Life_on_the_Prairies

Life On The Prairie Essay Life on the prairies was not an easy time for the first settlers of that area. It was a struggle against a hostile Environment. In the two plays Mirage and Canadian Gothic, both set in the first half of the century, they show some examples of what life was like. In Mirage Jeanne has to watch John her husband go to war and then bolth of her sons Ryan and Mark head to WWII. Canadian Gothic gives you a typical prairie family back 40 or 50 years ago. A racist father set on things happening his way and a rebellious daughter Jean and wife. These show the way life was a lot of the time. The play Mirage opens just before WWI. Soon war is declared and Jeanne is at home and receives a letter from john telling things from the war and how he loves her. John had been gone for over three years. He left Jeanne all alone to take care of everything herself. She was so lonesome waiting and waiting but they were bolth joined back together again after his tour they came together once more. In Mirage john has a sudden heart attack and dies. Ryan is working away from home and doesn’t make it back in time for the funeral. Jeanne and mark are selling the possessions when he gets there. They cant afford to farm there so they are forced to move to were there are jobs because things are too rough. Life on the prairie in Mirage is to bland for Mark so he joins the Navy. When times get tough Ryan decides that he will join the air force for WWII. So he leaves his wife Cissie behind to tend to the farm. The two brothers get set together in the war. Then Jeanne and Cissie get word back that Mark’s ship had been hit and sank, he did not survive it. This turns the family upside down and things wont be the same again. Canadian Gothic is a great example of how strict and stubborn the men of the house were. Jack gives Natalie hell for skating on the pond because it is too thin and she keeps falling into the icy cold water. She gets mad at the tone that he uses with her so to prove him wrong she keeps skating. As a result of her actions she gets sick with pneumonia. To stubborn to tell Jack, she keeps it a secret and eventually dies. It’s a tragic time for the family. During the times of Canadian gothic there was still a fair bit of racism, Jean has a boyfriend who is a native man named Ben. She knows her father doesn’t like Indians so she keeps it a secret. When Jack finds her and Ben he becomes very angery. Scared Ben throws lye in Jack’s eyes in order for him to get away. What was left or the family was torn apart. As we can see, both plays are exellent sources of showing the hard times of the prairie life. Life wasn’t so easy back then. People had many different views of how and when things should happen. Through out the plays Mirage and Canadian Gothic we see the hardships of the flat prairies.