explain
Roughing It in the Bush.
It could help you, as well, to understand other
points which weren’t very clear. Now it’s your
turn to open your mind!

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 This is the bibliography I have used in case
you want to widen your readings:

• Belshaw, John Douglas. “10.3 Immigration.” Canadian History

PreConfederation, BCcampus, 13 Apr. 2015,
https://opentextbc.ca/preconfederation/chapter/10-3-immigration/.
• Bone, Martyn. Historical Summary - Canada,
http://www.sneydobone.com/webtree/history-ca.htm.
• Brown, Russell, and Donna Bennett. An Anthology of Canadian
Literature in English. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• “Canada's English Immigrants.” English Immigration to Canada - Home
Page., https://www.englishtocanada.com/canadas-english-immigrants.

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• “English Canadians.” The Canadian Encyclopedia,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/english#:~:text=T
he%20English%20were%20among%20the,American%20Revolution
%20and%20their%20descendants.
• Gibert, Teresa, Canadian Literature, Unit 1, Virtual Course, UNED,
2023.
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. “Government of
Canada.” Canada.ca, / Gouvernement Du Canada, 26 Oct. 2015,
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporat
e/publications-manuals/discover-canada/read-online/canadas-
history.html.
• “Upper Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/upper-canada

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