Introduction to Sunset Song
Learning Intention;
I can develop my
understanding of the
central concerns of a
novel by examining the
author’s life.
Why look at an author’s life?
There is a literary theory that by studying an author’s life you can develop a
deeper and better understanding of the themes of the novel. This is called
Biographical Criticism
This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is
written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help
readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.”
However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical
facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer.
Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out
with irrelevant material.”
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon is the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell.
Both these surnames feature in the novel “Sunset Song” - the use of his REAL and
FAKE name are deliberate and tells you something about the characters.
On both sides, Mitchell came from
several generations of Aberdeenshire
farming people, and he was proud to
claim he came from 'peasant stock'.
The experiences of his childhood and
youth are reflected in those of his
character Chris in the novel.
Early Life
Grew up in a farm in Aberdeenshire but Grassic Gibbon was an intelligent boy
who didn’t want to “waste his time” on the farm.
 His father was strict and severe – This will be reflected in the father in the novel.
 His mother was a more lively and spontaneous woman. This cemented his
belief that the best of human nature is more likely to survive in women.
 He escaped by walking and exploring the land around the farm - he
discovered standing stones (a key symbol in “Sunset Song”) which sparked an
interest in prehistoric life.
 He moved to Glasgow in 1918 and his growing political beliefs grew and
developed. He was a Socialist an d this influence is seen throughout Sunset Song.
 He enlisted in the army in 1919 but hated it
and saw the army as having a brutalising
effect on the men who served. This opinion
can be seen in the character of Ewan
Tavendale in the novel.
His beliefs
Belief
Effect on novel
Socialism
In the novel, the sympathetic
characters share Mitchell's desire for
social equality and his antiestablishment views.
Atheism
Mitchell despised traditional,
institutional religion. In Sunset Song,
the sympathetic characters of Chae
Strachan and Long Rob are portrayed
as sharing these views.
Liberal attitudes
Mitchell did not agree with the
traditional role of women, or their
being viewed as the intellectual
inferiors of men, and he chose a
woman as the central character in
Sunset Song. He shows his heroine as a
woman who relishes her sexuality and
is not ashamed of her body.
The Golden Age
 Mitchell was influenced by a group of thinkers called the Diffusionists. They
believed human civilisation began in Egypt with a community of peaceful
hunter-gatherers, who gradually developed more settled lives based on
agriculture. Life became more complex, as people owned property which
had to be defended. While he was in the services Mitchell visited Egypt.
 He came to believe in the concept of an innocent 'Golden Age'. He
believed that civilisation corrupted this innocence, bringing evils such as
war and class exploitation. He thought that people were intrinsically good,
but could be warped by false values.
 Throughout the novel this idea of prehistoric times being a Golden Age is
frequently referred to.
“A lament for a peasant way of life, and the longgone values of pre-Christian era that Grassic
Gibbon thought had been a golden age, it is an
elegy to the countryside where he grew up, and
to the strength and strangeness of the people
who made their living from the land. Soaked in
tragedy, this is not a novel written by someone
who hated his upbringing, but one who at a
remarkably young age was able to place it in a
historical, religious and international context.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/books-poetry/comment-debate/sunset-song-cast-a-longshadow-on-grassic-gibbons-home-village.24207267
Literary Influences
Two main strands are important to Sunset Song, the novels of the so-called 'Kailyard School' ,
and another single novel, The House with the Green Shutters, by George Douglas Brown.
Mitchell acknowledges this twice in the novel.
The Kailyard School
Novelists of the 'Kailyard School' of
writers, produced stories which
sentimentalised Scotland, showing
life through rose-tinted spectacles
as cosy, innocent and safe,
populated by quaint, child-like
characters, and the endings were
always happy. They are full of
humour and nostalgia.
The House with the Green Shutters
This novel was written by George
Douglas Brown in 1901. It was
written as a reaction to the false
jollity pictured in the 'kailyard'
novels. It in an intensely gloomy
novel, populated by unlikeable
characters who are motivated by
malice and greed. The main
characters all die.
In Sunset Song, Mitchell includes light-hearted
episodes which have something of the tone of the
kailyard novels, but he maintains realism by not
shying away from the more unpleasant aspects of
life, thus achieving the balance which has made
Sunset Song such an enduring success.
The novel
Sunset Song is based on a peasant community who make their living from the
land. However, by the end of the novel, the land has been impoverished by
the war, and people are less willing to do the hard manual labour required.
The novel follows the character of Chris Guthrie, from girlhood to being a
young widow with a child, contemplating her second marriage to the new
minister, Robert Colquhoun.
Structure
The structure of the novel reflects the yearly cycle of growing
and harvesting crops and shows the development of Chris
from child to woman.
The novel beings and ends with a prologue and epilogue called
the “The Unfurrowed field”
The title of the epilude is the same as
that of the prelude, indicating that
nature continues irrespective of the ups
and downs of human life. As at the start
of the book, the focus in this section is on
the community rather than Chris.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/english/sunset_song/plot/video/
Themes
 Change
 Mortality
 Man and the Land
 The Role of Women
 The Community
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/english/sunset_song/theme/video/
Character – Chris Guthrie
Based partly on the author himself, Chris is the main character in the story.
In the novel, we follow her life for around nine years, beginning from the age
of 15.
During this time she experiences a lifetime of events - adolescence, marriage,
childbirth and bereavement - and the novel encourages us to share in
these experiences.
Events are seen from Chris's viewpoint, so that readers are party to her
thoughts.
Chris has admirable qualities including inner strength and humour. Through
events she realistically develops as a person, making her a rounded and
effective character.
Other Characters
 John Guthrie, Chris’ father. He is a complex character who has a huge
and troubling influence on Chris’ life.
 Ewan Tavendale, marries Chris. His character and life is deeply affected by
the war.
 Long Rob – Miller at Kinraddie. His character, one of the most appealing in
the novel, is said to have been based on the author's father-in-law.
 Chae Strachan - Although he is presented almost as a comic character at
times, he approaches the status of tragic hero by the end.
 Jean Guthrie - Jean is the mother of Chris and John Guthrie's wife. She
poisons herself when faced with the prospect of another pregnancy.
 Reverend Stuart Gibbon – a hypocritical and promiscuous man.
The Setting
The setting is an important part of the novel and reveals a lot about
where Grassic Gibbon came from and the themes of the novel
 Chris's love of the land is one of the main
threads in the novel. The beauty of the
landscape is frequently mentioned, and
Chris's appreciation of it. The characters
who love the land are attracted to it with
all their senses.
Weather is used symbolically in the book.
Kinraddie is portrayed as a tight-knit
community. The villagers are mostly quite
inward looking and hostile to outsiders.
One of the chief themes of the book is the
inevitability of change in the human
condition. There are several depictions of
ruins which illustrate this.
The Standing Stones
 An important element of the setting is the Standing Stones which are on the
hill above Blawearie. In reality, historians do not know what significance
these relics of the Stone Age had.
 They are symbols of change and continuity
 She is intrigued by the age of the Stones, and reflects on how people two
thousand years ago would have seen them as they "pointed long shadowshapes in the east" each evening just as she was seeing them now. In this
way, the Stones remind her of change and mortality, as the people who
erected them are long gone. They are monuments to civilisation, having
been put there by the earliest settlers of Scotland, thus beginning the
process of change.
Literary Techniques
Grassic Gibbon uses a number of different literary techniques in Sunset Song
such as:
 Structure
 Symbolism
 Imagery
 Narrative voice
 Scots language
While it is important to consider some or all of these techniques in a Higher
English answer, they should not simply be written about for their own sake.
Remember that you should always be thinking:
 What effect does the writer achieve by using this technique?
 How does the technique help?
Symbolism and Imagery
 Symbolism
Symbolism is where a description or reference stands for something more
than the physical object itself. The Standing Stones are used symbolically
throughout the novel.
 Imagery
Most of the imagery in Sunset Song is drawn from nature. The theme of
Chris's development, for example, is conveyed through parallels with the
cycle of nature. Another aspect of natural imagery is the frequent
comparison of characters to animals
Narrative Method
Gibbon employs an unusual narrative method: although the story is told in the
third person, events are seen from Chris's perspective. The narrator is clearly
an anonymous member of the Kinraddie community who thrives on gossip
and exhibits some limited and even prejudiced opinions. This can be seen
particularly clearly in the Prelude.
 Throughout the novel, the narrative constantly switches from this narrative
stance to the mind of Chris. In The Epilude the focus moves away from
Chris; we now seem to view her from outside rather than inside and the
tone is more neutral, with less sense of the gossipy crony of the Prelude.
Narrative Method (2)
Gibbon effectively captures the voice of the narrator by using at least three
different language devices:
 Sentence structure: the sentences tend to be lengthy, often joined together
with 'and' or with commas where full stops would normally be used. Gibbon
has been particularly successful in making the story sound as if it is spoken
rather than written, capturing what he described as the 'rhythms and
cadence' of the way his characters speak.
 The second person: The frequent use of 'you' makes the reader feel more
involved in the story and helps us to share Chris's feelings. This is the narrator
expressing a thought which has a general application to everyone, but at
the same time it is an expression of Chris's personal feelings. Literary critics
have called this technique the 'self-referring you'.
 The use of Scots dialect words which (again, in Gibbon's own words) are
"untranslatable except in their context and setting". These also add to the
realism of the dialogue, though Gibbon has been careful to make the story
comprehensible to readers who are not familiar with the dialect.
Few things cry so urgently for rewriting as does Scots history, in few
aspects of her bastardised culture has Scotland been so ill-served as
by her historians. Their chatter and gossip of hang over the antique
Scottish scene like a malarial fog through which peer the fictitious
faces of heroic Highlanders, hardy Norsemen, lovely Stewart queens,
and dashing Jacobite rebels.
Yet behind those grimaces of the romanticised or alien imagination a
real people once lived and had its being, and hoped and feared and
hated, and was greatly uplifted, and loved its children, and knew
agony of the patriotic spirit, and was mean and bestial, and
generous, and sardonically merciful. Behind the posturings of those
poltergeists are the lives of millions of the lowly who wiped the
sweats of toil from browned faces and smelt the pour of waters by
the Mull of Kintyre and the winds of autumn in the Grampian haughs
and the sour, sweet odours of the upland tarns; who tramped in their
varying costumes and speeches to the colour and play of the old
guild-towns; who made great poetry and sang it; who begat their
kind in shame or delight in the beginning; who were much as you or
I, human animals bedevilled or uplifted by the play of the forces of
civilisation in that remote corner of the Western world which we call
Scotland…”
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, The Antique Scene