Framed identity: finding Lucy in Atwood's "Death by Landscape" By: Debrah Reschke

Framed identity: finding Lucy in Atwood's "Death by Landscape" focuses on two main
arguments; the influence for the short story, and the portrayal of gender roles in said story.
According to the author of this essay, Debrah Raschke, the story was heavily influenced by the
life, and mostly death, of Tom Thomson. Tom Thomson was a member of the famous group of
painters titled The Group of Seven. The vivid descriptions of the environment and landscapes
are obviously formed through the viewing of the paintings created by The Group of Seven,
which were primarily based on nature. But the essay also compares the mysterious death of
Tom Thomson to the disappearance of Lucy. Thomson was on a canoe trip in the woods one
day when he mysteriously disappeared, which draws a stark comparison to Lucy, who also
disappeared in the woods. The other argument explained in the essay was the portrayal of
gender roles. Real Ontario all girl summer camps at the time of this story forced their campers to
do activities such as weaving or painting, while the all boys summer camps allowed their
campers to indulge in their more "savage" sides. But in this story, this gender roles do not exist.
The camp that Lois and Lucy are at allows their female campers to indulge their "savage" sides,
which would have been frowned upon in real life.

As with all literary essays, one should take it with a grain of salt. Although the author of this
essay does not seem to portray any obvious biases, it is still likely that there may be minor
biases. For instance, she may have had extensive prior knowledge of Tom Thomson and the
Group of Seven, which would allow her to draw the comparison between them and the story
much more easily. It is certainly a valid and useful source, which has numerous sources of its
own to draw from. This would help any research paper, as it allows you to see a possible real
world influence to this story, allowing one to obtain a more complete understanding of what the
author truly intended. However, you would also need a more information from a variety of
sources to truly understand what the author intended the story to mean.

Raschke, Debrah. "Framed Identity: Finding Lucy in Atwood’s “Death by Landscape”." Mosaic
Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 45.3 (2012): 65-80. Web.